Garden ideas and jobs for autumn

Gorgeous colours and lower temperatures make autumn a lovely season for gardeners. Some well-planned work over the next four weeks will help to keep your patch looking fabulous right through to winter and set the stage for a gorgeous spring display. Approach your outdoor spaces with this weekend-by-weekend plan of garden ideas, which will overhaul your yard by focusing on essential jobs.

Essential garden ideas for autumn

• Fertilise your plants to store energy for the colder months
• Prune and tidy flower beds
• Refresh the soil in the vegie patch and plant cool-season vegies
• Rake dead leaves
• Treat the lawn with fertiliser
• Plant bulbs and flowers that will bloom in spring time

Tip: Always wear the appropriate safety equipment (safety glasses, gloves, ear muffs and a mask, for example) and always follow the instructions for the product or equipment.

Weekend 1: Feed and tidy plants and collect cuttings

• Fertilise the garden to help replenish the nutrients used by plants in summer. Your plants will also stack energy away for all-important winter resilience. A controlled-release formulation will feed for up to six months, but make sure you use a product to suit your plants and garden.
• Enjoy the last of your frangipani flowers. They’ll perfume your home when arranged in a float bowl. If you've had problems with fungal diseases on the leaves of roses, frangipani, fuchsia and hollyhocks, collect them as they start to fall and dispose of them in the rubbish bin (not in the compost).
• Tidy up your geraniums and pelargoniums as flowering finishes. You can take non-flowering cuttings to strike new plants. Use a propagation powder or gel to improve cutting success rates.
• Deadhead roses (remove spent blooms) to tidy the plants and encourage autumn flowering. Use clean, sharp secateurs and sterilise blades between cuts.

Weekend 2: Refresh the vegetable garden

• Remove all those summer crops that have become non-productive and start preparing for your new season planting. Remember, most vegies are annual plants – once their decline begins, they are all but finished.
• Improve and refresh the soil in your vegie patch with aged manure or well-rotted compost. Water the area well, layer the manure or compost evenly over the surface and dig it in. Then add an organic-based fertiliser such as blood and bone. Water again lightly then mulch with garden-grade lucerne or pea straw, water again, then allow to sit for a couple of weeks.
• While you wait for the soil to settle, sow cool-season vegetable seeds such as lettuce, spinach, cabbages, broccoli and leeks in suitable seedling trays or punnets.

Weekend 3: Compost leaf rakings and repair the lawn

• Fallen leaves are a fantastic free resource. If you make your own compost, add thin layers of soft leaves to the pile, ensuring you balance their bulk with green material such as lawn clippings. Alternatively, use leaves as garden mulch.
• Use pruners or secateurs for light pruning tasks. Consider investing in a chainsaw for bigger jobs.
• Give the lawn attention. Manually remove any large weeds – a long-reach weed puller can make the task easier, or use a selective herbicide.
• Remove built-up thatch with a steel-tine rake, then aerate the lawn to increase oxygen movement to the roots and enhance drainage.
• Early autumn is perfect for over-sowing to thicken lawn and fix any bare spots. Now’s a good time to give it a feed, too. Go for a slow-release product to help build winter resilience, and use a fertiliser spreader for an even and consistent application of it.
• If you had a bindii problem in the summer, start treating your lawn now. Bindii is a cool-season annual weed and those annoying prickles are in fact its seeds that start to germinate in autumn. Use a suitable weed-and-feed product now, and again in winter.

Weekend 4: Plant trees and shrubs

• Sasanqua camellias are the earliest flowering of the camellias and they come into bloom in late autumn/early winter. Wander the nursery section to find a flower colour you love.
• Nothing says spring like a jubilant display of spring-flowering bulbs. Buy daffodils, jonquils, tulips and more now. Some bulbs, including tulips, like a little chill time before planting, so clearly mark their bags and put them in the fridge crisper for a few weeks before planting.
• Stay vigilant for pests. Sap-suckers such as aphids will home in on any plants with lush new growth, so pay particular attention to newly planted vegies and annual flowers.
• Did you enjoy a colourful display of dahlias in garden beds or pots over the summer? If you’re in a warmer zone and they are planted in well-draining soil, dahlia tubers can be left in the ground. If you’re in a cooler zone, especially one where winters may be damp, then lift the tubers, trim back roots and shoots and store in a cool, dry, dark place in a mix of sawdust and propagating sand until spring.

Keep in mind...

• When using power tools, always protect ears and eyes with ear muffs and safety glasses (gloves and mask are also recommended), and follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
• Take care when selecting your plants, as some can be poisonous to children and pets, and check their suitability for your area, as some may be classified as weeds in certain regions.
• Store all garden chemicals and products out of reach of children and pets.
• Wear gloves and a mask when handling mulch, compost and potting mix and also when pruning, along with long sleeves, as the leaves and sap of some plants can be a skin irritant and cause allergic reactions.

Keen for more D.I.Y. garden ideas?

Discover how to make your own compost using kitchen scraps and more.

 

Photo credit: Adobe Stock, Trojan.

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