After a sunny summer, the autumn months bring fresh challenges for the keen gardener. In this article, we discuss the main activities to work on, and provide some tips to help make autumn gardening more enjoyable, and easier.
Don’t leave the leaves!
Depending on the type of trees in your garden and how many you have, picking up leaves can be a major autumn task, but it doesn’t have to be if you have the right approach and the right equipment.
Try to pick up leaves regularly to avoid any bald patches or damage to your lawn. Since leaves tend to fall over several days, and up to 2-3 weeks, it’s important to get the right balance. If you pick up leaves every day, for example, it can quickly turn into a full-time task.
Leaf blowers and garden vacs are great tools to tidy up your garden and borders quickly, and without causing back pain.
If you have a lot of leaves to collect then, instead of bagging them, consider using lawn mowers with grass collector to pick up the leaves. This is only recommended if the ground is dry enough, otherwise, you could do damage to the garden.
Remember your lawn care!
You might think that it’s not worth looking after the lawn as winter arrives, but that would be a mistake. Aerating and feeding your lawn in autumn is a good way to nourish your garden and make sure it survives in winter and thrives in the following summer.
Rotavators, cultivators and tillers and scarifiers are great tools to help look after your lawn throughout the year. They save much more time when aerating your lawn compared to the manual task of poking and creating holes in your lawn using a fork.
If you aren’t familiar with aeration, it involves creating tiny holes in the lawn so that the soil and grass roots can get the nutrients they need for a healthy lawn. At John Miller, we sell a range of rotavators to help. View Rotavators, cultivators and tillers
Cutting the lawn should also be part of your autumn lawn care. It’s recommended to raise the level of the blades on your lawn mower to allow the grass to grow longer.
Of course, lawn care should also be about your lawn looking great during the colder months so make sure to use a strimmer to make the edges of the lawn look great!
Clear up debris in the garden
Autumn typically brings windier weather and with that, more debris as branches come down. Many of the smaller branches and sticks can be picked up when using your leaf blower vac to tidy up leaves.
You might, however, have damaged branches hanging from trees that need to be cut using a chainsaw and removed. Visit our online store to see our range of chainsaws for sale.
For very large jobs, consider using off-road vehicles to pick up and take away garden waste.
Protect trees and shrubs
Winds can also cause damage to smaller plants and shrubs so it’s important to check that newly planted container-grown trees and shrubs are secure, and that the soil around the base is compact.
Any gaps can allow rainwater to build up, potentially causing rain or frost damage to the roots.
Service your garden machinery equipment
Autumn is also a good time to consider garden machinery repairs and servicing.
Most garden machinery tools are used during the warmer months and should be cleaned up, serviced and stored away properly ready in Autum and winter for when spring arrives.
Check your garden machinery thoroughly and if you need any help talk to one of our experts. We stock a range of garden machinery parts and can help you with any garden machinery repairs. We provide a range of support including lawn tractor repairs and strimmer repairs.
Are you ready for winter?
Most of the work in autumn involves clearing up the garden and preparing it for the winter months so that you have a healthy garden when spring and summer return.
Whether it’s chainsaws, leaf blower vacs or rotavators, check out our online garden equipment shop to make sure you have the right equipment to help you with your garden care tasks!