Vegetables
Autumn is a good time to assess the limitations of your garden.
Some questions to consider are whether the climate during summer suited outdoor tomatoes, runner beans or onions, and whether winter greens were planted at the right time.
Something else to consider is improving the vegetable garden by having raised beds.
Not only do raised beds ensure better drainage and increased soil warmth, they also enable the gardener to add a layer of clean soil and/or compost each year to improve productivity.
To shelter the vegetable plot from wind, look at shelter made of manuka scrub, pine branches or commercial windbreak netting.
If you have hedges, trim them now so they remain tidy for the next six months.
Do not cut those from conifer and cypress families too severely or whole sections will die back.
This is the time to clean up garden rubbish.
Destroy any diseased material, then compost the remainder.
Vacant ground can now be dug over and lime applied at the rate of 100g a square metre.
Laundry-powder scoops make good measures for lime and other fertilisers. Alternatively, sow empty plots with a green manure plant (lupins, oats or barley) for digging in during October.
If you have not done so, remove all stems, leaves and weeds from rhubarb and apply a mulch of stable manure, cow manure or compost.
Blood and bone lightly forked in is also useful.
Where winter vegetables are growing, control weeds by hoeing the ground as often as soil conditions allow.
This also helps control excess moisture in the soil and lets oxygen penetrate the upper levels, where minute life forms convert organic material into plant foods.
Fruit
In the glasshouse, remove most of the leaves from tomato plants to divert plant foods up from the roots into the fruit.
Alternatively, cut off a portion of stem with the fruit attached and hang in a warm place to ripen.
Plants can be pulled up to give the soil a rest.
If they have been growing in containers, throw the old mix on the garden, where it will be weathered by winter rain and frost into rich garden soil.
Mustard or oat seeds can be sown in the greenhouse and dug in later to help next season's tomato crop.
Flowers
Prepare areas for new plantings before the soil becomes sodden with winter rain.
Fresh cow manure can be added to retain moisture in light, sandy soils, while stable manure containing sawdust or straw, or a rich garden compost, is best for heavy clays.
Mix lime into the topsoil, but avoid mixing it with the manure.
Perennial plants that have grown into large clumps can be lifted, divided and replanted in ground enriched with compost or well-rotted manure.
Hollyhocks, lupins, delphiniums and red hot pokers (Kniphofia) look good as the back row in a perennial border, while Asiatic lilies, Japanese anemone (Anemone hupehensis, A. vitifolium and A. tomentosa), phloxes, peonies, gaillardias, chrysanthemums and Michaelmas daisies look good in front of them.
Dianthus, lower-growing bright annuals, polyanthus, violas and bedding geraniums can be used in the front.
Alternatively, catmint (Nepeta) or lady's mantle (Alchemillamollis) are good perennial choices if a single-colour edging is wanted.
