Winter will be here before you know it, but that doesn't mean it's time to completely abandon your garden.
Although much of the brow-sweat-producing garden work is over for the year, there are some things that should be on your fall garden cleanup to-do list to prep for a successful spring season.
# Sweep paths and surfaces regularly“Open” gardens have to do this on a daily basis. In winter I try and do all the surfaces visible from the house fairly regularly to avoid the drab, neglected look.
# Cutting hedges and overgrown shrubs down to sizeThese creep up, becoming more difficult. Sawing the thick stems back to just below the minimum optimum height is energetic work and makes annual maintenance far easier.
# Cutting back herbaceous But only when they look scary. I do not divide them (unless I need more). I have yet to find one that starts to die back in the centre of the clump, contrary to popular belief.
# Adding mulchI have a huge heap of green compost from Bettaland (bettaland.co.uk) which I apply thickly (150mm) everywhere I can. It saves weeding, improves the soil and makes up for nutrients lost in the heavy rain.