Garden Tasks To Tackle This Autumn
As autumn begins to settle in, there is always a burst of delightful colour before we delve into the cold winter months. Preparing your garden for the cold winter snap will help ease your outdoor space into a restful slumber before awakening in Spring. Completing some simple tasks now will ensure you hit the ground running next year. Therefore, to help, we’ve put together 5 garden tasks to tackle during this Autumn to give you the best chance to thrive. Let’s get started.
1. Clearing Leaves
Though the colours of leaves are beautiful at this time of year, the temptation to let them pile up is something you should always avoid. A thick carpet of leaves on your lawn space can block essential light, trap moisture and create the perfect environment for mold and pests to thrive.
Regularly clearing of leaves is vital to keep your lawn healthy. It prevents the grass from getting suffocated and help steer clear of mold and diseases that can flourish in damp-covered habitats. By tackling this task this Autumn, you’ll enhance your grounds exposure to vital sunlight throughout the colder months.
For larger gardens, you can use machines like a leaf blower to help round up all your ground debris. This can make the task far more enjoyable and effective.
2. Hedge Cutting
Once you have tackled the leaves, it’s now time to turn to the hedges. Autumn is the best time to prune and cut back hedges to keep them in shape. Allowing them to return thicker in the new year. It is always essential to ensure that there are no nesting birds in your hedges before you start. Birds like the common wood pigeon will nest all year round.
Forgetting to trim back your hedges can leave them overgrown and weak. However, by pruning them during Autumn, you can keep them manageable and allow them to conserve energy during the colder months. In doing so, you’ll give your hedges a head start for thick, healthy growth as we move into Spring.
For thick tall hedges it is worth considering using a petrol hedge cutter that will offer the robustness and power to tackle all types of garden hedges. From evergreens like conifer, to perennials like beech.
3. Winter Soil Preparation
Autumn is a key time to prepare your soil for growth in the spring months. Enriching your soil now will allow for organic matter to amplify your efforts during the growing season. Soil that is rich in nutrients will support better and stronger growth for plants and home-grown vegetables.
Facing soil preparation in autumn can also help reduce weeds, keep moisture levels balanced and aerate the soil structure to provide better drainage. In turn, this removes the need for additional fertilisers or composts later during the growing season. A massive money saving tip.
If you are working with large bed or even a small vegetable patch, using a rotovatorcan easily help turn your soil. This allows you to mix any additional matter into your beds, whilst introducing more air to improve drainage. A piece of equipment like this can be easily rented from your local tool hire provider.
4. Dethatching Your Lawn
Dethatching is the process of removing dead organic matter from your lawn pile. But why might you want to do this? This layer known as thatch, can block sunlight, water and nutrients meeting your grass roots if it becomes too thick. Undertaking this process in autumn can magnify your lawns health when entering the warm seasons.
Choosing to dethatch your lawn in autumn helps it to breathe and absorb any essential water to sustain growth throughout winter. Remember that a lawn that is free from excessive thatch will be healthier, more resistant towards disease and will grow thicker. It also improves drainage and risk of waterlogging during heavy downpours.
If you looking for a complete lawn care guide for autumn, then check out our other resource, 6 Steps & Tools For Lawn Care in Autumn” in our resource vault. This guide will help you navigate the entire process of preparing your lawn for winter. Otherwise, we highly recommend that you use either a garden rake orscarifier to assist you with removing unwanted thatch from your lawn.
5. General Garden Tidy Up
Finally, once you tackled all the above, is a general garden tidy up. This can include cutting back dead plants, removing weeds and cleaning moss from patios and pathways. In doing so you can enable safe travel around your outdoor space, while offering a less attractive environment for pests to settle in over winter. At the same time as preserving a blank canvas for you to tackle in the Spring months to come.
Regular tidying can reduce the overall effort required to keep your garden in tip top shape this autumn. By focusing on the areas that we have highlighted in this article, you can set your garden up for success.
Tackling Autumn With The Right Tools
Tackling autumn is made easier when you have the right tools to help you. If you are looking for help to get the job done, then WHC Hire’s gardening equipment range can make your autumn tasks quicker and easier. Whether you need a leaf blower, hedge trimmer, rotovator or scarifier, our equipment is ready to help you achieve your garden goals.
Check out our full range of gardening equipment here, or find your local WHC Hire depot to arrange delivery or collection of your essential equipment.