As you put the garden to bed you'll generate a huge mass of fallen leaves, old crops and cleared material. As long as it's disease free, use it to fill the compost heap, converting green waste into valuable organic soil improver. Chop up woody material as small as possible, and mix different materials together as you fill the bin. In six months you should have a dark, rich, crumbly compost to use throughout your garden.
Flowers:
Plant snakeshead fritillary bulbs in long damp grass
Fill pots of compost with freesia corms for early flowers
Prune out old, flowered stems of rambling roses
Fruit & veg:
Dig up carrots to eat them at their best
Plant autumn-hardy onion sets and protect from birds
Tie in summer-fruiting raspberries to their canes after pruning
Greenhouse:
Bring in tender fuchsias, cannas, lavenders and salvias
Sow hardy annual seeds in pots on greenhouse staging
Remove spent aubergine, cucumber and melon plants after cropping
Around the garden:
Scarify lawns with a wire rake to remove dead grass, moss and other debris
Check stored vegetables and dahlia bulbs regularly for signs of rotting
Keep an eye out for annual weeds – they still germinate late in the year
