The leaves come down for weeks, not days. A little work now (clearance, cutbacks, mulch and protection) sets the whole garden up for a strong spring.
There is a stretch of autumn in North London (usually from late October through to December) when it feels as though the leaves will never stop. The plane trees that line so many of our streets are generous to a fault. Clear the garden on Saturday and by Wednesday it looks as though you never touched it. Endless leaves.
It is tempting to give up and wait for spring. Don’t. The few weeks either side of the leaf-fall are when the important, unglamorous work of the garden year gets done, and a garden that is put to bed properly comes back in March weeks ahead of one that was abandoned in October.
Clear leaves, but keep some
Wet leaves left on a lawn will kill the grass beneath them within weeks, and leaves in the gutters and drains cause exactly the winter flooding you do not want. So clear the lawn, the paths and the drains. But resist the urge to bag every last leaf. Leaves left in the back of borders break down into leaf mould (the best free soil improver there is) and give shelter to the insects and hedgehogs that will thank you next year.
Cut back, but not everything
Autumn is for structural pruning and tidying, not scorched earth. Some jobs genuinely help now; others are better left until spring.
- Cut climbing and rambling roses back and tie in the strong new growth before winter winds rock them loose.
- Reduce tall perennials that will flop and rot, but leave seed heads on grasses and sedum. They look beautiful in frost and feed the birds.
- Lift and store dahlias in colder, wetter spots; in a sheltered London garden a deep mulch often sees them through.
- Leave the final hard cutback of many perennials until late winter, so the old growth protects the crown.
Feed the soil
The most valuable hour you can spend in the garden in November is spreading mulch. A thick layer of compost or well-rotted manure over the borders protects roots from frost, suppresses next year’s weeds, and is pulled down into the soil by worms over winter so the whole bed starts spring richer. Do this one thing and you will notice the difference in May.
A garden is never really asleep in winter. Underground, the work you do now is quietly paying off long before the first shoots show.
Protect the tender things
Wrap tree ferns, move pots of anything tender to a sheltered wall, and raise containers on feet so they drain and do not crack in a freeze. Check tree stakes and ties before the gales, and empty or lag any outside taps. Ten minutes of this in November saves a lot of regret in January.
Or let us do it
Winter prep is exactly the kind of seasonal work our maintenance visits are built around: leaf clearance, rose cutbacks, mulching and protection, done at the right moment so your garden goes into winter in good order and comes out of it strong. If the endless leaves have beaten you this year, we are happy to take them on.