Early autumn is an ideal time to plant biennials and perennials as the ground is still warm enough to encourage root growth. The soil is not usually as dry as in summer and this means plants become established quickly. And at this time of year the weather is still pleasant enough to make gardening outdoors pleasurable.

Planting Priorities
Give priority to spring bedding plants, which will give the best display next year if they are moved early. If you move them later the ground may be too cold and they will take longer to recover from transplanting.

Most bulbs should be planted now or within the next few weeks if possible, but they will generally flower just as well if you have to delay planting for another month, provided that they are stored in the right way and not allowed to rot. Only early flowering bulbs require prompt planting. Tulips are perfectly satisfactory if planted in mid autumn, though there is no point delaying if you have the time to plant them now.

Bare root deciduous trees and shrubs are not moved until the leaves have fallen, but evergreens should be planted as soon as possible to allow them to settle before the onset of winter.  Container grown trees and shrubs can be planted at any time of the year, but this is a good time to plant them if you can.

Autumn Lawn Care
If you simply want a play area for the children, moss and coarse grasses in the lawn don’t really matter, but if you want an award winning lawn there are jobs to do.

Lawns gradually build up a ‘thatch’ of dead grass around the roots, especially if the clippings are not properly collected. Over a long period this begins to affect the growth of the grass.  Scratching out the thatch will often give a lawn the boost that it needs.  If you have a moderately large lawn, a powered lawn rake is a worthwhile investment. It takes all the hard work out the job, and will do it both thoroughly and quickly. For a small lawn, however raking with a lawn rake is perfectly adequate, if a little slower. You must use a lawn rake though as an ordinary rake will damage the grass.  Raking will also pull out a lot of moss, but it will not eradicate it completely. If you have a very mossy lawn the underlying reason my be too much shade, try pruning overhanging branches from trees and shrubs. If the moss is due to poor drainage this is difficult to improve once the lawn as been laid but it can be done by digging slit drains. For persistent moss, apply a good quality moss killer. Do not use lawn sand as this can contain sulphate of ammonia, which will stimulate the grass too much at this time of year.

Garden Hygiene
Keeping beds and borders tidy not only improves the visual appearance of your garden, it also helps garden hygiene.  Weeds allowed to grow and over winter will not only create problems for next year but may act as hosts to pests and diseases. Flower heads left to rot on a plant invite the spores of diseases to germinate. Dead leaves and litter provide ideal hiding places for slugs and other unwanted pests.

What To See
Autumn flowering bulbs are now coming into bloom and you mistake some for crocus. There are true crocus that flower in the autumn but most are imposters. The yellow Sternbergia lutea is one of these. It is to grow in a warm sunny site and sheltered position and deserves to be better known.

Looking Ahead
Propagation is one of the great pleasures of gardening and there are plenty of shrubs that can be raised from cuttings taken now. And it is not to late to sow selected seeds. In favourable areas try suitable hardy annuals, or sow a decorative edging of chives along a flower border.

Shrub Cutting
Semi- ripe cuttings of many shrubs will generally toot readily if taken now. Semi-ripe cuttings have hardened wood at the base but are still soft at the tip. Root them in pots or in a cold frame. Those to try include Berberis, Cotoneaster, Flowering Current, Forsythia, Mock Orange (Philadelphus) and Weigela. 

Visitors
There are many kinds of weevil that can cause particular problems for ornamental plants, these include the leaf weevil, clay coloured weevil and the vine weevil pictured right (which does not confine its attention to just vines as the name implies). Among the plants attacked by weevils are Euonymus, Roses and Rhododendrons. Adult weevils nibble at the edges of leaves but it is the larvae of the vine weevil that does the most damage, causing pot plants to collapse because the roots have been eaten. Using a chemical such as Provado Vine Weevil Killer will help to kill the young larvae and sterilize the eggs in the soil before they hatch.