Fall is time for a refresh from the long summer, time to clean the garden up and believe it or not, get ready for spring!  Here are some steps to help get you motivated on what to do.

Early Autumn

• Hoe weeds regularly throughout autumn.
• Plant late season crops both for under cover and in the open.
• Continue to lift the remaining potatoes
• Expose the fruit of outdoor tomatoes to the sun by removing the covering leaves.
• Maintain the succession of seed sowing for late or winter crops.
• Water crops regularly.
• Plant cover crops.
• Harvest seeds as they ripens.
• Prune currants and gooseberries to keep them in shape. 

Mid-Autumn

• Lift root vegetables when their tops fade.
• Plant garlic cloves.
• Cut down asparagus foliage when they brown. 
• Onion and turnip beds should be thinned. 
• Earth up celery and leeks.
• Plant out late-season crops and protect tender types such as cauliflower.  
• Finish harvesting the last of the potatoes.
• Harvest sweet potatoes before the first frost.
• After beans and peas have been harvested, turn the soil over and leave it fallow over the winter.
• Raspberries, blackberries and longanberries can be planted now.
• Apricots and cherries can be pruned now.
• Protect tender perennial herbs.
• Thin fig trees.
• Get cold frames ready by amending soil with compost and an all purpose fertilizer. 

Late Autumn

• Get the soil ready for spring sowing.
• Add rock phosphate or bone meal now so it has time to break down and be available in the spring.
• Plant currants and gooseberries.
• Begin winter pruning of fruit trees.
• Lift beetroot and carrots.
• Continue to plant out late-season crops and protect tender types.
• Cut back perennials once they have died back to 1-2” above the soil level.
• Plant fruit trees in well-prepared soil