October can be such a lovely month – the autumnal colours and the bright blue sky. And when it is like this, it’s a perfect day to get outside and tidy up and cut back in the garden.

Pampas Grass in Kath’s Garden
Sweep up any fallen leaves as they may harbour fungal spores and provide hiding places for slugs and snails.
Lawn Care:
Scarifying
If your lawn has developed lots of bare patches or moss, you probably need to scarify it. This is a simple process of removing dead thatch (the brown material found beneath the green grass blades). A small amount of thatch is a good thing in lawns, but in large quantities thatch can inhibit growth of new grass, prevent water and nutrients from reaching the roots, and encourage moss to form.
To scarify a lawn you should only do it when the lawn is dry as if the soil is too wet you may well pull-out healthy lawn plants. Mow the lawn lightly first.
Scarify your lawn in spring or early autumn (well ahead of the first frosts), ideally once a year, to keep the lawn in good shape. On new lawns, wait at least a year before scarifying, otherwise you can damage the turf.
Using a spring tine rake, gently rake the thatch out of the lawn, you will see brown, grassy material and moss piling up. Be careful not to be too rough, as you could cause damage, and make sure you leave some thatch – a small amount helps to protect the lawn. Work in different directions to ensure the thatch comes out evenly. After scarifying, pick up the thatch and add it to the compost heap.

Aerating
After scarifying it is best to aerate the lawn as this will help your lawn and the soil under it to breathe. Aerating a lawn is worth the time and effort because it will help it grow better. Lawn aeration simply means making holes to help air, water, and nutrients penetrate the soil. You can do this with your garden fork. Every few paces push your garden fork well into the lawn through into the soil, wiggle it about and pull it out and continue to do this all over the lawn. After aerating you may want to apply a fertiliser to boost lawn growth or leave it to recover on its own.
Perennials: cutting back
Cutting back herbaceous perennials during autumn makes the garden look tidy. However, this removes winter interest, in the form of height and structure, as well as reducing the food and habitat sources for wildlife. So perhaps be a little more selective by just removing the material that is decaying or has fungal growth,
Examples of plants to leave uncut include Eryngium (sea holly) and Phormium (New Zealand flax) and the foliage and flowers of ornamental grasses.

Sea Holly (Eryngium)
More tender plants with woody stems, such as penstemons, are left so that the old stems protect the new growth coming through. Leave pruning of these and other borderline-hardy perennials until the risk of frost has passed – usually April or May.
Once you have done your cutting back or tidying up, add a layer of mulch at least 5cm (2in) thick, applied to the soil surface in late autumn to late winter (Nov-Feb). It is used to provide frost protection, improve plant growth by adding nutrients or increasing organic matter content, reducing water loss from the soil, for decorative purposes and suppressing weeds. Examples include well-rotted garden compost and manure, chipped bark, gravel, grit and slate chippings.
Lifting and dividing perennials
This is the perfect time of the year to make more plants by lifting and dividing herbaceous perennials, which are the ones that die back to ground level in the winter and sprout again in spring. If you have a large clump dig it out from the border ensuring you include the root system.
Divide the clump using either two forks back-to-back and prising the clump apart and create small groups of plants ready to grow into new plants. Cut off any dead or damaged parts. Plant the groups allowing sufficient room for them to grow. This approach can apply to Astrantia, hardy Geranium, Helenium and Polemonium.

Lift dahlia tubers, begonia tubers and gladioli corms to store over the winter but remove the dead foliage before storing them.
Carry on deadheading.
Unless you want to save the seeds, it is still worth deadheading flowers even as they go over as this will divert energy back into maintaining other parts of the plant. Root storage receives a lot of energy from this, making the plant ready to support next year’s growth.
