Autumn Has Arrived 🍂

The Autumn Equinox is here, the leaves are turning and the gardening year is definitely not over yet.

Autumn is actually one of our favourite times in the garden. The soil is still warm, there’s usually a bit more rain around, and it’s the perfect opportunity to add some colour, get plants established and prepare for the seasons ahead.

And yes, there are leaves. So. Many. Leaves.

🌼 Bring some colour back

If your summer displays are starting to look a little tired, now is the perfect time for a refresh.

At the nursery, our autumn plants are ready to go, including:

• 🌸 Pansies – brilliant for pots, borders and baskets

• 💜 Violas – masses of cheerful little flowers and fantastic for containers

• 🌺 Cyclamen – beautiful autumn colour with striking foliage

• 🌼 Polyanthus – a lovely way to introduce colour as we head towards the colder months

• 🌿 Perennials – perfect for filling gaps and getting established while the soil is still warm

Mix a few together in pots and containers for an instant autumn update.

Grey skies are inevitable. Grey gardens aren’t.

🍁 Your autumn garden checklist:

• 🌷 Plant spring bulbs – get daffodils, crocuses and other spring-flowering bulbs in now. Save your tulips for a little later in autumn.

• 🌱 Plant perennials – warm soil and cooler, wetter weather make autumn a great time to get hardy plants established.

• 🪴 Refresh containers – replace fading summer bedding with Pansies, Violas, Cyclamen and other seasonal colour.

• ✂️ Divide established perennials – give overcrowded plants more room and, even better, get a few extra plants for free.

• 🍃 Collect fallen leaves – turn them into leaf mould rather than throwing them away. Your soil will thank you later.

• 🦔 Don’t tidy everything! – leave some seed heads, stems and sheltered areas for wildlife over winter.

• ✂️ Clean and sharpen your tools – after a busy summer, your secateurs have earned a little attention too.

🌿 Autumn is planting season

It can be tempting to think of spring as the time for planting, but autumn has some serious advantages.

The ground is still holding warmth from summer while cooler temperatures and increased rainfall reduce stress on newly planted hardy plants.

That makes it a particularly good time to look at those gaps in your beds and borders and introduce some new perennials.

Get them established now and they’ll be ready to get going when conditions improve again next spring.

🐝 Leave a little for wildlife

Not every corner of the garden needs to be immaculate.

Leaving selected seed heads and stems standing provides food and shelter for insects and birds, while piles of leaves in quieter areas can create valuable habitat.

So if anyone questions the slightly untidy corner of your garden, don’t worry.

It’s not messy. It’s wildlife habitat.

🍄 Enjoy the season

Most importantly, don’t spend the whole of autumn treating the garden like one enormous to-do list.

Enjoy the changing colours, keep an eye out for fungi appearing after rain, plant something you’ll have forgotten about by spring and appreciate the garden changing with the season.

And if yours needs a little autumn pick-me-up, come and see what’s growing at the nursery.

You’ll find Pansies, Violas, Cyclamen, Polyanthus, Perennials, Bulbs and more, with plenty of seasonal colour ready for your beds, borders and containers.

📍 Visit us at the Horticultural Nursery in Harrogate 📍

Open every day, 9.30am–3.30pm

🍂 Happy autumn gardening! 🍂