Autumn Planting Ideas & Tips To See The Year Off Right
Autumn is a beautiful season in Hertfordshire, with the rich colours, cool temperatures and soft daylight. To celebrate the changing of the seasons and bring some of this beauty into your daily routine, now is an ideal time to consider a garden renovation.
While many plants are gearing up for their winter dormancy, there are still several weeks of beauty and mild weather to take advantage of. With the soil still warm and the frequent rainfall, autumn is the perfect time to add new soft landscaping to your outdoor space.
As a leading landscaping company, Landesigns understands first-hand the benefits autumn can provide to planting and turfing. To help you get inspired this season, and ensure you are taking advantage of the local climate right now, we are sharing some of the best autumn planting and turfing ideas for your outdoor space, along with maintenance guidance to prepare them for the frosty winter ahead.
The Benefits Of Autumn Planting & Turfing
Although the garden parties and al fresco dinners may have come to an end, autumn presents various other opportunities to make the most of your outdoor space.
Throughout the season, the soil remains warm enough to provide a supportive environment for the development of plants, shrubs, and bulbs. The constant rainfall adds to this, keeping planting areas moist and well hydrated. These conditions ensure strong root establishment in a range of plant and flower types, allowing you to enjoy more successful blooms come spring.
These conditions also make autumn the best time to lay turf, as it ensures reduced transplant stress. Whether laying turf for the first time, moving shrubs and trees, or planting spring bulbs, Hertfordshire gardens in the autumn are fertile ground.
Laying turf now gives grass plenty of time to root before the frost sets in, so you will be able to experience lush, green grass come the spring and summer. If you want to add more life to your garden, autumn is the ideal time for planting and turfing.
What To Plant In Autumn: Autumn Planting Ideas For Hertfordshire Gardens
Although a lot of plants enter their dormant phase in winter, which means they stop growing completely, there is still life in them throughout the autumn. With deciduous trees beginning to shed their leaves later in the season, your early autumn garden should be full of rich hues and interesting structures.
This can be enhanced by planting autumn flowers and shrubs, such as evergreens and late-blooming perennials.
As well as prolonging the colour within your garden with autumn planting, now is also a great time to get ahead of your spring ideas. As we have mentioned, autumn creates fertile planting conditions that can support a range of species, allowing for strong root establishment before the winter frost.
Whether you are looking for a complete redesign of your garden or to simply add some more colour to your spring planting displays, consider these autumn planting ideas:
Spring-Flowering Bulbs
Autumn is the ideal time to get ahead of your spring plants and plant bulbs such as daffodils, tulips, and crocuses. By incorporating bulbs within your autumn planting plans, you can ensure early colour next gardening season.
The conditions of autumn, with the rainfall and warm soil, allow bulbs to develop strong root systems so they can provide colour as soon as the seasons change.
Evergreen Shrubs
A great option for autumn and winter landscapes, evergreen shrubs maintain their foliage all year round. This ensures that your garden still has colour and structure when many other plants have entered their dormant phase.
Evergreen shrubs such as box and hebe hedges are ideal privacy screening solutions or used to separate the garden into separate zones. Alternatively, shrubs such as Photinia ‘Red Robin’, with its red foliage, and Skimmia japonica with its winter berries, add colour and interest to your garden throughout the latter part of the year.
Perennials
There are two options for perennials during your autumn planting: divide or plant new.
Perennials are a staple of flower beds and borders, with plants such as Echinacea, Rudbeckia, Sedum, and Hostas, providing long colourful blooms during the spring and summer, but returning every year. If you already have a good range of perennials in your garden, use this autumn planting time to divide them and reorganise the planting areas.
Dividing perennials gives them more space to grow, ensuring stronger and brighter blooms next spring.
Alternatively, use this time to plant new options for colour, structure and texture within your garden. Whether you are seeking a vibrant traditional garden design or a more muted contemporary theme, there are perennials to suit all needs.
As they return every year, perennials are a staple of low-maintenance landscaping. To learn more about this practice, check out our blog post.
Why Lay New Turf In Autumn: Autumn Planting & Turfing For Success
As well as these autumn planting ideas, this season is also the prime time for new turfing.
The same conditions that make autumn planting so successful apply to turfing during the season.
If you are looking to renovate your garden ahead of the new year, turfing can be a great solution. Both real and artificial grass can add colour, texture and functionality to your garden. Whether you are designing a tranquil retreat or a family playground, turfing is often the foundation and autumn is a great time to lay new lawns.
As well as the warm and moist soil conditions, the fact that weed growth has slowed down in the autumn makes turfing more successful. A key stage when laying turf is the preparation, and this is easier to complete when there is less to remove.
With fewer weeds, your garden can be quickly prepared for turfing, especially when the process is handled by professional landscape gardeners. Once the turf has been laid, it needs to be left to establish.
Avoiding foot traffic on the turf is difficult during the spring and summer, when your garden is full of activity. However, in the autumn, you can give your new turf plenty of time and space to establish, ensuring long-term health and stability.
With ongoing rainfall and the moist soil, your grass can root well and will survive the winter, so it is ready to provide the lush backdrop to upcoming garden events in spring and summer.
How To Prepare Autumn Planting For Winter
Autumn planting and turfing is only the first part of the process, as you now have to maintain your garden to ensure it survives the winter.
Caring for your new autumn planting does not have to be difficult, as long as you maintain a consistent routine of the following:
- Frequent Watering: While the wet climate will do a lot of the work for you, watering is still required for newly planted flowers, bulbs, and turf. It is vital to strike a suitable balance of consistent, effective watering without overwatering your garden, especially with the wet weather ahead.
- Mulching: Organic mulch, such as wood chips or compost, can be applied to planting areas to support perennials, shrubs and new bulbs. Mulch maintains both the moisture and temperature of the soil, as well as providing essential nutrients to your plants over time.
- Leaf Clearance: While some fallen leaves can be reused as compost, they need to be cleared away from lawns and hardscape areas frequently. Leaving fallen leaves to rot can cause issues in soft and hard landscaping areas, such as stains, rot and pests. This is an ongoing task in the autumn.
For more advice regarding seasonal maintenance, check our comprehensive guide here.
Conclusion
Autumn can be a fruitful season for your garden with the right plants and maintenance. There are various autumn planting ideas, including laying new turf, that will get your garden ready for the upcoming spring and summer.
Whether you want to prolong seasonal interest or ensure a vibrant spring, autumn planting such as perennials, bulbs, and evergreen shrubs is useful at this time.
If you are looking for a complete renovation of your outdoor space, Landesigns can help. We are a comprehensive garden design and landscaping company, offering luxurious renovations of outdoor spaces across Hertfordshire. To learn more about our garden design process, check out this blog post, or contact the team today.
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To learn more about our services or to request a consultation with the team, please contact us today.
FAQs
When is the latest I can buy turf in Hertfordshire?
Turf can be professionally laid until late winter, as long as there is no frost on the ground. However, with its warm soil and wet conditions, autumn is the ideal time for turfing, so it is best to act now.
Is autumn a good time to plant trees and shrubs?
Yes, the warm soil in autumn helps the roots of trees, shrubs, and plants establish well before the frost of winter.
How often should I water my garden in autumn?
Watering still needs to be consistent in the autumn, but it will be less frequent than in the summer due to the lack of high temperatures and drought conditions. The usually wet conditions of autumn can do a lot of the work for you; however, you need to ensure the soil is moist throughout the season, especially for newly planted turf, bulbs, and shrubs.