Make a Start With the Leaves

Autumn's first proper job is also its most satisfying, because you can see the difference in an afternoon. Clear fallen leaves from lawns, paths and gravel before they smother the grass and turn slippery underfoot. On the lawn, a plastic leaf rake or a run over with the mower on a high setting collects them quickly; on paving, a stiff brush and a bit of patience does the trick.

Don't bin them. Leaves are one of the best free resources in the garden:

• Fill a bin bag or a wire ring with damp leaves, poke a few holes for air, and leave it for a year to make lovely crumbly leafmould.
• Spread shredded leaves over bare soil as a winter mulch — worms will pull them down and improve the structure.
• Pile them in a quiet corner as shelter for hedgehogs, frogs and overwintering insects.

Oak, beech and hornbeam break down slowly but make the best leafmould. Sycamore and horse chestnut are quicker. Avoid leaving thick, wet layers on grass for more than a few days.

Cut Back, Divide and Tidy the Borders

Spent perennials can be cut down once they've gone brown and floppy, but be selective. Leave seedheads on sedum, echinacea, teasel and ornamental grasses — they hold shape through the frost, feed the birds, and give insects somewhere to hide. Hylotelephium (sedum) in particular looks wonderful with dew and ice on it, and any stems you leave will be full of overwintering ladybirds.

For the rest, cut herbaceous perennials back to about 5–10cm above soil level and clear the debris, especially from around dahlias and peonies, where slugs and snails love to lurk. Lift and divide congested clumps of hardy geraniums, helenium, asters and daylilies now, while the soil is still warm — replant with a handful of garden compost and water them in well. It's also an excellent moment to move shrubs you've been meaning to shift, and to plant new bare-root trees, roses and hedging, which settle in beautifully in autumn's damp soil.

Plant Spring Bulbs While the Soil Is Warm

Nothing lifts a February mood quite like a pot of daffodils you planted yourself. Start with daffodils, crocus, muscari and alliums from late September; hold back tulips until November, as planting them later reduces the risk of tulip fire.

As a rule of thumb, plant bulbs at two to three times their own depth and roughly a bulb's width apart. In heavy clay, sit them on a handful of grit or sharp sand to stop them rotting. In pots, layer them lasagna-style — larger bulbs at the bottom, smaller ones above — for a long-lasting spring display, and use fresh peat-free compost rather than garden soil.

If squirrels are a nuisance, cover the planted area with chicken wire or a sheet of mesh pegged down until the shoots appear. Plant more than you think you need: a generous drift always looks better than a stingy row.

Protect Tender Plants and Pots

Get ahead of the first hard frost rather than reacting to it. Tender perennials such as dahlias, cannas and gladioli can be lifted once the foliage is blackened, dried upside down for a week, and stored in barely damp compost or vermiculite somewhere frost-free and dark. Banana plants, tree ferns and palms benefit from a collar of straw or fleece around the crown, wrapped with a layer of horticultural fleece or hessian.

Terracotta and glazed pots are vulnerable to frost damage, so raise them onto pot feet or bricks to keep them draining freely, and cluster them against a sheltered south-facing wall. Better still, move the most precious ones under cover. Tender specimens in pots — citrus, olives, agapanthus, pelargoniums — should come indoors or into a greenhouse before temperatures dip below about 5°C at night. Wrap the outside of large pots with bubble wrap or hessian to insulate the roots: roots freeze far more easily in a pot than in open ground.

Also drain hosepipes, empty water butts of their tap fittings if hard frosts are forecast, and turn off outside taps to prevent burst pipes.

Feed the Soil and the Lawn

Autumn is the best time of year to improve your soil. Spread a 5–8cm layer of well-rotted manure or garden compost over empty beds and let the worms do the digging for you. On veg patches, sow a green manure such as field beans or grazing rye to cover bare ground and stop nutrients washing away over winter.

For lawns, give a low-nitrogen autumn feed to toughen the grass, aerate compacted areas with a garden fork, and scarify out the thatch. Raise the cutting height for the last few cuts of the season and avoid walking on frosty grass, which bruises the blades and leaves brown footprints until spring.

Leave a Little Wildness Behind

A perfectly tidy garden isn't always a healthy one. Leave a few hollow stems standing, resist cutting every seedhead, and keep a small log pile tucked behind a shrub. These tiny wild patches shelter the frogs, beetles and solitary bees that will pollinate your beans and see off aphids next summer. Clean the bird feeders, put out fresh water, and enjoy the quiet weeks ahead — the garden is going to sleep, but there's plenty of life still ticking away under the surface.