Plants can benefit enormously from being planted in late summer or early autumn as the soil is still warm and for all soils, the cultivation window is still open. This avoids the difficulty of trying to remember which plant is which in spring, when most herbaceous perennials have died down to a root-ball.

There is likely to be a healthy level of moisture in the soil and the worms and other beneficial micro-fauna that keep your soil moving are still active. This all means that plants will be quick to root down and establish before the colder weather sets it. This, in turn means your plants have a head start in the spring over those that have just been planted into cold soil that can slow the plants ability to root down and get established.

A really good practice is taking pictures of your beds now, which will highlight those gaps that appear after the early summer plants have faded. This will show you what you can add for late summer and autumn colour. You can then use the continuing good weather to fill those gaps with plants that look good right now, thus bridging the lull between the seasons.

Mulching has long been seen as the very best thing you can do to improve and maintain the health of your soil and therefore your plants. How and when you do this will be driven by your type of soil and the winter conditions it is exposed to.

Autumn mulching can be great for heavier clay soil as the worms are likely to take plenty of it down, thus improving the drainage potential and air porosity. Also, the seeds of weeds can be somewhat supressed by the lack of light and this could stop some out-competing your plants in the spring.

Laying mulch onto your soil can also help to give protection to beneficial insects that can over-winter safely, and then emerge earlier to start feeding on the aphids which cause such devastation to young growth in the spring.

Finally, you will still be able to see where all your herbaceous perennials are and avoid the danger of covering them over, while holding some of the heat in your soil that little bit longer. Lay thickly to a depth of at least 7 centimetres (3 inches) – and if you don’t have enough to do all areas, do part of your bed really well rather than spreading it out too thinly.

Mulching clay soil in spring always runs the risk of causing compaction due to gardener’s boots pressing on the soil as you try to get the mulch in place. Clay soils hold moisture really well so walking on the soil in spring can have a long-term detrimental effect to your garden’s ability to thrive. Autumn mulching on a clay-based soil that is not to exposed to high winds can also help to prevent the loss of your best organic layer of top soil to erosion from rain and poor weather.

All of this can also be put into practice on lighter soils, but you do not need to improve drainage by mulching in autumn. It may be easier to see where each plant is, thus ensuring you don’t mulch over the top of them but around them leaving a gap of a couple of centimetres around each plant.

Plants in warmer, drier soils usually emerge a little earlier than those on cold wet soils, so seeing enough of them to mulch around in spring may be more beneficial. Lighter soils lose moisture and nutrients quickly so mulching in the spring can help prevent loss of moisture through evaporation, add much needed nutrients and also help prevent lighter soil being eroded by the wind. Finally, the addition of mulch in spring can also help suppress the weeds that love to spring up before your own planting has bulked up.

Claire Mitchell is The Garden Editor and she works with us every Tuesday during the summer here at the nursery. Claire also helps out with some of our shows and can be seen at the Newbury show and RHS Wisley show.

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