🍁 Tidying Up Your Scottish Garden for Autumn

As the golden light of autumn settles across Scotland’s landscapes, it’s the perfect time to get outside and prepare your garden for the months ahead. While the crisp air and changing colours make for a beautiful backdrop, this is also a crucial season for ensuring your garden remains healthy, tidy, and ready to thrive in spring.

Here’s a simple, practical guide to tidying up your Scottish garden this autumn.

1. Tidy Up Fallen Leaves – But Not Too Much!

Scotland’s deciduous trees—like rowan, birch, and sycamore—shed their leaves in abundance. While it’s tempting to rake up every last one, remember: leaf litter can be great for wildlife.

🧹 Tip: Rake paths and lawns to prevent smothering the grass, but leave a few leafy corners for hedgehogs and insects to shelter over winter.

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2. Cut Back and Compost

By September and October, many herbaceous perennials will have finished flowering. Cutting them back keeps your beds looking tidy and allows you to compost the green waste.

✂️ Cut back: Hostas, peonies, and delphiniums.

🌱 Leave standing: Plants with seed heads like teasels, echinacea, or sedum – they look beautiful when frosted and feed birds like goldfinches.

3. Lawn Love Before the Frost

Your lawn will slow down as temperatures drop, but a bit of TLC now will pay off in spring.

🌾 Autumn lawn care checklist:

• Scarify to remove moss and thatch.

• Aerate the soil with a fork or hollow tine aerator.

• Apply a low-nitrogen autumn lawn feed to strengthen roots.

Scotland’s damp climate can lead to moss-heavy lawns, so tackling it now makes a big difference.

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4. Tidy the Borders and Edges

Weeds are still active in early autumn. Tidy up beds, edge your borders, and mulch where needed to suppress growth and protect the soil.

🌿 Use well-rotted compost, bark mulch, or leaf mould to insulate roots from frosts—especially important in higher-altitude or coastal areas.

5. Plant for Spring Colour

Autumn is the perfect time to plant spring-flowering bulbs like:

• Daffodils (great for naturalising)

• Tulips (wait until late October or November)

• Crocuses and snowdrops

🌼 These bulbs enjoy the cool, moist Scottish soil and give a burst of colour just when you need it most.

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6. Tend to Tools and Sheds

With darker evenings approaching, it’s a great time to organise your shed or greenhouse.

🧰 Tasks to tackle:

• Clean and oil tools to prevent rust.

• Wash pots and trays.

• Check over lawnmowers or trimmers before winter storage.

7. Support Local Wildlife

As temperatures drop, Scottish wildlife starts looking for shelter and food.

🦔 Leave a few log piles or stone heaps undisturbed.🕳️ Clean and refill bird feeders – especially with high-fat foods like suet.🏡 Add a hedgehog house or insect hotel if space allows.

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Final Thought: Work With the Weather

Scottish autumns can be glorious one day and a deluge the next. Pick dry days to get your tidying done, and don’t worry about perfection. Gardens are living spaces—tidy but not sterile.

🍂 A little autumn effort means you’ll head into winter with a peaceful, prepped garden—and look forward to an even better spring.

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