Just when you think you’re on top of one season in the garden another seems to come along with a whole raft of extra things that need doing. The summer has hopefully produced some lively growth in your garden beds but now it’s time to clear all that away and batten down the hatches (so to speak) for the coming winter.

Regular garden maintenance can sort out most issues in the garden –if you have any of course. Lucky you if you don’t! Hedges can be trimmed into a nice, neat shape, summer growth can be pruned back and the entire garden can benefit from a good dose of fertiliser to strengthen and boost roots for the months ahead.

Autumn is always a good time to rejuvenate lawns. Aerate with a fork or even hire a mechanical aerator if it’s too much to tackle by hand. Apply some top-dressing and fertiliser (one that’s lower in nitrogen than you’d apply in spring) and your lawn will respond accordingly.

At this time of year leaves begin to change colour and, beautiful as they are, they drop all over the place for you and me to rake up. Keep them, they make an excellent leaf mould once rotted down and used just like you would any other home-made compost. Prune summer-flowering trees and shrubs by up to one-third to keep them looking good and perhaps encourage even better flowering next year. Create new plants by dividing herbaceous perennials and clumping grasses like lomandra and dianella. A cheap an easy option to fill gaps in your garden.

Transplanting existing evergreen trees and shrubs is also easy to do in autumn. Cut it back by a third and dig up with as much of a root ball as is manageable. A pre-prepared hole should already be on stand-by and that’s about all there is to it. A dose of seaweed can be slopped on afterwards to minimize any transplant shock but don’t fertilise right away.

Garden construction is another popular job on the calendar for autumn. Decking, pergolas, paving, paths and walls –any hard landscaping really– can all be tackled at this time of year with relative ease.

Irrigation systems should be checked to make sure the drippers in particular are working effectively. Or why not have a system installed if you’ve struggled over the summer keeping to an effective watering plan.

But don’t forget the fun stuff like choosing a new tree or shrub! It’s a perfect time of year to wander around the nursery and see exactly what colours you can expect from a new planting. Plant it now and the soil will still be warm enough for the roots to establish before winter sets in.

Lastly dig some manure and compost into the vegie beds in preparation for some winter crops. Or sow a green manure that can be dug in over the winter, leaving your beds full of nutrients for the spring. And if you’re into bulbs then now is the time to peruse that catalogue!