It’s the end of Autumn and, as the nights get darker, the last of summer’s warmth is fading from the soil. But don’t let it get you down, there’s plenty to do in the garden to take your mind off it.

Get your tulips in this month as the chill will help ward off tulip fire (Botrytis tulipae) which causes ugly brown blotches and distorted leaves. While you’re at that, cut back the faded or mushy foliage of perennials,  but think about leaving any that will look good with a coating of frost, have hollow stems to hide overwintering pollinators and the creepy crawlies that will eat garden pests, or provide seeds for birds. You can also fill gaps with bareroot plants and trees as they come on sale this month.

Lift pots and containers off the ground with tiles, bricks or pot feet to help rainwater drain away and prevent your plants getting waterlogged. Insulate pots if it looks like the weather is going to be especially harsh – bubble wrap, though ugly, works well.

It got a bit blowy in October, so I need to prune back some of my roses, which thanks to feeding all summer have reached 8 or 9 feet in some cases. Windrock could loosen their roots or snap stems, so I’ll take the tallest ones back by about a third – I can tidy them up in early spring with their first proper prune.

If you want to help control blight, you can also gather up fallen rose leaves, but I tend to believe roses are pretty but diseased things and that’s just the way they are – it’s too much effort to keep picking, spraying and managing them in this way.

Decide whether to lift your dahlia tubers – if you’ve read a previous column you know I won’t be – though I am going to lift my canna rhizomes this year as the cold May meant they haven’t reached a good enough height to flower (I’ve heard 6 or 7 feet is necessary for the bigger ones I have like red Canna ‘Roi Humbert’ and firey ‘Lethoso Lil’).

In the mini-orchard, I’ve been slapping sticky grease around the trunks of trees to try and control winter moths from laying eggs (that lead to maggots in fruit). I wear disposable gloves to wipe it on with my hand, but you can use an old paint brush (you won’t be able to paint with it after though) or tie grease bands around it (slightly more expensive and I think uglier than the grease which weathers in quickly).