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Autumn flowers are always welcome but when does one season start and another end? Hibiscus was once regarded as a classic Autumn bloom but seems to have moved forward to late summer now, or is it that our Autumns are now more pleasant than most Summers? Fuchsia is indispensable at this time but has probably been flowering for months. Perhaps the archetypal Autumn flower is that of Fatsia japonica whose bizarre eruptions are attuned to day length rather than temperature. Hoverflies and wasps seem more attracted than bees but they too deserve their reward for the work they have put in throughout the year. The onset of Autumn is often marked by the prominence of spiders in the garden, not hiding in the undergrowth but bold as brass, sentinel like in the centre of dew-bejewelled webs each morning, looking a little bit larger than the day before until sufficiently well fed to over winter in some hiding place month the logs and stone stacked in odd corners of the garden. Their winter store is hard won however as the web must be constructed anew each night at considerable effort and expenditure in spun silk, pity them as you brush their labours from your hair or clothes each morning,

Occasionally a long spring followed by a moderate summer will lead to a wonderful show where the Autumn colour of the Rowans Maples and Liquidambers goes on and on. Ideally a period of sunny, calm days allows a slow build up of Autumn colour in the shortening days; daily changes visible in a whole tree or perhaps an avenue of trees are a joy to behold. The show does not end there; whole creeper clad walls once verdant green now turn a shocking red revealing the presence of Virginia Creeper or Boston Ivy, it pays not to devote all your walls solely to spring flowering clematis and wisteria. If the house has four walls there is one available for each season, when there is no apparent space left in the garden it is time to exploit the often ignored vertical surfaces. Once there was a time when cold, still days were followed by sharp frosts at night time which hastened the fall of leaves from the trees but those days are long gone. The changing foliage colour is caused by pigments in the leaf used for protection from ultra-violet light being revealed in the breakdown of the chloroplasts, These contain the green pigment chlorophyll, a valuable molecule, the constituent parts of which are reclaimed and stored by the plant through winter. If the display looks good enough to eat it may be because the revealed caretenoid and anthocyanin pigments are familiar to us as they also occur in flowers and fruit and often have nutritional benefits to ourselves. Protective tannins in the leaves cause most higher animals to leave tree leaves well alone so it is left to the micro-flora and fauna of bacteria, fungi, worms and woodlice to reap the plentiful harvest. Exploring a deposit of leaf mould is like archaeology, with a valuable resource buried for those who quest in the garden, it makes a superb mulch or soil conditioner so when conditions allow, armed with bucket, brush and rake I gather all I can before they blow away down the road, migrating east in search of a place to rest for the winter.

The season of mellow fruitfulness begins with the dog days of summer and is often born of drought but soon disappears under a deluge of rain and gales; often a windy blast shakes the majority of fruit off as windfalls, forcing a hasty harvest in less than ideal conditions. The musty smell of decomposing and often coddled windfall fruit is synonymous with the onset of Autumn and a good sign that it is time to harvest the rest. Most summer fruiting apples arrive in August without fail but late summer sun is essential for a palatable harvest and a glut must be consumed rapidly as they do not store well. Later varieties often fare better as recent seasons have seen relatively poor summers but pleasant Autumns. Warm, dry days ensure a good late picking which will store well into the winter all being well. Some varieties allegedly persist on the tree well into winter but I like to bring the harvest home and take no chances with the combination of brown rot, snails, woodlice, earwigs, wasps, birds and small children all eager to test my patience. If you get the opportunity there is no doubt regarding the quality of a lightly frosted, sun burnished apple, fresh from nature's cold store.

The vegetable patch will have to be harvested and tidied, ideally the plot dug over and enriched with manure or compost prior to the sterilising, clod breaking frosts of winter. If root crops are not dug up and stored in clamps they may be stuck until spring as winter and forgetfulness take hold. Few leaf crops will look better after the rigours of winter so get the recipe books out now and make the most of the harvest before the slugs and wood pigeons move in. Autumn is a time for reflection, of tasks not completed through the summer which will now likely be left - there's always another year. It's time to hunker down and make repairs to buildings and structures likely to be damaged by the harsh weather ahead.