There’s something about the light at this time of year. The low sun catching the turning leaves is a sight to behold.

It’s a common misconception that it’s the weather that makes the leaf colour change, whereas it is the shorter days and fewer daylight hours which means the leaves do not make as much chlorophyll.

Chlorophyll gives plants their green colour so as the chlorophyll fades, the other orange and yellow colours emerge.

The weather does affect how vibrant the colours appear. The best weather for brilliant colour being warm days and cool nights.

Winter pond prep

As those leaves start to fall, as well as clearing them from paths and patios to prevent them becoming slippery, remember to net your pond to prevent fallen leaves decaying and polluting the water causing oxygen levels to lower.

Netting will also protect your fish from herons and cats fishing!

As the temperature falls your fishes' dietary requirements also change.

As they slow down they consume less and are unable to digest high-protein food.

You can stop feeding completely when temperatures fall below seven degrees C or if you have koi, like us, we keep feeding them all year round but change the food to wheatgerm, which is lower in protein and easier to digest.

While we are in the pond area any tender pond plants such as lotus will need lifting and moving to the greenhouse and hardy water lilies will benefit from being lowered into the deeper, warmer levels of the pond to overwinter.

Cut back excess oxygenating plants such as pondweed.

Five minutes to spare this weekend? Plant some garlic!

Planting garlic in the autumn is beneficial, as it needs a period of cold for proper bulb development.

Buy bulbs from a nursery or garden centre. Don’t be tempted to use bulbs brought from the supermarkets as these won’t have been acclimatised to UK growing conditions.

They are usually imported from overseas or won’t have been treated against diseases such as onion white rot which, once you have got it, can make the soil unusable for years.

Separate the bulbs into cloves just before planting and insert each one around four cm deep, pointed end up, preferably in full sun.

Water well while growing and don’t allow to dry out.

Stop watering a few weeks before harvesting in early summer to ripen them off. Try autumn varieties: Garlic ‘Messidrome’ or Garlic ‘Chesnok Red’.