Berries are ripening and leaves are turning red and gold - the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness is on its way.

That means it's time to get to grips with your garden. Your house may need a spring clean, but your garden needs an autumn overhaul.

Take advantage of the last days of summer and start work now.

Start with a general tidy up. Pick up fallen fruit and leaves. Decomposing fruit can spread disease, so burn it or bag it up. If you want leaf mould for next spring, wire off a small area near your compost heap and let it rot down. Dig up summer bedding plants that are finished. Fork over the soil and plant pansies, primulas and polyanthus and spring-flowering bulbs. But wait until November for tulips.

Cut summer-flowering hardy perennials right down. Congested clumps can be lifted and divided.

Clear summer bedding from containers and window boxes and replace with winter-flowering heathers, conifers and ivy, plus some colour from winter-flowering pansies.

Don't forget to collect seed as you tidy. Tomato seed should be dried and stored for February/March sowing. Hardy geraniums and Japanese anemones should also be ready for collection and should be started in a coldframe.

Increase your stock by taking cuttings of tender perennials like marguerites and overwinter them on a window-sill. Take cuttings from fruit bushes too.

Make preparations now for the first autumn frosts. Move specimen plants into the greenhouse or insulate them with bubble wrap.

If space is a problem, tender plants like fuchsias can be trimmed and buried in 45cm (18in) deep trenches and dug up next spring. The soil should protect them.

Tender climbers can be covered with a double layer of fleece. Make sure plants like dahlias have the supports they need and stake young trees securely. Pick off rose leaves infected with blackspot, rust or powdery mildew and burn them.

Remove faded rose blooms with sharp secateurs.

Train climbing roses by tying in new growths with garden twine. Do this regularly as loose shoots are vulnerable to wind damage. Climbing roses can be pruned from now until early spring but remove any diseased parts now.

Container-grown climbing plants can be planted out in early autumn as long as the soil is warm enough to promote rapid new root growth. They must be watered regularly and thoroughly until established, especially those against walls.

If your lawn has taken a battering over the summer, give it a little TLC now. Sow grass seed, rake out thatch and treat moss with a mosskiller. Give it a final cut with the blades on a high setting, leaving the grass about 4cm long. Keep raking the leaves off the lawn during the autumn and winter. Give hedges a final trim too.

In the greenhouse, clear out any dead foliage, wash pots and scrub staging with disinfectant. Remove any shading and attach bubble wrap to increase warmth but leave roof vents clear to allow opening on mild days.

Save all your prunings and cuttings for the compost heap and shred the woody bits if possible. Check your fences for any maintenance work that might be required before you fill the gaps in your borders with autumn planting.

And if you're planning any construction work, do it now while the days are still long and the weather mild- frost may crack and crumble concrete.

Cover ponds with netting or mesh to keep out falling leaves. Plant waterside primulas and other bog plants now to allow them time to establish before the cold weather stops them growing.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.