Autumn is one of those windows where a bit of work now saves you a world of hassle later. Once summer's growth has slowed right down, most of the garden is ready for a proper tidy – and getting it right in October and November sets things up far better than trying to catch up in a rush next March.

Hedges are a good place to start. A trim now keeps shape and structure through winter, and if a hedge has got away from you over the summer – grown leggy, gappy, or just taken over more of the garden than it should – autumn and early winter is the right time to take it back hard and renovate it properly. It looks a bit stark for a while, we won't pretend otherwise, but it's exactly what lets a tired hedge come back thick and healthy rather than patchy and tired for another year. We see this a lot on older gardens around Chertsey and Weybridge, where a hedge has simply been nudged along for years rather than properly reset.

Herbaceous plants – the perennials that die back over winter – generally want cutting back once they've finished flowering and gone brown, though it's worth leaving some seed heads and stems standing if you like a bit of winter structure and want to give insects somewhere to shelter. There's no single rule that fits every border; it's really about reading what's there and knowing which plants want a hard cut and which are better left alone until spring.

Weeding matters more in autumn than people expect. Weeds that get left to seed now are the ones giving you grief next May, so a proper clear-out before everything goes dormant makes spring considerably easier on you.

Tree work is its own category entirely, and rightly so – it's not a job for ladders and enthusiasm alone. Dead, crossing or storm-damaged branches need taking care of properly, with the right equipment and the right experience, particularly on anything mature or near a boundary, shed or power line. If you're at all unsure whether a tree needs attention, it's always worth getting it looked at rather than guessing.

One plant that deserves its own mention, because it trips so many people up, is wisteria. Everyone wants to prune it in autumn along with everything else, but wisteria is the one genuine exception on the list – it's pruned hard in February, cutting back last summer's growth to two or three buds, which is what encourages the flowering spurs for a proper show the following spring. Prune it now instead and you'll likely lose flowers for the year. We make a note of which gardens have wisteria so nobody misses that window.

Whether it's a single overgrown hedge in Addlestone or a full seasonal cutback across a bigger garden near Virginia Water, this is the kind of work that genuinely changes how a garden feels going into winter – tidier, healthier, and properly set up for what comes next.

Let's have a chat about how we can prepare your garden over the autumn and winter so it's looking great next spring and into the summer.