There's something lovely about the first proper show of autumn colour – the oaks and limes along the Thames path near Chertsey turning gold, gardens in Laleham and Shepperton suddenly looking like they belong on a postcard. The trouble is, all that beauty ends up on your lawn, your paths and your flower beds, and left there it does a lot more harm than good.

A thin scatter of leaves is nothing to worry about. But a thick, wet layer smothers grass, blocks out light and traps moisture against the soil – exactly the conditions moss and fungal problems love. Leave it long enough over a damp Surrey autumn and you'll be looking at bald, soggy patches come spring where there should be lawn. Leaves left on paths and patios turn into a genuinely dangerous slip hazard too, especially once the frosts start.

It's not just the lawn that suffers. Leaves piling up in borders can flatten and rot the crowns of herbaceous plants that need to breathe over winter, and a build-up against fences, sheds and timber structures holds damp against the wood far longer than it should sit there. Little and often is really the secret – regular clearance through October and November keeps everything ticking along nicely, rather than facing one enormous soggy job in December.

None of this means every leaf is the enemy, mind. A tidy pile left quietly in a corner of the garden is a genuine gift to hedgehogs, insects and all sorts of overwintering wildlife, and leaf mould is one of the best, cheapest soil conditioners you'll ever use – free, too. The trick is knowing where leaves are doing good and where they're doing damage, and dealing with the difference accordingly.

And once the leaves are cleared, there's usually a fair bit else that's built up over summer – old bedding plants, prunings, spent pots of compost, broken bits of trellis. Rather than that lot sitting in a corner for months, we take it away properly through a licensed trade waste site, so it's dealt with responsibly and your garden gets its space back straight away. No skips cluttering the drive, no trips to the tip with a boot full of soggy leaves.

We work right across Chertsey and the surrounding villages – Addlestone, Thorpe and Virginia Water among them – and autumn leaf clearance is one of those jobs that's easy to put off and genuinely satisfying once it's done. A clear lawn, tidy beds and paths you can actually walk on without worrying – it makes a real difference to how a garden feels heading into the darker months.

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.