What to plant in autumn (UK)

Updated July 2026 · 6 min read

Autumn gets treated as the end of the gardening year, but it's really the start of the next one. The soil is still warm from summer, the rain does your watering for you, and anything planted now gets a head start that spring plantings never catch up with. Here's what to get in the ground from September to November.

Veg to plant in autumn

🧅 Onion sets & shallots (September–October)

Autumn-planting varieties like 'Radar' and 'Electric' go in now, sit quietly through winter, and give you a harvest weeks earlier than spring-planted sets. Push them into well-drained soil so just the tip shows.

🧄 Garlic (October–November)

Garlic genuinely needs autumn planting — most varieties require a spell of cold to split into fat cloves. Break a bulb into cloves and plant each one 15cm apart, pointy end up. Easiest crop of the year.

🫛 Broad beans (October–November)

Hardy varieties like 'Aquadulce Claudia' sown now overwinter as small plants and crop in May — up to a month before spring sowings, and usually before blackfly gets going.

🥬 Winter salads & greens (September)

Lamb's lettuce, mizuna, winter-hardy lettuce like 'Winter Density', and spinach all germinate in September's warm soil and can be picked right through the cold months, especially under a cloche or fleece.

🌸 Spring cabbage (September)

Plant out young spring cabbage now for greens in April — the "hungry gap" when little else is ready. Firm them in well and net against pigeons.

Flowers to plant in autumn

• Spring bulbs — daffodils and crocuses in September–October; tulips wait until November (colder soil means less disease). This is the single highest-impact autumn job.
• Hardy annuals — cornflowers, calendula and ammi sown in September flower earlier and stronger next year.
• Wallflowers & sweet williams — plant out now for scent and colour next spring.
• Sweet peas — sow in pots in October, overwinter somewhere cool and bright, and you'll have flowering plants weeks ahead of spring sowings.

Trees, shrubs & fruit: bare-root season

From November, nurseries sell trees, hedging, roses and fruit bushes "bare-root" — dug up while dormant, without a pot. They're roughly half the price of potted plants and establish better, because autumn's warm, moist soil lets roots grow before spring. Raspberry canes, currants, gooseberries, apples and rhubarb crowns all go in now.

Three jobs that pay off in spring

• Mulch empty beds with compost or manure — worms dig it in over winter, and it protects the soil structure from rain.
• Collect leaves into bags or a wire cage to make leafmould — free soil conditioner by next autumn.
• Sow green manure (like field beans or phacelia) on any bed you won't use until spring — it suppresses weeds and feeds the soil when dug in.