Gardeners' World star names one thing to 'avoid' while completing vital autumn garden task

Gardeners' World star Joe Swift has named one thing you should 'avoid' while performing a key autumn task. Joe says preparing a good mulch is like "laying a duvet" over your garden beds as the winter months approach.

It comes as the TV presenter says gardening doesn't stop during the colder months. Instead Joe will be preparing a vegetable garden as he looks to "get stuck in" to his plot on a winter's morning. Before then though, he will be laying a hearty mulch onto his garden beds. Mulch is an organic material that is applied on top of the soil, Joe explains.

Writing in the Radio Times Magazine, Joe said: "Mulch breaks down to increase the organic content of your soil, so makes it moisture-retentive and helps with drainage. It generally makes the soil more fertile, too, and smothers annual seeds and weeds."

Joe says that whatever type of soil your garden has, the organic matter can help a wide range of plants grow more easily. He recommends gardeners use a local supplier for their mulch.

He suggests mulching your garden during the autumn months to help encourage the winter worms. Joe says these worms will then "take the good stuff" into their plot without the need to dig.

The expert says the best time to mulch is once all planting has been done - including bulbs. He explains that gardeners should mulch onto their plot when the soil is wet, but he says there is one thing they shouldn't do.

He added: "Avoid building up mulch around a shrub's stem or covering the centre of a perennial or small delicate plants, as that may encourage them to rot."

Joe suggests mulching around a plant if you think you might not have enough for an entire area. He then suggests filling in the gaps afterwards.

He says flowerbeds need at least 5cm of organic matter. A square metre at around 5cm of organic matter will require around 50 litres of material.

Joe finds that garden centres and shops often sell mulch in 25 or 50l bags. He however says that getting a bulk loose delivery can end up more cost effective.

He's not the only Gardeners' World star to use mulch in their plot either. Monty Don mulches all of his borders at Longmeadow in January, although he admits the best time to do it is "whenever you get round to it".

In a January column, Monty wrote: "The best time to put down a mulch is whenever you get round to do it, because the pros of a good organic mulch - which are weed suppression, moisture retention and improved soil structure and fertility - always outweigh any cons such as suppressing 'little treasure' seedlings.

"However, we do try and mulch all our borders in January because this gives time in autumn for the borders to die back gracefully and allow birds to eat all seeds and berries but is early enough not to suppress the