The first thing landscape designer Andrea Gutiérrez Padín advises for autumn is not work - it is looking. "Autumn is the ideal moment to analyse what worked, which species suffered and which zones of the garden are most vulnerable," she says. Pruning and feeding come later. First you need to see what the summer did to the garden.

The inspection is literally medical. You check whether the plants have enough water, whether they flowered and fruited despite the heat, whether the tree canopies are dense or there is abnormal leaf drop. You also check the irrigation system - that is where the problem most often hides, and efficient irrigation remains the best protection against the next hot summer.

How do you tell heat stress from a normal seasonal change? By speed. When a plant enters natural dormancy, the colour change, the leaf drop and the slowing growth happen gradually. When it has been beaten by heat, the leaves go dry or scorched all at once, and the plant abruptly loses vigour. The timing and the pace are the indicator, not the appearance.

Soil suffers only when it is bare. "Good mulching, or vegetation that casts shade, helps retain moisture," says Gutiérrez Padín. The check is done in the first few centimetres - is there moisture, is there life, can you see worms and insects. Digging and turning is not the solution; adding organic matter is. "Healthy soil does not just hold the plants up: it is the real heart of the garden," she says.

Autumn is the best time for new planting, and that is not a matter of taste but of biology. "Practically every species will be grateful to have arrived before winter, when mild temperatures and higher soil moisture create ideal conditions for rooting," says the designer. The plant stops growing upwards and sends all its energy into the roots - so in spring it comes out strong, and endures the following summer better.

Here comes a technique rarely mentioned here: bare-root planting. Trees, fruit trees and roses are lifted while dormant, with no soil around the roots, and are much cheaper that way - which matters when you are planting a larger area. They are easier to transport and to place, so the whole job goes faster.

Before you replace a dead plant, ask yourself one question: did it fail because the species was wrong for that spot, or because the conditions were bad? "Orientation, hours of sun, drainage quality or even watering frequency can be decisive," says Gutiérrez Padín. An aromatic plant in deep shade will not thrive however tough it is. If you do not understand the real cause, you will kill the next one too.

The answer to the heat is not turning the garden into cacti. "A garden has to be understood as an ecosystem in which all the elements are connected," she says. More trees mean more shade, a lower temperature in the space and a wider choice of species that can survive. Plus mulch, generously, to keep the moisture and the life in the soil.

Fallen leaves have two fates, depending on where they landed. From paths and entrances they are collected - there they are a slipping hazard. In the beds they are left alone: "they protect the soil, help retain moisture and, as they decompose, naturally enrich the earth". In a larger garden the leaves are gathered in one corner where in time they become quality mulch - a cycle the garden closes by itself.

On pruning, the advice is counter-intuitive: do less. "Far too often we prune more than necessary, when a well-conceived garden barely needs such interventions," says Gutiérrez Padín. On trees you remove only small-diameter branches, and only if you must. If a tree needs drastic pruning every year, the problem is not the tree - the wrong species was put in that spot. And never prune in autumn the plants that flower on last year's wood, such as hydrangeas: that throws away the spring bloom.

Pests retreat naturally with the cold, but observation remains. Instead of preventive spraying, the designer recommends health through design - "varied planting, well adapted to the site and set on living soil". An ecosystem that defends itself is cheaper than any product.

And if you have no time for any of this? Then the order is: look, check the soil and add organic matter if needed - worm humus is among the most effective. Then a light prune of the shrubs, clearing the spent aromatic plants, replacing only what you have analysed. Plant the spring bulbs now. And think about the lighting - "well-conceived lighting extends the garden's presence beyond the hours of sunlight," she says. On a November evening, a garden is mostly seen from inside.