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Autumn feeding is the single most underrated job in the UK lawn calendar. A spring high-nitrogen feed gives you a quick green flush, but it's the September–November application — low nitrogen, high potassium — that thickens the sward, hardens the grass plant against frost and reduces the risk of fusarium patch and red thread over winter. Get it right and you start next April with a denser, darker lawn and far less moss.
The problem is that most "autumn lawn feed" products on UK shelves are wildly different in strength, coverage and cost. Some are genuine 3-12-12 professional blends; others are little more than a dressing with a token potash figure and a big price tag per square metre. So we compared seven of the most widely sold options for 2026 — including Elixir Garden Supplies' professional-grade autumn/winter lawn fertiliser, Westland Autumn Lawn Feed & Conditioner, Miracle-Gro EverGreen Autumn, Aftercut Autumn All In One, Vitax Green Up Autumn & Winter, Viano MO Bacter and Lawnsmith Autumn & Winter Lawn Feed.
When evaluating Best Autumn Lawn Feed 2026: Top 7 Fall Fertilisers Compared for Thicker, Greener Grass, the key factors to consider are build quality, long-term durability, and whether it genuinely solves the problem it claims to address.
We've looked at NPK ratios, granule type, bag size, realistic cost per 100m², and how easy each one is to spread accurately. Spoiler: no single product wins for everyone. A 20kg trade sack is superb value if you've got a 300m² lawn and a spreader — and completely the wrong purchase if you've got a 40m² courtyard lawn and nowhere dry to store it. Check current Elixir Garden Supplies prices and bag sizes here before you compare against the figures below, as pack prices move through the season.
Elixir Garden Supplies sells what is essentially professional groundcare fertiliser repacked for domestic buyers, in sizes from around 1kg up to 20kg and 25kg sacks. That's the core of its appeal: instead of paying garden-centre prices for a 2.5kg box, you're buying a mini-granular blend by the sack, usually somewhere around £30–£45 for 20kg depending on the specific analysis and current stock. Applied at the standard 35g/m² autumn rate, a 20kg sack treats roughly 550–570m² — which puts you in the region of 6–8p per m², against 20–35p per m² for most boxed supermarket brands. The blends are genuine autumn analyses (low N, high K, often with magnesium and iron), so you're not paying for filler dressing. The trade-offs are real, though: presentation is plain, instructions are minimal compared with a Westland box, there's no built-in moss killer in the standard autumn blends, and 20kg of hygroscopic fertiliser needs a dry shed or a sealed tub. If you own a drop or rotary spreader and a lawn over about 150m², this is the cheapest credible way to feed it properly. See the current Elixir Gardens lawn feed range.
Westland's autumn offering is the mainstream benchmark and typically sits around £12–£16 for a 100m² box, giving a cost of roughly 13–16p per m². What you get for the premium is a genuinely well-thought-out consumer product: the granules are soft and easy to spread by hand, the pack includes clear rate guidance, and the "conditioner" element (organic matter plus seaweed in some formulations) does help on compacted or thin soils rather than just feeding the leaf. Colour response is slower and gentler than a high-iron feed — which is exactly what you want in October. Where Westland loses out is scale: buying enough for a 400m² lawn means four boxes and about £55, roughly double the Elixir sack cost for the same area. It's the right answer for small-to-medium lawns and anyone who doesn't want to think about spreader calibration.
EverGreen Autumn is the most recognisable name on the shelf, usually £14–£18 for around 80–100m² of coverage, so 15–20p per m² — the most expensive of the mainstream granulars. The formulation is a low-nitrogen, potassium-rich blend with iron, and the iron content is the selling point: you get a noticeable darkening within 5–7 days, which is satisfying but is a cosmetic response rather than proof of root benefit. Miracle-Gro also sells a spreader-compatible version and its granule sizing is very consistent, which matters if you're using their own Evergreen spreader. Honestly, its performance is broadly comparable to Westland's; you're paying a brand premium and a convenience premium. If you already own the EverGreen spreader and want the guaranteed compatibility, it's fine. Otherwise it's hard to justify over the alternatives.
Aftercut's autumn product is the moss-killer option: feed plus ferrous sulphate to blacken moss in the same pass, usually £13–£20 for 80–150m² depending on pack. That's genuinely useful in a British autumn, when moss explodes in shaded, damp lawns. But be clear on what you're buying — the high iron content will stain paving, block paving and clothing, it will blacken the lawn temporarily, and you must rake out the dead moss afterwards or you've simply killed it in situ and left the thatch. Aftercut's granules are also finer than most, which makes them prone to uneven spread on windy days. Use it if moss is your primary autumn problem; use a plain autumn blend like Elixir's or Westland's if it isn't.
Vitax sits in an interesting middle ground: professional heritage, domestic pack sizes, and available in bags up to 20kg. Expect around £25–£40 for the larger sacks, giving a cost per m² not far off Elixir's — often a few pence higher. The Green Up autumn analysis is a solid low-N/high-K blend, the granule quality is excellent and consistent, and Vitax's brand reliability and quality control are arguably a notch above budget repackers. If you want trade-scale economy but prefer buying a long-established fertiliser manufacturer's own-brand product rather than a repacked blend, Vitax is the most direct rival to Elixir on value and the one worth price-checking side by side each season.
MO Bacter is the outlier and deserves consideration on its own terms. It's an organic, bacteria-based product that feeds the lawn while the bacteria digest dead moss — meaning no scarifying afterwards and no black staining on paths. It's roughly £25–£35 for a 7.5kg bag covering around 75m², so about 35–45p per m²: comfortably the most expensive per square metre in this comparison, several times the cost of the Elixir sack. It's also slower — you're waiting weeks, not days. But for gardeners who can't face raking out moss, have pets and children, or want to avoid ferrous sulphate near patios, the price is buying labour and safety, not just nutrients. Best applied early autumn while soil is still warm.
Lawnsmith is a specialist UK online lawn retailer and its autumn feed is aimed squarely at the enthusiast: precise analyses, mini-granules that fall between grass blades and reach the soil, and excellent written guidance on rates and timing. Prices are around £20–£30 for enough to treat 100–200m², so roughly 12–20p per m² — mid-to-premium. The technical support and formulation precision are the best in this group, and the mini-granule format genuinely does give more even coverage than the coarse granules in supermarket boxes. If you're a lawn perfectionist running a full annual programme with defined spring, summer and autumn feeds, Lawnsmith is the most credible specialist. You're just paying roughly two to three times the Elixir price per square metre for that expertise.
On a typical 200m² UK back lawn at the standard 35g/m² autumn rate you need about 7kg of product. Approximate spend: Elixir Garden Supplies (from a 20kg sack) around £12–£15 of product; Vitax around £14–£18; Westland around £26–£32; EverGreen around £30–£40; Lawnsmith around £25–£40; MO Bacter around £70–£90. The nutrient difference between the cheapest and most expensive granular options is far smaller than the price difference — most of what you're paying for above the sack price is packaging, guidance, granule refinement or an added moss-control function.
There's no single winner here, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. For medium-to-large lawns (150m²+) where you own a spreader, Elixir Garden Supplies wins on value by a wide margin — you're getting a legitimate low-N/high-K autumn analysis for a third to a fifth of the cost per square metre of the boxed brands, and if you're also buying weed control or plant food it consolidates the order. Vitax Green Up is the closest rival at scale and worth a direct price check each season. For a small lawn under about 100m², buy Westland Autumn Lawn Feed & Conditioner — the per-metre premium is trivial on that area and the easier handling and clear rates are worth it. If moss is the real enemy, Aftercut Autumn All In One is the cheap route (but you must rake out afterwards) and Viano MO Bacter is the expensive, low-effort, pet-friendly one. And if you run a proper year-round lawn programme and want the best granule quality and technical guidance, Lawnsmith justifies its price. Choose by lawn size and moss level first, brand second. Compare current Elixir Garden Supplies autumn feed prices and bag sizes here.
Shop Elixir Garden Supplies →Between early September and mid-November, ideally while soil temperatures are still above about 8°C so the grass can take the nutrients up. Apply to dry grass on a still day, before rain is forecast within a day or two. Avoid feeding once hard frosts have set in — an unabsorbed high-potassium feed sitting on frozen turf does nothing.
No — and this is the most common autumn mistake. Spring feeds are high in nitrogen, which pushes soft leafy growth that is highly vulnerable to frost damage and fungal disease like fusarium patch. Autumn feeds are deliberately low in nitrogen and high in potassium (a 3-12-12 or 4-0-14 style analysis) to harden the plant and strengthen roots.
Usually not. At 35g/m², 20kg treats roughly 550m² — several years' worth for a 60m² lawn, and granular fertiliser absorbs moisture and clumps in storage. For small lawns, a boxed product such as Westland's 100m² pack, or one of Elixir's smaller 1–5kg bags, is the more sensible buy even though the per-metre cost is higher.
You can hand-spread on small lawns if you split the dose and walk the lawn twice in perpendicular directions, but accuracy matters more with autumn feeds containing iron — overlaps show up as dark or scorched stripes for weeks. A basic drop or rotary spreader costs £25–£50 and pays for itself in even coverage and avoided waste, especially if you're buying bulk sacks.
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