In the blink of an eye Summer has come and gone. This year has been the most challenging of all years in my Gardening memory! To be fair I may have lost many plants but I had some abundant wins too. Garlic harvest was large and surprisingly pest and rust free. Main crop potato tubers left me completely stunned but in a positive way. With such a cool wet summer, I was waiting for blight to hit the plants. And the tubers riddled with slug holes. In fact it was the best harvest of Desiree, Sarpo Una and Sarpo Danube. My disasters were French beans, tomatoes, squash and even courgettes! Never mind, you win some and lose some. Lessons learnt, onwards and upwards. Next year can only be better.

There’s still a lot to be done. The garden tidy up begins. The veg plot is cleared of all exhausted spent plants. They can do no more. The compost from the tomato plant pots has also made it onto the flower borders as mulch. Now that the veg plot is a clean slate, the growing season starts again. First. Garlic gets planted where potato grew. Prior to planting I scattered a little slow-release fertiliser and biochar and raked it all in. With my handy S&J planting knife I settled the cloves in. Next, I sowed foraging beans. A form of green manure which is edible too. Next year I’d like to grow brassica in this section. In spring before the Foraging bean plants flower I’ll snip off the majority of the plants to help add back the nitrogen rich nodules produced on their roots. This is a much needed food source for all brassica plants. The areas where I do not wish to plant over the winter, will not be left bare or just mulched. Instead, other Green manure varieties will be grown, in particular, Italian rye grass and Phacelia.

In the greenhouse, I’m sowing carrot, cauliflower, peas and winter lettuce seeds. Coriander and Parsley are my two favourite annual herbs to grow through the winter months too. My onion seedlings (sown in August) are now ready to prick out. This winter they’ll be kept in the greenhouse until spring arrives.

Last job for this month will be to make sure all hand tools are cleaned, sharpened and oiled. Ready to use next year. Do let me know how you to put your garden to rest.

Happy Gardening,

Rekha