Lauren Lochrie, the farm's permaculture consultant, is here to tell us about some of the garden jobs to be getting on with in the autumn:
The days are cooling down, getting shorter and the sun sits lower in the sky. Garden production is slowing down and beautiful autumnal colours start to blush as the leaves are gradually cast off... but the homesteading continues!
General Jobs:
Harvesting, storing & preserving
Save seeds for next year
Sow green manures - don't leave the soil exposed!
Cut away dead, diseased & damaged plant parts
Top up compost around plants still cropping
Weeding & composting
Create a leaf mould
Clean and oil tools
Tidy the poly-tunnel
Source some animal manure to rot down over winter
Vegetables:
Preserve the glut! Freeze leafy greens, make tomato chutney, pickle cucumbers, ferment cabbage and root veggies.
Lift & store last onions & maincrop potatoes
Lift & store root vegetables
Sow leafy greens and fast growing veggies for a final harvest before winter (salads, spinach, chard, pak choi, radishes, turnips, kohlrabi etc)
Plant Japanese onion sets, autumn-sown onions & garlic
Stake tall, overwinter veggies in exposed areas
Protect globe artichokes, celeriac & celery with straw/ mulch
Cover Chinese and spring cabbages with cloches
Protect brassicas from birds
Herbs, Flowers & Fruit:
Freeze, dry & infuse herbs
Make syrups, jams, chutneys and fruit leathers
Take cuttings of tender perennials
Move container herbs under protection
Lift and pot parsley, chives and mint - pop on windowsill for winter use
Sow wildflowers and hardy annuals directly in borders for summer blooms next year
Plant bulbs such as daffodils, colchicum and madonna lilies
Plant/ transplant new strawberry beds
Prune blackcurrants, remove old and dead canes
Take hardwood cuttings
Plant new fruit trees and bushes
Lauren Lochrie is a zoologist and nature conservationist with many years' experience in creating and enhancing spaces for people and wildlife.
By running a range of facilitated walks (such as foraging and mindfulness) & 'Homemade' workshops (such as soap making and preserves), Lauren aims to help people connect with nature and the nature of themselves. These workshops enable people to become more self sufficient, helping to build resilience as a result of adopting creative and sustainable life choices.
https://www.herbalhomestead.org/
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