The Autumn Vegetable Garden
After all that work in the garden, Autumn is the time to reap the benefits. Crop after crop is harvested. You are preserving, storing and eating fresh the results of another season.
Your store cupboards should be filled with jars and bottles full of great produce. You will have stored your root crops ready for the winter feast.
As you clear bed after bed, do not neglect them. Feed them with organic material, manure or the results of your composting.
Consider harvesting your own seed for next year. Remember, seed is becoming more and more expensive and it might be wise, and fulfilling, to harvest your own.
You will have harvested your last peas, broad, french and runner beans. You can harvest marrows, courgettes and onions when they are ripe and then you can store them.
In October it is the time for lifting and storing your potatoes. You can lift your Beetroot, turnips, swedes and carrots. Earth up your leeks and celery. You can sow winter broad beans and peas.
November in the United Kingdom which is often frustrating. Dig when you can dig… tidy up the garden as you can. Pull dead leaves off the brassica plants and watch out for slugs and snails. Cover up your winter crops such as celery with straw or something to keep the worst of the frost out. Mulch over tender plants such as asparagus and globe artichokes.
Now is the time also, to think about next year. Begin to prepare in your mind what you wish to change. How did things go. What do you want to grow. Can you sow things now to benefit the garden early next year. Get a vegetable gardening calendar for your part of the world. See what the sowing and harvest months are and plan for them. Make notes of your crop rotation so that you can safely rotate your crops to prevent disease and encourage growth. Remember, don’t put crops like potatoes in the same place every year! Tidying up the garden will help your garden next year. Maintaining your compost bin or heap with leaves, dead plants, chicken droppings etc , will set you up for a long time. Composting brings nutrients into the garden.
My plan this autumn is to complete my home vegetable garden. I have 6 raised beds now, two having just been prepared. I will be sowing winter peas, beans and spinach and planting our spring cabbage. When we get our new allotment that is when the work will really start. With not a lot of notice, we will be quickly planning our layout and our main crop planting and preparing the ground for a new season. We will be busy this winter thats for sure.
Please let me know what you think of the post and let me have your own autumn gardening experiences and plans through your comments on the blog.
Have a great week in the garden.
Peter
Related articles
- Your Guide to Winterizing a Vegetable Garden (brighthub.com)
- “It May be Autumn, but it’s Full-Steam Ahead in the Kitchen Garden” Says D. T. Brown (prweb.com)
