Autumn isn’t the end of the gardening year—in the UK, it’s where next year’s success really starts. In this video, I walk you through exactly how I’m prepping my allotment, kitchen garden, chickens, lawn, and woodland for winter and spring, including the crops I’m sowing, the soil work I’m doing, and how I set everything up for an easier, more productive year ahead.
🌱 Find all my winter guides, tips, and downloads at:
👉 https://mygardeningjourney.com
In this episode I share my plans covering:
– Why autumn is the best time to get ahead in your UK garden or allotment
– Sowing broad beans and green manure to feed the soil and suppress weeds
– Planting overwintering onions and garlic for bigger summer crops
– Adding compost to the kitchen garden and starting winter salads (lettuce & spinach) in the greenhouse
– My chicken winter prep routine to keep the flock healthy through cold weather
– Lawn and woodland area improvements for stronger growth next year
đź“ť Related Guides & Resources
– How to Plant Broad Beans in Autumn (UK Guide):
Step-by-step on choosing, sowing, and caring for autumn broad beans for early harvests and better soil.
– How to Overwinter Onions (UK):
Everything you need to know about timing, varieties, and winter care for onions.
– Grow Winter Salads in the UK (Full Guide):
Grow Winter Salads UK: Unheated Greenhouse & Cold Frame Guide
How to keep lettuce and spinach coming through the colder months—under cover or in the greenhouse.
– Winter Gardening in the UK (Complete Resource):
Winter Gardening in the UK (Zone 8a): Grow, Protect, and Keep Harvesting
All my seasonal tips, crop choices, and winter jobs in one place.
🌱 Find My Recommended Seeds
Some links below are affiliate links—if you buy through them, it helps support the channel at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products I actually use.
Onion ‘Winteria’ (Autumn Planting) – http://bit.ly/4pX6P5I
Garlic ‘Germidour’ (Spring/Autumn Planting) – https://tidd.ly/4gV31h7
💬 Let me know what you’re working on this autumn—drop a comment below or share your own top winter prep tip! If you found this useful, subscribe for more honest UK garden updates. Next video: my full review of the Aspen 6 coop for winter chicken keeping.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:22 Allotment – Broad Beans and Green Manure
00:55 Allotment – Onions and Garlic
01:33 Kitchen Garden and Green House – Mulch & lettuce
02:11 Chicken Care for Winter
02:51 Lawn Care
03:08 Woodland Garden
03:30 Outro
#gardeninguk #allotmentlife #wintergarden #kitchengarden #poultrykeeping
A lot of people think that autumn is the end of the gardening year, but for me, it’s becoming the beginning of next year. Jobs I do in autumn make spring better, whether that’s working on the veg patch, looking after the lawn, or looking after the chickens. So, here’s what I’ll be doing over the course of autumn. That will hopefully make my next year even better. First up, I’ll be putting broad beans and green manure down the a lotment. Broad beans are really great for fixing nitrogen in soil. So, they’ll be really helping to feed next year’s crops. Not only that, they’ll give me a nice early crop of beans in May. And green manure will also be helping next year by making sure that it covers over the bare soil so we don’t get soil erosion and hopefully starve out some of the weeds, but also once it’s done, I can dig it into the soil as organic matter. And down the a lotment, I’ll also be putting in some garlic and onions and I’ll overwinter them. And hopefully by putting them in now before the cold weather really hits. That means I’ll be getting some decent size bulbs and a really good early crop next year. And this is the first year I’ve also ordered bulbs in from Thompson and Morgan. I’ve added some affiliate links down below. If you do want to buy any through those, it’ll be really great and help the channel out no end. And all of the work I’m doing, I’m putting on my website and I’ll put some links below. So, please come along. It’s got some great hints and tips on how to overwinter plants and get ready for next year. Here at home, I’ll be focusing on my kitchen garden, which comprises of some veg patches and my greenhouse trade. Growing next year, I’ll be mulching my veg patch with some fresh compost, which will hopefully also keep a lot of the weeds down next year. In the greenhouse, I’ll be growing some lettuce and some spinach, which should hopefully overwinter really well in there with the help of a little bit of fleece as well. That way, hopefully I’ll still continue to get some fresh produce out of my garden through those cold months. I’ve also got some hints and tips on how to grow food over winter on my website, and I’ll drop those links down below as well. Important to look after my chickens as we move towards the colder months. In particular, I have to think about ventilation because that has a big impact on condensation within the coupe. So, I need to make sure I’m sorting the ventilation out. I also want to take this time to have a deep clean of their chicken coupe because it’s not going to be nice to do this as the weather starts to turn. I do have an esta ceoup which they were kind enough to send to me which is a dream to clean out. So, I’m really looking forward to making sure they’re ready for the winter months. My next video will be on the Aspen 6 from Nester because again they were absolutely kind enough to send that across to me. So that will be the first look and I’ll take you through some of the features of that coupe. The quality of my lawn next year will be set by what I do in autumn. And because I do have three dogs, it does get scorched quite often. So I will be looking after that. It’s the first time I’ve really spent time on the lawn. So I’ll take you through as I learn what I’m doing and share my journey with you. Here in the woodland garden, I’m aiming to build a shaded area that gets us out of the pretty hot weather that we’re getting now during the summer. It’s an area that I want to be lush with plants. And as we move into autumn, this is the time that I’ll be adding more mulch and also hoping to put in some more plants so they can establish over the colder months. So that’s my plan for autumn. I’ll be getting down the a lotment to try and improve that soil with some broad beans and some green manure. But I’ll also be planting out some onions and garlic to make sure that I have some crops earlier in the year. I’ll be making use of my greenhouse for some salads over those colder months. And here in my woodland garden, I’ll be hoping to create a nice space ready for use next year. And let’s not forget what we need to do to keep our livestock healthy, making sure we’re cleaning them out before the weather turns pretty horrible. Be great to hear what you have planned for autumn. Please drop a comment below and like this video. Subscribe if you haven’t, and I’ll see you next
1 Comment
Love this. I have to echo your thoughts on that coop. I have the same one and it has halved my time spent cleaning them out.
I am now closing down my allotments but instead overhauling my garden to create growing space. Going to be an interesting project!