This year brought a profusion of blossom of all kinds and one thing I keep meaning to mention is how lucky we are! Not only do we get to feast on garden fruit gluts, but we can also walk along small roads and wonder at the wild abundance growing there. Blackberries may be long gone, but ripe hazelnuts litter the ground at this time of the year and the beauty of fuchsia growing in the hedgerows has been a marvel for months. It’s easy to be complacent about what is commonplace. Take a walk, and look with the eyes of a visitor, marvelling at the wild beauty of where we live.
Weather safe for winter
Gardens have been put through their paces in the last few weeks. We’ve had wind, floods, sunshine, heat and some cold temperatures too. There will be more storms and more difficult conditions to come as the months move on. There are a few things we can do to help keep conditions as stable as we can, so that plants that are bred to survive the winter will stand through to next year, when they can start growing again.
It’s time to put a layer of mulch over bare soil. You can use waterproof sheet material like recycled polythene, or a layer of cardboard over compost. Grass clippings from a last mow can go on empty beds, then there’s straw, spoiled hay, cut bracken, leaves, bark, or crushed cocoa shells to try too.
The aim is to cover the bed with a layer that won’t blow away. Use stones, bricks or timber to hold sheet mulch in place.
Now is the time to mulch flower beds after weeding and cutting back. A 5-10cm layer of loose mulch will help protect roots, crowns and bulbs that are close to the surface.
This will help plants survive freezing weather and will encourage healthy growth in the spring. It’s also time to dig drains to divert water away from beds. Roots can rot if they are in waterlogged soil for a long period.
Provide supports and stakes for tall-growing plants. Unsupported plants can be flattened in a winter gale. Cut branches that tap against garden structures. Glass can be broken, polythene ripped and zinc sheets scratched by branches flailing about.
Also fix broken door catches and window latches so you are in control of ventilation in greenhouses and polytunnels.
Harvest the last runner beans before they get too stringy to eat.
Runner beans
Pick any last beans before the pods turn too tough and stringy to eat. If you miss that moment, then it’s worth letting beans fatten up before picking, these can be shelled out of the pods. Shelled beans can be dried and kept in jars for use in soups and stews. They can also be frozen and added to dishes as you want them.
Bean frames should be stripped of foliage and any soil rubbed from the ‘legs.’ Foliage can go on the compost heap and the cleaned frame should be stored in a dry shed. If you have used hazel poles, or bamboo canes to make a frame, these can be dismantled and stored in a bundle to use again next year. Don’t save any rotten poles, but sound ones will save you time hunting for more when you need them next spring.
Remember this is the time to sow some broad beans.
Sow broad beans and peas
This is a good time to sow some seeds for growing on in a polytunnel or greenhouse.
Choose autumn sowing varieties like Aquadulce broad bean, Meteor or First Early May pea, and Oregon Sugar Pod mange-tout. I like to start these off in pots, although you can plant rows directly in the soil. It’s worth sowing a few more than you think you will need, so you can fill any gaps in a row. There are always more losses from sowings at this time of year than from spring sowings.
Seedlings will emerge in November and pot-grown plants will be ready to plant out in December. Keep an eye out for slugs and snails when seedlings emerge. These pests aren’t very active in cold weather, but in a mild autumn they can still do damage.
Use cloches to cover rows if growing outdoors. Plants are usually quite hardy in average winter weather. The freezing snow that we had in January, killed off a row of broad bean plants in my garden. That’s the first time this has happened. I should have put extra layers of covering over the row of course!
Get sharpening
Get out the secateurs, the loppers and the pole saws. Pruning season will be here soon and pruning is a hard job to do with blunt tools. Even a rub with a sharpening stone will help; blades need to be sharp enough to make a clean cut.
Sharpen what you can, but if blades are very rusty you may want to invest in new pruning tools
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