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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