Autumn is upon us, and we can but hope for some more of those dry sunny days to make up for some of those bleaker August moments. Autumn for gardeners is as busy as it gets, I find. In the garden and on the allotment, there is still harvesting to do, saving seeds, pruning, tidying and soil maintenance including mulching borders.
So, looking forward – many people start their broad beans, peas, onions and garlic at his time of year to get a head start. I have been told that turnips grow well and will produce tasty small vegetables in as little as six weeks. I wish I’d had space to try a row this autumn. To that end I am planning to install some raised beds to fit in more crops in the garden next year. I was greatly inspired by the MUWAGA visit to Gerald Stratford’s garden in July this year. Not many houses have a large garden nowadays and people must prioritise. Much can be learned from Gerald’s creative use of space.
Some Simple Ideas
It is time also to plant bare root trees, hedges and spring bulbs and do jobs like divide rhubarb. Perhaps also a gentle reminder to take up dahlias after the first frost, cut back, drain, label and wrap in newspaper and keep in a frost-free place. How about a colourful winter garden? Tips on plants to establish one were offered in last season’s November MUWAGA talk. ( see Winter into Spring planting )
To Light a Fire ….
And so also, it’s time to do all those other tidying-up jobs – especially those leaves! Traditionally of course, people would not hesitate to rake them up into a pile and set fire to the lot along with other garden detritus. These days, we are all encouraged to be more cautious, and so the leaf-mould composting route beckons.
But, about bonfires, I’m still with ol’ Thomas Hardy with this – probably my favourite autumn aphorism – “To light a fire is the instinctive and resistant act of man when, at the winter ingress, the curfew is sounded throughout Nature…. Black chaos comes, and the fettered gods of the earth say: ‘Let there be Light’.”