AUTUMN AT FRIEND

Autumn is all about the harvest…

This Autumn has been hard for us as we’ve been so busy on the sanctuary with the animals. Of course , as much as my polytunnel needs watering , weeding etc. Animal care always comes first, and that’s okay…in fact that’s what it’s all about here: prioritising need.

I think many of us worry that were neglecting our beds because of work and family but the garden is often forgiving, especially if you fill your garden with perennial vegetables and ground hugging plants to keep in moisture. And its okay if it doesn’t all go to plan because the unexpected drew your attention. We just get back to it as fast as we can. This season has been like that. The harvest has still been wonderful and some plants really took off left to their own devices more than usual.

The Squashes from the Three Sisters Bed were huge after sending off huge sprawling shoots almost overtaking the front of the tunnel and trying to suffocate all the tomatillos. The Burgess Buttercup squashes grew massive and were very prolific. Once harvest they taste just wonderful with juicy orange flesh.

As usual Taunton Deane did so well and even survived the ravages of the cabbage white butterfly that still got through gaps in the netting. Would be lovely to build a brassica cage next year. A real favourite is Swiss Chard, as always proflic and beautiful in an array of gorgeous colours.

Nothing is ever wasted here. We eat it, the animals eat it or it’s composed. Here we grow in no-dig beds.

No-dig gardening in Autumn.

Every Autumn we clear beds of spent crops. Some we leave to rot into the ground. For instance bean roots deposit nitrogen into the surrounding soil, so we can cut them at soil level and let them give all that much needed goodness back into the soil. We try to disturb the soil as little as possible. With this method there’s no turning the soil over. Instead we apply a generous topping of homemade compost onto the beds. Which we then can plant directly into.

New beds can be made by first laying down a layer of cardboard, adding a good 6 inches of compost on top of that and hoe as weeds come through. In a relatively short space of time you’ll have less weeds coming through and the perfect soil to plant into. Paths can be made with bark chippings to create easily accessible beds. It is really as simple as it sounds.

For more information on No-Dig gardening we recommend Charles Dowding. He has pioneered no-dig in the UK in recent years.