top of page

Autumn Gardening? Go On, I Be-Leaf in You.

Writer's picture: Joe HarrisonJoe Harrison

We’ve all had another very busy year growing our fruit and vegetables, watering, weeding and harvesting. You’ve worked hard this year growing lots, taking advantage of the beautiful weather and long summer evenings. With the colder weather now upon us, perhaps it’s time to clean your tools, put them back in the shed and wave goodbye to your allotment or garden until next year, because you can’t plant or sow anything now in autumn and winter right? Wrong!      

There are lots of different vegetables you can carry on growing to keep you busy during the forthcoming months. You may have been extremely organised in the summer and sown or planted lots of lovely brassicas in preparation for the winter months; cabbages, brussel sprouts & cavolo nero for example, which will all hopefully be looking good and healthy right now. If time ran away from you and you didn’t quite manage it, don’t worry, I will give you a few veggies you can get going with now which will either give you a nice little harvest over the coming months or will give you a huge head start for your growing next year.

If you don’t have a greenhouse, don’t worry, it is possible to directly sow lots of things straight into your plot or garden. Why not have a go at planting onion and garlic sets which both have a very long growing season but are extremely easy to grow because they are so low maintenance; push them into the ground and make sure they’re kept as weed free as you can and that’s pretty much it until harvest time. The only thing to bear in mind with them is that they won’t be ready to harvest until the summer so they will still be there when you begin your spring planting & sowing so a little forward planning may be needed.

If you would like a slightly earlier harvest for your efforts, why not try broad beans which you can be enjoying in spring? I have always found them to be a very easy, hardy vegetable to grow. It always amuses me seeing the tips of the plants standing proudly to attention, poking out the top of a few inches of snow, but still happy to give up a bumper crop afterwards despite the awful conditions they’ve endured.

If you’re lucky enough to own a greenhouse, poly-tunnel, cold frame or even just a cloche, there is no reason you can’t carry on enjoying fresh, tasty salads throughout the winter months, with repeat sowings up until the end of November keeping you well stocked. Why not try land cress, lettuce, radicchio, corn salad, wild rocket or mustard? You can buy excellent mixed winter salad seeds now too which are always great to try to for a bit of variety. Treat you winter salad in a similar way as your summer salad but just be careful when watering, you don’t want pools of water around your plants due to the risk of freezing.   

Whichever veg you decide to grow, take a little time and pick the right variety when buying your seeds; some are much more hardy than others and if you’re growing outside or in a greenhouse/poly-tunnel, don’t forget you can use horticultural fleece on your plants for a little added protection from the elements.

So, there you have it, a few things to keep those green thumbs busy over the autumn & winter months. Just because it’s cold, it doesn’t mean you have to miss out on enjoying your garden, so wrap up warm, grab your flask of hot tea, coffee or even hot chocolate and get gardening!      




10 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


© 2021 by Grow With Joe. Proudly created with Wix.com

bottom of page