Blog: News

The storm of climate change has been steadily gathering over the past few decades, threatening to bring havoc upon our planet. In 2016 at the Paris Climate Agreement, countries pledged to do what they can to keep climate change below 2 degrees and preferably below 1.5. Now, less than a decade later, global average temperatures have risen by 1.3%, and nothing seems to be getting done by our policymakers to change this. The frustration and anxiety can be overwhelming at times. We can do a lot to help tackle climate change and look after our mental well-being during this time to ensure that we don’t shut down and become stoic. And, like so many things, it starts with a seed.

Resilient Gardens

Resilient gardening means building spaces that can withstand heat and dehydration in summer, and cold and wet weather in winter. Instead of cultivating spaces filled with finicky plants, prone to dying if conditions veer off the norm for more than a few days we need to start choosing hardy plants that are adaptable and strong. We can also build features into our gardens to help them cope. This can include drainage systems and rainwater harvesting systems, using permeable materials and building healthy soil.

Storing and saving our own seeds can also help to build climate resilience. By saving seeds, we can adapt the plants that we grow in our gardens and on our allotments to our local conditions. As these conditions gradually change, so too will the plants’ ability to cope with them.

Cultivating a garden that contains sturdy, resilient plants, produces and uses its own seeds, has healthy soil and harvests and uses its own rainwater builds resilience in other ways too by reducing our impact on the planet.

Resilient plants

Most of us don’t know a lot about the origins of our plants before we get them from a garden centre or online. Whilst having plants in our garden is undeniably better than not having any plants, some plants have a more positive impact than others. Plants that are sourced from elsewhere in the EU are still being grown in peat, which has a devastating effect on this precious natural resource and the climate. Some are also grown with systemic pesticides. These are soluble pesticides taken up by the plant roots, making the plant toxic to small creatures such as bees, butterflies and beetles. Then, of course, our plants also have a carbon footprint despite doing their best to counter it with photosynthesis. Plants shipped from abroad, packaged in plastic, and grown in heated, lit greenhouses using chemical fertilisers and pesticides will never be the best climate-friendly solution. The best thing to do is source your plants locally from places you trust. I highly recommend friends’ gardens for this. If you are able to join a local gardening club, you will instantly have a number of friends willing to share divided plants, cuttings, seeds and seedlings with you. This is by far the best way of sourcing plants. Better still, these plants will be suited to your environment. If you have to buy plants, do your research and ask questions. The simple act of being mindful about your purchases can help to quell anxiety about at least your own part in the climate crisis.

Building soil health

Soil health is one of the most important things in the garden. Not only does healthy soil support healthy plants (which means less need to source replacements), but it also helps your plants cope with extreme weather events and sequester carbon. Healthy soil will have a naturally built structure. This structure is perfectly designed to improve infiltration and store more water. This helps to reduce flooding in our wetter winters and improve water availability in the soil during hot, dry summers. The increased permeability of healthy soils means that we don’t lose as much water through run-off, we shouldn’t get so much standing water, and water will be available at root level most of the time.

Building soil health in your garden or on your allotment is also a really positive thing to do to help fight climate change. Soils are capable of storing an immense amount of carbon, so you can build your very own carbon sink simply by adding as much organic matter to your garden as possible through composting and growing.

Using Dalefoot’s mulches is a great way to naturally improve soil health. If you have sandy soil, Double Strength will add nutrients and improve water retention. If you have clay soils, Lakeland Gold will improve your soil structure, improving permeability and building organic matter content.

Using rainwater

This time of year, it’s difficult to remember a time when it wasn’t wet outside and underfoot. But in the heat of summer, rainwater reserves can become a lifeline. During drought conditions, extreme pressure is put on our natural waterways: streams, rivers and lakes, endangering the wildlife that depends on them. Reservoirs become dangerously low, sometimes even emptying. By collecting and using rainwater, we can all play our part in not adding to their stress. The more rainwater we can collect, store and use, the less impact our garden will have on the environment around it.

Looking after your mental health

We have long known about the effects of gardening on mental health. Unfortunately, in a changing climate, even gardening becomes more of a challenge, and we need to build resilient gardens that look after themselves and us. Spending time outside is known to calm us physically and mentally, and the effect is enhanced when the environment we are surrounded with is full of plants. Taking regular trips to forests, moors, and other natural environments can also help us to feel more connected to the world and relieve anxiety.

Doing something positive in the environment around us can help us regain a sense of control and calm. If you aren’t able to create a resilient garden, spending time outdoors and supporting green initiatives is a great way to stay positive and look after yourself and the planet.

When you have to make purchases, try to support ethical, sustainable companies like Dalefoot Composts. This will help you stay positive and connect with people who are making a difference in the fight against climate change.

Becky

About Me:

Becky Searle is a garden writer, kitchen gardener and soil expert. Her new book Grow a New Garden will be released in April 2025 and looks at how to start in a new garden or start over in an existing garden. It covers how to deal with poor soil and how to plan the space, along with easy-to-follow garden design tips. Available for pre-order now.

If you want to follow Becky's journey, follow @Sow_Much_More on Instagram or Sow Much More on Facebook.

Caption: Stephanie Hafferty

Caption: Simmer Potpurri

Caption: Christmas Pudding Liqueur

In this month's blog, Steph prepares for the dark nights ahead. She shares recipes to that will keep the spirits up and how she uses mulches on her no dig beds to renew the soil for next season.

Winter is a time for enjoying the plot as much of nature slumbers. With fewer plants growing, and most trees leafless, it is easier to see the structure of the garden than during the leafy abundance of the summer.

My small homestead here in Wales is surrounded by trees, so the beds, borders and grassy areas are covered with them. This winter, I have new plans for the orchard beds and so am leaving the leaves in situ to protect the soil whilst I carry out work on the fruit trees and create new paths and beds.

The back garden beds are full of over wintering brassicas, leeks and parsnips, and autumn planted garlic and broadbeans. There are green manures here too, including field beans and caliente mustard, which help to protect and feed the soil during the winter months.

I don’t want a deep layer of fallen leaves here, because they can create a habitat for slugs and other veg munchers, which could be problematical for young plantings in the spring. Instead, I mulch the veg beds with compost: homemade, well rotted manure or bagged composts such as Dalefoot “green bag” Wool Compost for Veg and Salads, or “yellow bag” Lakeland Gold. I also mix “orange bag” Dalefoot Double Strength Compost with this year’s old spent compost, to make a nutritious mulch.

There is a lot of discussion about whether we should rake up leaves or leave them to decompose naturally on the ground. If there are just a few then it is fine to leave them, but a deeper layer can take a long time to rot down, which isn’t ideal for most annual veg growing. Also, wet leaves on grass are slippery, so I rake those up to avoid accidents, using a lawn rake. This lightly skims the surface, gently gathering the leaves without harming the grass and other plants underneath. Some go into a frame made from some old stick fencing to rot down to become leaf mould (this takes two years) and the rest goes into the wild areas and perennial beds as a mulch. It will gradually rot down, feeding the soil and providing habitat for a multitude of creatures to live and forage in.

Days are short so there’s more time spent indoors, preserving the harvest and laying down stores for the winter. At this time of year I am thinking about making goodies for Christmastime, and so am sharing some of my favourite festive recipes for a delicious seasonal tipple, a versatile salt filled with festive spices and a fragrant simmering potpourri to make your home smell gorgeous.

They’re all easy to make using store cupboard ingredients and home-harvested herbs and edible flowers. They look beautiful in the larder or on kitchen shelves, and make lovely festive gifts too.

Christmas Pudding Liqueur

This delicious seasonal tipple isn’t made from Christmas pud, but rather tastes reminiscent of the rich, spiced fruity dessert often served around the festive time.

It is delicious as an aperitif and a cocktail ingredient, make into a hot toddy, and also as an addition to festive baking.

Use a reasonable quality alcohol as the base - most supermarket ones are great, but avoid really cheap booze.

You’ll need:

A large jar for infusing (at least 1.5 litres)
Sieve and muslin for straining
Clean bottles for storing
Funnel for pouring liqueur into the bottles
Labels

Ingredients

• 1 litre vodka or gin (brandy or white rum)
• 300g mixed dried fruit
• 50g chopped mixed peel
• 50g dried apples, chopped
• 100g sugar (muscovado gives more depth of flavour, white is fine)
• Zest of an orange (preferably unwaxed)
• Zest of a lemon (preferably unwaxed)
• 6 cloves
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 1 vanilla bean, split open
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Method

Place all of the ingredients in the large jar, pour over the alcohol and stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Replace the lid and leave somewhere out of direct sunlight for a week to infuse. A kitchen countertop is ideal. Shake the jar every day.

Strain through a sieve lined with a double layer of muslin. Leave it to drip so that all the infused alcohol comes through.

Pour into the bottles, replace the lids and label. The liqueur is ready to drink right away, and will keep for around two years.

You can use the boozy fruit mix to add to a fruit cake or other baked festive delights. It is lovely added to apple crumble.

Tip: if you can’t get unwaxed fruit, scrub in warm water and rinse before zesting.

Seasonal simmer potpourri

Simmer potpourris are a lovely way to gently and naturally fragrance the home. Place on top of the cooker hob or on a woodburner to release the gorgeous scent of seasonal fruit, spices and herbs.

This recipe uses dried ingredients, so it can be made in advance and used as you wish. It also makes a lovely festive gift, and can be used as a dry potpourri in a dish.

This recipe is very tweak-able. Leave things out, or add things in, depending on your preference and what you have in the larder. For example, swap the cranberries for dried rosehips, or the rosemary for sprigs of scented pine.

Replace the dried fruit and herbs with fresh, if you’re making it to use right away.

This makes enough for approximately four simmer pots, depending on the size of pot used. I use a cast iron pot about the size of a milk pan.

Ingredients

• 200g dried cranberries
• 15-20 slices of dried orange
• 10-15 slices of dried apple
• 8 dried star anise
• 2 tbsp whole cloves
• 8 springs dried rosemary
• 1 tbsp all spice berries
• 4 sticks cinnamon

Method

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl, then either pour into a large lidded jar or divide equally between four jars or bags.

To use

Place the ingredients in a sturdy pan and fill 2/3 full with water. Put on a low heat and simmer for 2-3 hours, or longer. Keep checking the water levels to make sure the simmer pot doesn’t dry out.

All of the ingredients can be composted after use.

Safety First! Treat the simmer pot like any other pan of hot water and do not leave unattended.

Christmas spiced salt

This is absolutely delicious sprinkled over roasted vegetables and all kinds of savoury dishes (vegetable or meat) to add a spiced festive flavour. It’s also good in sweet dishes that benefit from some added salt, such as homemade chocolate truffles.

Ingredients

• 250g sea salt flakes
• 2 tbsp dried orange zest
• 2 tbsp dried lemon zest
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp finely chopped dried rosemary
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Method

Mix all of the ingredients together and pour into a jar. Label and use when cooking over the festive season.

Fancy extras

Add finely chopped edible flowers such as rose, calendula or blue cornflower petals to the mix for extra colour.

Dried citrus zest is easy to make.

Either zest the fruit and spread over a sheet of baking parchment on a tray and leave in a warm, dry, airy place for a few days (such as an airing cupboard) or use a dehydrator, following the settings for your machine. Many air fryers have a dehydrator setting which is ideal for this. You can also dry it in a low oven.

When completely dry, store in clean, dry jars until needed.

Steph

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Stephanie Hafferty is an award winning garden and food writer and has been shortlisted for the Garden Media Guild 2024 Awards for 'Practical journalist of the year'. 

Stephanie is a homesteader with decades of experience, edible garden designer and teaches how to grow your own - plus what to do with those harvests! She is currently creating a sustainable homestead on a tight budget, on half an acre in West Wales, from where she runs gardening courses.

Follow her journey on her blog, Instagram and You Tube

Website and blog : www.NoDigHome.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniehafferty/

You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/StephanieHaffertyNoDigHomesteading

Caption: Kathy Slack (credit Steph McLeod)

Roast pumpkin mash flatbreads with fried apples and sage

Serves 2, generously

½ small winter squash, in one piece, de-seeded, skin on
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 fat garlic clove, finely sliced
200g butterbeans, drained
½ lemon, juiced

35g salted butter
3 eating apples, cored and cut into wedges
10 sage leaves
3 tbsp pumpkin seeds
40g hazelnuts

For the flatbread:
100g self-raising flour
150g plain yogurt
½ tsp flaky salt

Scatter the garlic slices over the flesh of the squash, drizzle with the olive oil and season generously. Wrap tightly in foil and bake, cut side up, for 45 mins or until very squidgy and soft. Scoop out flesh and garlic into a food processor. Add the butterbeans, lemon juice and a big pinch of salt. Whizz to a smooth paste, adjusting the seasoning as needed.

Next, the dough. Simply combine the flour, yogurt and salt into a sticky mess. Knead briefly with floured hands until silky then rest (the dough, not you) for 10 minutes.

While you wait, make the rest of the filling. Melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium-high heat. Fry the apple for 2-3 mins on each side until browned but not soft. Turn the heat off and add the sage, seeds and nuts to cook for a couple of minutes in the residual heat. Scoup into a bowl and set the pan back on a medium heat.

Divide the rested dough in half. Flatten out into 1cm thick rounds then fry in the apple pan for 3-4 minutes on each side until puffed up and golden.

Slather the mash on the flatbreads, pile the apples on top – hot, buttery juices against cool, velvety mash – and serve.

Kathy

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Award winning grower cook Kathy Slack will be sharing four exclusive seasonal recipes with us over the coming year.

Her book, From the Veg Patch cookbook was highly acclaimed for its simple delicious recipes - transforming ten easily grown garden vegetables, into one hundred readily made inspiring dishes.
Very excitingly, her book Rough Patch – a memoir with recipes, is due out in spring 2025.

We can’t wait to post her first recipe in the series - it will be featured during October, and will use produce of the season.

Kathy is not only a brilliant cook and grower, she also uses Dalefoot Composts. In her own words she describes it as, ‘The caviar of composts…not cheap, but it’s really marvellous stuff.’ Quoted from her book, From the Veg Patch, Ebury publishing, 2021.

Visit her website at www.kathyslack.com

Follow her on Instagram @gluts_gluttony

Subscribe to her blog kathyslack.substack.com

Summer might have taken its final curtain call, but that doesn’t mean we should skip the third act and head for the exit doors. Autumn is a wonderful season, full of high drama and excitement that will have gardeners on the edge of their seats. It throws into the limelight rich colours of burnt oranges and reds, that take character as vibrant blooms and fallen leaves. Then, to leave its audience wanting more, it provides an encore of rich harvests that entice our palette, filling our heads with cosy autumnal recipe ideas. Read the reviews, autumn is a five-star crowd pleaser!

With so much going on this season, the last thing you should be doing is hanging up the spade and leaving the garden to fend for itself over the coming months. Instead, embrace October by getting out into your growing spaces. Whether its planting spring bulbs, prepping the lawn for the cold months ahead or sowing winter salads, your garden needs you and you need it. Because, when Jack Frost makes his stage entrance and puts a stop to the show, you’d wish you had been part of the autumn performance.

For me, this is very much a mulching month. In the flower garden, I leave most perennials untouched. Not only do I get to enjoy their withering structures as they bend and bow on the cold winter wind. But, it’s a refuge area for travelling garden wildlife, offering them food, warmth and cover amongst its seed heads and fallen leaves. However, I do weed, tidy and re-cut border edges. To finish off, I apply a thick mulch of Dalefoot Composts Lakeland Gold to the area, careful not to cover over low growing plants as that will leave them susceptible to rot. By mulching around the base of my prized blooms, not only will this help suppress weeds, retain moisture and protect the rootball. Nutrients will slowly leach into the growing area, reinvigorating plants and setting them up for the new growing season. Living in Suffolk where the soil is notoriously heavy, Lakeland Gold is a ‘clay-buster’ and an easy win. With its rich organic matter, this compost will go a long way in improving soil structure, making Suffolk’s finest easier to work with and help ensure all my precious plants thrive.

As gardeners, we’re full of traditions, habits and routines. So, once the flower garden is prepped and mulched, only then do I turn my attentions to the kitchen garden.

I’m fortunate that there’s something growing in the veg garden all year round. At this time of year, it’s winter brassicas, parsnips, carrots, leeks and celeriac, I’m also planting garlic. But before I can do that, I bide my time waiting for beds to give up the last of their harvests, leaving me to remove the unwanted debris from harvested plants and the occasional weed. Then, I apply a thick layer of Dalefoot Compost Veg and Salad, spreading across the entire surface. All my raised beds in the kitchen garden are no dig beds. So, it’s down to Mother Nature to let this rich compost be drawn in, feeding the soil and building on those micro-organisms that result in a healthy, happy bed. Often, when I’m giving garden talks at various garden shows and gardening clubs, I fondly refer to this as ‘working with nature, not against it’. With several beds primed and ready, there they will sit throughout the colder months, waiting for early spring sowings. As the remaining beds slowly give up the last of their winter harvests, these too will receive the same rewards for their endless service to the growing cause.

Nevertheless, there are a few veg beds that are tasked with a different mission. These have the important responsibility of holding my autumn plantings of garlic and onion. Prepped in the same way, there’s an enormous pleasure to be had when planting into a fresh-looking bed. Undisturbed compost eagerly waiting to receive a plump garlic clove or an autumn planting onion set. Once planted, watered and labelled, I cover over the area with gardening mesh, just to deter those pigeon thugs. They may look dim and unaware, but it’s a clever ploy to fool the innocent gardener into leaving their newly planted growing area unprotected. If there’s an exposed clove poking through the soil, the pigeons will assume it’s a worm and have it lifted and ruined whist your back is turned.

But it’s not just the veg beds that get a refresh, the fruit trees also need a little ‘tender loving care’. Removing all weeds, I give my apple, pear, peach, nectarine, plum, cherry and fig tree a thick mulch. This process then continues across to the gooseberries, black currant, red currant, and both autumn and summer raspberry canes, that are currently trying to breakout from the fruit cage. Finally, the rhubarb crowns accept their invitation and is welcomed to the mulching party.

Once the kitchen garden has had its mulching fix, which is a delight to see once completed, I turn my attention to the remaining unused compost bags, which will fulfil a different purpose. Lying on the greenhouse floor, I remove the up facing bag panel, exposing it’s rich goodness. There I make sowings of winter salads that include favourites such as: lamb’s lettuce, mustard and rocket leaves. There are so many varieties and seed mixes now available, so I do add more sowings as we head deeper into the cold season. What can I say? I’m a seed addict who can never say no to a shiny new seed packet. Apart from the occasional watering, it’s such an easy way to have something growing throughout the winter months.

I built my kitchen garden six years ago, and from day one I wanted it to be a place that ‘worked with nature not against it’. So, my beds have only known three things: Dalefoot Composts Veg and Salad, homemade compost and the occasional well-rotted manure which is locally sourced. There’s so much debate on peat free at the moment, that for me to understand the pros and cons of this option, I had to embrace it one hundred percent to see for myself if it stands up to a demanding kitchen garden. Six years on and the results are in. Lots of tasty harvested fruit and veg, little weeding, minor compost shrinkage and one happy ‘good life’ gardener.

Autumn might be the swan song for the growing season, but what a show to go out on!

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BIOG
I’m Ade Sellars the ‘Good Life Gardener’, and I’m am award-winning garden writer, gardener, presenter, and content producer, with a passion for growing my own food in my kitchen garden. As well as running my own gardening business, I design kitchen gardens, write for magazines, produce tailored video content for gardening brands, flower shows and outdoor events and I regularly deliver talks and demonstrations around the country.

Website: www.adesellars.com/
Instagram: adesellars
YouTube: @TheGoodLifeGardener
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ade-sellars-the-good-life-gardener-7429ba42/

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