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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