by Jenny Huddart
Autumn has arrived in the garden with the shades of the garden turning, light levels becoming more muted, temperatures dropping and the days becoming shorter.
We had our first frost of the season at the beginning of the month. Luckily our beautiful Dahlias managed to escape unscathed from damage and have continued to thrive in all their glory.
October was the month where we moved to the next stage in the garden’s upkeep and development. The restaurant also switched to its winter opening hours, allowing us gardeners more time to complete the untidy jobs around the garden.
The main undertaking in the Cutting Flower area in the garden has been the redesign of the bed layout. Previously the back row contained our perennial stock, but unfortunately this area also contains the worse of our perennial weeds! This has meant that it has been virtually impossible to successfully weed without affecting the main plants too. So, a change of tact is needed - next year we are switching to growing our annual flowers here instead. By growing annuals such as Ammi major and Cosmos here, it will enable us to hopefully weaken the vigorous growing of the bindweed and creeping thistle more efficiently. This job is proving to be a mammoth task, but it will be worth it in the end.
The clearing continued in the vegetable garden area too, with the removal of the bean poles. The beds have since been mulched with a thick layer of compost and sown with a green manure of Phacelia. This use of a cover crop has many purposes- it will be a weed suppressor, add nutrients to the soil and most importantly for this time of year, it will protect the bare soil from erosion caused by the elements over the winter months. This cover crop will be chopped and mulched into the soil in early spring, before next year’s crops are planted out in the rich soil.
The lower temperatures of autumn also meant it was time to bring in any remaining pumpkins and squashes so that they could be ‘cured’ to prolong winter storage. This year we have grown varieties such as Pumpkin ‘Delica F1’ – a small, round fruit with green skin with deep yellow flesh and nutty sweet taste; Winter Squash 'Oregon Homestead Sweetmeat'- a large hubbard style squash with grey skin and bright orange flesh.
Another major but essential task this month was the repairing and cleaning of our cold frames. These frames will provide a protected environment for our hardy annuals against a cold winter until they are ready to be planted out in the prepared beds in the spring.