Winter and gardening often feels like some crazy juxtaposition of words. My slightly younger self wouldn’t have even dreamed about setting foot in the garden between the months of November and March. Only when the warmer weather appeared again in mid May did venturing outdoors cross my mind once more.
Now that I have been truly bitten by the Gardening bug, I couldn’t imagine a single month of year passing by without visiting my allotment plot and working in my back garden. I live and breath the garden and the more tasks I have to do, the better I feel both mentally and physically. Well, luckily there are lots of jobs to be doing in the winter garden. These are the things I will be busy getting up to this winter in mine.
- Mulching over all my allotment raised beds and slowly switching over to the no-dig way of gardening. That means laying cardboard over the beds that currently have nothing growing in them and then covering with a good amount of manure and compost. No dig essentially means, disturbing the soil as little as possible. Think of your mulch as a lovely natural blanket, enriching the soil beneath it with goodness.
- Tidying up! Storing away all my bamboo canes which were used to hold up things like Dahlias and runner beans and generally moving things out the way so the garden remains a safe place to visit.
- Giving my spouts a haircut by removing lower leaves and then giving them a good mulch around their bottoms! This means less weeds (less competition for them) and hopefully less hiding places for slugs and snails!
- Topping up paths with woodchip on my allotment plot so that they are fresh and useable come the spring time.
- Planting out the remaining spring bulbs like daffodils and tulips, which I really must get a move on a do as soon as possible.
- Keeping an eye and generally annoying the vegetables that I have planted out during the Autumn and will be slowly growing over the winter months. That includes cabbages, cauliflower, broad beans, onion and garlic and mizuna. By generally annoying I mean pulling back netting every few days to ask if they’re alright and beg them not to die so I get to harvest at least one of each of them!
- Perhaps most importantly, standing back and admiring how far I have progressed not only as a gardener, but as a human. Making sure I am proud with myself for managing to grow so many delicious vegetables last year and for creating a garden that not only looks beautiful and provides me with fresh food, but also encourages wildlife and nature.
In my first year on the plot I was angry with winter. It had come along, like some strict, awful dinner lady and blown it’s big whistle to stop all the fun and force me to tidy up. I wanted summer to last forever and to be able to keep going all year round. As I approach the end of my second year of growing my own, I am thankful for this break. It has given me time to step back and think about what worked, what didn’t and what I need to do differently next time round. I have time to reflect on the year and in doing so, can appreciate the confidence I have gained from all my hard work.
Winter is no longer my enemy. I think it’s actually been my friend all along.
By the end of the summer i am tired of being down the allotment and i take a little rest, then when i feel like it i go about and do the winter jobs you have talked about. One thing i am getting better at (but not completely yet) is continuing to keep ontop of the weeding right until they stop growing over winter. If you can completely weed everywhere before the spring it is so much easier.
It really is! Yes, I know what you mean about getting a little fatigued by the end of summer. You feel like your work is coming to an end. It’s really important to take breaks, you never want it to feel like a chore! x