Putting the Garden to Bed for Winter

The first proper frost came on Thursday night and finished off the last of the courgettes and the nasturtiums. That is my signal: time to put the garden to bed.

My end-of-season checklist

• Clear spent crops, but leave healthy roots in the ground. They rot down and feed the soil.
• Mulch every empty bed with 5 cm of leaf mould or compost. Bare soil in winter is wasted soil.
• Sow green manure where the beds are free early. Winter rye and field beans went in back in September.
• Drain the hoses and the water butt tap. I learned this one the expensive way in 2023.
• Clean and oil the tools. A bucket of sand with a splash of old oil works wonders on spades.
• Leave the seed heads on the teasels and sunflowers for the goldfinches.

The rhubarb crowns get a barrow of well-rotted manure on top, and the fig gets wrapped in fleece once nights drop below minus five.

Then it is time for seed catalogues by the fire. See you in the spring, garden.