We think of winter as being dark nights, cold days and tucking up around the fire all cosy. It is a time for us to ‘put the garden to bed’. Or is it? Here on the farm, the garden is ongoing each and every day of the year. To be able to be a gardener throughout the whole year you need a plan and that is what the winter season is for.
The year splits into four seasons with complimentary tasks which aid each of these growing seasons. I say growing as we still do grow vegetables and herbs during this period of winter. We have lots of brassicas and roots which will be available to harvest over the winter time. There are also the preserved and stored summer crops of jams, pickles, chutneys and juices. Not to mention sacks and boxes of fruit and vegetables stored in the cool areas of cupboards, garages and fridges. More vegetables have been planted in the ground by late autumn and will, admittedly, grow slower than the summer season, but grow they will. We have lots of salad leaves, chicory, Chinese cabbage, parsley, chervil and pak choi which will establish and slowly grow in the polytunnels during the winter months. These give us a head start with luscious healthy organic goodies at the end of winter.
The winter months are a time to think and prepare for the following months and seasons. The shorter days provide the opportunity to reflect on the previous year; what grew well, what didn’t, how did we cope with the environment Mother Nature threw at us, and could I have been a better gardener?
The first exciting challenge is to decide on what we want to grow resulting in the seeds we decide to order. We always put together our sowing, planting, crop rotation and harvesting schedules which we follow throughout the growing seasons. These are aids to follow throughout next year.
We have fewer planting and serious plant tending days as the plants hunker down and take care of themselves. We still check in on them to ensure the dreaded snails haven’t run amok or that the freezing weather hasn’t killed them off! This time is not redundant, but we take the opportunity to check paths and fences. Any DIY on the tunnels can be completed too. The tools we use are cleaned and sharpened. The greenhouses, seed trays and inner cells are all disinfected and prepped ready for seed sowing which will begin in January.
Carrying out these tasks and being prepared for the coming seasons reduces the pressure later, to allow the gardener to concentrate on cultivating. Then the cycle begins again and you can look forward to the huge satisfaction gained from growing your own. You see, it is all in the planning.
Ann Paton and her husband Bob run their own farm and are recreating a walled garden at Freyja in the Tyne Valley. For more from Ann, visit www.hexhamshireorganics.co.uk/blogs/anns-journal
