In today’s garden blog, the words are coming to you from Sarah, who has been with us now for almost 2 years, and has played a huge role alongside Jan in transforming the way we grow, and what we grow. We first met each other at our annual Festive Fair here at the Homestead, we chatted a little, but then received an email in the New Year asking if we were looking for some help in the garden. A 20 minute chat about the job, followed by an hour long chat about parenting and home education, and she was hired. Not only has she been a wonderful addition to the garden team, she has become a true friend, who has come into our lives just when we needed it.

So over to Sarah, for a round up of what’s going on in the garden…

As I drove into work this morning, with the windscreen wipers on and a blustery wind buffeting the car, I realised how much change there has been over the last few weeks. The weather today is a sharp reminder of how far into autumn we now find ourselves. The memories of a long, hot, extraordinarily dry, and at times very challenging summer, weather-wise, are now fading away with the changing of the leaves.

The clocks have gone back and, alongside shorter days, the colours of our moorland vista are busy transforming into sumptuous reds, golds, and yellows. In the garden, autumn brings about a period of slowing down and reflection—of following the season itself wherever possible. We are also happy to make use of some of nature’s own seasonal offerings, such as the endless supply of fallen leaves, which we gratefully add to our leaf mulch bin to be returned to the garden in a few years. We strive to work in harmony with the land and utilise its resources to ensure our growing spaces are as fertile, healthy, and pest-free as possible.

We also use this period to clear the decks a little—tidying in and around our growing spaces, making repairs, and thinking ahead to what we will be growing next year. Today, the greenhouse has been tidied, swept, and weeded, and will await its final thorough scrub down in the coming weeks. Nets on the raised beds have been checked and fastened down ahead of some more challenging weather—this is still essential in the garden, as the pigeons continue to plague our brassicas. Growing beds in the greenhouse have been topped up with fresh compost, and we have direct-sown some mixed salad crops. The beautiful pumpkins and squash are happily drying out in the greenhouse for now, before heading inside very soon to be used up in the restaurant.

We are also continuing to work hard to put back some much-needed nutrients into our growing areas, which have worked so hard for us all year. With the bokashi system now firmly embedded (see April’s Bokashi blog post for more information: https://thehomesteadgoathland.com/bokashi-how-we-are-using-this-compost-system-for-the-kitchen-garden/), the kitchen and garden staff are now in a seamless rhythm with a really efficient composting system. As a result, we have both the bokashi compost and the tapped-off juice, which we dilute to give our edibles a real boost. If you can tolerate the smell, the bokashi juice works wonders for the plants, all while reducing our waste—with the added bonus of a much quicker turnover.

We have been seeing evidence of its success for months. Now, when looking at the size and health of our celeriac crop this year, we can be sure we’re onto a winner! Our big no-dig bed has also been topped up with some of this enriching compost and a good liquid bokashi feed before the garlic went in a few weeks back. Fingers crossed for some super-sized versions of our delicious harvest this year.

Also, thanks to a generous donation of a huge pile of wood chip from one of our neighbours, we’ve been able to top up our paths again in the kitchen garden space and mulch some of our growing areas.

The hawthorn hedge planted in February this year is continuing to put on some really encouraging growth and looks strong and healthy as we head into this next season. As the hedge establishes, it will offer the bottom section of the kitchen garden a much-needed windbreak, as well as a fantastic habitat for a range of wildlife.

Weeding is, of course, still never-ending, but with our beautiful backdrop across the moors and our foraging borders doing so well and really coming into their own this year, even this often thankless task feels like no real hardship. We really are beginning to see the fruits of our labour, and the garden is thriving.

The small meadow area has now been cut back, and we have been rehoming some self-seeded ox-eye daisies and foxgloves into the meadow to take root around our growing apple trees. Self-seeded plants spring up all over the garden, so we have been happy to make use of these additional plants—carefully potting up the many lupins, aquilegias, ox-eye daisies and foxgloves over the last few months to rehome in the front gardens. Nothing goes to waste in our garden!

Thoughts now turn to the year ahead. There will be a seed stock take this week, as well as conversations with the kitchen about what they would like to grow more of next year, which crops just didn’t make the cut, and any new varieties to introduce to this year’s seed orders.

Work has been well underway on some hard landscaping in the area around our greenhouse, offering us even more growing space in some new raised beds. It’s amazing how much bigger the space now seems—and the potential this will offer us moving forward. The landscaping team have also added a hard surface in this section of the garden, which will be a game-changer for us. Last year saw us slipping, sliding, and squelching about the place, trying to stay upright by clinging onto the wheelbarrow! With warmer, wetter winters set to become a reality for all of us, this will help to future-proof our site and improve accessibility for everyone wanting to enjoy our wonderful garden space.

The work really has been transformative—both expanding our growing space and improving the way we navigate this abundant little patch of land. Take a peek over the car park wall next time you’re in to see the next stages in progress.

Images: Linda Hermans