The clocks have turned and it’s winter, Greenwich meantime. The month of all souls and remembrance. Back to an 8.30am sunrise in Scotland and sunset soon before 4pm. It’s a month of storms, maybe even snow in the north, everywhere the likely return of frost.
It’s time to prepare your plot for winter. Protect vulnerable planting and net brassicas from pigeons. Prepare bird boxes, as some birds will be looking soon for shelter and a drier, warmer winter home. Hang out feeders (and don’t mind the greedy squirrels).
Collect fallen leaf for leaf mould, and stack it where you can. Dig heavier soil on drier days so the coming frost will continue to break it up. Add in well-rotted organic matter (or convert to no-dig where you can spread it around). Leave digging any lighter soil for spring. Hoe perennial weeds and plant green manure: it’s a good time now.
It’s the month for planting bare-root fruit trees and soft-fruit bushes. Time, too, to prune fruiting trees, raspberry canes and currants while they are dormant. Weed around the base and add mulch where you can. Remove small figs if you are lucky enough to have space for them (they can throw a lot of shade).
Sharpen secateurs and spades. Clean and oil your other tools. It is a good time for good housekeeping. Tidy the shed if you have one.
Harvest root crops, such as celeriac and late summer radishes, though you can leave parsnips and winter carrots until after the frost.
It’s your last chance to sow overwintering garlic before the ground is too wet or hard. The same with early broad beans such as ‘Aquadulce Claudia’, or ‘Super Aquadulce’. Don’t much worry if you miss it this month: other ‘late’ varieties can be sown in spring. Relax and breathe, there is less to do.
Allan Jenkins’s Morning (4th Estate, £8.99) is out now. Order it for £7.91 from guardianbookshop.com
