This week on the Veg Grower Podcast I’ve been busy with one of my favourite tasks of the year — planting garlic. Added to that, there are new chickens in the kitchen garden, and I share my thoughts on green manures as we move into autumn.

Allotment Update

Saturday 20th September is always a big date in my calendar. It’s my wedding anniversary, yes — but it’s also the day I traditionally plant my garlic. Garlic is one of my favourite crops to grow because it sits in the ground over winter and makes the allotment look alive during the colder months.

I prepared the bed by clearing weeds, cutting old plants off at ground level to leave the roots in place, and topping with compost. After regular hoeing to keep it tidy, I planted my saved garlic cloves about 10cm deep and 10cm apart, pointy end up. A scattering of garlic fertiliser from the Garlic Farm (or blood, fish and bone if you prefer) and a good watering finished the job. Elephant garlic also went in.

From here it’s simply a case of monthly feeding, keeping it weed-free, and watering in dry spells until harvest next summer. The only real challenge I’ve faced in past years is leek rust, but good ventilation usually keeps it at bay.

Beyond garlic, the allotment is still providing well. Chillies, aubergines, peppers, apples, and pears are all being harvested. I’ve also been trialling straw bale gardening, which has given excellent results with chillies and aubergines. The moisture-holding, slowly decaying bales feed the plants well, and I plan to expand this trial next season.

Kitchen Garden Update

Back at home, the big news is the arrival of two new chickens. Sadly, my oldest hen passed away recently, so I’ve added two new ones to the flock — a skyline and a moss belle, named Steel and Panther. Between them they’ll provide beautiful green and blue eggs once they start laying, hopefully by Halloween.

For now, they’re separated from the older hens while they get used to each other, but they’re already settling in. I always say chickens complete the kitchen garden: not only for eggs, but also for pest control, compost, and manure.

It’s also been a special weekend in the garden for another reason. On our anniversary trip we stopped at a garden near Brighton and found a reclamation yard next door. There we came across an antique aluminium garden bench with a matching bistro table and chairs — exactly what we’d been looking for. We brought it home as a gift to each other. Seating is such an important part of a garden, giving us space to pause and enjoy what we’ve created.

Recipe of the Week

With the cooler weather setting in, nothing beats a tray of roasted autumn veg with garlic and herbs. Using aubergines, broccoli, garlic, chillies, and even apples or pears for sweetness, it’s a simple one-pan dish that makes the most of the harvest. You can find the full recipe on the blog.

In the Podding Shed – Green Manures

This week’s shed chat is all about green manures. These cover crops are a brilliant way to protect and enrich the soil through autumn and winter.

Green manures such as clover, vetch, rye, mustard, buckwheat, phacelia, and field beans help prevent soil erosion, add organic matter, and improve fertility — particularly by fixing nitrogen in the case of legumes.

They’re easy to sow: just scatter seeds on cleared ground, rake or tread them in, and let them grow. Some die back over winter naturally, while others can be cut down and left to rot on the surface or dug in before planting spring crops.

I’m sowing winter tares and field beans this year, as well as trialling mixes designed for potato and sweetcorn beds. For me, green manures are essential to good soil health and far better than leaving ground bare or covering it with plastic.

Final Thoughts

From garlic planting to green manures, new chickens to garden benches, it’s been a weekend that has set us up well for the season ahead.