Organic Gardening Magazine

Your complete guide to gardening - naturally!

Good things in store

It’s time to brush up on your homesteading skills, says Joyce Russell; the bounty coming in from the garden will see you through to spring… if you get the storage right.

Autumn may feel like a breathing space – a time between the mad rush of summer and the onset of winter weather. If we get an Indian summer, maybe we can even enjoy a bit of late warmth without all the work-pressures of the summer garden. If some of the autumn jobs don’t get done, there’s always winter and early spring to catch up in!
Believe me, I know plenty of gardeners who sit back at this end of the year and can’t rekindle that spring enthusiasm for the vegetable plot.

However (and there is always a ‘however’ in an article such as this), whatever else may go by the wayside, don’t neglect the harvest. Now is the time to string and clamp, to fill up bags and racks – to make sure the potatoes feed you, not the slugs, through the months ahead, and that the apples supplement your diet, not that of the birds.

Many of the major crops, such as potatoes, onions, garlic, apples, carrots and pumpkins, will keep for months in the right conditions. Winter will inevitably arrive, and probably some awful weather with it, and you may be wise at that point to ignore the garden – but you can still enjoy the benefit of all those perfectly stored fruits and vegetables.

Onions and garlic

These may have been lifted in August and spread to dry in the best of the summer sunshine, or perhaps you grew bulbs from seed and are only just harvesting them at the beginning of September. Either way, you need to dry your bulbs well or they will not keep. Good hot sunshine and racks on which to lay the bulbs, so air can circulate beneath them, will give the best results. Failing that, the floor of a dry airy shed will suffice in wet weather. The aim is to dry the leaves and outer skins until they are crisp and brown.

Check over the dried bulbs and reject any that are discoloured, mouldy or rotting. Put aside for early use any that have thick, flaccid necks, and any that are too small or damaged. I simply cut off the tops and fill a basket for the kitchen. I usually include any onions that have produced a double bulb in this category too. The remaining bulbs should look pretty well perfect.
Onions and garlic can be strung in the same way. You can plait the necks together, but I find that using a loop of string to wind the necks around works much better.

For the full story, see this month's issue, available to buy online!

Plan crop rotation

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