Threre’s not a huge amount that needs doing in the veg garden once you’ve planted up for winter or packed everything away. But these 3 projects are worth investing in now for next spring…
Install a water butt
If you’d like to save on water next year, then getting a couple of water butts up and running is a great idea. It’s usually fairly straightforward, too, and involves attaching a diverter between the downpipe from the roof gutter and the water butt. For this, you will normally need a hacksaw to cut through the downpipe, and a drill to make a hole in the water butt itself (you’ll then feed the diverter hose through this hole.) Don’t forget to put the waterbutt on a sturdy stand, high enough that you can get your watering can underneath the tap!
You tend to find some good options in garden centres and online, so once you know where you’ll be placing it (perhaps from a garden shed or outbuilding, or your own home), you can choose a suitable size/shape for that area.
Start a compost system
If you have space for a compost bin or ideally 2 or 3, then it is a really good idea to start a compost system. We have a guide you can use to get started. At the simplest level, you can buy a compost bin from a garden centre and use that. If you feel a bit of DIY coming along, then you can easily build square compost bays from old pallets or timber. Having more than one allows you to have one bin ‘on the go’ (the one that you are topping up,) one bin full and busy composting away, and one bin full of compost that is ready to use.
Gather leaves to make a leaf mould
This is a really easy way of making a mulch to use next autumn, or the spring after – all you need are 4 bamboo canes and some chicken wire to construct a square (ish!) frame, and then you can begin filling it with any leaves that you rake up as the trees shed this autumn. Within 12-18 months, it will have broken down into a highly nutritious mulch to spread over the top of raised beds to feed the soil and help suppress weeds.