(soft guitar music)
- Now I will be honest with you,
autumn isn't one of my favorite seasons,
'cause I love the energy that you get
from spring and summer,
and winter is definitely on the way.
And from the ground,
we've been harvesting loads of crops.
So autumn is a perfect time to give back,
not just to the garden,
but more importantly,
to the soil where we grow the crops from.
And in this video,
I'm gonna show you how I prepare raised beds,
ready for winter to guarantee really good results next year,
and this is a key part of my gardening calendar.
As gardeners, we want healthy plants
because healthy plants usually equals good crops.
But with a garden it's quite intensive,
and we're always taking material and nutrients
from the ground.
And the most fundamental thing
for a healthy, productive garden is a healthy soil.
And because we're taking so much,
we need to look after and cherish the soil,
because soil isn't just made up of organic matter,
and rock particles broken down,
it's also made up of billions of tiny microbes
that we can't see, that help make nutrients plant available,
and also fend off the bad guys.
So autumn usually involves quite a bit of clearing,
and what I used to do was just take the whole plant out
and grab the whole thing and take the roots out.
And just so you know,
I will be saving at these pods for seeds.
These are yin yang beans, they have a awesome bean.
But what I should actually be doing
is just removing the top part and leaving the roots in.
But why should we be leaving plant roots in the ground?
Well, the reason is,
is that plant roots, as they decompose
provide organic matter which feeds the soil microbes.
And soil microbes are great because what they do
by feeding off the organic matter,
is that they break it down and it releases nutrients,
which makes nutrients more plant available
for the plants that we're trying to grow,
so we can harvest things like beans or any other crops.
And the other thing is when a soil microbe dies,
it also releases nutrients into the ground
that the plant can take up.
So we don't actually want to be taking
any organic matter from the ground,
we want to be leaving as much as possible in,
and adding more.
So with any vegetables or crops
that you have purposefully planted and grown,
always cut them at the base, just so you can try and leave
as many of the roots in the ground.
But when it comes to weeds it's slightly different,
you want to actually try and remove these roots.
So you can see the roots here,
because weeds are very good
at being able to grow back from roots,
especially things like dandelions and thistles.
So these are much better put on the compost bin instead.
So as you can see,
I've cleared the bed of weeds.
I've still got chard that I'm just gonna leave in
over winter because we'll get some new growth in spring,
so some lovely green leaves in spring
- that is really valued at that time of year.
But once you end up with the actual plant matter
of what you planted,
you have two options.
The first option is you can place this material
on the compost bin and that's absolutely fine.
But the second option is to use the chop and drop method.
So the idea with this is that
these plants have taken nutrients from this soil,
and all you're doing is chopping this up finely,
which is what I'm gonna do now.
And then
you'll then be placing it
back onto the soil in the form of organic matter.
And it's just going to provide
the extra bit of fertility,
and it has all of winter to break down.
When you place stuff like this organic matter
on the surface of the soil,
it breaks down a lot faster
than if you put it in a compost bin.
(chopping)
I've chopped up the material
so it's pretty nice and fine.
I've also given this bed a bit of a rake,
just a very light rake just to even out a little bit.
So the final thing to do with this chop and drop technique
is to drop it.
So I just like grab a handful
and kind of spread it out
over the surface
like this.
You can just like pretend that you got snowflakes
and it's snowing,
but it's snowing plant material.
So a little less exciting,
but certainly far more exciting
for all the soil microbes.
So if you just do a nice even layer like that,
it's gonna make a really big difference
to the fertility of your soil
and it's just going to contribute
to that long term build up
of organic matter and soil carbon,
and ultimately a more healthy garden.
So you can see there's a light surface
of material on the ground.
Now there's nothing stopping you
from bringing in
plant material from elsewhere in the garden,
this was some bolted fennel,
we've got loads at the moment,
bringing it to a bed that you're preparing
and then chopping and dropping this,
adding it into the mix as well.
So you're very welcome
to actually bring in resources
to do that exact job.
In fact, the more, the better,
to a certain extent.
You do want to have,
say a layer that's around a centimeter thick,
or just under a half an inch.
You want to be able to see parts of the soil underneath
because you don't want too thick a layer
of plant material like this.
Now once you've applied this layer of chop and drop
over your bed, if you've decided to do that,
the next thing to do is just to add a bit of compost
over the top.
So preferably aim for a two and a half centimeter
or an inch layer of compost
spread lightly over the top of the raised bed.
That one inch layer is a really good target
because that's just gonna be giving you loads of,
not just nutrients and organic matter,
but also loads of microbes from the compost
and really help supercharge your soil really for next year.
Now ideally you do want to use compost,
but if you don't have access to lots of homemade compost
or ready compost, you can use partly decomposed compost,
that's no problem at all,
or you can even go a year without using compost.
That too is fine.
There were ways of being able to get through that,
no problem at all,
especially with things like chop and drop,
they're gonna make a huge difference,
or you could consider investing in municipal compost.
So you've removed the plants from the ground
and preferably you've left the roots in
and then maybe you've chopped and dropped
and then added a layer of compost.
Well, after doing that, it's time for the last step
which is to add a protective layer.
Now this isn't ideal, this is plastic,
but if you already have plastic it's best to use it
and make the most of it 'cause it'll be a waste
not to really utilize it.
And then after that has come to the end of its life,
use something far more organic like cardboard or newspaper.
And with newspaper, if you'd just give it a little rub
and you don't get a big thick black smudge on your finger,
then it doesn't have any petroleum ink
and it's safe to use on the ground.
So why do you need a protective layer?
Well, it isn't completely necessary,
but it does help with three key things.
The first is weeds.
The worst thing is starting a growing season
and you look at your raised bed and it's full of weeds.
And that is a main reason why I like to put
a protective layer over the raised bed
because it means I can really hit the ground running
in spring, all I need to do is lift off the covering
and the ground underneath is ready to plant directly into.
Now, the second reason is water.
Very often, we get really heavy rainfall here in Wales
and the water, even though it won't cause
too much nutrient runoff,
if you have very heavy clay soil like we do,
then it isn't the best conditions
and it gets it all really soggy.
And then the third thing is warmth.
If you use a dark covering like this,
it helps warm up the soil in spring,
which again is going to help anything
that you sow into it afterwards
or plant out.
So if you're using cardboard,
you want around three layers of cardboard
and then with newspaper kind of flip the newspaper out
in half and then weigh it down.
That will work really well.
What I'm doing here is, as you can see, just on cue,
it's pretty windy.
So I'm just trying to hold this down.
So what I do is at the ends,
I kind of just tuck in this material, using a spade,
down between the boards and also the soil.
That keeps it in nice and neatly.
And then what I'll do after this, around here,
like I've actually done for the bed to my left
is put down some wooden posts.
And that is just really gonna help keep it in place
all through winter.
So my plan for the next couple of months
up until mid December is to continue putting beds to sleep
as they open up around the garden.
So the next one is going to be the far one
with all of the bolted fennel,
just to the right of the solar tunnel.
Now some beds are going to have winter vegetables in them,
like this leek bed.
So what should you do in this situation?
Well, it's really simple.
Don't worry about mulching them now.
Mulch them in February.
And if you have any winter veg leftover
like the kale there, which might still be growing,
then just actually apply a mulch around the kale,
and then once you pull the kale out, leaving the roots in,
you can then plant directly straight into that ground.
So it works anyway.
If you can just focus on trying to get that inch
or two and a half centimeters of compost on
some point during the year, preferably this time of year
'cause it's quiet,
it's gonna make a huge difference.
(soft music)
So I'm just gonna continue
getting the garden ready for winter.
And make sure you give yourself a nice proper rest.
And if you're looking for something to do,
you may be interested in checking out an online course
that I did back in May which is designed about
being a more efficient gardener
and then in turn having a far more productive garden.
So if that sounds interesting to you,
you can find out more, at morefoodlesseffort.com.
And I look forward to seeing you again soon
in another video.
(soft music)