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Tips and jobs
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Tips and jobs

Store apples for winter
Late season apples are coming thick and fast now and unless you're a real apple addict you'll have loads left over to store. Choose only perfect specimens and pack them carefully into cardboard boxes, wrapping each apple individually in newspaper so they don't touch each other. Check them regularly over winter and remove any bad ones straight away: you should still be enjoying them well into spring.

Turn compost heaps
The more you turn your compost heaps, the faster they'll turn into that lovely black sweet-smelling stuff for the garden. Twice a year, in autumn and spring, is a minimum: simply fork everything from one compost bin into the next, mixing it as you go. Make sure it's nice and damp before covering with cardboard to keep weed seedlings out, then leave it to cook for six months or so for that perfect biscuit-crumb texture.

Start planning for next year
As the plot winds down towards winter, but this year is still fresh in your mind (and, hopefully, on your plate!) take time out to note down your successes and failures. By next spring you'll have forgotten what you need to grow more of, or that new veg variety you wanted to try – so write it down now, while you remember.

Top tips

Plant perennial veg for the ultimate in low-maintenance kitchen gardening. Globe artichokes, Jerusalem artichokes, rhubarb and asparagus are all planted now and just keep giving year after year.

Help potatoes last longer in winter storage by leaving them in the sun on the surface of the soil for a couple of hours straight after harvesting: it hardens the skins so they stay in good condition for longer.

Keep empty veg beds covered with black polythene or thick cardboard – you'll keep weeds at bay and stop winter rains battering all the goodness out of your soil.

Tools for the jobs

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