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At this time of year the evenings get darker earlier, we have more rain (if that's possible with the weather we’ve had this year) and it gets cooler. Most plants are slowing down in preparation for winter. There is still the chance for some beautiful sunny autumn days, where we can get out and enjoy the garden. This gives us the opportunity to plant some bulbs for a colourful spring display. If you would like some plants for free, now is the time to take hardwood cuttings from shrubs and split your older herbaceous perennials. Autumn is also the time for tidying your garden, but remember to leave some areas to provide wildlife with homes, food and water for the winter. If the weather is bad there are a lot of jobs that you can do inside as well, such as sowing winter salads like mustard cress and planting bulbs in pots for a spring display. What to Sow, Plant and Harvest November Plant Outdoors - garlic Harvest - Brussels sprout, cabbage, calabrese, carrot, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, kale, leek, parsnip, swede, turnip. December Harvest - Brussels sprout, cabbage, calabrese, carrot, cauliflower, kale, leek, parsnip, swede, turnip.

Rhus in full autumn colours Lots of great tasting veg to harvest

Sow Some Garlic Garlic grows from individual cloves; the clove is the part that we usually eat. It's best to buy a named garlic variety, specifically for planting. Then you will know that it is healthy and will succeed in the UK, especially if we have a wet, dull winter and summer. Garlic can be planted up until February. The variety 'Thermidrome' is suitable for autumn to early winter planting, while 'Printanor' can be planted until the end of February. Have a look in the new 2009 Organic Gardening Catalogue, where you will be able to find both 'Thermidrome' and 'Printanor' varieties of garlic. You can order a copy of the Organic Gardening Catalogue by telephoning Chase Organics on 0845 130 1304 or view online at www.organiccatalogue.com. Plant the cloves as soon as you can after purchase, with the tip pointing upwards in the ground, 5-10cm deep, 15cm apart in rows 15cm apart. Avoid planting in heavy waterlogged soil. Lift in August when the leaves begin to yellow. Dry in the sun or in an airy shed. You could also try growing garlic in pots, but they must be kept outside during the winter to expose the plants to low temperatures.

Home-grown garlic tastes and looks wonderful

Harvesting and cooking your vegetables During this half term you could be harvesting Brussels sprout, cabbage, calabrese, carrot, cauliflower, kale, leek, parsnip, swede and turnip. If you do not have any of these to harvest at the moment why not plan to grow them next year?

Kale 'Theyer' Leeks are lovely cooked and topped with a cheese sauce

Kale Use the leaves straight after picking, don’t cut the whole plant as it will continue to grow, wash the leaves and if the mid rib is big and tough, just remove part of it before cooking. Steam or boil the leaves for a short time until they are just going soft. You can also eat them raw but not in large quantities. Leeks It is important to clean leeks well, as the soil gets trapped inside the developing leaves while the leek is growing. Trim off the bottom, where the roots were growing and the course leaves from the top of the leek. Slice down the middle of the leek lengthways to about half way down, spread the layers of leaves and wash under the tap so that the water swishes into any gaps and removes the soil. Leeks can be boiled, steamed or roasted. Small leeks can be cooked whole and are delicious served with a cheese sauce and browned under the grill. Larger leeks are good for chopping and adding to casseroles, soups, pies and flans. Leeks go well with potatoes and other root vegetables such as swede or carrots. Try searching the Internet to find a recipe for a cheese sauce to go with your leeks.

Carrots - taste great roasted Turnip

Root Vegetables At this time of year you are likely to have lots of lovely root vegetables ready for harvest. They are called root vegetables because it is the root part of the plant that we eat. Root vegetables include; carrot, parsnip, swede and turnip. Most of these are easy to prepare; just give them a wash, cut a small amount off the top and bottom, and then peel off the outer skin. They are great to use in soups and casseroles, or you could chop a selection of them and roast them. Roasted Veggies You will need: Half a swede cut into chunks 1 large carrot cut into chunks 1 parsnip cut into chunks 1 leek cut into chunks 2 tbs of olive oil 1 tsp of mixed dried herbs 1 tbs of balsamic vinegar Method: Heat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas 7. Toss all the vegetables with the olive oil in a large bowl. Spread the vegetables onto a baking tray and sprinkle with the herbs. Bake in the oven until tender, about 30 - 40 minutes. Transfer to a bowl for serving and toss with the balsamic vinegar. Winter Vegetable Soup You can use this as a basic recipe then experiment by using different vegetables and herbs to change the flavour of your soup. You will need: 2 tbsp olive oil 4 carrots, peeled and chopped into 2 cm chunks 1 leek, sliced 1/4 swede, peeled and chopped into 2 cm chunks 1 parsnip, peeled and chopped into 2 cm chunks 300ml/ vegetable stock A few sprigs of parsley to serve Method: Heat the oil in a medium sized saucepan. Add the vegetables and sauté gently until they have softened slightly. Pour in the stock, bring to the boil and then cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the vegetable are soft. You can serve the soup chunky or you could pour the soup into a food processor or blender and wiz for a few seconds. Pour the soup into a bowl decorate with the parsley and serve with warm crusty bread. Let us know about your favourite vegetable recipe creations. We may use them on the website in the future, please include any photographs of your finished dishes and send them into us. Our contact details can be found here.

Plant spring flowering bulbs Plant a variety of bulbs (see examples below) so that you have colour from January through to May. Tulips – plant in November/December for flowers in April/May Anemone – plant in November for flowers in February Fritillaria – plant in November for flowers in April

Cheer up your garden in spring with some colourful bulbs

New plants for free Lift and Divide Herbaceous Perennials Herbaceous perennial plants, such as Aster, Delphinium and Rudbeckia can be divided and rejuvenated now. Herbaceous perennials will flower, set seed and then die back to ground level for the winter months, shooting again in the spring. Every 3-4 years they will begin to die back in the centre and need to be divided. Here's what you need to do: Lift the plant with a fork, being careful not to damage the roots. Place onto an old compost bag. Using two forks back to back, or a spade, carefully divide the clump into several portions by gently prizing each portion away from the outside of the main plant. Each new plant should have a number of healthy young shoots and its own root system. Chop up the old woody centre and put on the compost heap. Dig over the original site and incorporate lots of well rotted manure or organic compost. Replant the new plants, where the original one was, making sure that you leave enough room between each plant for it to develop. You could also replant the new plants in another area that has been suitable prepared, or plant into pots and label them to sell, or give as presents. Take Hardwood Cuttings Why not have a go a taking some hardwood cuttings to increase the number of plants you have. Cuttings can be taken from late autumn to midwinter from deciduous shrubs, just after their leaves have fallen. The strong healthy stems from this year’s growth will root most easily. Cuttings should be pencil thickness and about the same length (about 10-30cm). Make a straight cut just below the bottom bud. Plant the cuttings directly in a prepared area of the garden or in long pots filled with gritty compost. Make sure that the straight cut is inserted into the soil and leave 2.5 - 5 cms of the stem above the ground. Keep your cuttings weed free and watered. Pot up or plant out once the cuttings have rooted and begun to grow. Some plants to try; willow - (Salix), dogwood - (Cornus), butterfly bush - (Buddleja davidii), mock orange - (Philadelphus), flowering currant - (Ribes)

Many plants can be divided at this time of year Divide clumps of herbaceous perennials with forksbr>

Hardwood Cuttings can be taken at this time of year

Have an autumn tidy Clear away weeds and unwanted vegetation, and put all this material onto the compost heap. Don’t put weed seeds into a heap though – they’ll survive the composting process. Roots of difficult perennial weeds can be composted safely and easily. Throw the seed heads away. Put the weed roots into a black plastic sack. Tie up the top. Put the bag in an out-of-the-way corner and leave for several weeks, or even months. When the roots have become smelly sludge, add them to the compost heap. All the nutrients and minerals that they had absorbed from the soil will be returned to the compost, and from there, into your garden! Some difficult weeds: dandelion, bindweed, couch grass, nettles, ground elder. Don't be too tidy! All garden creatures need food and shelter over winter. A too tidy garden may look neat but it will be inhospitable for beneficial creatures needing winter habitats. Here are some ideas: Leave some seed heads on plants. Birds need the food. Leave the odd pile of leaves under hedges, or in corners here and there. Insects and small mammals need the shelter. Make a pile of logs in a corner. Frogs and toads often hibernate in such places. Beetles need plenty of protection in winter weather. Leave some plants with hollow stems uncut over winter, or put the empty stems in with the leaves. Insects will use the tubes for hibernation. Don't cut clumps of bushy plants too low down. Leave plenty of dense growth for insects to snuggle into. Hang some hollow stems in a shrub or tree, out of the way. In very wet weather, hibernating creatures can drown if they are at ground level, and it becomes waterlogged.

Perennial weed roots Logs provide snug winter quarters Frogs often hibernate under a pile of logs Bushy grasses protect hibernating wildlife

Have a closer look at the spiders in your garden The garden spider – Araneus diadematus is the best known orb-weaving spider in the UK and lives for one to two years. They can be found on bushes and other vegetation in the garden. Have a closer look at these fascinating creatures, they vary in colour from pale yellow or almost brown to black, but they can always be identified by the white cross shaped group of spots on their bodies (abdomen). They build a circular orb-web with a spiral pattern and then sit in the centre waiting for an insect to collide with the web. In August and after the female has mated, her body will become swollen with eggs. She then builds a silken egg sac and lays her eggs in it. The spiderlings will hatch out the following May, hungry and ready to eat garden pests. If you want to know more about spiders some good websites to visit are www.britishspiders.org.uk and http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Eednieuw/Spiders/spidhome.htm

Have a look into the fascinating lives of the spiders in your garden Learning points Why is a garden spider not an insect?

Making leafmould As autumn leaves fall they can be collected up and put in a container. Once the container is full it can be left for a year until the leaves have rotted down to form leafmould. A leafmould container is easy to make. You will need: Four 4cm2 posts, about 1.25 –1.5m long Chicken wire Knock the four posts into the ground to form a metre square. Chicken wire can then be nailed around the posts to form the container. There is no need to cover a leafmould bin. You can download the Garden Organic leaflet on making your own leafmould here (PDF 268Kb)

A leafmould container is easy to make

Protect your soil Bare soil must be covered over winter. Otherwise, heavy rain will damage the structure and wash away valuable nutrients. If you haven’t had time to sow green manures, or you’ve just started a plot, cover the bare soil with a mulch. You can use: Fallen autumn leaves. Wet these thoroughly before using. If your site is very windy, cover the leaves with opened out cardboard boxes, and weigh down. Newspaper, opened out, several sheets thick (6 minimum), and weighed down with a layer of grass clippings. Cardboard, weighed down, then disguised with wood chippings, or grass clippings. Download our 'How to' leaflet on using mulches Teacher & Student versions here (PDF - 163Kb) Keep off the soil in wet weather Walking on soil in wet weather can damage the structure. Clay soil in particular will be compacted, leading to poor growing conditions for plants next season. If you have to walk on wet soil, to harvest crops for example, put a broad plank down and walk on that, to spread the load.

Keep off wet soil

Only just starting? We are here to help you. If you are not a member of our Garden Organic for Schools project, you can join here, it's free and there are plenty of benefits. Use the full range of all the information available on our website, try the following links to get you started: Our 'How To' leaflets The 'Teaching Zone' The 'Learning Zone' Advice and Resources You might not be able to go out and dig at the moment, but there's plenty to be done between now and spring.

A selection of our downloadable leaflets

On a weedy site: cut down all the long weeds and cover with a light-excluding covering (any of the following would do - black plastic sheeting, a weed-suppressing membrane, large sheets of cardboard spread out over the soil and weighed down). By keeping light out, weeds won't grow, and when you lift the cover next spring, it will be much easier to dig over. On a cleared site: cover as above to prevent weeds growing again! You can put a layer of wet leaves down under the covering if you have them. These will break down during the winter months, and add useful organic material to the soil. Start building your compost heap. The contents of the heap will rot down and become garden compost – that wonderful fertile material that keeps the soil vibrant with life, and encourages strong healthy plant growth.

A light-excluding cover helps clear weeds

Indoor activities Planning for next year A successful garden is well planned, so when you are unable to venture outside here's what you could be doing: Plan the garden for next year's crops. Draw up a crop rotation plan. Choose seeds for next year. Try some resistant vegetable varieties – there are lots to choose from now. The Organic Gardening Catalogue has some wonderful vegetable choices. Don't forget to order seeds of ornamental plants to attract beneficial pest-eating insects. Download our "How to" leaflet on Crop Rotation Teacher & Student versions here (PDF - 276Kb) Student version in Welsh here (PDF - 179Kb) Have a look through the New 2009 Organic Gardening Catalogue. There are some wonderful vegetable choices. Don't forget to order seeds of ornamental plants to attract beneficial pest-eating insects.

Learning points What are the main reasons for crop rotation? What are the benefits of resistant vegetable varieties? Californian poppy is a gorgeous attractant plant

Great idea for a rainy day try the Vegetable Quiz Investigate the many useful resources on our website Explore our website more and visit the 'Fun Zone' where you will find some word searches. Use your artistic and literary skills to make up your own gardening word searches and games. You can send them to us for other schools to try. Give your gardening club an image Create a logo for your school gardening club. Generate some ideas by investigating the Internet, magazines and looking at advertising boards for any logos that organisations and companies use. Discuss why you think the ones you have looked at would be successful or not.

Have a go at the Veg Quiz

Provide hungry birds with food and water during winter If the weather is too bad for you to venture out into the garden, why not think about giving our feather friends a helping hand during the winter months? Here are some ideas: Make them a cake; there are lots of recipes for making bird cakes in garden wildlife books and on the Internet. Design and make your own bird feeders. A simple one can be made out of a recycled water bottle. With adult help, carefully cut a hole large enough for birds to feed from, half way up the bottle. Fill to the hole with seed and put the top back on. Another feeder can be made by pushing nuts, dried fruit and cheese into the gaps of a pinecone. Tie some string to the top of your feeders and hang them where you can see them from indoors, you will then be able to identify the birds without scaring them away. Make a bird bath for your garden out of recycled materials, the depth of water should be about 5cm, place a stone in the bath, this will act as a perch and help with the stability of the bath. Remember to keep the birdbath clean, frost free and topped up with fresh water. Find out more about birds by looking at the RSPB website: www.rspb.org.uk

Feed your garden birds © xmark 2006

Make a recipe book There will be a bumper crop of vegetables available from your garden now so why not get creative and use the produce to make up lots of different recipes. Try different combinations of herbs and vegetables to decide which you like and which go well together. Work out the amounts of each vegetable that you need. You can use standard measurements like grams and kilograms or non-standard like a handful or a pinch. Practice writing instructions, you could hand write them, or use a computer. Look through lots of recipe books and on the Internet for ideas. Don’t forget to include all of the ingredients, utensils, sizes of equipment and the method. Use a digital camera to photograph all of the stages of preparation and the finished dish. You could also use diagrams as part of you instructions. Play with words and invent an intriguing name for your dish. Design the front cover of you book and put all your recipes together. Send them to us so that we can share them with other schools on our website. Our full contact details are here. Start to do some planning By sowing and planting at the right time, you can be eating your own, homegrown produce all year round. Use the Cook’s Garden Planner, tips on our website, the internet and your school calendar to plan the year ahead. Work out who’s going to do what and when. Make up a rota for regular jobs. Start to plan ahead; what seeds will you sow in the autumn and spring? Look through the Organic Gardening Catalogue for some inspiration. Perhaps you could think about growing some unusual varieties or vegetables you have not tasted before. Keep records of what and when you sowed. Take photos of your garden regularly to record your year-round progress. Record crop yields and find graphic ways to report them.

Make some winter homes for insects As the weather starts to turn colder insects and creatures in your garden will be looking for places to shelter. You can use recycled materials to build suitable homes for them. Take a look at The Organic Gardening catalogue or do a search on the Internet to find examples of wildlife homes that have been manufactured by different companies. Which ones do you think will work best? Then follow our instructions or design and make your own winter homes for your garden friends. Lacewing Hotels Lacewings can eat up to 10,000 aphids in their life. Just what the organic gardener needs! Look at the Garden Organic factsheet on lacewings to find out more about this fascinating insect and instructions on 'how to construct a lacewing hotel' Ladybird House Most ladybirds and their young (larvae) are carnivorous, feeding on and helping to control large numbers of insect pests, particularly greenfly. Use an old plastic food container, like a margarine tub or ice cream tub. Put holes in the lid with a knitting needle or something similar. (Take care when using sharp object and get an adult to help if you need it.) Stuff the inside of the box with straw and put the lid on. Place the tub on its side, under a bush or large plant to keep it dry over the winter. Ladybirds and other predators will crawl in and be protected from the cold, rain and wind of the winter months ready to help you out in the garden come the springtime. Look at the Garden Organic factsheet on Ladybirds to find out more about this much-respected insect.

Make your own lacewing hotel to hang in a tree Learning points How many eggs do female lacewings lay? How many pairs of wings do lacewings have? What does the word carnivorous mean? What other insects do ladybirds eat?

Identification charts Make your own identification charts for insects, vegetables, flowers, fruits and trees. Use photographs, pictures from magazines, or your own artistic skills to create the chart. Research each subject and write some fascinating facts that will go with the pictures. When you go outside again you can take the charts to help you identify things in your garden and the countryside around you. To help get you started, you could download our collection of beneficial creatures photos. (PDF 800Kb).

Do you know what this will grow up to be?

Cook and be creative This is a great time of the year for cooking your fruit and vegetables as soon as you harvest them. You could also investigate all the different ways in which gluts can be preserved or stored. A glut is where lots of the same fruit or vegetables are ripe and ready for eating at the same time. Try some different recipes and let us know how you got on. Send us your favourite recipes, and photos of your culinary delights. You never know, they may even be included on our website in the future. Our contact details can be found here.

Delicious pumpkin soup

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