Starting to Winter the Garden at L’Oasis

The garden at L’Oasis is central to the ethos and values of the River Festival. It’s been created as both a wildlife haven and provides a rich harvest of vegetables and fruit to share with friends.

It’s early October and although the sun is still shining in the day, it is time to start wintering the garden. I have some help for the next two weeks from Harriet/ Harry who is staying to help with the garden.

It gives me a huge amount of satisfaction reading and researching new methods and plant species. My second year, I am learning a huge amount about the changing seasons and the work that needs to be done. I am also learning to follow my intuition and do things my way. I have learnt that I love a mix of wild and manicured. Plants I have left to go to seed or flower have become a haven for insect life and delivered beautiful surprises such as the bare coriander sticks with their precious seeds at the top or the vibrant purple artichoke flowers.

The first wintering job was to tame the herb spiral. My first foray into permaculture, their clever design takes advantage of vertical growing, gravity and the different growing requirements of a variety of herbs and medicinal plants. This amazing herb garden makes the best use of sunlight and water.

A raised garden bed, built in the shape of a spiral from stones gathered from neighbours and the river, the centre is taller than the surrounding layers that circle down to ground level. The design allows one side to receive full sun, whilst the other sides are more protected and shaded at certain times of day and the water drains from the top to the bottom. I try to only use recycled and found items to use to build things in the garden so at the moment I am on the hunt for something that can form a small pond at the bottom to attract further wildlife such as frogs.

Therefore, there are several microclimates in a single bed and I have many thriving herbs now with rosemary at the top that needs dry conditions to different varieties of mint at the bottom which needs more shade and moisture.

Harry helped weed, save the parsley and coriander seeds and tame the mint. We left some of the flowering plants as the insects adore them. We’ve already used some of the seeds in cooking this week and I will try and plant my verveine transplants on the south facing side (currently planted in egg boxes) to see how well they can survive the colder months. There are some plants that should survive the winter with mulch so that’s a job for the coming weeks before the first frost.

Harry has a lovely calm energy and volunteers at a community garden in Sheffield and it is so wonderful to have some support with the myriad of jobs to do. Tomatoes had self-seeded everywhere this year and provided great crops in all sorts of surprise places. The next wintering job was to clear the young cherry tree of weeds and take the bindweed off the lavender around the tree and harvest the tomatoes, pinching out any flowers to let the plant know it was time to concentrate on ripening the existing fruit rather than creating more. It is time to conserve its energy. We harvested all the ripe tomatoes on the main bamboo frame and pinched out the new growth to encourage ripening. Batches of delicious tomato sauce was made for the freezer.

As the sun is still bright in the daytime, it’s been a great opportunity to paint the wood surfaces such as the trellis and seat and any wooded furniture with protector. The winters can be hard here and I want to protect what I have rather than replace.

It’s going to be a busy week ahead in the garden although I can’t wait. It gives me such a deep sense of satisfaction and a huge amount of pleasure to have my hands in the soil and see progress and help plants to thrive or now, help them to sleep and survive. The main focus this weekend will be to build a Hugel bed and a layered raised bed, as part of the new permaculture mandala I’ve planned for next year. There will be twelve beds in all once it is completed. I’ve been busy gathering all the materials needed such as leaves, wood, manure and compost. Everything is foraged or recycled. I’ve ordered the trees – both fruit and forest for planting in November. The garden at L’Oasis is a continually evolving story – my sanctuary.