We've been extremely busy replanting a lot of the garden, and since there is little bed prep with no dig, it's a quick job. The longest part of it, until 26th August, was watering enough to be able to get plants in the ground.

Since then, in three weeks, 78 mm/3" rain has fallen and it's also turning cooler. That has really changed the game and growth is phenomenal. With lovely comments after the Open Day 6th September:

“Although we watch most if not all of your YouTube videos, the visit was incredible to see the quality of the vegetable plants and to just soak up the vibe.” Mark and Kate Gibbins.
“We're delighted to have seen the beautiful garden in person, we came away with a lot of learnings and ideas for our own garden,” Mary

I enjoy great success with transplanting small seedlings, between 2 to 4 weeks old depending what they are. It makes much more of any small propagation space.

I do not have a large propagation area, for 2000 m² / 0.5 acre intensively cropped. It's a fast turnover of sowing and planting and resowing, straight out of the greenhouse with no hardening off. Small seedlings slide up easily out of these trays, which you can reuse immediately with no cleaning needed.

Small transplants establish rapidly, with little shock from the move.

This weekend I am teaching in Germany, next Weds 17th and also 24th are day courses here, Thursday I speak at Earthed in Hackney, London, next Saturday 20th at Yeo Valley Organic Garden Festival, and on 27th September, I'm in Ireland, giving a day course at Johnstown Castle in Wexford. There are courses in October and November also, see my events page.

Interesting results from this trial, in the harvests of Crown Prince F1 winter squash. They were the second planting in these three beds this year where already we had 47 kg turnips and greens earlier in the season.

After transplanting the squash in May, two per bed, they reached harvest this week. See my video for more details.

These squash are dense, high-value food and can store until next summer, in dry and warm conditions through winter. If the stalks of your winter squash are turning dry, and leaves are mostly dead or covered in mildew, it's a good time to harvest them over the next three weeks or so.

There are big opportunities at the moment.

Firstly if you have any spare space not needed for new plantings before next spring, scatter seeds of a green manure / cover crop of either mustard Sinapis alba, or phacelia. The former is my preference because it's killed by frost and leaves a straw-like residue of dead stems on the surface, enjoyed by earthworms. And the ground is then clear, slug free for new plantings in the middle of March.

Phacelia survives more frost than the mustard, and you will probably need to pull it in late winter or early spring, whenever you need the space for planting. Or leave it to flower until pulling it before later plantings such as tomatoes and squash.

Speed the ripening of tomatoes in soil, by giving no more water until you remove them. Plus continue to remove all side-shoots and new growth.

Big sowings in the coming week, of salad plants for cropping under cover through winter, are lettuce, endive, salad rocket, mustards such as Green Frills, chard + kale + + spinach if not already sown, claytonia, American land cress, chervil, coriander, spring onions and more.

This autumn especially, even the mature pods with dried beans inside, are not fully dry when harvested. I lay them in a thin layer in the thin wide crates, to stay in the conservatory, preferably on a sunny windowsill, for up to 2 weeks.

To store as dried beans, the pods must be almost dry to the touch when you pick them. If they are still soft, the beans inside are swollen and are good to eat fresh at that point, but will lose quality if picked and then dried from that stage of maturity.

The video shows how you can then extract beans quickly from the pods once they are fully dry.

This is a good time to be prepared with compost for next years potting mix, to sow in trays and module cells. Last week, Adam was turning an eight month old heap, and we noticed it's excellent quality, plus that it was suitably dry (though still moist) to pass through a 10 mm sieve. It's now in sacks in the shed, for use next spring.

My favourite time to sow, when it's possible, is two to 5 days before full moon. This results in larger plants of excellent quality, which also store well. See the celeriac example below, photos taken this week from sowings in March on two different dates.

I explain about this in my New Energies book, available on my website. Sadly, we cannot ship anymore to the US because of customs tariffs and the hurdles created by customs around those duties. Fortunately, they do not apply to digital products and the book is available in digital format

Despite the declining daylight, it's a lovely time to be in the garden.

I hope that the next few weeks bring you joy, and abundant harvests.