For the next few months, the best thing you can do for your garden is very little | Alys Fowler

Leave old stems, seedheads and autumn leaves. Your soil - and the worms - will thank you for itI know, I know, the fun of gardening is the doing ... but for the next few months, aiming to achieve very little is the kindest, wisest thing you can do. Soil that is actively growing plants, be that weeds or a crop, is much more resilient than soil that is left bare. Clearing the surface and digging the bed over damages the soil. Leave old pumpkin stems, spent bean plants and seedheads; allow leaves to blow across and rest where they find shelter; let the final flurry of annual autumn weeds, such as bittercress, sow thistle and chickweed, spring up - and walk away. Continue reading...