Don't lay your tools down just yet
This time of year many traditional agriculturalists are beginning to see the end of the season in sight.
They’re beginning to clean up their tools, put them in the shed, and they’re getting ready for the off-seasons of autumn and winter. The permaculturalist on the other hand sees this time of transition not only as the time to plan for winter but also as an opportunity to build towards a more productive and sustainable future.
This is not only the time of year to begin thinking about harvesting and storing those root veggies for winter, and for figuring out how to preserve the last of the year’s harvest for winter sustenance, but it’s also the time to be directly working to build the backbone of our permaculture spaces which is perennials. When thinking about our spaces, we are always working towards something that is more sustainable on its own, requiring less of our time and energy and the way to achieve that is with perennials that come back year after year.
Autumn is the perfect time to both add new perennials and to care for the ones that we already have. Planting new fruit trees and others perennials in autumn gives them time to begin establishing their root systems prior to winter dormancy.
The time to store up energy before their slumber will help to ensure that when spring roles around, your new plantings are healthy and successful. When the spring thaw comes along, they will have had months of root growth and will have the ability to support more robust growth.
This is also a great time for pruning. Many people are fearful of pruning thinking that they will damage or even kill their plants. Don’t be too shy about this as pruning is essential to removing worrisome growth and ensuring even, healthy growth. Many people prune during the winter ; where this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it many not be getting you exactly where you want to be going. Pruning in the autumn will allow your plants to refocus more energy below ground before winter comes, storing it in their roots. When spring comes, they will have more energy to put into flower production than their counterparts who continued putting energy in growth further into the autumn. Fruit comes from the flower so this is what we want!
Remember, although the transition is coming and before we know, autumn and winter will be upon us, don’t give in to the temptation to put your feet up just yet. These next few weeks can ensure that next year’s production is that much better!