November may feel like the garden is winding down, but at the Secret Garden Distillery, the season is far from over. This is a month full of quiet activity, careful tending, and preparations that shape next year’s botanicals. While the days grow shorter, the garden is still alive with colour, fragrance, and the promise of future flavour.
Juniper Berry Harvest: A Key Botanical in Our Gin
One of the most exciting jobs in November is the juniper berry harvest, a defining moment in our distillery garden. The berries are just about ripe, turning from pale green to deep blue, ready to play their part in our juniper-led gins. The needles are notoriously prickly, so layers and heavy-duty gloves are essential when hand-harvesting.
We pick only the dark, mature berries, leaving the green ones to ripen for the following year. This careful, selective harvest supports long-term sustainability and ensures the beautifully rich juniper character found in our seasonal gins.
Caring for the Glasshouse Vines
Inside the glasshouse, the vines are slowly shedding their leaves. Once bare and fully dormant, we prune this year’s growth back to two or three buds, encouraging strong shoots for next season. Good pruning now means abundant fruit next year - fruit that inspires our internationally award-winning Pinot Noir gin and forms the basis for our Vermouth aperitif spirits.
After pruning, the vines receive a generous layer of organic matter at their base. This helps retain warmth, improves soil health, and protects the root systems over winter. Our grapes are precious, and they receive extra care at this time of year to ensure they produce a strong, healthy crop next autumn.
Late Autumn Colour at the Garden Entrance
Even in November, the beds at the entrance to the site are vibrant. Cosmos and marigolds continue flowering, while sunflowers and autumn leaves add warmth and brightness to the garden. Soon these late blooms will give way to crisp, frosty displays on the evergreen leaves and stems — the start of the winter garden’s quiet beauty.
Winter Soil Care: Building Next Year’s Botanicals
Soil care may not be the most glamorous task, but it is one of the most important we undertake. The soil and its microorganisms have worked hard all summer, supporting the botanicals that shape our gin. Now we give back.
We mulch the beds with compost or leaf mould before the frost arrives. Mulching:
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boosts soil nutrients
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increases water retention
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protects roots from freezing
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naturally suppresses weeds
Healthy soil is the foundation of exceptional botanicals, and exceptional botanicals are the foundation of our craft at the Secret Garden Distillery.
Glasshouse Cleaning: Maximising Winter Light
Winter daylight is precious, so we make sure the glasshouse is spotless. Clean glass lets in as much light as possible, helping our overwintering plants stay strong through the darkest months. It’s one of those quiet tasks that makes a big difference to our overall garden health.
A Garden That Never Sleeps
Even as winter approaches, the Secret Garden is brimming with life, preparation, and possibility. From the juniper harvest to vine pruning, from mulching the soil to cleaning the glasshouse, every task supports next year’s growth — and the future flavours of our botanical gins.
The garden may grow quieter, but it never stops working. And neither do we.
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