Secret Garden Distillery in October sees the last of the harvest which will be store for use next year in our premium gins

Our Garden in October 🍂 🍁 🌰

Our Gardeners have been so busy with the last of the harvesting this month butb. our Head Gardener Erika has had time to pen her regular blog ....

October comes with great changes in the garden. Everything (aside from us gardeners) slows down. The drying rooms are still full but that will change in the next few weeks. Where the trays were before filled with petals and leaves, they are now instead covered in roots. The only things left on our harvesting list for the season are the juniper berries and angelica roots. Although, we will probably manage one more lemon verbena harvest before they go fully dormant. Lemon verbena is in high demand, both for the lemon verbena gin and the tea, so we want to make sure to harvest as much as possible to last us through the winter.

Now that weeds are slowing down, it frees up time for other garden tasks. One of my favourite tasks is transplanting. This season we have already transplanted yarrow, joining the echinacea in the rose garden. We have also transplanted wood avens, and now have two full beds to enjoy next year.

Beds of botanicals that are used in making the Secret Garden Distillery's premium range of gins

Other garden tasks that we spend time on at the moment are: mowing the lawns for the last time this season; we are also taking cuttings of plants such as hyssop, mints, thyme, anise hyssop and lavender. These will be planted next spring or summer, to fill gaps in the garden or increase the number of plants needed to meet our harvesting targets. We have also made a few autumnal wreaths that will be for sale in the shop, using only material from the garden.

In October the Secret Garden Distillery Team take cuttings of plants we use to make our premium craft gins and propgate them for planting in the garden at the foot of the Pentland Hills in Edinburgh next year

Summer is for maintenance and ensuring that the plants have everything they need, such as water, enough space and to minimise competition from weeds. Winter, on the other hand, is more about progression than maintenance. We improve the garden. This year that will include exchanging the wooden edging to the beds, we will mulch the beds with organic matter and prune the vines in the glasshouse amongst other things.


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