Wrap up the vegetable beds for winter and brew up a broth

Make your vegetable beds cosy and warm now and don’t neglect yourself either, advises Fiann Ó Nualláin, who provides a healthy and hearty broth recipe to get you through the cold, winter weather.

December is the month of wrapping presents. It is also the time to wrap up tenders in the garden. A time of year for the bubble-wrap, hessian, straw and chicken wire supports. And while it is time to think about wrapping up the gardening for winter, there are still things to be done now – actions that will be rewarded come next spring. So do a task this weekend that’s actually a present for yourself – go cover any bare soil.

Now that a good deal, if not all of the harvest is up and the rains coupled with any recent top dressing have replenished the ground with vital nutrients, it’s the perfect time to protect from the elements and stop nutrients leeching out. Covering now will help even heavy clay soil warm up quicker in spring, and prevent weeds colonising in the interim. The few months of protection will benefit the edible gardener with earlier sowings of brassicas, legumes, spinach as well as early carrots, parsnips, non-bolting beetroot etc.