Episode 675-Autumn Inspiration at Audley End: Walled Gardens, Wildlife Ideas & Seasonal Growing Motivation
The Veg Grower PodcastShow Notes
This week Richard takes us out of the kitchen garden and allotment and over to Audley End House in Essex for the Gardeners’ World Autumn Fair — the final show of the year and a perfect chance to gather fresh inspiration as we head into autumn.
Victorian Walled Gardens & Orchard Training
Richard begins his visit in the Victorian kitchen gardens, admiring productive orchard beds, fan‑trained fruit trees and beautifully maintained glasshouses. Apples, pears, asparagus and late‑season veg are thriving despite the challenging summer, and the structure of the garden reinforces that his own move toward a more formal, kitchen‑garden layout at home is the right direction.
Make a Metre Matter: Lucy Chamberlain’s Autumn Garden
Richard then meets up with Lucy Chamberlain to explore the final instalment of her Make a Metre Matter project — nine themed square metres designed to show what can be achieved in small spaces.
Highlights include:
Wildlife habitats for autumn and winter, using windfall apples, moss, bamboo canes and log piles
Woodland ecology, with bracket fungi and chestnut stumps supporting stag beetle larvae
Heat‑loving edibles like tomatoes, aubergines, chillies and basil to extend the harvest
Edible flowers and vertical veg for colour and productivity
A feature wormery, proving composting can be attractive as well as practical
Heat‑tolerant crops such as curly kale and Malabar spinach
Hardy winter salads including chicory, radicchio and mizuna
Leaf mould demonstrations showing the stages of decomposition
A metre dedicated to winter casserole ingredients — beetroot, carrots, kale, potatoes and swede
The garden offers practical, achievable ideas for changing climates and small spaces, and gives Richard plenty of inspiration for his own plot.
Recipe of the Week
Back in the kitchen, Richard shares a warming aubergine and tomato gratin with a crispy potato topping — a perfect way to use up late‑summer veg before autumn fully settles in.
Show Highlights & Heading Home
A wander around the stalls reveals end‑of‑season bargains and familiar exhibitors. Richard picks up a few gifts and a robin‑on‑a‑spade ornament before heading home, feeling motivated to make the most of warm soil now and shift into infrastructure work as winter approaches.
More from The Veg Grower Podcast
I can cope with working in the cold. Working in the rain is another matter. With plenty of showers this week, I’ve found myself moving more of my gardening under cover — and growing food indoors has become the thread running through this episode.There are young plants filling the shed, cold frames back in position in front of the greenhouse and clear benches at the allotment where the tomato plants used to be. Inside the house, the kitchen windowsill and growing shelves are part of the picture too.It might be the middle of October, but I’m not putting the garden away. I’m making room for what comes next.
Autumn is full of useful materials that gardeners can turn into next year’s fertility. In episode 679 of The Veg Grower Podcast, Richard makes the most of fallen leaves, prepares to store wood ash safely and shares practical ways to keep growing costs under control.
October may bring shorter days and cooler temperatures, but there is still plenty to do in the productive garden. In this week’s episode, I’m sowing crops for winter and next spring, preparing allotment beds, making a warming marrow curry and checking in on Alysda and Lisa’s new vegetable garden.
The end of September can look like the garden is winding down, but this week it felt more like a fresh beginning. Moist weather brought a burst of growth to the kitchen garden, the allotment continued to provide generous harvests, and autumn sowings offered the promise of food through winter.
In episode 676, the focus is on looking ahead to the next growing season through essential autumn tasks. The small but important jobs of planting garlic, sowing hardy leaves, and preparing protected growing spaces for the shorter days are explored in detail.