Nature

Autumn is a great time to start on a new plot, clear debris from abandoned beds and tidy up green waste from crops.

Celebrate success and learn from mistakes. If you haven't already, set up a compost bin and start creating your own compost for next year.

Check out www.homecomposting.org.uk for tips or contact the Department of Local Government and the Environment’s waste management unit and link up with a newly trained recruit on the Isle of Man's Master Composting volunteer team.  Ask them to help you get the most from your allotment waste.

Established plots should have a pattern of rotation going with food growing year round. Autumn is a bit special as there is abundance with sweetcorn, pumpkins, beans and marrows by the barrow full.

Daily harvesting, tidying, re sowing and mulching will keep the food coming way into the winter. One lot of onions and garlic will be drying in the sunshine or stashed away safe and the next lot are on order to go in and grow through the winter with garlic bulbs, spring cabbages, winter lettuces, broad beans perfect for planting in autumn.

Peas and beans that have finished producing can be cut at the base - leaving the nitrogen fixing nodules in the ground. The foliage can go into the compost bin along with as much disease free green and suitable brown waste you can get to build fertility in the garden next year.

Once harvested plants need cutting back and composting or looking after to survive the winter. So rhubarb crowns get a spadefuls of well rotted muck and a cover of straw, soft fruits are harvested, pruned and mulched with sheep's wool dag ends for a slow release feed, weed free base.

Bare soil is covered up with mulches or green manures to retain moisture, improve fertility and keep the weeds down.

What could be better than boiling a pan of water, picking some ripe sweetcorn and eating it dripping in Manx butter? I Did this last night followed by fresh blackberries, autumn bliss raspberries, slices of apple and a sprinkle of alpine strawberries on top - lush, lush.

Autumn is the season for preserving; it's really satisfying to open the store cupboard and see shelves of pickles, chutneys and jams, a great job on days when the weather is not so kind. Homemade preserves make great presents and in the depths of winter remind us of sunnier times as dollops of strawberries, and spicy relishes brighten up the darkness.

The most important thing is to think positive and be kind to yourself. So the slugs got 80% of your courgettes this year - but who can eat 70,000 anyway?!

The keys to successful allotment holding, and probably life too but let's not get too philosophical, are observation - it's amazing what you can learn if you look carefully, taking time and giving lots of love.

An organic, permaculture approach works with nature rather than against it using what resources we have in a designed system. Once you get into a rhythm with the land you are cultivating and listen to what it is telling you then it becomes a relaxed comfortable relationship - it should be inspiring and joyful.

If your allotment is exhausting you and your plot it's probably time to sit down and a serious rethink. A good place to start would be with the resources in the Permaculture Association libraries of books, freely available in Ramsey and Castletown libraries.