LAST month I was extolling the virtues of making your own leaf mould, and now there is really no excuse as most of the leaves have fallen on the ground. In my enthusiasm in encouraging everyone to collect leaves and bag them into bin liners, I omitted to advise to puncture said bags with small holes, as the bacteria needed to break down the leaves also needs air to do their job.

Last year’s leaf mould has already been tipped out at the allotment as a mulch, and though I collected what seemed like four large bags, I was surprised how little it actually makes, but it is completely free and hassle-free to produce.

Open, bare soil is not a natural state and now is the time to give it a little pampering.

Mulching provides a protective layer over the winter months, helping to prevent erosion of the soggy or frozen earth as well as providing much needed nutrients.

As well as leaf mould, you can use homemade compost, well-rotted manure, composted bark or composted green waste available fromWiltshire Council’s recycling facility at Churchfields and Amesbury.

If you take your own bags to the recycling facility, you can fill them up yourself for £1 per bag, or if you prefer, you can buy them ready bagged for £2 per bag. I’m not convinced that the composted green waste has any nutrients left in it, as it is heat treated, but it certainly works as a soil improver and mulch.

WatchingThursday night’s Autumnwatch acted as a pertinent reminder to feed our feathered friends over the winter months. Pesky magpies are a bit of a nuisance at the allotment, eating everything in the wire mesh feeders meant for smaller birds.

By watching from the shed window I witnessed an enormous magpie clutching onto the wire and shaking the peanuts out to the delight of three smaller magpies on the ground greedily devouring the bounty.Thankfully, they don’t seem to have grasped the seed feeders, but I am on the lookout for a peanut feeder with an outer wire cage that only the smaller birds can fit through.