After a summer of salad, beans and more squash than the pantry knew what to do with, the community garden turns to its autumn jobs this month. Garlic and broad beans go in, the beds get a deep mulch of leaf mould, and the orchard gets its first proper prune.

Saturday mornings are open to everyone. Tools, gloves and tea are provided, and nobody has ever been turned away for not knowing one end of a trowel from the other.

Dates for your diary

Our Autumn Volunteer Day on Saturday 17 October is the big one, with a bonfire lunch. Book a free place on the events page so we know how much soup to make.

The photograph is an illustration of volunteers beside a woodland stream, not a picture of our own plots.