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Sally Morgan

Sally and her husband Adrian own Empire Farm, an organic farm in Somerset.

Sally is a botanist by training and when not helping on the farm or running courses, she writes articles and non-fiction books. She has written more than 300 books to-date, on a wealth of subjects, including natural history, science, and geography. She is editor of Organic Farming magazine published by the Soil Association and writes regularly for CountySmallholder magazine. Her book, Living on an acre or less, was published by Green Books in 2016 and The Healthy Vegetable Garden, by Chelsea Green in 2021.

Sally is an avid gardener, growing her first plants at the tender age of 5, and was encouraged by both grandfathers who were keen vegetable growers. On moving to a 3-acre smallholding in Hampshire, her dream of keeping animals was realized and soon she had a menagerie of chickens, ducks, geese and a few sheep. A few years later, a visit to Rosemary Verey’s potager at Barnsley House led to development of a new kitchen garden. A lack of space (common on all smallholdings!) resulted in the move to Empire Farm.

Although the farm has 100 acres, Sally works on about 15 acres, leaving the rest to be grazed by a flock of sheep owned by a local farmer. Her main focus is her walled garden and a one-acre-plot with a polytunnel, vegetable growing areas, a perennial vegetable plot, a small orchard and fruit cage and several livestock pens. She loves to grow unusual plants, especially vegetables and experiments all the time with new techniques, always pushing the boundaries. She is particularly interested in #sustainable #resilient #lowcarbon #peatfree gardens. She runs workshops on the farm on smallholdings and climate resilient vegetable growing. She blogs about her one acre plot here and on twitter (@Sally_Morgan) and Instagram @the_organic_plot and @climatechangegarden

Sally gives talks on smallholding, growing peatfree, growing on small spaces and climate change gardening. She has been a guest speaker at numerous events including the Edible Garden Show, the Welsh Spring Festival, River Cottage Festival and the Water Resilience Summit in Totnes. She speaks regularly to gardening clubs and WI groups. She also provides consultancy on smallholding matters and climate change gardening. She is a member of the Garden Media Guild.

Recent Posts

  • Flowering times and global warming
  • Growing salvias
  • Soil health
  • It’s going to rain this week!
  • In search of good companions
  • My garden’s been flooded, what can I do?
  • Urban creep increases the risk of flooding

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Shady spots will be needed increasingly in our cit Shady spots will be needed increasingly in our cities in coming decades - a classic tree lined square in Palma Mallorca - the trees are oranges, so not just cast shade and cool the air through their transpiration but provide a welcome harvest for the residents
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#climatechange #climatechangegardening #globalwarming #treesforthefuture #citytrees #orangetree #fruittree #foodforfree #spain #balearicislands
Gardening can be so expensive and time consuming. Gardening can be so expensive and time consuming. Yet working with the natural world saves time, money and helps provide resilience against extremes of weather through climate change. From compost making and seed saving, through to mixed planting, natural pest control and much more besides, my courses at Kate Humble's fantastic skills centre will show you how. Less work, more time to enjoy your edible garden in a gorgeous setting on the farm. There are just a couple of places left on the course Sat 30th April and late June. Includes a copy of The Climate Change Garden book and plants to take home. 🐞🦋🌱🥕🍎🍓🥒 Kim www.humblebynature.com/events/climate-change-gardening/
With spring arriving ever earlier it's even more i With spring arriving ever earlier it's even more important to have a variety of flowers in the garden at this time of year to supply pollen to the pollinators that venture out. Hellebores are a good option - attractive and functional - perfect for 🐝🐝🐝
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#pollinatorfriendly #wildlifegarden #hellebore #pollinatorgarden #flowersforbees #flowergarden #springgarden #gardeningtips #gardenforwildlife #pollinators #climatechange #climatesavvygardening #climatechangegarden
Image of my climate change training gardens in Wes Image of my climate change training gardens in West Wales last summer and S4C filming for their gardening programme. Happy days. Spring is that tantalising bit closer in Feb lovely people. 💚 
Kim x

#climatechangegarden #climateaction #nodiggarden
A post from Kim today. “Resilient growing ideas A post from Kim today.
“Resilient growing ideas for 2022 … Crystal lemon cucumber and tomatillo – both are very low maintenance and productive once established with less fussy watering requirements. Clever crops!💚”

#climateaction #resilientgardening
Flowering times and global warming. We have all se Flowering times and global warming. We have all seen flowers appearing earlier than ever, such as magnolia in January.  Now the extent of the change has been revealed by a new study from a team of researchers at Cambridge University. They found that plants in the UK are flowering as much as a month earlier than just 70 years ago. ⁠
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Its long been known that temperatures in urban areas are higher than the surrounding area due to more buildings, cars and people - the urban heat island effect. But these changes are more than can be expected from urbanisation – global warming is contributing and the result is quite rapid change in our climate.⁠
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The study looked at data going back as far as 1753. ⁠
Springs are always quite variable, with spring being early one year, late the next, but the researchers looked at the longterm trends. What was clear was the impact of global warming. The opening of flowers had been pretty static over hundreds of years, but over the last 70 years, the date at which flowers open has got earlier by 5 days a decade since the 1950s.⁠
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There are differences between plants – climbing plants changed by a few days while trees were 14 days earlier. However, small plants were most affected, flowering, on average 32 days earlier. This is because these smaller plants have a fast turnover rate compared with long lived trees and higher levels of genetic adaptation. ⁠
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There are other differences -  In the south, first flowering time is on average 6 days earlier in the than the north, its 5 days earlier in urban compared with rural.⁠
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So why should we be worried? There is real concern that early flowering results in a mismatch between flowers and their pollinators, between plants and herbivores and the knock on effects on foodchains.  The impact could be considerable and has lots of ramifications for farming, conservation and more. So its so important for gardeners to have a continual supply of flowers in the garden from January.⁠
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#climatechange #phenology #globalwarming #spring #climatechangegardening #earlyspring #climatechangegarden #climateaction
Here’s a resilient veg patch must - garlic musta Here’s a resilient veg patch must - garlic mustard. It’s technically a weed but great for edibles early in the year (baby leaves in salad or cooked). I use it as self seeding ground cover around other veg during summer as it helps keep the soil protected from drying out. 🌱 Lush!💚
Kim x

#nodig #selfseeding #homegrown #gardentotable #growyourown #groworganic #nurturenature #breaktherules #gyo #organicgrowing #resilience #biodiversity #climateaction #climatechange #climatesavvygardening #lovegardening #personplateplanet
First snowdrops. It's interesting to compare dates First snowdrops. It's interesting to compare dates with previous years. Taking photos is great for this as I can look as my camera roll from previous years and it shows that snowdrops this year in the same clump were two weeks later.

#climatechange works in many different ways. Already we are seeing flowers appearing earlier than normal and this has a knock on effect on wildlife that may depend on them. .
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#climatechangeawareness #climatechange #climatesavvygardening #climatechangegarden #snowdrops #firstflowers #galanthus #flowers #loveyourgarden #snowdropsofinstagram #galanthophile #everyoneneedsnature #lovemygarden
A post from Kim today “This year let some of yo A post from Kim today

“This year let some of your plants go onto flower even if you aren’t seed saving from them. It’s amazing for wildlife and beneficial pollinators like the gorgeous hoverfly pictured. These flowers (rocket, lettuce, brassica..) are edible as well and look fab used to decorate food) Also consider seed saving for lots of future resilient plants for free. More on that soon.🥬🐝”
The turtle almost swims off !! Storm Barra depos The turtle almost swims off !! 

Storm Barra deposited a lot of water over an hour yesterday, with water collecting around the house.

As our oceans warm up, the chances of named storms rolling in from the Atlantic are more likely, depositing large amounts of rain in a short period of time. So our gardens need to be able to cope with flash floods with drains, swales and short term water shortage areas such as rain gardens.
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#climatechange #climatechangegarden #flooding #resilientgarden #ecogarden #globalwarming #flood #garden
A bit of tree planting to mark #COP26 Sally is i A bit of tree planting to mark #COP26 

Sally is incredibly luck to have a field with many veteran oaks, the oldest 250+ yrs old so they have seen a bit of climate change already - planted towards the end of the Little Ice Age, lived through storms, floods and more recently droughts. They are beginning to show their age with fallen limbs etc

So here's the next generation - grown from an acorn off this tree, and hopefully will sequester carbon for the next 200 yrs climate permitting.
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#treesofinstagram #treeplanting #oaktree #sapling #plantatree #climatechange #carbonsequestration
An English orange! This is Sally's calamondin oran An English orange! This is Sally's calamondin orange tree with lots of fruits and flowers 

It's dwarf size and so easy to grow. At this time of year she gets loads of these small, bitter fruits which you could use in preserves. The flowers are heavenly - they last for weeks with their heavy fragrant scent.

Unlike other citrus, they can cope with being in the house over winter and do well on a window ledge, before going outside again in summer.They like a regular feed too. 

Sally bought this one from @plantspennard  but there are other suppliers in the UK such as the @citruscentre which will give you plenty of advice on growing citrus in the UK.

Sally has lemon trees too but these go in a cool, frost free greenhouse for winter as they won't cope with being in a warm house. 

There is an article on Protecting fruit trees from climate change by Kim on the Countrysmallholding website www Countrysmallholding.com
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#calamondinorange #citrus #growcitrus #growyouownoranges #organicgrowing #fruittree #climatechangeawareness #climatechange #climatechangegardening #orangetree
The gingers (Hedychium) are enjoying this unseason The gingers (Hedychium) are enjoying this unseasonally warm weather. They are late this year, only just coming into flower as the cool spring put them back. But looking lovely now.

Sally has some in pots and a few in a bed beside a hot south facing wall. The pots are moved inside to cool conservatory but those in the ground are mulched and left. If grown in the ground you need plenty of drainage as they don't like cold, wet feet in winter.

 They can be grown well north - Sally has seen them forming impressive displays in gardens in #cumbria and #Northumberland 

#gingers #hedychium #hedychiumcoccineum #climatechange #climatechangegardening #walledgarden #ornamentalgarden #containergardening #gardeningtips #globalwarming
Sally's organic no-dig plot in Somerset with her p Sally's organic no-dig plot in Somerset with her polyculture approach to planting veg surrounded by lots of flowers, with a mix of raised beds, old trough, traditional beds and hugelkultur with plenty of #permaculture 
 
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#organicgrowing #gyo #climatechange #climatechangegardening #allotment #ediblegarden #vegetablegardening
Kim in her climate change garden. In West Wales. Kim in her climate change garden. In West Wales. 

Check out Kim's new blog for @dalefootcomposts on how to get started on a climate change resilient garden, with lots of tips and hints on lots of things you can do - find out about her free planting style, ways to improve your soil and making use of free resources.

Read her blog  on the Dalefoot website 
ow ly/pyu650GdSmz or buy a copy of the book direct from the authors on www climatechangegarden.uk
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#climatechangeawareness #climatechange #climatechangegarden #resilientgarden
Salvias are great drought tolerant plants. This on Salvias are great drought tolerant plants. This one is a half hardy species called Salvia Mystic Spires, great for bringing in pollinators and flowers all summer.

Read more in our latest blog www.climatechangegarden.uk
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#droughttolerant #walledgarden #climatechangeawareness #climatechangegardening #salvia #salviafarinacea #pollinatorfriendly #pollinatorgarden #flowersforbees  #beegarden #wildlifegarden
Kim's let the poppies and calendula take over even Kim's let the poppies and calendula take over even more this year and why not. Vibrant colour amongst the edibles and hoverflies, butterflies and bees galore. Nature rocks 💚🦋🐝🐞
The importance of shade. When temps soar as they a The importance of shade. When temps soar as they are now, the value of having some tall plants to create some natural shade becomes clear. Here the squash is benefitting from the shade cast by tall sunflowers and flowering parsnips.

#organicgardening #allotmentuk #allotmentgarden #squash #growveggies #shade #gyo #growsquad #growvegetables #organicgarden #climatechangegardening #climatechangegarden
Echium - a towering plant that really brings in th Echium - a towering plant that really brings in the bees and other pollinators. 

It's a half-hardy plant, native to places like the Canary Isles and Madeira, and grows in gardens in Cornwall. It's like a giant vipers bugloss! It's a member of the borage family, so no surprise bees love it.
Climate change in action. This photo of an oak tre Climate change in action. This photo of an oak tree was taken last week, compare this to the same tree last year (swipe), barely coming into leaf which is really worrying for wildlife dependent on it. Most at risk the many birds that rely on the huge number of caterpillars and other insect foods found in oak trees to feed their nestlings. The blue tits have been busy nesting but there is little food for their chicks, they need up to 1000 caterpillars a day for a large clutch and oak trees are usually the best source. They can source other foods but a fat juicy larvae is the best.
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Authors

  • 1 Kim Stoddart
    • Soil health
    • In search of good companions
    • Plants to leave in the ground
    • Saving seeds of resilience part 1
    • Wellbeing through gardening
  • 1 Sally Morgan
    • Flowering times and global warming
    • Growing salvias
    • It’s going to rain this week!
    • My garden’s been flooded, what can I do?
    • Urban creep increases the risk of flooding

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