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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.

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 interested in #sustainable #peatfree gardens. She blogs about her one acre plot here and on twitter (@Sally_Morgan and Instagram @sallymorgan_empirefarm and @climatechangegarden

Sally gives talks on smallholding, growing peatfree, growing on small spaces and climate change gardening. She has been a guest speaker at the Edible Garden Show, the Welsh Spring Festival, River Cottage Festival and most recently at 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

  • 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
  • Plants to leave in the ground
  • Saving seeds of resilience part 2

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Looks like a long-tailed furry has been raiding it Looks like a long-tailed furry has been raiding it's winter stash of my walnuts. Thanks to its autumn activity I didn't get any walnuts, but I have quite a few walnut seedlings from previous years stashes
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#walnut #walnutshell #squirrel #nut #tree
Another weird fungus, this time a cup fungus calle Another weird fungus, this time a cup fungus called peziza which I found growing over the surface of some straw-based mulch. They are fragile and come and go but show there is plenty of fungal life in the soil
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#fungi #peziza #fungiofinstagram #fungus #decomposition #soilhealth #soillife #organicgardening #organicgardener #organicgarden #soil #weirdfungi
There's some weird stuff appearing in our fields a There's some weird stuff appearing in our fields at this time of year! It looks pretty disgusting, like the innards of some poor animal but it's fungal and it's getting larger by the day. It's a jelly fungus. Not sure which - possibly a star jelly. It's the type of thing you walk past without a second glance but it's really worth getting down on your knees for a closer look - they are fascinating organisms! 
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#fungiofinstagram #fungi #fungiphotography #weirdfungi #jellyfungus
A bit of #rewilding, here's a wander around a 2 ac A bit of #rewilding, here's a wander around a 2 acre field that I'm rewilding, we dug out a half acre pond 15 yrs ago and created some mounds divided by gullies from the spoil to diversify the habitats for colonisation, we had lots of weeds to start but then the willow arrived, followed by oak. I counted 7 young oak trees, some ash plus blackthorn spreading from surrounding hedgerow.Towards the end of the video you can see the pond surrounded by willow and poplar and the grassy area that is a damp wildflower meadow  which attracts loads of butterflies and bees in summer
A mini treasure trove! Lifted some fallen leaves i A mini treasure trove! Lifted some fallen leaves in my Victorian lean-to and underneath I found 20 ground beetles sheltering in a crevice. Brilliant natural predators, no wonder I don't see many slugs under the overwintering pots!
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#naturalpredator #naturalgardening #predator #groundbeetle #organicgardening #organicallygrown #noslugs #beetle #insect #gardenwildlife
#sage this plant has been producing loads of shoot #sage this plant has been producing loads of shoots all year and still going strong, needless to say the #dehyrator gas been busy and I have plenty of dried sage for cooking is it didn't do well in the main beds as I have heavy clay soil but took off when moved to a well drained bed at the bottom of a south facing wall
Snails! Uncovered this cluster when collecting lea Snails! Uncovered this cluster when collecting leaf litter, hunkered down for the winter, left them alone as on the wall well away from garden
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#snails  #hibernation #overwintering #gardenpests #leaflitter #walledgarden #walledkitchengarden #gardening #gardenanimals #molluscs #shell
Productive session clearing leaves from the drive, Productive session clearing leaves from the drive, these will be left to compost and form leaf mould - an  essential element t for diy potting compost in 2022. So easy - just collect those leaves! #gardenlockdownjobs
Velvet shank growing on a dead wych elm, pops up e Velvet shank growing on a dead wych elm, pops up every year on the same tree.

Sadly we've lost most of the young elm trees on the farm over the last few years. Elm seedlings pop up everywhere, in the hedges and scrubby margins. They grow really quickly but once they get to a certain size the elm beetles find them and within a season they are dead. It's been a bad couple of yrs and we have lots of young dead trees most around  7 /10 years old, but even  three year old saplings succumbed this year, probably stressed by the dry spring. Those which are trimmed in the hedge tend to survive as they are kept small and masked by the presence of other spp around them.

#dutchelmdisease #elm #fungi #fungusphotography #velvetshank #deadtree #mushroomsofinstagram #organicgardening #organicfarm #mushroomphotography #fungiphotography #fungiofinstagram
Giant Bolivian Achocha glut 🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒 o Giant Bolivian Achocha glut 🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒 on the way, it's growing in the polytunnel and taking over from the #trombocino #courgette glut. Lost crop of the Incas

useful crop which I use in stir fries while larger fruits are hollow so I remove the large black seeds and stuff them. Easy to grow, somewhat rampant climber! Doesn't seem to suffer from mildew. You can get seed from @realseeds
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#polytunnel #achocha #achochaglut #vegetablesofinstagram #vegetablegarden #growtoeat #GYO #ediblegarden #growingfood #organicgardening #organicallygrown #polytunnelgrowing #climbingplants #incas
Still plenty to harvest and the #courgette glut co Still plenty to harvest and the #courgette glut continues .... Last of the squash and a trawl of the #polytunnel 
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#ediblegarden #vegplot #polytunnellife #growtoeat #organicgardening #organicallygrown #leek #chard #allotmentuk #allotments #squash #achocha #GYO #allotmentgarden #harvest #vegetablesofinstagram #vegetablegarden #vegetablegardening #growingfood #greenfingers #permaculture #selfsufficiency #selfsufficient #climatechangegarden #healthygarden
They are still busy! Cabbage white caterpillars 🐛🐛🐛 munching the nasturtiums, not seen them active so late in the year before!, no doubt they will pupate and overwinter ready to pop out early next year, need a hard frost to finish them off.
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#caterpillar #cabbagewhite #nasturtium #gardenpests
Nasturtiums still flowering well. I liked the dept Nasturtiums still flowering well. I liked the depth of colour of this one spotted in the #kitchengarden at @thenewtinsomerset but no idea of the variety.
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#flowersofinstagram #kitchengarden #ediblegarden #flowergarden #annualflowers #pollinatorgarden #autumncolours #autumnflowers #easytogrow
Humm, #kalettes growing well but #whiteflies also Humm, #kalettes growing well but #whiteflies also doing well, clustered around the apical bud. They have been netted so I think they have benefited from the sheltered microhabitat and lack of predators. Now decision - remove the nets but risk pigeon damage, or leave nets and hope the rain this week knocks them back.
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The viper looking great at The Newt in the early m The viper looking great at The Newt in the early morning light. I'm lucky to have this stunning garden just 10 mins up the road so I can pop in when the garden is quiet at 9 am, perfect for photography
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#gardenblogger #somersetgardens @thenewtinsomerset #gardenarchitecture  #woodland
#autumncolours are coming on our #oaktrees, I find #autumncolours are coming on our #oaktrees, I find it really difficult to walk past without getting my phone out. Looking at last year's photos, we're two weeks ahead of 2019
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#autumn #fallvibes #leaveschanging #countryside #somerset #organicfarm
Caught in the act, black slug laying eggs, fortuna Caught in the act, black slug laying eggs, fortunately in the field!
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#slugs #gardenpests #blackslug #gardening #molluscs
#piccalilli time, great to use all the veg from th #piccalilli time, great to use all the veg from the #garden and use up those #courgettes, really easy to make, this made by my other half, now in cupboard mellowing, ready for the new year
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#gyo #ediblegarden #imadethis 
 #growveg, #pickles #preservingtheharvest #preservation #vegetablegarden #mustard
Another idea from the #kitchengarden at @the_pig_ Another idea from the #kitchengarden at  @the_pig_hotels nr  Honiton,  raised beds along the wall for brassica with substantial frame for  butterfly nets and a #trapcrop of nasturtium
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#brassica #nasturtium #walledgarden #growtoeat #ediblegarden  #ediblegardening #gyo #potager #growinggreens #organicallygrown #devon #vegetablegarden
Managed to get to @the_pig_hotels at coombe befor Managed to get to  @the_pig_hotels at coombe before the storm and enjoy the #kitchengarden, always plenty to admire and take away ideas including this #bughotel on a sunny wall
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#walledgarden #bughabitat #gardenwildlife #gardenwildlifeuk
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Authors

  • Kim Stoddart Kim Stoddart
    • Soil health
    • In search of good companions
    • Plants to leave in the ground
    • Saving seeds of resilience part 1
    • Wellbeing through gardening
  • Sally Morgan Sally Morgan
    • It’s going to rain this week!
    • My garden’s been flooded, what can I do?
    • Urban creep increases the risk of flooding
    • Saving seeds of resilience part 2
    • Climate change gardening at RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival

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