Fruit, Veg, Flowers and Slugs

The autumn tidy is well underway on my plot with more and more bare soil becoming visible on the vegetable plot as crops are harvested and cleared and less and less blooms appearing across the flower beds. The leaves are beginning to fall from the Cherry tree and with the clocks having gone back a few days ago the nights are, of course, drawing in. The outdoor tomatoes are long since finished and those in the Greenhouse also now cleared away and composted replaced with the Agapanthus in pots that will overwinter under the cover of glass. With the relatively warm weather we had in September, and at times almost monsoon-like bouts of rain, the runner bean plants were still producing into October and I actually ate the last of the fresh picked beans in the first week of November. Those plants have also now been cleared and composted. An entire 'Dalek' bin of compost has been added to that bed. once it was weeded, with some manure to be added yet. The bed will then be left to rest

Perhaps it is because I garden and as such become more attuned to the seasons, but I quite enjoy the onset of autumn. The shorter days, the s oftening light, the changes in the garden and the world around us as everything prepares for winter; there is a certain beauty to it. That said, there is plenty to be getting on with readying the garden for the weeks ahead and into next year.    The English Lavender has already been pruned back with the flowers now finished meaning the Miscanthus Indian Summer grasses are now the highlight of that bed. The plan for this bed was for the bronze stems and feathery seedheads of the grass to sit beautifully behind the green/silver foliage of the mounded Lavender plants and it is working I am happy to report and thus far the grasses are withstanding the battering they have received from all the recent wind and rain. It has to be said, though we haven't had it as bad as some parts of the country, the garden as a whole has withstood the storms pr

  As I write this article in early September, I am sitting in the garden in thirty-degree heat ; what a crazy summer of weather we have had this year. Most of my time of late has been taken up with the harvest o n the vegetable patch. At least twice a week I am blanching and freezing Runner Beans and the bottom tr a y of my freezer is already full. They are a great vegetable to have on your patch and I would encourage everyone to grow them as they will supply you with bean s throughout the summer and into autumn with plenty over to freeze ready for roast dinner s through the winter months. The Tomatoes have been cropping like crazy and when not dealing with the beans I have been bus y making Tomato Ketchup and BBQ Sauce. The Buffalo Steak tomato plants r emain ladened and t he re’ll be a few more hours spent making sauce before the season is over .    My recipe for Tomato Ketchup is pretty standard though I have tweaked it a little down the years; if you are interested it ca