Plums, beans and Big Bertha

Plums.  Plum jam, plum chutney, plum sauce, frozen plums, plum tart, plum cake, plum frangipane, plum vodka.  And just eaten as plums.  Plums given to friends, neighbours and anybody, really.  The freezers are full up.  And the apples are still to come (actually some of the Discoveries are already dropping).  The beans have been less prolific, but we were garden-sitting for neighbours and have gained a whole load of frozen French beans as a result.  I won't have to buy beans for a long time ....

The plums were a magnet for blackbirds; we counted eight in and under the tree at one point.  Then they just seemed to disappear; I haven't seen any of the youngsters for days, so I assume they've just scattered now.  Mum, and another adult female, are still around.  There were a few wasps but not too much damage.  Now that the tree has shed its load for another year, I've got in there with the pruning saw and loppers and taken out as much dead wood as I can reach, as well as most of the crossing and badly-placed branches.  It's a little late to be doing that but I hope it should avoid the dreaded silver leaf disease.

Something has been eating courgettes on one of my plants (just one - why?).  There are teeth marks, so I'm guessing it's the squirrel, who has been at the cobnuts.  I've been harvesting the courgettes while still small, which I hope will put him off.  The tomatoes are doing well, and there are now two aubergines coming along.

Dahlia, cosmos and anemones

On the flower front, the cosmos are doing well now, and the asters are just starting.  The few surviving didiscus are flowering - small but pretty; the salpiglossis is still soldiering on, but the ipomoea has flowered itself out, I think.  The ammi is a no-show, and the single cleome has died for no apparent reason.  The two zinnias are looking healthy but without flowers.  The dahlias are producing on and off; they probably need a richer soil than I've given them.  The sweet william that I overwintered are now starting to flower, alongside the pinks which are still doing well.  Enough to keep us in cut flowers; this week, the dark dahlia looks good with the deep pink cosmos and the pale pink Japanese anemone.

Ginger lily flower spike

In the greenhouse, I've been watching the ginger lily with interest.  I acquired it at the spring plant sale and have been fascinated by the way it threw up its new growth and gradually unfurled leaf after leaf.  When it got to the top of the spike I thought that was going to be it for this year (apparently they sulk a bit for the first year after being divided), but this week I noticed the beginnings of a flower spike, so I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next!


The summer weather lasted into August, but last weekend we had the tail-end of Hurricane Bertha, which brought heavy rain and knocked things about a bit; no real damage apart from a couple of bent cosmos plants, but the weather has now become much cooler and breezy with showery spells.  It's back into long sleeves, with a sweatshirt at times, and the occasional thought about putting the heating back on; there are a couple of cold nights forecast for this week (single figures).  I've already started putting the tender plants (the house plants, the chilli peppers and the brugmansias, which haven't flowered) back into the greenhouse at nights.  Everything is looking and feeling quite September-ish.

Although the baby blackbirds are gone, they have been replaced by baby robins.  We had three of them on the patio the other day; they appear a bit wary of each other, and there has been some scrapping, but nothing too serious.  An adult has been chasing at least one of them away, though.  Still lots of sparrows, including little ones being fed, and dunnocks, but in general the feeding frenzy is lessening; there must be lots of food available out in the fields.  The swifts are long gone, but the swallows and house martins are still around; a female bullfinch was about today, and there has been a flock of what I think are willow warblers, including little ones being fed, flitting from tree to tree and making an enormous twittering.  They're very hard to see in all the foliage, especially as they don't stay still.  There have also been a good number of butterflies: peacocks, red admirals and small tortoiseshells, although I've also seen a brimstone and a speckled wood.