Larder

Mouse's larder

The big cotoneaster by the gate is full of bright shiny red berries as usual.  It seeds itself rather too prolifically and I had considered removing it, but it's a fine plant and the blackbirds appreciate the berries later in the winter.  Weeding round the base of the trunk, I found that the berries have other fans too; this looks like a mouse's stash of food.  The presence of the mice might explain why we had a tawny owl hooting in the nearby ash tree one evening; the owl regards our plot as its larder too!

Human food is scarcer right now, other than apples (of which there are lots, eaters and cookers).  There's lettuce and smallish leeks, and still a very few small tomatoes in the greenhouse.  The courgettes are nearly over, although I should get a few more little ones.  Plenty of parsley, chives and rosemary.  I've made a resolution to do better with crops next year, and have been sorting the leftover seeds before putting in my seed order for next year.  There are a lot of peas that didn't get sown, some from a few years back, so I've sown them in a seed tray to see if they will produce any pea shoots for salads; if not, nothing lost.  I'll get fresh seed for next year, and get myself better organised to sow it!

Today was rather showery, so a good day to start clearing up the greenhouse.  Most of the aubergine plants have been sent to the compost heap, but I reprieved one which turned out to have one teeny little fruit on it; I don't see it coming to anything but I'll give it a go.  The aubergine plants had been left in their 15cm pots and placed into the growbag, the idea being that the roots would go through the bottom of the pot into the compost below; but in fact hardly any roots made it down that far.  Maybe next year I'll just leave them in pots, and feed them more effectively (something I haven't been good at, which probably explains my lack of success with them).  The now-empty space in that growbag will be sown with salad leaves, in the hope of some greens for the winter - but I must remember to feed them!

Apart from autumn leaf colour there isn't a lot of visual interest in the garden at the moment, but it's surprising what you can find if you scavenge carefully enough.  I managed to put together eight little posies for the Harvest Supper tables and was pleasantly surprised by the results.  Choisya ternata and Viburnum tinus, both in flower, provided some basis, with a smattering of pinks, asters, dahlias, astrantia, Centaurea montana, argyranthemum, dwarf persicaria, parsley flowers and even a few scraps of sweet william, penstemon and Erysimum 'Bowles Mauve' - sometimes only two or three small flowers of each, but they made quite a colourful mix.