Home after a couple of weeks away. It’s time to gather in the results of this year’s growing, and plant out for next year.
 |
| A box of tomatoes |
The tomatoes have cropped prolifically this year, partly because two of the seven plants in the greenhouse had thrown up a sideshoot that I failed to spot in time, resulting in even more flowering and fruiting stems. Most of the trusses have now been cut and moved to the summerhouse for temporary storage (and in a few cases, late ripening). There are already several pots of tomato sauce in the freezer, and today a pot of tomato soup from the fruits that had been left in the fridge while we were away.
Lots of apples too, both for eating and cooking;
interestingly, as some growers are reporting a poor crop. The birds don’t seem to have caused too much
damage so far, so there’s no big hurry to get them all in just yet.
 |
| The last little 'Neckargold' beans |
The last of the summer beans are still waiting to be cut down, though a couple of tiny pods of yellow ‘Neckargold’ went into a stir-fry last night. There are still a very few flowers on the plants, but no chance of them coming to anything, so all can be cleared from that bed, frame and all, once the weather permits. After a warm few days late last week, it has turned chilly and wet, and not such as to encourage outdoor work.
Not everything is going to plan. On our return, I noticed that all was not
well with the row of chives by the path; close inspection showed that blackfly
had thickly infested the lot of them. It’s
time for them to die back anyway, and I hope that the bulbs themselves won’t
have been affected and that all will be fine next year (fingers crossed). There have also been clouds of whiteflies about
the garden for several weeks, although I haven’t noticed any impact on the plants.
 |
| Sickly chives! |
In a flurry of last-minute jobs before we left, I managed to plant out a few tiny seedlings in the veg plot – kales and cabbages – under plastic bottle cloches, to protect them from pigeons and pheasants, rather than against the weather. So far they seem to be mostly putting on growth and doing well. Garlic will be next to go in once the weather brightens up.
 |
| Partridges on the freshly-cut lawn |
We managed a last cut of the lawn last week; the autumn rains had made the grass grow lush, but not quite as thick as we first thought. The birds appreciated the effort; the robins were down checking for grubs, and four partridges stood in the middle of the lawn, preening for a while.
 |
| Cosmos 'Dazzler' and 'Xanthos' |
There is some colour in the garden: the cosmos is still looking good, there are nerines for the vase in the porch, and a posy of mixed antirrhinums from the rather wild ‘cutting garden’ bed for the table.
 |
| A vase of antirrhinums |
