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| Golden leaves |
As the weather cools (chilly wind from the north these past few days), foliage is steadily turning to autumnal colours, at least on those trees that haven’t already dropped their leaves. Nothing too showy in our garden, but even here the autumn gold is visible, if less spectacular than elsewhere. There is gold in a few flowers, though, such as the rudbeckia and the Mahonia ‘Winter Sun’.
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| Mahonia 'Winter Sun' |
It will soon be time to rake up some autumn leaves and stuff them into an old compost sack, to make another sort of autumn gold – leaf mould, free soil conditioner. Last year’s bags are sitting down in the dump just waiting for me to spread their contents on the veg plot.
The true gold of autumn, however, are the crops harvested at this
time of year. The tomatoes have all been
picked and the plants cut down (leaves and stems chopped up and composted);
there are still tomatoes stored in a box in the summerhouse. All the eating apples have also been
gathered, except for a few ‘Fiesta’ that are too small or damaged to bother
about. That cordon produced up to four
fruits in a cluster and I never got round to thinning them, so the produce is
small-sized but delicious. While I was working
in the veg plot, weeding the summer beans bed in preparation for the autumn
mulching, I spotted movement in the ‘Fiesta’ cordon; there were three rats,
bold as brass (I wasn’t very far away), clambering through the tree and
nibbling at some of the apples. I threw
a damaged apple that was conveniently to hand at them, and they scarpered,
probably into the hole under the wall which I’ve known about for some time but
which is difficult to reach. I haven’t
seen them since, but in any case it prompted me to pick everything that was
undamaged – a huge boxful.
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| Oh rats - a nibbled apple |
Another annoyance is that the leeks are starting to look as though the dreaded allium leaf miner fly has infested at least some of them. I may have to harvest them and see if I can save any for freezing.
The garden’s birdlife is returning gradually. Visitors to the drinking bowls on the patio this week have included a female greenfinch, a pied wagtail and a coal tit; I don’t think I’ve seen a coal tit for a year or so, and it’s nice to know they’re still around. And there have been several owls calling in the village, making a suitably Halloween-ish noise!
