Mulched

              Rhubarb's now in leaf, happy with a mulch of manure.

Ready, steady, sow

Now sowing indoors; peas, broad beans, tomatoes, chillis, phlox, calendula, sweet peas, rudbeckia.

Persea americana

        Three-year old avocado plant surviving the winter indoors.

Not burning down the house

More appropriate on the plains of South America than in a small urban garden, but now almost impossible to remove as the sharp blades can cut you to shreds and any attempt to set fire to it, as is traditional, would probably burn the house down. Still, at this time of year it's almost worth having.

Chopped

                      Annual pollarding of the chestnut tree.

Winter greens

Running repairs

                     The shed roof needs a bit of attention.

Winter pinks

This low growing perpetual carnation lives up to its name and is quite happy in a hanging basket.

Apium graveolens

    Celery still producing enough stems and leaves to flavour a stew.

Freezer raider

     Time to dig in the freezer through some of last year's harvest.

Signs of Spring

                                           Hazel catkins

Daphe odora buds about to open and release their sweet citrus pong.

The Future Now

From the forthcoming album, 'Maverick Action'.

Done and dusted

                 Another year closing with a light dusting of snow

Tweet

Allotment birdsong, May - October.

Forward planning

                   Boxing Day Seed Sale: 20 packets @ 30p each

Season's Eatings

Horseradish root: grate and blend with white wine vinegar and cream

       Sage: add onion, breadcrumbs and an egg for baked fritters.

Rogue Brussels

Timely harvest, but not quite as firm and uniform as shop bought brussels. Not sure where they came from - never sowed any.

Scrub that

Hard to compete with the uniformly straight and washed supermarket ones - time to get busy with a brush and some wire wool.

Borago Officinalis

Borage, aka Starflower, flowering in the last few weeks of the year.

Jasminum nudiflorum

    Winter jasmine providing a bit of colour at the end of the year.

Rage against the dying of the light

One final bunch of nasturtiums and even a late sunflower, before the temperature dips too low. The cabbages, chard and lettuce cope a bit better with the cold, as does celery, parsley and spinach, so there's still some food to harvest. Carrots and parsnips become sweeter after a frost, so there's an underground carbohydrate store too.

Unripened on the vine

 

The last of the outdoor tomatoes ripened indoors. 

Shroom Season

Mushrooms have been so ubiquitous this year (probably due to a warm, wet August) that there's even a plotline about magic mushrooms in The Archers at the moment. These unidentified ones appeared overnight, next to an old tree stump and quickly disintegrated, only to be replaced by another crop a few days later.

Late veg box

                A final colourful harvest before the frosts arrive.

Nest lining

Globe artichoke flowers keep on giving long after the blooms have faded. Softer than a shaving brush, the bristles make good material for building nests.

Cage fighters

The late sown kale's coming on but needs protection from hungry pigeons. Some late spinach refuses to grow; it might be a summer variety that notices the dwindling daylight hours.

Colour bed

Some autumn colour in the flower bed; the antirrhinums (snapdragons) are random in height and colour, the cosmos is hanging on and the rudbeckia is uniformly marmalade. Un unhappy dahlia dislikes the heavy soil and would probably rather be in a pot.

Blooming late

The sweet peas are still producing flowers this late in the year (one plant's only just getting going) but the late ones will remain unpicked, hopefully to provide seed for next year.

Jam, the freezer

                        The autumn raspberries keep on coming.

And finally

The Jerusalem artichokes finally flower after reaching ten feet. Not as impressive as sunflowers, but similar and related (Helianthus) hence the name 'Jerusalem', which may be a mishearing of the Italian for sunflower, 'Girasole'. The edible tubers below ground taste nutty and give you wind; an autumnal ritual usual only observed once. If left unharvested they spread and can become invasive. Their value as a natural screen is somewhat diminished by their habit of growing too tall and requiring support and tying-up.

Nicotiana alata

Lime green flowers and a lovely smell in the evenings from this tobacco plant. The slightly bristly leaves repel any predators.

The present's orange

Nasturtiums, almost the identical shade of orange as the pumpkins.

Month of the pumpkin

Into October and the month of the pumpkin. Some of these have a bit of marrow about them. They're not huge either, so no good for lanterns, but smaller ones often taste better.

Cox's collection

Time to harvest the Cox's apples before they drop in the gales or get pecked or nicked. They could probably do with a bit longer on the tree as the seeds don't rattle when you shake them.

Coriandrum sativum

                          Coriander in flower, seeds to follow.

Seedy business

                   Time to harvest sunflower seeds for next year.

Super spuds

Harvested the last of the Désirée potatoes and let them dry in the sun for a few hours before storing them in a paper sack - despite it being more difficult to buy paper sacks than it is to buy Désirée potatoes.

Lovely lettuce

Satisfying to be able to harvest a near daily supply of lettuce for a lunchtime sandwich. It's getting a bit chilly at night so protection under cloches is a good idea from now on and also reduces the chance of slug and bird damage.

Phantastic Mr Phlox

                          Still phlowering late into the year.

Whopping windfalls

Whopping windfall apples after recent storms make up for wind damaged sunflowers and a late night tussle with a clump of ten foot jerusalem artichokes which needed tying up.

Rambling on

These climbing/rambling roses responded well to pruning back and are producing a second flush of flowers.

Sweeties

There really is nothing like fresh sweetcorn, eaten within an hour of picking. Could never go back to tinned sweetcorn and even cobs bought in the shops are at least a few days old and taste nothing like the fresh stuff. Not such a great harvest this year - incomplete pollination - but still about a dozen cobs for immediate consumption, to give away or shove in the freezer. Also aways save one to dry out as backup seed for next year. None lost to badgers this year, but signs that birds or mice had been nibbling.

Perpetual parsley

Really handy to have a constant supply of parsley, which, like so many crops, has done well this year. On the other hand, several sowings of coriander failed to establish, being very attractive to molluscs.

Dry pod

 

These borlotti beans are best eaten fresh, not the whole pod, like runner beans and very early broad beans, but green and plump (despite the colour of the pod) like late broad beans.

           A good store of dried beans to use as seed for next year.

Cows (Grant Acid Mix) Edit

Now that the nights are drawing in, there will be more of this sort of thing. (Full music track here. ) Thanks Grant!

Embarrassment of riches

Snap the magic dragon

Late leeks

These late leek seedlings will need feeding over the coming months to provide food during the winter and perhaps flowering heads for insects next summer.