Autumn takes over

Its November and autumn has definitely arrived, first with warmth and wonderful colours in the trees and bushes, and now with strong winds and rain. Once these winds die down there wont be many leaves on the trees and the arrival of autumn and darkness with the clocks going back makes it all seem to happen so much more abruptly. Never mind, its still a great time of year and so much is changing so quickly.



Way back in august the day lilies were finishing. Since then they have completely died away and their spiky leaves have dried and been cut back. Schizostylis fenland daybreak then took over the boarder. Now even their vibrant but delicate pink flowers have lost a bit of their punch.

Hosta's have all but gone but still strong are the Brussels. Ive had a difficult time controlling the caterpillar populations on these plants. As there are mixed in with the flowers and shrubs of the border I have not been able to net them, hence a variety of caterpillars have enjoyed a feast. Between the thick stalked leaves are small round Brussels that should provide a good accompaniment to Christmas dinner.

The parsnips have also been doing well and it will be interesting to see how large they become when harvested. The leeks are looking good and seem to have survived the attentions of what might have been leek moth. At one stage the drooping and damaged leaves looked terminal. However in recent weeks they have all bulked up.

The apple tree is starting to shed its leaves. The apples are still on the tree and have grown to about 3cm's in diameter, not big enough to eat. I shall leave them on the tree for a while but I cant see them growing much more now. I expect that a leafless tree will be putting its energies into surviving the winter, not growing more fruit.

Lastly the runner beans have been the biggest success of the year, with much eaten and still more in the freezer. I have kept some back to dry out and provide seed for next year. Only a handful of carrots made it through the season which was disappointing. However the size of some of them has been incredible. It certainly helped growing them direct into the border and not into pots as in previous years.