Sharing

Once again I have plenty of nasturtiums to go around. So this wonderful hairy monster (not really it is only about an inch long) is very welcome to munch on some of the seeds.

Winter makeover

Last week it was unseasonably warm around here. While I was getting ready for my winter wardrobe, the temperature swung back round to 20 degrees. Together with some rain this proved perfect conditions for the dahlias. The plants look a but scruffy because of the wind and rain, but the colours really stand out amidst the yellow and brown leaves of the trees.

The warm spell makes me hesitant to give the garden its final winter makeover, there is still so much green and because I mainly planted annuals it will look pretty bare once I am done. But one frosty night, and it can’t be that long, will turn it all to mush. So I got out my little red trowel and went to work. Who would have thought the dwarf sunflowers grew such big root systems?

Some of the late veggies are still happily going and growing. The beetroots are the size of big marbles, not sure if they will survive the winter, so perhaps we’d better eat them soon as some novelty veg. Sadly, the parsnips were rubbish (again) and I pulled them all out of the ground. Even with protective ground covers the cabbage root flies managed to wiggle their eggs in. You could almost hear the larvae munching away. And talking about munching, by the time the cavolo nero will have ended up on our plates, I will have checked every leaf a few dozen times, they were irresistible for the Cabbage whites.

Just after writing the first draft of this post, the big storm also hit our garden and snapped all the dahlias. Now I just need a dry day to lift the tubers from the ground and store them for the winter. I guess that’s also part of wanting to be a gardener, saying goodbye to your plants for the winter to come.