Autumn has arrived and although the summer is over it's a lovely time of year. In fact, I enjoy having seaons. I don't think I could live somewhere without them! On fine days the bees are very busy in the autumn sunshine visiting the scabious and sedum flowers. As ever there is much to do in the garden - mostly to do with tidying up. Mark has given the box hedge it's annual trim and tidied up the beech hedge for the winter. Although the beech leaves die the plants retain the leaves on the young growth throughout the winter so now is not the time to cut back hard. We'll do that next year where it's needed.

The runner beans have almost come to an end and I have taken down one large wigwam. The roots fix nitrogen so I have left the roots in the soil and put the above ground material in the compost bin. There are still some Kenyan beans but they too are nearly finished. The courgettes are virtually exhausted but I am still picking one or two a couple of times a week. I'll leave the plants for a little longer yet. I still have 3 tomato plants with fruit. And the tomatoes picked from the diseased plants have been ripening well on the window sills. So it hasn't been a total disaster on the tomato front this year. In fact I have been pleased with the crop considering how dire it looked earlier in the summer.

Every trace of green in one of the troughs with carrot seedlings has been chomped away by some creature. I'm waiting a few days to see if the seedlings recover if not I will sow a few more. The spinach seedlings are growing well but not yet big enough to harvest. I am thinking of putting some more in the large half barrel when the kenyan beans come out.

One of the highlights in the garden at the moment is a glorious chrysanthemum. I bought it a couple of years ago whereupon it immediately went into decline. Last year it didn't do much so this spring I replanted it together with a good dose of slow realease fertiliser. I have made sure that it didn't dry out during the summer and all that care has been rewarded with a magnificant display which cheers every time you come through the gate.

Well, perseverance has paid off - our first tomato! Here is a picture of it. The variety is tumbler. Mark and I ate half each. The flavour was good but the skin was a bit tough. Speaking with other friends who have had a tomato harvest this year that seems to be a common problem. Still we have tomatoes! I said previously that the Tumbler plants seem to be more robust against the blight. Typically we lost one of the Tumblers soon after. I have 5 plants left, 3 Red Alert and 2 Tumbler, Mostly they are now leafless because I am cutting off anything at the first sign of blight. I am removing the trusses from the plants that have developed blight on their stems and they are ripening well on a sunny windowsill. We have been eating the tomatoes cooked, either grilled or baked with a little olive oil and a pinch of salt, and the flavour of both varieties is superb.

The carrots seeds that I sowed in the troughs are now showing through. We got some more compost and I sowed a couple more rows in the third trough. I also put some spinach, variety Campania from Marshalls, in one of the large pots (after replaceing the top few inches of compost). These seeds are large and a jade colour so very easy to see and sprinkle thinly on the compost. They have already come through. There are sufficient seeds in the packet for several sowings. The packet says to sow February - September. I maybe able to get another sowing in this year otherwise I will wait to early next year.

There were some sage plants in the garden, one purple and two green, that had got very woody. I decided it was time to get rid of them and start again. I have taken some cuttings (3" heel cuttings) and there were a few stems which had rooted which I potted up. So we will have some new plants for the garden and to give to friends who have asked for some. I don't use the sage for cooking so much as for making sage tea when colds and sore throats strike.  I hope the colds hold off long enough for the plants to grow big enough to pick leaves from! The plants have to be replaced every few years (i had left it a bit too long this time). In future I will replace them one at a time so that we always have a decent sized plant available.

We have had a couple of pots planted with pinks either side of the front door over the summer. The flowers are coming to an end now and so last week I bought a dozen pansies in the Farmers Market in Poole which I am going to pot up to take their place. I have put a few of the pansies in one of the Ali Baba pots on the patio. The pot has quite a deep rim but one of the flowers has now popped it's head up above the rim. I see a lovely big purple flower every time I open the back door... and I have to smile.

The carrots growing in pots are the size of my little finger and so further thining out was required this week giving us more yummy baby carrots to eat! The carrots are now spaced approximately a couple of inches apart and won't need any further thinning. We just need to be a little patient and wait for them to grow a bit bigger before pulling them to eat. I had a photo for you but blogger doesn't seem to want to let me add any images today.

The Kenyan beans that were growing in the little plastic troughs have now finished. The plants have been put in the compost bin and the compost that they were growing in spread on the garden. I have planted some carrot seed in a couple of the troughs and will do so in the third when I get some more compost. As the troughs aren't that deep I have planted the spherical variety Lisa from Marshall's which is particularly suitable for pots.

The garden has been looking very thirsty, particularly the hydrangeas and runner beans, so the rain a couple of days ago was very welcome. Not so the fierce winds which have beaten everything down and blown over pots and parasol (not quite sure why I put this out as it's hardly been used all summer!). I am still persevering with the tomato plants, cutting off any sign of blight and sacrificing some trusses in the hope of saving others. This has meant that the plants are a little top heavy and/or unbalanced and so the poor plants have been blown over several times in spite of me putting bricks on the pots. I grew two varieties this year. Red Alert and the patio variety Tumbler. At the risk of tempting fate Tumbler seems to have been the more robust of the two in resisting the blight. I have had to remove some plant material but nowhere near as much as for the Red Alert plants.

All the onion have been lifted now. We have enough onions and large shallots to last us a good few months. I planted the sets in various places around the garden and it has been interesting to see the difference in the resulting onions. Those growing between strawberries next to the path in full sun have grown quite large while those just a few yards away but which are shaded for part of the day are much smaller. In fact a couple of them haven't increased in girth at all and are the same size as when I put them in.

The annual scabious are a delight with white, purple and pinky mauve flowers. The dahlias have been great as well. The flowers are not so large now and the colours not so vibrant but beautiful all the same. We have yellow Graham Thomas roses outside the back door. They are having a final flourish and are a joy to see when you step outside.