Along the retaining wall we have a lavender hedge. Usually at this time of year I remove the dead flower heads and then February/March time I cut back the plants quite hard. The plants have been there several years now and are getting quite woody so it's time to replace them. I have taken a load of cuttings from the existing plants and pushed them into a space in the garden. It's a little bit late for the cuttings but as we're on the south coast and it's quite mild I am hoping that enough of them want to root to enable me to replace the plants we currently have.

It's a tidying up the garden time of year. As some space has appeared with the end of the runner bean's and turnips I have been able to reposition my compost bins. For many years we had a couple of wooden slatted bins but when they rotted beyond use I aquired a plastic bin. I now have two of these and I have to say that I don't find them as good as the wooden ones. It is nearly impossible to turn the material in the bin. I've tried using a fork but you end up with bruised fingers. I recently bought a plastic contraption that you push into the compost to aerate it but I'm not impressed with that either. I also find that it is not very easy to get the compost out of the little access hole at the bottom. Hence the need to reposition the bins. I have now positioned them so that the access holes face directly out on to the vegetable plot to see if that works better. It does mean however that I will not be able to get compost out during peak growing time.

As I was in a tidying up mood I finally got around to dealing with the two remaining bags that I had been growing potatoes in earlier in the year. A couple of months ago the plants were begining to show signs of blight and so I removed all the foliage and destroyed it. As I didn't empty the compost soon after I was expecting that any tubers would have rotted away. So when I slit open the first of the bags I was delighted and suprised when beautiful, clean tubers emerged. The second bag had a fewer tubers but enough for a feed which was more than I had expected. Interestingly the bag with the smaller yield contained more soil based compost than the first but that may just be a coincidence.

I am pulling young carrots from the pots. They are really tasty and just need a rinse off before popping them into the pot. A few have a tiny bit of carrot fly damage. I think that the flies must have got in the last time that I thinned out.

I have planted some hyacinth bulbs in bowls for the house in the winter. I love their fragrance. I have placed the bowls in the dark in the garage and will check on them from time to time.

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.

A working kitchen garden

Last Saturday we went to Brockwood Park in Bramdean, Hants and visited a fantastic working kitchen garden in the grounds of the school. The garden is 1 1/2 acres and is tended by two gardeners aided by volunteers. It provides produce to The Krishnamurti Centre as well as to Brockwood Park School and produces an amazing 1/3 of the school's veggie requirements. Everything I saw looked very healthy and well tended.

There are 3 huge glass houses  and they were filled with rows of cucumbers, melons, salad stuff and tomatoes. I didn't go into the glass house with the tomatoes but from the door they all looked very healthy and blight free. The plants were at the far end of the house away from the entrance so maybe this has helped prevent them being affected.

The garden was very inspiring but, because of the difference in scale (the area growing courgettes alone was probably bigger than the whole of our garden), I didn't spot anything that I can apply to our own little plot. Maybe when we get our allotment in another 10 years time. Yes, the waiting list for an allotment in Poole is currently over 10 years!

The garden is part of the school so obviously you can't go wandering around willy nilly but the school does have open days and I'm sure that if you visited the Krishnamurti Centre it would be possible to arrange to be shown the garden by one of the staff or volunteers.


Full report of our visit to Brockwood.

Garden News

In the garden the sweetpeas are now exhausted but the annual scabious are beginning to flower. I love these flowers. I was going to say that they are one of my favourites but I have so many favourites that the term almost has no meaning. Apart from the things that I wouldn't or couldn't grow because they are unsuitable for our little garden the only plant that I wouldn't have in the garden because I don't like it is the lupin - too big and blousy. The scabious flowers are white with a hint of green and quite beautiful. I have been unable to get a satisfactory photo because viewed against the dark of the plants around them the camera seems to think that they are a light source or something and won't focus on them. I am not enough of a camera woman to know how to get around this with my little point and click automatic.

I am now picking runner beans. The kenyan beans in the troughs have been very prolific and are still going strong. Those that I planted in the half barrel and squat pot are just about to flower so we should have beans for some time to come. Other garden highlights include:

The decorative Dahlia 'Explosion' with it's large, double yellow and flame coloured flowers is magnificent at the moment. My father always grew giant golden coloured decorative dahlias which he overwintered in boxes in the shed each year. I am hoping that the plants continue to flower into the autumn. I would like to have some for samhain when I build a little altar to honour the dead who have been an influence on my life.

In the pond the Pickerel Weed (Pontederia cordata) is flowering well this year. I might have to remove some this year or next to prevent it taking over completely.

Both the white and blue Hibiscus are flowering profusely and the pineapple lilies are blooming. I have had a pot of Pineapple Lilies on the patio for a few years now. Over time they have increased so that the pot had become overcrowded. Earlier this year I re potted the bulbs keeping a couple of pots for ourselves and giving a couple of pots away. We've not had so many flowers this year as not all the bulbs have flowered but I expect a better display next year.

The hardy fuchsia plants that I planted under the front window have flowered better than I expected.

Over the weekend I put in my seed order for autumn sowings: broad bean aquadulce and turnip tiny pal for the ground, spinach campania and carrot nanco for the large pots and the round carrot early French frame 4 Lisa for the troughs. I have also ordered some onion sets and the raspberry Glencoe. I've ordered Glencoe, in spite of its purple fruit not because of it, because it is a clump-forming Floricane - I don't have the space for regular canes.