Summer isn’t quite ready to say goodbye and paid us a fleeting visit last week.
Autumn, however, has taken possession of the night-time, with temperatures dropping. Oddly, some of our windows steamed up on the outside one morning.
Darkness is creeping in far too quickly and evening walks with Ruby are coming to an end, which means less time will be spent outdoors.
The allotment is also starting to feel more autumnal, with more clearing and harvesting to do and, if the weather would only co-operate, some beds that need digging.
I also have to admit to a gardening mistake which opened up a new opportunity.
Home Garden
When I was buying spring bulbs for the two new perennial borders, I made a mistake — yes, it even happens to the best of us.
When I unpacked my shopping, I noticed that one of the varieties of hyacinth contained bulbs that had been prepared for indoor planting. I suppose I could still have planted them outdoors, but they would then have flowered earlier than I wanted, so I decided to plant them in our porch instead.
The scent is too strong for inside the main part of the house, especially for Ruby. A dog’s sense of smell is anything from 10,000 to 100,000 times more sensitive than a human’s, so if the perfume from the hyacinths is overpowering to us, it must be even more intense for her.
When the perfume becomes too intense, I can simply pop the bowl outside on the patio table.
Of course, in order to plant the bulbs I needed to buy some bulb compost, and the bag held far too much compost for one bowl. So now I need to find some different bulbs to plant — ones that are safe for Ruby.
I added a top dressing of compost to one of the new perennial borders and part of another, which I couldn’t finish because I ran out of compost.
Martyn harvested and froze more chillies from the garden greenhouse.
At the Allotment
We still haven’t had enough rain to moisten the soil and make the beds diggable, although Martyn managed to dig over the bed from which the carrots had been lifted. Despite having been watered well through the summer, the soil was still very dry.
On Friday, Martyn also finished strimming the grass. I think he’s hoping that is the last cut of the year.
I finished tidying the strawberry beds and gave the plants a top dressing of compost. Some of the plants are still producing flowers, so will we have a few more late strawberries? Somehow, I doubt it!
The row of beetroot has been lifted. On the whole, the roots were small, which is very much the trend for this year, but I’m sure we will make some use of them.
The quinces were ready to be picked as the ‘furry’ coating had disappeared.
Martyn also picked some pears which look very similar, in fact people often assume our quince tree is a pear tree. If they tied to bite into a quince they would be in for a shock.
A real bonus was finding more cauliflowers, as we thought we had harvested our last. Then we found more,
We were planning on another plot visit on Sunday, but showers were forecast and the morning sky and a few spots of rain seemed to indicate that the afternoon would be wet. At lunchtime it brightened, so we decided to take a risk. It turned out that we had a productive afternoon.
I tackled a job that I had wanted to do for months. I restained the front of the shed, along with a table and bench on what we euphemistically refer to as the patio. I need to tackle the rest of the shed when a vine is cut back.
Martyn dug over one of the long beds and we cleared the dead climbing beans.
Courgette plants were grown between the beans and I was going to also pull them up but I noticed a couple of fruits. One plant was still flowering and so was reprieved,
It seems only two minutes since we were planting and now the plot is looking increasingly bare.
That’s vegetable gardening for you.
Finally
The garden and allotment are definitely starting to wind down for the year, although there are still a few surprises along the way. There are quinces to pick, tomatoes and chillies to harvest and, hopefully, a few more cauliflowers. Who knows, perhaps those strawberry flowers will surprise me and produce one last strawberry after all.
As always until next time stay safe and stay well.
I haven’t found any Hyacinth bulbs of the right large size to grow indoors yet . The ones I’ve seen have been so much smaller than they should be ..even the ones for planting out should be bigger than the ones I’ve seen ….I will keep looking ! I love that headt perfume of the Delft Blue Hyacinths , but appreciate that it may not be very good for Ruby . 🪻🌿🐶x