My day

I imagine that some women my age spend a day doing a little light dusting then paint their nails and eat cake. I am as raggle-taggle as my autumn garden and just as undisciplined. Painting my nails would be a complete waste of time.

I have picked the last squash that had been growing in one of the compost bays and spread the compost on the cleared veg beds. It is SO satisfying to have your own rich, free compost!

This left me with an empty bay. Time to turn the contents of this year's composting. I do this job with my jeans tucked firmly into my socks and the cuffs of my sleeves covered by my gloves. I'm on the look-out for snakes, rats or whatever, I know they like the warm, secluded heaps of vegetation. No problem this time, only two fat toads, always welcome in my garden.

The leaves are falling now that the nights are cold so the empty newly turned-over bay isn't empty for even a day.

 

The compost has been spread on the cleared patches of the veg garden and I've planted them with green manure, one area with just barley seed and the other with a mixture of rye, vetch and forage pea. We'll see which is the more effective.  The idea is to stop leaching. In the spring I'll dig the resulting crops into the soil.

Courgettes are still cropping although it will not be for much longer. The leaves are a sorry looking sight.

 

All the pears have been harvested and are ripening inside. I took a hint from the birds, as soon as they started pecking and eating the pears on the tree I picked the whole crop, still green. Happily it was the right timing - they taste delicious!

The Blue Lake and Cobra beans that reached for the sky are still up there and I'll have to get the ladder in order to collect them. Those lower down have been brought into the house to dry out ready to store for planting next spring.

Gardeners are always looking forward!