Sunday 24 October 2021

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!



21 comments:

  1. I know what you mean about compost heaps. I had one as a child and it gave me a lot of satisfaction.

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    1. It's that magical thing of having a heap of nothing of value, peelings, clippings and so forth and from it getting beautiful, friable brown soil!

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  3. Painting my nails is something I have not been doing in a very long time, with the exception of my toe nails which simply look better that way in a pair of sandals.
    Your garden must be such a source of satisfaction and joy for you, with fresh fruit, veg and flowers most of the year.

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    1. It is a source of great pleasure. (Enjoying the pear glut at the moment!)

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  4. I've been a passionate flower gardener for many years but I'm getting the itch to grow vegetables. I always grow tomatoes and usually a herb or two but I need to expand. Maybe next year I'll try my gardener's hand at zucchini! Thanks for the inspiration.

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    1. Hello Melinda. I scurried over to your site and was disappointed to discover no postings. Where are the photos of those flowers that are your passion?!
      I do hope you will try some veg next season. Once tasted you will be hooked!

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  5. *hahahaha* Light dusting, nail painting, cake eating!! I'm 65yo and I do none of those things. On some days I go for a tattoo appointment and other days I go for a motorcycle ride to the local biker bar & have a shot or two of whiskey, straight up... no water. :-D So yes, who has time for painting nails & cake?! ~Andrea xoxoxo

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    1. Oh, your comment delights me, it has really made me smile, I have this lovely image of you!

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  6. I love your description of yourself…raggle-taggle. I can identify with that. I look forward to your posts and enjoy reading about your garden and how it’s coming along. I am also working in the garden, getting ready for the winter weather to come. It is a flower garden though — too many deer to fight them for the food. I have all I can do to keep them from eating my flowers. Enjoy these beautiful autumn days!

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    1. The deer are a constant threat in my neighbours' garden, nibbling at everything, and have in the past eaten very well in our veg patch. We added a string to the top of the fence to raise the height a little more and it seems (whisper it!) to be keeping them out.

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    2. Our property is not fenced, but we are thinking about it. I will remember the string idea if we do. Anything that works!

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  7. A lady after my own heart. Too much to do to both about nail polish. I would much rather be out in the garden that anything else. I had not heard of either of those beans you mention but see they are both available here although I don't know if I can fit any more varieties in the garden. I always love your posts. The courgettes and pears look great.

    Been busy collecting and disposing of snails first thing in the morning for weeks now but still far too many.

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    1. The Blue Lake seeds are white and can be used as a pulse. The Cobra seeds are black. Both look and taste pretty much the same eaten as beans. I pick them all summer while small, eaten hot or cold with a dressing and we never tire of them.
      Slugs and snails!**!!

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  8. I am not a keen gardener, as you know, but the house we bought in France had a detached garden, some fifty metres down the road. I did my best with it but the soil was so fecund and we were away for such long periods that everything overgrew in a month or two. Even the super-expensive ICI Terram, which has suppressed unwanted weeds everywhere I've used it in the UK, became engulfed. I don't bend well in old age and I needed to get close to the ground for weeding. Too close, on one occasion, when a black snake, a metre long, wriggled forcefully beneath me and sped off for parts unknown. Obviously a grass snake, said my wife. Black grass? I asked.

    Another good reason for paying a gardener to take risks I find uncongenial.

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    1. Each to their own, Mr Robinson. I would be lost without a bit of earth to scratch in.

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  9. Your cleared beds look so rich, no wonder you get such bounty from your lovely garden!

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  10. Oooh, I do love the sight of a freshly compost laid bed. Very satisfying. Will be interesting to see how your green manure mixes do. I brought lupins as a green manure years ago, but they were so pretty, I couldn't bear to dig them in!

    I have your fear of finding rats in the compost heap -once I did find a big one looking up at me. Let's just say, my screams could be hear on the other side of town :0 Hurray for your delicious pear harvest, enjoy :) Lulu x

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  12. Great post. Thank you for sharing. Keep posting such things. Have a good day.
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