Kitchen Garden Forum

Todays sunset as briefly viewed through my window, few minutes later I am viewing dark black cloud

Lovely pictures and lovely to see a good show of Sunflowers today.....

I put the layers pellets in a bucket with a lid on it swinging about two and half feet of the floor on the bottom of the bucket is a large spring when the chickens want the pellets they peck the spring and a few fall to the floor and are quickly eaten no pellets left for the rats

I had to roll my shirt sleeves down today....a bit chilly out there....

Glad I put the effort in earlier to get the garden ready for winter when the sun was shining. I certainly wouldN't have cared to be out there today in the Ron and cold wind.

Me while indoors we're still picking our way theiugh the last two or three pounds of home grown tomatoes. Some looking a little shrivelled now but they'll certainly be fine for something like a minestrone soup. Adding a little sugar to them when cooking certainly add back a little of that "sun ripened" sweetness which you get when the sun's at its hottest.

I have hardly been outside for days - a heavy cold means I am trying to keep ward and cosy.
Sadly I must work tomorrow, getting out is probably a good idea.

I got a nice surprise this afternoon when having a look round the garden. I picked a small dish full of Autumn Bliss raspberries that were in excellent condition and still very tasty. I didn't think they would be worth eating but they were really nice.

Then I shovelled up four big trugs of leaves from the front path and filled the first leafmold bin again

First frost last night.

A good afternoon indeed then, Plumpudding.....
Very white here first thing this morning but, it is now foggy with mizzle....

We have fog and drizzle and feeling colder, no good for photography or for gardening, so I'm off sea fishing to see if I can catch another Cod.

North-west Wales - bright sunshine in a cloudless sky.

At last the leaves on the Oak and Silver Birch trees have turned brown and are falling and covering the lawns.I had a few days away and before I went I raked and picked up six black bags rammed full of leaves off the back lawn and when I came home you wouldn't have thought that I had !Very few acorns this year considering that there are three Oaks surrouding the garden and most of those which have dropped have been deformed and the cups twisted into strange shapes.The"good" acorns were snapped up and buried or carried off by the grey squirrels and the Jays.
The Yew tree has been the big attraction this year.The berry count has been huge and has provided food for the squirrels,Jays,Blackbirds,Thrushes and all manner of smaller birds.It wouldn't surprise me to see Yew trees springing up all over the area once nature has taken its course.There is a flock of mixed Great,Blue,Long-tailed Tits visiting,working their way their way through the bushes and shrubs picking off whatever there is to feed on, aided and abetted by a pair of Robins and a pair of Wrens.
I don't put out food for the birds anymore because of the Twenty or so cats in the area(including two of our own)and they take enough birds without them being handed on a plate.Occasional visits from the Foxes around here and expect the visits to increase when the breeding season starts.Good to hear the Owls sounding off to each other at night too.Maybe they will use the holes in the Oaks for nesting but the holes might be a better size for Woodpeckers. Autumn ain't boring!!!

Did that rude Autumn job yesterday, boxed up my stools. Trying a push on clearing up before the storms arrive
. Going to clear the cut and dried flower bed today. Anybody know if annual scabious really are annual or just half-hardy? There are some lovely colours in them and I was wondering about potting them into my frost free shed.

A bit stormy today, wild and wet, so having dropped SWMBO at the hairdressers, I'll sit by the fire for the rest of the morning, birds are fed, so a lazy day today.

I was replying to Geoff about the scabious but my message vanished.

It's worth trying to overwinter your favourites indoors, but have you any seeds from them as an alternative? Ive never had much luck with them apart from one Knautia Macedonica which has been coming up withough fail for years.