Kitchen Garden Forum

Rough old night last night, batten down the hatches.

There seems to be some kind of assumption that what goes on in front gardens is primarily for the benefit of the passers by and the neighbours, apart from parking your car in a front driveway which I feel is rather foolish considering it's part of the area on which you pay Council Tax so needs to be made use of. I knew of one lady in my childhood who went to the extreme and actually had her curtains hung so that the patterned side of the material would be on view to the outside so that the neighbours would be impressed when they were closed !

When we first moved into this house it was a new build and the front garden was still very rough so over autumn I planted a load of broad beans in the ground until we were ready to cultivate it properly the following spring. I can't tell you how horrified our next door neighbour was. I think he feared he'd moved in only to find that "the people next door" were cultivating some kind of "The Good Life" which would immediately devalue his own property.

Our front garden is is bigger than our back garden and gets more sun - so I've planted rhubarb and raspberries, blueberries, runner beans (which grow up a large azalea bush), and anything else that won't fit into the back garden. The ruby chard, in particular, looked very attractive. They all rub along very nicely with the shrubs and roses and I think it makes the garden more interesting.

Very funny to hear about the lady and her curtains!

Well I might as well be on here. Planned to sort out the greenhouse, managed to cut down and chop up the sweetcorn but then got frightened. The rattling and banging of the glass and stuff flying about drove me into the house.

Sounds dangerous Geoff. It's just been wet and windy here but we are in a valley and the trees filter the wind a bit. The strongest gust today has been 25mph in the garden so it must be bad higher up. I've taken some streptocarpus into the greenhouse to re pot but not done it yet. I decided to clean the oven which hasn't been done for a few years. Wish I'd stayed in the greenhouse.

I was working in the Dell borders, under some really old Sycamore trees, after they started creaking loudly, I soon changed jobs.....we did miss all the rain though.

Our front garden is actually considerably larger than the back (it's a large open plan corner plot), but we have turned that into a wildflower area, a bit Piet Oudolf-style, and don't want to disturb that. We are also directly opposite the local nature reserve with lots of birds and other wildlife which, although very welcome of course, can cause problems with eating the produce! So most things have to be netted against the avian thieves. Berry fruits, for instance, would have be covered by a fruit cage.

Dear Monika, it all sounds quite wonderful, apart from things wanting to eat your produce, of course.

Just looked out of the window in the East wing, and the six auto vents in the greenhouse are all open...is it really 6.15pm on the 13th of October!

They'd have been ripped off here.

While our friends in & around South Wales & now further North have suffered in the last couple of days & I hope none on here have been affected badly btw. It hit 23C here today. It felt weird to be honest, here I am wanting to clear & tidy but that temp & sunshine compels me wait & see what can still ripen! Got a few more warm days but then the phone is saying temp is down & staying down. I will be playing catch up, but all will be fine! Rain tomorrow just to keep me grounded!

Yes Westi it was strangely mild here today warmer outside than in the house.

I did a few jobs off my list, one of which was potting up some Pride of Madeira seedlings which I discovered next to the dead parent plants that last winter killed off. It was a lovely surprise as I thought I'd lost them and they had flowered so beautifully last year and got through three previous winters ok.

I picked the sweet dumpling squashes and cleared the sweetcorn bed out. An enjoyable bit of pottering between showers.

Unseasonably warm in our container bar today, despite the wind blowing hard plastic pint glasses off the bartop onto the floor!

Had a wander in the sunshine in Aberdeenshire, great autumnal colours

You take some lovely photos Tiger, what camera do you have?