A pleasant time of year...

...in the garden...

Lavatera

I cultivate my garden, and my garden cultivates me. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com

It is peaceful in the garden at this time of year.  I think this is because all the birds have brought up their chicks so there isn't the meal time clamour of  'feed me -feed me' from juvenile birds demanding food, squabbling among themselves.  Late summer peacefulness.....

Though the weather has been unseasonably cold this week, Thursday in particular, the sun shone again today.   This morning the forecast issued a warning to some parts of Britain, not here, to be aware that there could even be a frost ...in AUGUST.   No, that isn't right.

Mandevilla in bud

Today I continued tidying up the greenhouse ready for the next season.   The cucumbers are over.   How excellent they have been.  I'll take out the dead vines and compost them tomorrow.   The Mandevilla is twining her tendrils round one of them, maybe that bit will have to stay a while.  Mandevillas are a tropical plant ...Sandra, I think Roger would love one or two of these showy beauties.   Mine is perfumed when I water it, a rich tropical fragrance.

Crazy as it may seem...I really wouln't mind a much bigger greenhouse!  I know this one is going to be full over winter.   First of all I want to house the more tender plants, pelagoniums and some fuchsias, in here...also I want to try growing some winter  salads.

Feeling happy!

I ordered a few packets of seeds from Thompson & Morgan this week but had a thought after I had dropped them in my online basket...I thought to myself...let's not pay for these right now because there is a Bank Holiday approaching this weekend...and, in my experience, T&M offer free P&P over holidays.   Indeed they did so I was wise to hold off checking out until today to make use of the free P&P offer...that really makes me feel quite a winner...

Especially as part of my order was made up with 3 little raspberry plants, Ruby Beauty, though they won't be delivered till later...by the end of October. See last week's post for details 

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The seeds I've ordered are - 

My simplified version of the gutter-lettuce garden.
(Not yet planted!)

• Salad 'Niche Oriental Mixed'      
•  Lettuce 'Winter Gem'
•  Poppy 'Seriously Scarlet'             
• Squash 'Butterbush' F1 Hybrid (Winter)               
• Spinach 'Perpetual' (Spinach Beet)                         
• Radicchio 'Rossa di Treviso precoce'

The poppy was a free packet of seeds, that won't be planted till March or so.

The Pintrest gutter-lettuce garden.
I don't need this many!

Let me see if I can provide some fresh greens through some of winter.  I've moved my SALAD DAYS salad box in the greenhouse.   It is on its last legs but it'll go through winter.   Also I saw a brilliant idea on Pintrest for planting salad leaves in a gutter, slightly sloping for drainage.   I've started to set up my own version ...just need to work out how to stop the ends to prevent the soil draining out too.

Sandra told me about some recycled tyre rubber chips she is going to try out in her chicken run this winter to combat mud.  She is sending me the link and details of this product .   It does sound interesting and might be a wonderful material for the 'path' down the centre of my greenhouse...also might be useful as a mulch on pots...keep reading my posts, if I get some it will be featured here.  It might be more friendly than the stone chips or gravel.

The garden is full of fat little spiders with pretty stripy tummies making their webs like lace all over the garden.. These are completely unthreatening spiders.   They look like tubby little people in rather quaint clothes dangling from the plants and between the sheds.  They are quite sociable too, often spinning their webs close to each other.  I rather like them.

Rudbekia and Cosmos soaking up the afternoon sunshine.

This evening it was grand chatting to D (of the DnA family) ...it sounds as if you are having a wonderful late summer, mushrooms and enough blueberries to make blueberry leather...yummy.  D recently showed me his  Veg book by Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall (of the River Cottage fame) ...I consequentially bought a copy for myself.   I am really happy with it, anyone who is looking for some very tasty vegetable dishes this is the recipe book for you...it is enough to tempt anyone to be vegetarian.  If you are growing your own veg you

can use them in some of the recipes.   At this time of the year there is so much locally grown fresh produce that even if you aren't growing veg the book would probably be worthwhile as an addition to your recipe book collection.

More gardening tomorrow.  The greenhouse is a pleasant place to have a cup of tea, warm and out of the wind...

A good place for a cuppa, out of the wind.

One of the healthiest ways to gamble is with a spade and a package of garden seeds. ~Dan Bennett

I intend to do a bit of garden gambling this week ahead...even if the seeds are not as successful as I hope at least  I'll be keeping fit and happy with the exercise.