Announcing a newcomer....

...to Molokoloko Garden....

A garden isn't meant to be useful. It's for joy. Rumer Godden

(How true!  But even better if it is useful too, in my opinion)

A new bench, huge surprise birthday gift.
Thank you G & D xxx

Old Bench, bought some 10 to 12 years ago I purchased from Wilkinsons, an everything-is-cheap store.  Nothing wrong with that.   I loved Old Bench.   I oiled her lovingly every spring and autumn.  And after some years I painted her a different shade every spring...but I have to admit Old Bench is really getting so old that she might just let me down when I sit on her these days.

Leah on Old Bench earlier this year.

  I will be sad to see Old Bench go, but as D has said he wants her to make some shabby-chic picture frames I think her life will be extended a little longer as a recycled objet d'art.    New Bench need a couple of bright cushions, some Teak Oil and a cover for winter then she will last as long as beloved Old Bench, I'm sure.

I haven't been able to be in the garden much last week.   Frustrating doesn't even begin to describe how I've felt while the autumn days have been bathed in sunshine.   Birds visit the feeder every day, lovely to see a regular little Blue Tit and a Robin too.   I have been stuck inside sewing little flower-girl dresses for a friend's wedding.  At least they are flower-girl dresses and have a print of ditsy flowers all over the underskirt.   That is as close to garden as they are.  They are all but finished now so I shall make up for lost time in the garden this week.  It is satisfying to sew dresses - but a bother when it gets in the way of sowing seeds!  Oh well, the garden is forgiving and the girls will look garden-sweet in their new dresses.

Passiflora

As far as the garden went this week I got no further than harvesting and eating more delicious tomatoes.   Watering the plants, because there has been almost no rain.  And every morning and afternoon having a few minutes with a cup of tea out there admiring some of the late bloomers.   Particularly the Passiflora that continues to be better and better, dripping with purple passion flowers.

The Asters are all in full bloom too.   They can be a bit rampant, both in height and spread.  These are taller, much taller, than me and I find I do have to thin out their roots vigorously every year.   But the bees absolutely love them.  They make a wonderful early autumn source of bee-food and a good show too of starry white flowers.

The salads growing in the greenhouse are flourishing.   I will soon be able to crop some of the Oriental Spicy salad leaves to add to my lunchtime salads.   The winter lettuce are coming on strongly too.

Oriental Mix of Spicy Salad Leaves

Winter Lettuce

I think it would be sensible to plant another crop of the Oriental Spicy leaves.   The trouble is I tidied up my kitchen and where I have put those seeds...well, it beats me.   I think they have joined the countless other bits and pieces in 'The Black Hole'.  I hope they turn up sooner rather than later.

A & J gave me a fabulous book for my birthday.

Just what I need!  Thank you. xx

My veg growing is very hit and miss.   The slugs get a lot.  The slugs are still sliding round my garden devouring anything they can.   They have had every single courgette before me and I even found quite a mature butternut had been half eaten by the rapacious brutes.   Hopefully, armed with this book I will find a few hints and tips to help me have better vegetables and perhaps even a bit on how to control the slugs.   I suppose I could resort to squashing them with the book, it is quite fat and heavy, though I wouldn't want to spoil it with their slime.

Spiders are having a hey-day in the garden.  They are quite harmless, in fact they probably do good in the garden.  These are fat little stripy ones whose worst point is that they artistically sling their dainty, gossamer webs across my greenhouse doorway, and other garden thoroughfares, so I am always having to delicately rearrange their handiwork to allow myself access without ruining their abode completely.

So now OCTOBER approaches...and I am still cutting big jugfulls of sweet-peas every 2 - 3 days,  wonderful, never had such a long season of them.  Believe it or not it is time to think of a few jobs that should be done in the garden this month.   Here is a list of  some I hope to do.

Sweet-peas from my garden

Plant spring bulbs now for the best displays next year. The general rule is to set them at 3 times their own depth below the surface, I think.

Plant fruit October offers the perfect conditions for establishing new fruit in my garden.

Ladybird, ladybird fly away home.
Leah found her in the garden, we put her back there too.

Divide overgrown perennial plants. If they are looking over-crowded it's time to thin the display.  I do this by lifting plants with as much root as possible then use two forks, back to back to split the rootball in to two or three smaller pieces.

Plant roses.  Conditions are perfect for adding the colour and scent of roses to my garden.

Mulch beds and borders Adding a 5-10cm layer of organic material – compost.

Protect exotics for winter.  I've placed houseplants, mostly my increasing Pelagonium collection, outside this summer, now is the time to bring them indoors to keep them from the cold.

Now, forwards into the new week.   The weather looks good, there is much to do.   Let me leave you with this rather lovely thought about a bench by

Mary Rose O'Reilley, The Barn at the End of the World: The Apprenticeship of a Quaker, Buddhist Shepherd

“There is a bench in the back of my garden shaded by Virginia creeper, climbing roses, and a white pine where I sit early in the morning and watch the action. Light blue bells of a dwarf campanula drift over the rock garden just before my eyes. Behind it, a three-foot stand of aconite is flowering now, each dark blue cowl-like corolla bowed for worship or intrigue: thus its common name, monkshood. Next to the aconite, black madonna lilies with their seductive Easter scent are just coming into bloom. At the back of the garden, a hollow log, used in its glory days for a base to split kindling, now spills white cascade petunias and lobelia.”

That's all for now folks.   Chat to you again next week.