“Ah, September! You are the doorway to the season that awakens my soul... but I must confess that I love you only because you are a prelude to my beloved October.” ― Peggy Toney Horton Tomorrow is Michaelmas Day. It was traditionally the day that a new year started. Once the harvest was in, bills could be paid and kids could return to school. Well we have certainly been bringing our veg harvest in. And it’s been lovely sunny weather to do it in. Most of the summer veg has finished now and the plants pulled up. We have pulled up the last of our beetroot and that only leaves our summer crops of chillies and lettuce. Garlic cloves and red onions have been planted this week to fill the gaps and

“We know that in September, we will wander through the warm winds of summer's wreckage. We will welcome summer's ghost. “ Henry Rollins The autumnal equinox – equal lengths of night and day - is on the 23rd. After that I feel that winter is getting nearer. The winds and rain of the last few days have affected parts of the garden, but luckily a lot of it is sheltered. There is still plenty of colour in the garden and we are getting lots of comments on how bright it looks. The raised bed was looking very red a week ago, with the coleus and ivy leaved geraniums taking over. But now these are dying off and we have started to plant some winter pansies. So hopefully this will give us colour for th

“My favourite poem is the one that starts '' because it actually tells you something” Groucho Marx. It’s been colder and wetter the last couple of weeks, so the garden is beginning to change. Although it’s is still very colourful with sunflowers, geraniums and lobelia, some plants are beginning to fade and die off now. So we’ve been pulling up finished plants and deadheading a lot in the last couple of weeks. But rather than throwing seed heads away, I have been drying them ready for sowing next year. As you can see, we plan to have a lot of marigolds in 2019! The veg garden too is past its best now too and I’ve started to pull up the plants that have finished. The French beans have done re

"By all these lovely tokens September days are here, With summer’s best of weather And autumn’s best of cheer." - Helen Hunt Jackson, September, 1830-1885 Well it’s September, the start of the harvest period. The Anglo-Saxons called September ‘haligmonath’, or ‘the month of offerings to give thanks to the harvest’. The kids going back to school this week, might not feel that they want to give thanks though. I always think September has the feel of a spring clean. So, as well as picking the veg, I am starting to clear plants that have finished. And we are tidying up others. I’ve been fixing up some of the new shrubs that have grown, such as the roses, so that they are supported. Volunteers

"Fairest of the months! Ripe summer's queen The hey-day of the year With robes that gleam with sunny sheen Sweet August doth appear." - R. Combe Miller Well August and the school holidays are coming to an end now. Despite the regular showers, our garden has been full of young visitors playing with the different tyre worlds and the cars. There’s certainly lots for them to do. Actually lot of our dinosaurs have gone missing. In fact on Wednesday there were no dinosaurs in dinosaur world at all. So I went on a hunt. The pterodactyls had flown onto zoo world. Unfortunately the zoo’s desert island had been hit by a tornado. Other dinosaurs had moved into the fairy kingdom where our invisible