A touch of frost this morning which soon turned into another sunny day. We have harvested all our apples now. Some of the Bramleys showed evidence of insect damage. We think earwigs were the culprits – there were plenty to be seen on the apples as we picked them. The horticultural/fruit growing experts seem to be divided about whether earwigs really are responsible for damage or merely taking advantage of cavities created by some other creature – coddling moth, perhaps.
We have cleaned, peeled, sliced and frozen the most badly damaged fruit, given some of the best to neighbours and stored the remainder of the undamaged ones. There will be no shortage of apple tarts in the Parker household this winter! We made chutney with the last of the James Grieve apples which do not keep as well as the Bramleys.
Despite my concerns earlier in the year, we have had runner beans. Enough to be able to freeze several batches.
Michaelmass Daisies are looking lovely in the front border.
So are the dahlias
So are the dahlias, seen here with bright red crab apples. Below are two examples of orange berries on pyracantha. In the second image, note how few red berries there are on the adjacent cotoneasters. That is because four thrushes took up residence for a couple of weeks and feasted on them.
Elsewhere the phygus keeps on flowering, as do the little crimson hydrangea and the water lillies.
In the raised bed carrots and beetroot are doing alright. We have sampled baby versions of both. Something is eating the young cabbage plants, however. I suspect slugs or snails. I hope the thrushes were as efficient at gobbling them up as they were the cotoneaster berries! I’ve made a third sowing and this time protected the bed with copper tape and the row with wool pellets.
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The garden is looking magnificent Frank. I don’t envy you the apple pies as I favour rhubarb when I can get it. I hope you solve your slug.snail problem, perhaps tell the birds there’s pudding after the cotoneaster berries. The pyracantha is looking supreme so the cotoneaster better start growing it’s berries again.
I hope you don’t have to face too many frosts.
Hugs
David
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Thank you, David. We have rhubarb, too! Just a couple of small roots at the moment but they will get bigger. A blackbird has been to sample the pyracanths berries but they are being left slone for now. |I’m sure the birds will have them in due course. What was strange was to see the cotoneaster berries go so early in the season. Ususlly it is well into the winter before the birds come for them. I imagine there are people who would see such an event as a predictor of thecoming winter’s weather, based on country lore.
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Lovely as always, Frank. Thank you for sharing with us.
I was reminded of a story from years ago, when my husband tended a nice vegetable garden. As we were leaving for a vacation, we told our friend and neighbor, a fine though slightly pretentious cook, to help himself to anything that had reached the edible stage. Upon our return, he said, “Thank you for the Italian parsley. I used it to make a wonderful zuppa.” My husband responded with faux annoyance: “That wasn’t Italian parsley—those were carrot tops, and now I can’t find my carrots!”
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We have always had gardens but have had to trim them down in recent years due to space confinements. Two years ago we had a small space set aside for my husband’s favorite things-tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. I had my little herb section of course. We fought the chipmunks for the tomatoes all Summer long, it wouldn’t have been so bad if they actually ate the whole thing. No, they just gnawed at them for the juice like the birds do with figs. The next year we planted our veggies in containers on the porch and the entire bed was my herb garden. Win for me, the chipmunks had to do with the nuts we gave them. 😏
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