A blog from the garden

Absolutely glorious morning here today. Have been itching to get out in the garden and tidy away the last of the summer toys that the kids had left out, and also sort and tidy the remaining peppers and chillies in pots.

The smallest of the peppers I really couldnt remember what they were. Fortunately one of the pots contained a label and the are Rainbow Mixed. I'm quite scared that some of the jalapeños have gone bright red. And the Cayenne de Chilli looks like it might be a bit punchy too. The Californian mixed are just turning from green to red. They can stay in their pots for a while longer.

On the racking there were pots of lupins, delphiniums and hollyhocks that had not made it into the ground earlier in the year. I managed to find a couple of gaps so most of them have a home now

They're obviously not at their best and had got quite pot bound, but they have a better chance of making it through the winter with a little more space to stretch their legs.

I had sown lavender seeds and 6 had made it through from germination to being pricked out. Sadly, due to neglect on my part, only one remains. 

I think I will bring it in for the winter so it stands more of a chance at getting watered occasionally.

My 'pretend' grass has had a good rake and the leaves bagged to make some lovely leaf mold.

One of the pepper plants which hadnt survived had this growing in it.

I'm not entirely sure what it is. Possibly a Yew seedling, or maybe one of the heathers that I have. Time will tell, unless there's anyone who can shed some light on it for me.

The remaining pots in the greenhouse have been packed away, and the cover removed for the winter again. The greenhouse has only been up for two seasons, but already the plastic is starting to degrade at the top.

This tree used to be a lovely specimen tree in my next door neighbours garden. When the new owner moved in about 10 years ago, he had the tree chopped down, but not before it had sent out new shoots under the fence into my garden. For years they did nothing but put out a couple of blossoms in the spring which never set. But last year and this fruit has appeared. I assumed it was an apple tree. The blossom is quite similar looking in my opinion to apple. Most of the fruit had fallen, and I hadnt really closely inspected it before as it was to the side of the greenhouse and not really accessible. The skin of the fruit seems quite sticky, but that could be sap from the neighbouring sycamore. But...it has a lovely 'perfume' to it and doesnt look like an apple. My inital suspicion was quince, and having asked on twitter and had a look on google images it would seem that Japanese quince is most likely. Have a recipe now on how to make quince jelly, so will get to that later this afternoon.

 The job now for now is stripping the ripe peppers from the plants and I think will probably roast them. The chillies I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with them yet. Carefully is probably the right way!