October sky.

October has been mild and wet.

The pole, in the middle of the field, supports the anemometer (for recording wind speed).

Tumbling pigeons.

 There were four tumbling pigeons sitting on a perch...

 Then there were three...

 Then two ...

 and then one.

The barn faces south, so this is about mid-day.
 Unique sun dial?

October polytunnel.

After a lovely dry September we had lots of dry grass cuttings from the meadow.

Which we spread in the big tunnel.

Alfie placing the grass around the lettuce.

Alfie planted the winterkiefe peas (on the left) and they came up very quickly, he says "when they grow they will be delicious". He says that every time we plant something!

This was the last picking of aubergine. The peppers and tomatoes are still cropping, although the glut is over.

Lots of passata made with all the tomatoes.

The sweet potatoes are growing centre-top with Daub guarding the lettuce to the left, Good job!

  I won't lift the sweet potatoes until the tops are touched with frost, they are still growing strongly.

 Figs from the small tunnel, October 25th.

The crab apple at the small tunnel.

Alfie with sheep.

While the ram is visiting, Lee and sweet pea are in the area fenced for pigs, the near end is wooded and the far end is pasture. No pigs at the moment.

The other sheep are in the field with the cows.

I love to see the relationship between children and animals.

 

Alfie greets Sweetpea.

Seed saving for the home garden.

 I love to save seed from garden plants. Often plants self seed, where and when they will, sometimes I transplant the little seedlings but usually I leave them where they are happy. These are pictures of a few flowers that are so easy to save seed from and easy to photograph! A lot of seeds are very tiny and some like special treatment so I'll leave that post for another day!

Last November I collected the seed pods from the sweet pea plants and dried them in the kitchen, (I tie a ribbon around the best flowers to keep for seed saving).

The podded seed doesn't need to be perfect, when it is time to plant just pick out the fattest seeds.

I like to soak the seed overnight before sowing but it is not necessary.

By April there are strong little plants ready to go out into the garden.

I find sweet pea are fairly hardy and I have planted them out in February or March in previous years.

Sweet peas in the garden in July.
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When the Limnanthes douglasii, Poached egg plant, finished flowering I cut off the plants at ground level and lay them on an old sheet to dry out in the sun.

When the plants dry out the seeds fall down on the sheet. The dry stems on top still contain many seeds and are ideal for using as a mulch in a place where I would like some poached eggplant to grow. I collected a small bucket full of seed. There will be poached egg plant everywhere next May!

Poached egg plant (grown as overwintering ground cover) flowering in one of the vegetable beds in May 2013.

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Aquilegia (Granny's bonnets) seed, 

 The flowers come in all colours from deep purple to white, they have lovely leaves, pretty and variable flowers, attractive seed pods, bees like the flowers, birds like the seeds and they will self seed in delightful places, another easy plant. 

 

Bee thoughts and Top bar hive update 2014

 I have read and researched about natural beekeeping and I confess that the more I know the less I know. (As is the way with so many things in life).
 I caught several swarms early in the summer, the early ones thrived, a couple of the later ones were small, I combined them as I had no more empty hives. 

July 22nd

 One of the days when I was watching a swarm emerge it moved straight into a neighbouring hive. The hive that was taken over by the swarm had swarmed a couple of times itself and if I had not seen the swarm move in, I would have thought that the old colony had simply recovered its strength very quickly. The observation windows have been great for anticipating swarms. The colony that was taken over definitely had bees resident prior to the swarm moving in.

July 22nd

 It has been an incredible year here for nectar flows. Although August was cool and wet, May, June, July, September and even some of October have had wonderful bee weather.  I took our first honey in July.

 It is SO fragrant. I don't eat much honey but I could enjoy the scent all day. It is reminiscent of a bouquet of flowers. (I am surely biased!).

 Having the bees here is such a joy, the honey is wonderful, trying to understand what is going on is .... challenging. Tuning in with instinct and going with their flow is my way.

October 16th

 However... The most significant element of this journey is how the bees have affected my gardening. Essentially I am a gardener. A hands in the soil person. Everyone has their vocation and while I love many crafts, growing and cultivating is in my being.

 Prior to homing the bees here we rarely saw a honey bee in the garden. Now every day I see them move around the garden from plant to plant, all through the year. So many of our ornamental "exotic" plant species are wonderful bee plants and I see a whole new value in their place in the garden, and I don't mean the value of the honey crop, I mean the value of nectar and pollen as a food source for not just honey bees.

The bees have awoken in me a deeper appreciation for all plants.

Autumn fruit harvest.

There are so many different apples and so many different flavours and uses. I imagine that there is an apple for everyone.

 Egremont russet was just ripening at the end of September.

 Honeyball. A variety from the Irish seed savers. This photo doesn't do it justice but they were nearly finished when I took this photo. Initially I thought this apple a little bland and I used to carry them up to give to the pigs. After a few times delivering honeyballs to the pigs and eating them as I walked along, I decided that actually they are nice, the taste simply took a little while to be appreciated. That was a few years ago. The Honeyball is now one of my favourite apples. Its drawbacks are that the flesh turns brown almost instantly with exposure to air and it is best eaten straight from the tree as it goes mealy within a day or two of being picked.

 Greensleeves has been cropping since mid-September and there are still plenty on the tree.

 James Grieve.

This one has lost its label.

... and this has lost its label too.

The Spartan apple has been very popular with everyone.

Daub says "put that camera down and pick me up".

September 26th

The conference pear has cropped very well for such a young tree.
All the pear trees had half the fruit thinned out in the summer.

September 9th

The Doyenne du Comice  Pear did get scab but the fruit was still delicious.

September 9th

The first of our pear trees to ripen, Williams bon chretien.

Beurre Hardy September 25th
 The RHS page on pears has a good summary of pear cultivars and growing tips.

 The Autumn bliss raspberries in the meadow are prolific. 

 Or maybe I should say...

 

 There were lots before Alfie ate so many!

The wonderful thing about autumn raspberries is that they will keep cropping until the frosts even after little boys seem to eat them all!