1st
So excited, those hardy annuals which I have sown at the allotment have started to germinate. It looks like there will be a lot of eschschlozia!
Also courgettes still going and baby leeks, bought as plants, planted out.
Oct 7th
Lots of rain so far this month and a good crop of parasol mushrooms on the lawn.
Oct 8th
Customers veg garden mostly clear now and liriope flowering in the borders.
Oct 10th
In this garden, I have been planting daffodil bulbs. Much easier than when I started 2 weeks ago because of the rain. You may be spotting a weather related theme here! Anyway, I took this photo as I was planting at the top of the slope and I wanted to check that they could be seen from the patio at the bottom as that is where the house is. It helped me bring them a bit further down.
Flowering in the front garden, toad lilies and aconitum. And hey look the sun is shining!
Laybirds in the last of the helianthus and lovely skeletal poppies.
Oct 12th
Planted winter lettuce in the polytunnel at home and sowed some salad crops, pak choi, chicory, fennel (er, not sure why so much now) and kale. You can also see pelagonium cuttings and sweet William seedlings brought under cover. There are still tomato plants but I don’t think that they will ripen out here now.
15th Oct
Spindle berries, very exotic looking despite being a native, Euomymus europeaus
Going back through the borders now for more thorough cut back and tidy up. Also thinking what can be moved around while the soil is relatively warm.
I am going to reduce these michaelmas daisies, because they can take over, but they do look good en masse and the bees were very happy to find some late flowers.
At the allotment, one side nearly done and the other with lots of work still to do.
Oct 16th
Nerines where they like it at the base of a sunny wall.
Oct 18th
More of the same, sunshine and showers.
Oct 22nd
They took their time but the cosmos are still flowering.
Oct 28
After rain every day in October finally a few dry ones. Today started with frost but then the sun came out. Time to get rid of all the courgettes and squashes on the allotment.
Oct 31st
Last day of October and still a bit of colour. Dahlias in one garden and fuchsia in another.
October has been a damp month, not much autumn colour yet. It finishes as always with the woodland group Halloween event, pumpkins and sausages round the fire pit.