Autumn progress

How soon Summer seems to slip into Autumn, the trees have suddenly turned into amazing mixes of yellow, red and brown. OH is being kept busy by a constant covering of leaves on the lawn, I think Autumn is the only time you really consider just how many leaves a tree has! Not everything is dying though, some plants have just started to flower such as this Clematis and the Jasmine has the most wonderful red berries, once it gets colder the birds will eat them but for now they are there for me to enjoy.

Autumn is a time of birthdays in my family so we have been away for a few weekends, it was lovely to see everyone and we managed to return with several pumpkins and squash, loads of apples and enough Kale to keep us fed for weeks.

Today was a excellent day, I managed to have a very lazy lie in and still get to the allotment at a reasonable time, wouldn't it be good to get an extra hour every weekend! After a seriously dry September we have finally had enough rain to make the soil workable, most of the old men have taken advantage of the weather and cleared and dug most of allotments already.

This year I had lots of success with my overwintered onions but less so with the ones I planted out in spring; they just didn't seem to want to swell. So this time I am going to plant a lot more overwintered varieties and maybe just 1 packet in the spring. I have the whole onion area dug over and weeded but have so far just planted out a packet of "Shakespeare" sets, next week the "Senshyu" and "Electric" sets will go in.

In a couple of weeks I'll get the Garlic planted and then that really is it for 2009, the tomatoes will soon be cleared and the courgettes and raspberries are already finished. I have plenty of cabbage to see me through the winter but the tasks ahead are all about digging, clearing, painting the shed and preparing. The number of seed catalogues is increasing so I am mentally preparing for some long dark evenings pouring over the little pictures and descriptions trying to select all the things I want to grow and eat next year.