Harvest Home

October is a mellow time within the walled garden, the hard work and promise contained in each seedling has now come to fruition. Although not a great year for fruit, our apple trees have not produced enough of a crop for us to sell for juicing, the pears are ripening nicely and even the young vines have managed to grow a few grapes despite the lack of sunshine. At the end of every working day we gardeners are allowed to reap the rewards of our work and help ourselves to whatever is ripe or in the case of flowers that which is most beautiful. There is a bumper harvest of juicy sweetcorn now but that is best picked on the day you wish to use it, whereas many of the other crops will sit happily in the ground now until required through the winter. We are all waiting for the first frosts to sweeten the parsnips and begin to heart up the cabbages but there is plenty of variety to choose from while we wait. Yesterday I left for home with a bunch of our fabulous dahlias and a bag bulging with plum and cherry tomatoes, October is the best month to be a gardener!

"For man autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad" Edwin Way Teale