In the Garden

It was a beautiful day so we made it into the garden to try out the new chimnea.  My access to the garden includes two wheelchairs an ikea office stool and some very undignified and at times quite scary acrobatics, but it is worth it.

However, getting a good blaze going in the chimnea proved to be far from simple.  It is sold as a wood burner and we have plenty of that lying about since my fall stopped play in August and nothing but the most essential tasks have been done.  Possibly it was because the wood was a little damp having been left out in the weather or maybe bits of folded paper are not a good way to start it although we also used dried out foliage and cardboard.  It was very smokey and I felt sorry for the neighbours but we did eventually get it giving out some heat.

We still have much to learn about using it.  We were supposed to be burning the blighted tomato plants but didn’t get that far but we did harvest the last of the tomatoes.  This year some of them survived the blight and although we have had blight for about a month we have still been able to harvest the tomatoes though in smaller quantities.

The light was beautiful,

and I was able to steer myself around, camera round neck and get some shots of the autumn colour that we have been planting for, for the last few years.

Fothergilla

Amelanchier

Cotinus

Acer

Callicarpa

The peppers have been absolutely fantastic this year and we haven’t bought any for a while.

Not quite justified the cost of a £200 greenhouse but give it a few years!

I managed to get to the back of the garden and have a dig around for the garlic that I was sure was there but no one else could find.

I also harvested seed from some of them and was stupidly surprised to find that the seeds look like little garlic cloves.

So I planted some up and got Bruce to put them in the greenhouse to see what happens.  I hope it will be the obvious.  The fist time in nearly three months that I have got my hands in compost and hopefully a taste of things to come.

While down at the veg beds I noticed this taking over, it is very pretty but I have no idea what it is.

And as we were out so was Beth at least for some of the time, getting some much needed sunshine and fresh air.

And while we were out one of our neighbours asked the kids if they would like a couple of pumpkins from their allotment, a very kind gesture which reassured me that we hadn't annoyed them too much with our smoke.

Jack o lanterns and pumpkin soup here we come.