Late Summer Garden

So, what's happening in the garden now we're at the very tail end of the summer? All the plums have been gathered in and the tomatoes are still  ripening and being picked every other day. I'm still making pasta sauce as this is something we eat quite a lot of and is a good way of using up lots of tomatoes. You can read about the plums and tomatoes here and here.
 
Apples are now just about ready and started to be used too. I made two apple and blackberry crumbles with some windfalls and blackberries foraged from our local hedges.
 

 

 
Here are the crumbles before going into the Aga. 
 

It's hard to tell what's in them so here's a side view.

Straight out of the oven, smelling delicious.

Look at that beautiful colour where the blackberries and apples have melded.

Better leave the culinary delights and get back to the garden. 
 
The onions have been prised out of the ground and are drying. The garlic was lifted weeks ago.
 

 
These parsnips are doing well. We had some roasted and they were very tasty but they're better left until after the frost has sweetened them. Which reminds me - we had our first frost two weeks ago!! It was -1.9 C; I don't think I remember any other year when we had frost in August. The carrots are coming on well too but they're covered to keep the carrot flies off.
 

 
Leeks a-plenty for making soup, among other things. We love leek and Stilton soup; the next time I make some I'll share the recipe.
 

 
The strawberry runners have been planted in a new bed for next year.
 

 
Late summer flowers are doing their best to brighten up the garden for us.
 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 There are still poppies flowering, though not very many.

 Some things are now repeat flowering; like this buddleia and the wisteria.
  

 

 
Would you believe we even have some primroses flowering? Very strange for this time of year.

 Just look at this bee that has gone right inside the flower.

As well as flowers there are nice architectural features at this time of year too. Some lovely seed heads especially.

To prove that we're about to embark on Autumn the Virginia creeper has changed to a beautiful deep red.

I love these new shoots on the Virginia creeper.

Well that's it for the (very) late summer garden; the very nearly autumn garden. It's really hard to believe that we're into September already. I keep thinking we're starting August - have started to type August several times - and then remember that it's September.

Hope you're enjoying the changing of the seasons wherever you are. Either summer to autumn or winter to spring. I'm glad so say that I love all the seasons as they each have so many good things to celebrate.

Plum Rush

The sky started to darken as ominous black clouds rolled in. Rain was imminent so the laundry was quickly unpegged and brought indoors. Dinner was made and eaten but still the rain didn’t come. The sky was so gloomy. Then the wind whipped up. The branches of the trees were flailed about like flimsy stalks. My intention for the evening was to pick whatever tomatoes were ripe, pick sweet pea (which thinks high summer has returned and is flowering profusely) and pick some more of the plums. Sweet pea were picked first and put in vases. Then tomatoes. Still the rain stayed away though the wind was still whipping the branches about. Next I started on the plums. Every so often there were a few drops of rain that didn’t come to anything much. I filled a colander but the tree looked just as laden with plums as when I had started. So I got out my trug and starting filling it too. The branches of the plum tree were being tossed about as I tried to pick the fruit; brushing against my face and tangling my hair. If these plums weren’t all picked now they would be destroyed! Container after container was filled until, finally, all the plums had been plucked. As the last plum went in my basket so the rain started.

Here are my plums, excepting those we ate or hoarded in the fridge. Looks like I’m going to be spending a lot of time with plums!

 

Have a good weekend everyone.