Nasturtium - jewels of Autumn

I sow a few Nasturtiums every year but they also seed about by themselves so I have quite an abundance of them now. I usually buy a cheap packet somewhere as an extra to the seeds I plan and order in January. After all, there is not much else to do in the garden at that time of year or if there is, you don't want to go out! 
I can't resist the bright colours though I also like the creamy ones too.
The Nasturtiums come up quietly rather later than some seedlings and grow away unobtrusively until late summer and Autumn when suddenly they burst into flower with the most wonderful colours. 

Notice the caterpillar here. For some reason this year they have not been destroyed by caterpillars or blackfly. That is the downside of course, and some people grow them as a sacrificial crop to attract the butterflies away from their brassicas. Often some of my plants are long gone by this time but sometimes they come back for a second wind.
This year they have made huge plants growing over beds and paths.

These marbled leaves are lovely and, of course you can eat them too. I don't think I sowed these this year but then again, maybe I did. 
This year I have been cutting and using them in vases. They last a few days before shrivelling up but I pick some autumn leaves, seed heads and grasses and put them all in a vase. When the flowers go over I just whip them out and put in a few more.

The bright, velvety flower are all the more precious at this time of year as you know their days are numbered. They'll be cut down at the first frost and I'll be back to looking at seed packets and planning for next year.

Autumn clear up begins

Actually there is not much to clear up yet. There still seems to be a lot of green growth about but this didn't look so good:

A few weeks ago they were lush courgette plants. I was leaving them as they still had tiny courgettes on them but today was in the mood for a clear up. This is what I found hiding:

I can have a couple more tastes of summer. The small ones are about finger size! My fingers - small.
Also, on the path between these two bed I found magic beans:

I'm not sure what season they think it is. I reject any beans which have got too big and stringy so this must have been one of those. 
Anyway, I pulled up the dead courgette plants and piled them onto the very full compost heap. There is some grass on top as well. This will all settle down quite a lot.

 I have started to dig out this one but have not got much space to spread it yet so it is going to take a while. I'd really like to turn the other one into it.

 This is the courgette bed now. Weeded and covered in a good layer of compost. The soil had sunk quite a bit as it was a new bed. I left the beans so I can collect the seed when they are dry. There are a few beans left but they are much too big to eat.

These are the Bridgwater beans I'm saving for seed. They are a heritage variety that I got from a seed swap a few years ago.

This is a bag of bedding  plants I took up for someone I work for. She doesn't have a compost heap or a garden bin so I brought them home. They are begonias and geraniums. They will be fine on the compost heap. They are soft and sappy and disease free. I'm always happy to collect material from elsewhere!

Garden Visit - The Courts, Holt, Wiltshire

This is a NT garden, which I have been to before but decided to visit again last weekend. It was a bitter cold day but not wet so that was one good thing. I had a new camera which I wanted to try out. I wasn't very pleased with it but have since discovered that I had some of the settings wrong so now I'll have to go back and try again!
It's a wonderful place, I'd be very happy to visit again and again. My son,who is training as an arborist, bounced around testing me on tree names. I'm not great and he is great. Then questioning me about shrubs, on which I am a little better. 
Here are some pictures which came out ok:

Lovely Rudbekia

Fruit pods of Koelreuteria paniculata, leaves above. ( I know this as it said on it!).

Bark is so beautiful

Cercis canadensis

 There is an arboretum as well as the formal garden. Also a vegetable garden and orchard.

These look like stooped people walking across the lawn.

Indian Bean Tree

 Suddenly we came across compost heaps. Imagine having all that space to collect and process your compost. I can't help getting excited about compost heaps. 

You got to the end, thanks for indulging me. Actually most of the photos are not too bad it seems!

A few more flowers for cutting.

I've got some Chrysanthemums flowering now. The plants have survived, despite neglect, since last year and are now producing wonderful flowers. I love this soft rose colour. The flowers last for about two weeks in a vase.

Here they are with Salvia patens, amaranthus and stocks.

This is a wonderful yellow one.

 Scabiousa atropurpurea 'Tall double mixed'  great fillers for a  vase. Very dainty flowers in shades of pink and also wonderful dark colours.

 I like lots of green in my arrangements and jasmine is growing all over my garden this year in spite of being chopped back hard, or maybe because of.... So had  been put to good use.

I've tried to grow Zinnias since someone gave me some in a bouquet a few years ago. They seem to be tricky and I have mixed results but this one is lovely. They also last a long time in water.

Stocks in shades of pink and purple. I cut these back about six weeks ago and they have been flowering madly ever since. Still smelling wonderful, enough to scent a room.

I'm still managing to cut things now, in October so I'm very pleased but Autumn is definitely creeping in. Shades of yellow and orange are gradually taking over but the general look is bedraggled just now. After a sunny September it is now wet, wet wet. However, I have just been out and collected these things. After removing hitchiking snails and spiders, this is what I made:

Autumn Composting

I spent my weekend in the garden, which is the first time I have done that for many weeks. It was lovely.
I could discern the difference I had made by the end and my garden looks cared for again, if a little overblown. I filled up my green waste wheelie bin but also put plenty of waste in my own compost. 
I found very many seeding weeds around so, of course, they can't go into the compost heap, unless you want to proliferate the weeds next year and they do well enough on their own.The rest of what went in there was big twiggy prunings, perennial weeds and general waste when I wasn't organised enough to separate it.

This is my comfrey which is looking a little sad now. It has some mildew and the leaves are starting to die off. I cut a few leaves to go in my comfrey tower, for a bit more liquid  feed,and cut the rest to the ground to add to the compost. Mildews are particular to each kind of plant and only live on live plants so are safe to add to compost.
There is quite a lot of dry material at this time of year. If you add plant material from the garden which you are cutting down, it's a good idea to mix it up with grass clipping, veg waste, comfrey or similar green waste so you get a good mix of green and brown. The composting will slow down from now on but a good mix will help it on.
The other plant I added, which I have never been able to do before, was tomato plants. I cut some of them down but NONE of them have blight yet. I get blight every year but not usually until September ( they are grown in a greenhouse). This year, not yet! I put it down to the very dry weather. So I was confident enough to add the plants to my heap, which will add a good bit of green.
The problem I did have with them was whitefly. I always grow tagetes in the greenhouse as it is reputed to repel whitefly by smell. This year all my tagetes plants were eaten by slugs. In and out of the greenhouse! Strangely one end of the greenhouse was badly affected by whitefly and the other end not much at all. The Green Grape tomatoes are still producing madly and the plants are healthy so I have left them.

They are more plum size than grape and are ripe when they are a yellowy green. They started late but now I have had baskets and baskets of them.
I have tried to spread matured compost on spare bits of ground but haven't found many yet. I pulled up some courgette and squash plants which had gone over but I am still getting a few beans so don't want to take them out yet. It's a case of waiting and hoping the you have time and reasonable weather to tidy up later. I still have another wooden heap to dig out so perhaps that will be a good Autumn job when I have some spare ground.

Courgette and spinach soup

I've been watching my courgettes and picking regularly but even so two managed to escape my eye and grew rather bigger than I wanted. 
So I made some courgette and spinach soup. I've been making this for a few years and the recipe is below. I started with this but now I tend to just add quantities of each depending on what I have. Most of my soups are made up as I go along, in my pressure cooker. I like to make batches of this to freeze as it is a good way of storing courgettes for winter. 
I made this batch with New Zealand Spinach. (Seeds available from Simpsons Seeds),

 It is a much more fleshy leaf than the annual or perpetual spinach and has quite a strong flavour.

New Zealand Spinach makes a low sprawling plant which does seed from year to year. It takes up more space than you expect. It is quite prolific now in September.
Courgettes are definitely slowing down now but this is good for the glut in summer and is delicious. 
I finally found the recipe after looking through all my books. It is in a very old Cranks book. 

1 onion
1 large courgette
1 medium potato
4oz spinach
oil
parsley
2pt stock
1/4pt double cream
seasoning
Saute onion and courgette until onion is transparent. Add potato, spinach, parsley and stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 min. 
When cool, blend in small quantities.
Return to saucepan and and stir in cream and add seasoning to taste. 

Looking at this recipe I realise I have distilled it down to it's simplest. Usually I only use onion, spinach, courgette and stock. I'd forgotten the recipe has parsley and I don't usually have cream. Anyway it tastes good!

Growing flowers for cutting

A few years ago I started growing flowers for cutting. I like to have flowers around and however much time you spend in the garden you do spend more time in the house and so can appreciate them each time you pass. 
I don't always want to cut something from my borders, although I do cut from them, so it makes sense to grow things especially for cutting. 
The first year I tried having one bed but I have had greater success with  growing a row here and there, often on the ends of my vegetable beds. This has the added advantage of enticing in the bees.
These are a few of the flowers I have found to do well and last well in water. 
Sweet peas are always good, of course. They are over now but this is what they looked like a few months ago. 

I did have a smattering of flowers a couple of weeks ago but we have had no rain and I forgot to water them so they have completely given up now. I had cut all the flowers off a few weeks before. I always choose varieties which are scented and they just bloom and bloom for weeks if you keep picking (and watering).

 I still have many things flowering now, in September. No dahlias to speak of, if you have read previously you may remember that the slugs got them. The plants are hanging on to life but not exactly blooming.
However there is plenty more.

 Rudbeckia Rustic Dwarfs. Flower non stop and last well in water. This photo doesn't do the colour justice. 

 Amaranthus caudatus. These are about 70cm long and look fabulous in vases trailing over the edge but they do drop pollen. There are lots of smaller shoots for little vases.

 The same in green. Not nearly so vigorous and much more subtle. 

Cosmos flower from summer to the first frost and are so dainty and airy in the garden as well as lasting well when cut.They are in shades of pale and dark pink.

I often make little posies as they are quick and easy. You only need a few flowers and they can have short stems. I must admit to having taken this photo last year. 

I wanted to go and get more photos today but we have had torrential rain and thunderstorms last night and today has been GREY! The garden is so pleased with the rain though, I can hear the plants sighing with relief. I'll have another go on a bright day.