Tomatoes, drying grasses, autumn raspberries, chamomile tea
Autumn positivity as the growing season's end drifts into dreaming of the next
What is it about the garden in autumn that I love so much? Is it the cricket warming itself in the sun by our door? The pollinators luxuriating on the late flowers? Is it the flowers themselves and the fading colours? Or the effortlessness of the momentarily abundant food harvests?
Perhaps it’s all these things and something more. With an end of a journey comes the excitement for another, not yet, but one day. My mind is certainly exploring 2025, in particular a refocus on food and edible crops.
It has been a fairly dire year for edibles, not what I was hoping for because of the cold, wet and dull spring. Casual autumn however has my spirits lifted, crops are coming now without any effort. Constant courgettes and winter storing squashes almost ready to harvest. Dwindled numbers compared to a normal year perhaps, but enough to cheer me up. Happiest of all are the tomatoes that this week are finally starting to ripen in huge quantities, just in time to make sauces to freeze and to enjoy sliced with meals. Or more often, straight from the plant!
Chamomile has been brilliant this year on the allotment where plants have grown huge and laden with flowers. To make tea, pick the freshest flowers, lay them on a tray and let them air dry on a sunny windowsill for a couple of weeks before storing them in dry, clean jars. I’m allowing a lot of the flowers to remain, hoping they set seed to naturalise on the plot. True chamomile for tea is the German chamomile, Matricaria chamomilla, an annual, not the perennial, which tastes of rubber tires.
Last year I planted a new autumn raspberry patch using my favourite cultivars, which I’ve trialled and tested around the country in different gardens. They are ‘Joan J’, ‘Polka’ and ‘All Gold’. Right now we’re enjoying delicious pickings, the fruits look beautiful, so vibrant and plump compared to those in shops - almost look like sweets. ‘All Gold’, the yellow raspberry, is a bit of a novelty I grow purely for fun and colour but it does well and tastes great.
Around the garden late season flowers bring the final flourish of colour, stretching out the growing season in a joyous way, not least for volumes of pollinators they support. Largely in the daisy family, asters, helenium and rudbeckia, though bistorts also hit the spot.
It’s a little thing, but adding to my sense of renewal and forward looking excitement is a basic bookshelf I bought for my studio at home. We both have a lot of books and we’ve faffed around deciding where to place shelves, the books locked away in boxes or piles.
The other week, prompted by Alice Vincent, I realised how much I needed something nearby to store my notebooks and art materials, as well as to have books to refer to and inspire me.
With Chris’ help, I put them up last weekend and over this week have been having fun organising it. Enjoying the process of placing books that I cherish, and thinking about the watercolour and wildlife books I want near me for easy access.
It’s also a stationary lover’s dream because the cupboard is full of my art supplies. Beautiful paper, paints, pens, pencils, charcoal etc. I’m using them more often now and it’s great they have a home.
I enjoy dead seedheads and stems in the garden, as well as bringing some into the house. The varied shapes and muted colours appeal to me, they’re relaxing, especially when they come from plants I love and grow outside. I simply have to look at them in winter to be reminded of our plant friends. Ornamental grasses are fantastic for this and although Miscanthus doesn’t seem to entirely love our Yorkshire garden, there is enough for a tuft.
To dry stems you can tie them upside down somewhere dry. Or my usual technique is to place them in a vase and allow them to dry naturally that way. Dried stems last for years, limited only when they become too laden with dust. At which point, you can compost and replace.
I think there's something special about the autumn flowering plants. Despite the cooler weather, rain and shorter days, they still put on a marvellous display for us. I love my Dahlias, Rudbeckia and this year Zinnias, which are looking like brilliant jewels, apparently unfazed by the heavy rain and chilly nights.
We've also had mixed results with fruit and veg this year. The courgettes have done well, if later than normal and we have a good crop of Bramley apples. They're smaller than usual, but have made up for that in numbers.
Spinach has been a disaster, but we're still harvesting lettuce, which has flourished after a poor start.
My French climbing beans (Cobra) have been a disaster this year. Courgettes, beetroot and spinach have done well.
Cosmos and dwarf sunflowers are beautiful now but have flowered really late. Best year for sweet peas. Definitely a strange year!