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.
Morning Judith, thanks for sharing your year too, I think it has been a tricky one for most people, with some successes to cheer us up later in the season. I love the late seasons flowers too, I guess because everything else is fading we enjoy the colours, but they do also seem to be some of the more colourful and floriferous of the year. It's certainly one of my favourite times of the year :)
That's a good way of summing it up, a strange year! It was. Our runner beans were doing well until a deer ate the lot haha, at least someone ate them I guess.
Your mention of perennial chamomile tasting like rubber tyres puts me in mind of a few weeks ago when we were offered a taste of truffles marinated in oil. We hadn't tasted truffles before and were keen to see what they tasted like. My friend's reaction was that the oil tasted like rubber tyres, and that was exactly what I experienced. That quite unpleasant taste lingered for an hour or so and quite put me off tasting truffles again. I did wonder at the time how we knew what rubber tyre's tasted like, but that is exactly what the taste suggested.
Is that an IKEA 'Ivar' unit Jack, they're mighty yokes, our home is full of them 😊 Nice to be able to shelf your own books, I ordered 'Wild About Weeds' the other day, really looking forward to receiving it.
It is! I was looking for something for ages and wrote off IKEA but I looked again and actually it’s good for a low price. I was worried it might look too modern in our house but it’s quite nice actually because it’s not overbearing. Yes, I didn’t have them out for years but decided I should be proud of them like all work and have them in my office. Also useful as I often have to refer back to them to check page numbers etc for people.
Yes, it just amazes me! Wild about Weeds was translated into Russian for Russia and Ukraine but I was never sent a copy and obviously now it's very hard to find online sadly.
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.
Morning Judith, thanks for sharing your year too, I think it has been a tricky one for most people, with some successes to cheer us up later in the season. I love the late seasons flowers too, I guess because everything else is fading we enjoy the colours, but they do also seem to be some of the more colourful and floriferous of the year. It's certainly one of my favourite times of the year :)
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!
That's a good way of summing it up, a strange year! It was. Our runner beans were doing well until a deer ate the lot haha, at least someone ate them I guess.
Your mention of perennial chamomile tasting like rubber tyres puts me in mind of a few weeks ago when we were offered a taste of truffles marinated in oil. We hadn't tasted truffles before and were keen to see what they tasted like. My friend's reaction was that the oil tasted like rubber tyres, and that was exactly what I experienced. That quite unpleasant taste lingered for an hour or so and quite put me off tasting truffles again. I did wonder at the time how we knew what rubber tyre's tasted like, but that is exactly what the taste suggested.
Haha a very good point, perhaps we have an in built knowledge of tire flavour?! Or perhaps when we’re all young we tasted everything
Is that an IKEA 'Ivar' unit Jack, they're mighty yokes, our home is full of them 😊 Nice to be able to shelf your own books, I ordered 'Wild About Weeds' the other day, really looking forward to receiving it.
It is! I was looking for something for ages and wrote off IKEA but I looked again and actually it’s good for a low price. I was worried it might look too modern in our house but it’s quite nice actually because it’s not overbearing. Yes, I didn’t have them out for years but decided I should be proud of them like all work and have them in my office. Also useful as I often have to refer back to them to check page numbers etc for people.
It looks great, major flex displaying one of your books in French!
Yes, it just amazes me! Wild about Weeds was translated into Russian for Russia and Ukraine but I was never sent a copy and obviously now it's very hard to find online sadly.