It’s a beautiful Autumn day here, a cooler start to the morning followed by the warmth of the sun, it makes for a lovely time in the garden. I even wore a light cardigan. Oh how I love cardigan weather!

Pottering about tidying the hen house, refreshing the bird baths, taking note of what needs tending to next. Checking on the seedlings and looking to see if little shoots are popping up where I sowed the beetroot seeds last week.

Quietly sitting with Honeybee on the bench in her garden. It’s been windy the last couple of days and she hasn’t wanted to venture out into the garden at all. This sweet duck really doesn’t like the wind.

I walk up and down the rows in the hothouse, making sure everything is watered, stopping here and there, trying to work out what is eating the basil. The cucumbers defy grafity, this new to me method of stringing them up works perfectly, I’ll definetly grow them this way again, so much easier.

Bluebell the Spoodle follows me into the hothouse and sits patiently for me to give her a Scarlet Runner bean, it’s our daily ritual. She proudly walks around with that bean  in her mouth until she picks the right spot in the shade to sit and eat it.

This time each year I seem to declare that we aren’t going to grow Scarlet Runner beans again, it’s the fuzzy skin that puts me off them. Then Lil picks a colander full, reassures me that once they are blanched and frozen and put into stews and casseroles in wintertime I’ll enjoy them and she is right. It’s a large amount of food in that colander and there will be several more colanders full for such little human input. Each year when the beans are finished we don’t pull the roots out of the ground. Simply cut the stem about 20cm above ground, clear everything, put a bucket of compost over the root ball area and wait until next growing season when new shoots start to appear and et voila, we start watering and training those long tendrils up and onto the permanent wires in the hothouse. A productive, reliable crop.

In the Back Orchard the duck bath got a refill and afterwards Ferdinand, Isabella and Esmeralda our older Indian Runner ducks came right up close and stood very still. That is their cue for me to put the sprinkler on them. They puddle about in the water that runs off into the garden bed. Happy ducks.

Liliana, and I decide to harvest some herbs and the pear tree that shades the quail house. She brings baskets from the cottage, lined with pretty cloths to place our harvests in. While I pick the pears by myself it feels a little lonely, I stop and return to Lil. We talk about the yearly rituals of harvesting, how memories are created.

It is because of these memories created at harvest time that we will return to the pear tree later in the afternoon and finish harvesting them together. There are only so many yearly harvests in our lifetime I want to make them count, remember them well.

In the herb garden the golden rod is thriving, it was a good decision to relocate it here last winter. Moving about the garden beds picking thyme, raspberry leaf, marjoram, lemon verbena, lemon thyme and sage, in the basket they go. It’s time to go inside before the herbs wilt. I grab a few more sprigs of lemon verbena to add to the basket of pears. Mornings like these. The beauty in the every day.

Until next time, take precious care and thank you for being here,

Jude x

 

 

Early Autumn in the garden. 6th March 2023

March 13, 2023

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