Veg and new friends

The weather is turning without us even noticing really, sneaky Autumn, a nip in the air in the mornings, pretty warm by lunch then sun down as early as 7.30pm. I did notice some leaf colour changing this week though, the huge Gunnera leaves on the island across the river and the Hydrangea quercifolia seems to be getting redder (if that is possible).

In the veg garden crops are starting to go over, so this week we cropped Melons, Courgettes, Radish and Lettuce and in it's place we have sown new crops, Spinach, Rainbow Chard, Rocket to name a few. I transplanted some Winter salad into neat rows which was great practice for me.

As we are a member of the team down (who normally spent all their time in the veggies), we spent quite a long time in the veg garden tidying and weeding, preparing for the last few weeks of the garden being open. We removed Cosmos and will soon remove the Beans.

I was introduced to some new plants this week, so much to remember....Toad Lily was looking delicate and pretty in the Top Terraces (Tricyrtis formosana) and it turns out Kevin has some for sale in the plant centre. If I had wet boggy land I would certainly buy some but my own garden is pretty hot and dry.

I noticed a plant in another garden I visited at the weekend and found it at Heale too amongst the compost bins - Nicandra, a very upright strong plant with lovely flowers and kind of 'lantern' seed pods which hang. A member of the potato family, that was clear.

We cleared a whole greenhouse of Tomatoes and gave it the sulphur candle treatment, stinky! We have grapes coming in the prop, where we pot up and do general garden admin.

The gardens close at the end of the month and my WRAGS training finishes to co-incide. Still time to learn more and I am looking forward to it!