AUTUMN FRUIT AND VEGETABLES

Autumn's on the doorstep and here, on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire, it feels very much like winter is nearly here some days.  The weather is mercurial.  This morning we had sunshine, so I did the washing, hung it out, and dark clouds came over.  So I brought the washing in, dried it indoors, and the sun came out.  I went outside to read, on the swing, and the sun went in.  Anyway, you get the picture.  The way I feel must be how the garden plants are feeling as nothing has been as it should be this year weatherwise.  I'm picking the tiny alpine strawberries as they ripen, about one every three days!  They are worth growing, you know.  They have an almost sweet perfume to them.  So different to ordinary strawberries and great for putting with breakfast cereals, if you have enough.





It's taken what seems like forever for the Wisley Magic runner beans to get going—but got going they have.  I don't think I'll ever grow another kind of runner bean after growing these.  Wisley Magic has the most beautiful scarlet flowers which attract pollinating insects like crazy.  Better still, the beans themselves grow long and straight, and I have yet to pick one that is stringy.  Mind you, I don't leave them so long that they start forming beans. One of my runner beans is being trained along the washing line.  It had to go somewhere and the fence is covered already.





Wisley Magic runner bean on washing line

The herbs which I grow in pots are still doing well.  The Applemint, lemon balm, lemon verbena, rosemary, Italian parsley, and lemon thyme are doing well.  The chives are massive and grow in a large tub.  For the second time this year my chives are in flower and seriously pretty.

Chives in flower

September 2015

The Polka raspberries are full of unripened fruit.  Just need more sunshine to get them fat and ripened.  Come on sunshine!

Polka raspberries unripened, Sept 2015