HALLOWEEN HOOLIGANS

Smaller pumpkins have a better flavour and texture than the giant lantern- style ones, which are fairly tasteless and watery - commiserations if you’ve been left with the innards of one of these.  The seeds are not bad baked until they’re crispy and tossed in paprika or cumin, but the flesh... well ours went on the compost heap, but probably only because I’ve grown some sweet mini pumpkins.  Bake them whole, or use them in casseroles, soups, pasta/risotto.

DAHLIA DILEMMA

The frost has come and done for the dahlias. Yesterday I picked a huge bunch of them, which was just as well, as now that the frost is melting, the  ones left outside are turning to a sad brown mush.  It’s just the top growth that will be killed by these first frosts, leaving the tubers safe under the ground.  To lift them or not to lift them?  I’ve done both and on balance, I tend to leave them in the ground now, covering them with a thick layer of straw or compost where, with luck, they will wait out the winter.  All the other tender plants have gone too - courgettes, beans, nasturtiums, French marigolds and the bedding plants.  It’s the end of the season.  Time to move on, whether we like it or not.

FRUITS AND LABOURS

The sloes are ready in the hedgerow - ideally you should wait for a frost, but I can’t say I’ve noticed a difference, so I tend to collect them around now. Watchout, though, as the Blackthorn bushes are very spiky.

The blackberries have been plumper, the apples more numerous (but smaller, as I should have thinned them out...) and I now feel really guilty about not harvesting all those plums, but am trying to make up for it with the other hedgerow fruits - at least you don’t have to stone the sloes.  Some people prick each one before the gin dunk, but they seem fine after a stint in the freezer - the freeze/thaw action cracks the skins just as well.  So unless you like repetitive manual labour (and it can be soothing), take the short route to the sloe gin.

CONKERS

I love collecting horse chestnuts (even if the children aren’t bothered) They’re so gorgeous and shiny.  I sometimes pile them up in a bowl, but find that they lose their wonderful bloom too quickly, so really are best just enjoyed in the moment.  Are they called conkers because they fall on our heads???

SEASONALLY AFFECTED

I find myself more and more affected by the changes in the seasons, I’m not sure whether it’s because I’m a gardener, or because I live in the country and am outside more, but whatever it is, I physically notice the light levels dropping. I’m doing what I think the animals are; that is - slowing down, eating more, looking for places to hibernate.  It must be a natural impulse, but it’s called SAD (seasonal affective disorder) now and is seen as something bad - which makes me feel worse.  If we saw it as a natural part of the year’s cycle and didn’t try to fight it (I notice there are products available to help with this) it might not be as bad.

PUSHING IT

The veg patch is looking very mellow at the moment.  I planted some more beans at the end of July in the hope that I’ll be in time for a quick harvest before the frosts - I do it every year, as if to dare the weather.  Three years ago I lost all my dahlias one night, thanks to a very early frost in the middle of September.  It does happen and when it comes, changes the look of the garden instantly.  All the tender plants and lush green leaves turn into bedraggled nothings, las if a bad fairy’s waved her wand at them in the night.