Nature begins Autumn’s Canvas

When you feel that first crisp breeze, you know that Summer is gone and Autumn is in the air.  To me, one of the best things about living in Britain is the changing seasons.  Every season has its positives, however, autumn is especially beautiful.  I revel in the colours nature paints the landscape… red, gold, and orange.. enchanting!

The summer-flower has run to seed,
And yellow is the woodland bough;
And every leaf of bush and weed
Is tipt with autumn’s pencil now.

And I do love the varied hue,
And I do love the browning plain;
And I do love each scene to view,
That’s mark’d with beauties of her reign. (Autumn by John Claire)

Autumn is well under way on the plots and there’s plenty of winter digging, mulching and covering yet to be completed, however, time is ticking…the clocks go back an hour at the end of this month so I’m grabbing every second of daylight.  I’ve been nipping to the allotment for an hour after work and working as long as my body allows at weekends in an attempt to ‘get things done’.  As a gardener, I’m conscious that the dark days of winter are around the corner and I need to be ready for the next growing season.

I’m working through the three plots one by one. PLOT 5A is still full of sweetcorn, cabbages, cauliflowers and kale so I’m focussing on PLOT 4A and PLOT 5B first.

PLOT 5B has been a battle against nature. The weeds were cut, burned, chopped, dug, burned again and finally the beds were covered!!

 

PLOT 5B…Digging and covering well under way

I still have a few sections to tackle but I’m just about winning!!!  I plan to use PLOT 5B as a cut flower plot.  I figure that I have plenty of space, so why not?!

PLOT 5B…Two bulb beds planted for spring.

On PLOT 4A, I’m removing the large bindweed infested strawberry bed after months of growing new ‘runner’ plants in pots.  The plants will then be placed in a raised bed in the hope that I can protect my precious strawberries from slugs and birds.

Strawberry bed, almost gone!

I’ve also been busy trying to clear the calf high couch grass that was growing beneath the apple trees. It will be back within the blink of an eye so I’m planning to lay weed-suppressing fabric and cover with bark chippings as soon as possible.  The result is bags and bags of weeds waiting to be taken to our local tip!

Couch grass keeps taking cover under the fruit trees.