The Last of...

 This months three word gardening post highlights all the 'last of' summer plants and edibles that have finally finished their growing cycle. It has been a glorious Autumn to put the garden to bed properly without the thrash of sudden wild Autumn weather making it all a bit of a rush.

I am picking the last of the cerise Godetia and white Cosmos. There are about three cosmos plants left in the front and back garden which are next to some dahlias and I think if I pulled them up the wind would snap off the dahlias so they are left in for protection.

I am also picking the last of the late Asters which I grew from seed. When these go over I have bulbs ready for winter pot displays.

The veg patch has been cleared. The courgette plants were huge and quite frankly, it is no surprise to anyone who grows courgettes, we were sick of eating them. I harvested four huge ones which I had left on to use as halloween lanterns.

I spread manure on the whole area...

...and put it to bed.

On the fruit garden, I am picking the last of the autumn raspberries. 

Then I tied the canes to supports to ensure I could harvest the very last ones. 

My big girl challenged herself to grow continuous salad for 6 months as part of her skills section on the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh award. She did so well at inter cropping and being ahead of each plants' growing cycle. This is the last of her lettuce.

The herbs are going over so they all had a haircut (but not into the woody stems, that kills them) however we are enjoying the last of the parsley before the cold weather gets it.

In the greenhouse, I have cleared out the tomato plants except for the cherry ones. I used the old growbags as a mulch on my ranunculus corms. We are hanging on to the final plant to get the last few super sweet fruits.

The pepper plant came indoors for a few weeks where we ate them roasted. I sliced them in half length ways then stuffed each 'boat' with chilli cream cheese. Yum!

The chillies are perfect for us. Not too hot but just enough to add to meals without worrying about a disaster. I am not reporting the last of these but the start of our chilli harvest.

I have plans for the seasons ahead. There are bags of bulbs to go into pots and garlic to be planted. I am thinking ahead to next spring with the advantages that a big greenhouse brings. I have cornflowers, sweet william and sweet peas all popping up to be overwintered in the frost free greenhouse.

As I look out of the rainy window I can see the last of the dahlias getting a good bashing but all in all for my first year in a brand new garden I think we have done pretty well.

Thanks for dropping by. Jo xx