Hello October!
It’s been a really lovely month, hasn’t it? The weather has been fairly calm, and I really appreciate the sun we’ve had. I think if the weather had been dull in early autumn, then we might have felt a bit cheated of a summer, but it came good in the end.
I was filming at RHS Harlow Carr recently, and the summer plants there are still looking amazing, you would almost think it was August as you walk through the gardens.
Lots of lovely flowers, paired up with the glory of autumn, it was quite a spectacle. I was filming a segment about autumn leaves for Steph’s Packed Lunch!
I’ve also been on the show in the last week, would you believe it, with a piece on waterproof clothes! It was really fun, and I got to soak a lot of the presenters with a hose of water…
So, I’ve just been looking back at my pictures, and seeing what I’ve been up to in October. It seemed to include a lot of food! We kicked off the month with a little weekend in London, where we tasted a lot of amazing food and really experimented. Although I always do that anyway.
I am particularly fond of Dulce de Leche cake, it’s like a kind of wet sponge, just melts in your mouth. I actually finished off the month with another foodie weekend, as it was my birthday!
I must admit, I have abandoned my garden a little bit in the last few weeks. It’s just hanging onto summer, so I’m letting it do its thing. Sometime soon, I do need to go out and have the autumn tidy-up though, but I can’t bear it yet… ouch! I will need to plant my autumn planting bulbs though, so I must get a date into the calendar!
I’ve been doing quite a bit of growing indoors, and have some new grow light, and I’ve managed to get some really interesting seeds to germinate, plus, the best thing ever, a spider walked into my Venus fly trap, no encouragement….! I have also been trying to take some cuttings of sunflowers, as a little experiment too.
I also took some time to review my garden over the last year, and I submitted some photos to a magazine that requested it. I’ve had a lot of success, but also a fair amount of failure. Even the experts can get it wrong! Have you seen my pitiful plateau of Salpiglossis for example? I think I used a cheap compost – totally my fault!
But, I did have success with my graft of tomato and potato. I managed to make my own TomTato. I was very late in the season, so the crop wasn’t very strong however. One tiny potato. But I proved the concept works!
So, as I’ve already mentioned, I need to get outside and plant my bulbs. Daffodils need to be in by November, but with tulips you can wait until November onwards, they are better planted when the soil is a little bit colder. I’m refreshing my autumn winter containers as well, including one of my favourite plants, heather. Plant snobs often don’t like heathers, but I’m a huge fan!
My sycamore tree will soon be dropping its leaves too, and I want to make sure I clean them up as soon as possible this year. I was too late last year, and I soon had lots of baby seedlings coming up, which were hard to manage!
Oh well, hehe! Hope your own gardens and outdoor spaces are looking fab, and we shall speak soon!
Michael xx
