There isn’t an awful lot to do right now, which is good because we didn’t have a lot of time. We picked kale, chard, parsley, coriander, salad leaves and a couple of leeks.We did a bit of weeding and we thought about what we need to do in the next couple of weeks.We really need to buy some compost, manure and some garlic.That done, we need to top up the beds that are going to be growing through winter (so the garlic and broad bean beds) and the beds that we are going to cover. I want to manure the rhubarb and the beds that took a real hammering this summer, so the squash beds and boxes. They are also the beds that aren’t very full at the moment so they also need some extra bulk, so the manure and compost should help with that.All the other beds going to sleep for winter will get chicken pellets and compost and will be covered. Of our 16 beds we’ll have 7/8 growing over winter, which is pretty good.I need to paint the shed and we need to set up decorations for Halloween, we have an enormous spider, solar lights on the edge of the plot, a grave – with bones and a skull that we’re going to put on top of something to make a ghost. We’ve really thought about this!

We also need to sow sweet peas, broad beans and the garlic.All the longer term stuff still needs to be done and at the end of this month the clocks will go back making it so much harder to do it all in the daylight, not that there is much daylight it’s under 12 hours and only going to get darker. Ridiculously, for mid October, there are lots of flowers. We have verbena bonariesis, marigolds, dianthus, Californian poppies, the rosemary is flowering, and the aramanth and nasturtiums are holding on.

It’s all good, I may not get everything done, this year or ever but the plot is productive, even in autumn so I’m going to be happy with that.