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It’s that time of year when one has to admit that some of that scrumptious summer veg is well and truly past its best. Suddenly, it's time to clear away spent plants and prepare the soil for autumn and winter plantings.Forking over some soil at the weekend, it was plain to see th...

I’ve just been outside picking strawberries. Despite the colder nights my plants are still fruiting away and I hope they’ll have enough energy left to fruit again at the right time next year.None of the fruits have been damaged by birds – perhaps because the birds don’t expect th...

- organic home-grown plums to eat straight from the tree with enough left over to freeze and cook during winter. My 'Victoria' plums are swelling nicely, so I just hope they have the flavour to match their appearance.Crops have certainly been affected

The wind lately has been something else! I can't remember the last time we had such extraordinarily strong winds hit the garden. It's certainly been fantastic for drying my washing, but the garden is getting the sharp side of these unusually strong and persistent winds.On Monday ...

I'm obsessed with garlic. I've had a bumper crop this year - a mixture of autumn- and spring-planted varieties -  and I use vast quantities in just about every meal.Although I've stored a lot of garlic in plaits and loose in trays, to see me through the coming months, I've alread...

Autumn has definitely arrived in my hill-top garden. The lawn is soaked in dew each morning and suddenly many of my crops have given up the ghost. But oddly enough, the place that I've noticed the seasonal shift the most is in my greenhouse.Night time temperatures have lowered su...

and our resident vole have also had their fair share. The vole does test my patience, as it harvests more than it actually eats and makes a series of ‘larders’ – small mounds of neatly cut fruit! I’m too soft to do anything about it, though, and I’m quite

We had our first frost the other night. The next morning we were out at 6am, clearing the car windscreen. The temperature rises during the day, but plummets mid-afternoon.I wish I had popped the osteospermum that sits on my front door step into the greenhouse sooner. The leaves h...

Every autumn I have the same dilemma: should I overwinter my chilli plants or not? I probably shouldn't bother, as they quite often die, but I always end up taking them indoors. It seems so wasteful throwing them in the compost bin.Although they're usually grown in the UK as annu...

Hidden from view by its terracotta overcoat for the past few months, it's impossible to know exactly how the rhubarb beneath is developing without peeping. Rhubarb forcing  jars are wonderful objects in their own right, and mine takes up residence covering an established clump fr...