The garden is slowing down, which means it's time to tidy up after the frenetic growing season. The lavender has had a chop and I can now walk up the garden path uninterrupted again.

The smell of the lavender was so pungent that in the end, I started to feel a bit nauseous, not quite the effect I wanted from the lavender.

The fading flowers of my white hydrangea, now have a pink tinge to them, which looks wonderful in the new autumn light.

Still plenty of colour in the flower garden though. My geraniums are still looking good and the variety Anne Folkard, which started flowering back in May is still looking wonderful, meandering through the flower bed. This certainly is a good doer.

Finally my wish came true or an indian summer to ripen my tomatoes. Unfortunately, this brought along with it an infestation of fat juicy caterpillars to my greenhouse.

I'm happy to share with nature but the little beggars just sucked at the tomatoes and then moved onto the next one without finishing it off! I stripped off all the leaves from the stems, left them in a pile outside for the caterpillars to fend for themselves and disposed of the half-eaten fruits.

I have been busily harvesting my tomatoes and turning them into Passata.

So easy, it's just a matter of cutting them in half, adding a few cloves of garlic, some fresh herbs like rosemary and thyme, salt, pepper and a sprinkle of sugar and olive oil and then into a medium oven to roast for about an hour, then a quick blitz in the food processor and there you have it, the most delicious sauce to have with pasta or make into a Bolognese or Chilli.

I'm still picking purple beans because I put them in so late and my sweet potatoes are not doing very much but I'm hoping the magic is happening underground. As soon as the leaves turn yellow, that's the time to investigate if they have been successful - how exciting!

I have emptied out two of my three sacks of Pink Fir Apple potatoes and they have been delicious. Not a massive crop but I have never seen this variety in the shops, so for me it's worth growing and by growing them in sacks takes up very little room so they are no bother and so rewarding.

I love the light this time of year and it is so precious with the clocks going back only a few weeks away.

This unexpected very warm spell is so wonderful and with it coinciding with a day off from work, I am off out into the garden to spend the day weeding, dodging the spiders webs, which I feel so guilty when I break and having plenty of tea breaks to enjoy the last of this years sunshine.

Happy gardening!

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