November In The Garden - Enjoying the last of the flowers

I have been so busy with my photography this month, that I have rarely had time to venture into the garden and to make matters worse, with the dark nights upon us, when I get home from the studio, it's dark.

I did go down to the bottom of the garden after work in the week, to rescue my small harvest of butternut squash, which have been sitting on the greenhouse bench, with their skins ripening in the sunshine. There was the threat of frost and last year I was caught out, when my squashes turned to mush after a frosty night in the greenhouse.

All my chillies have been picked. Not the massive haul I had last year. With less plants this year, they have been more manageable, although I still have a big bag of them sitting in the freezer from last years crop, I needn't have grown any this year.

I have dug up my sweet potatoes. Well either I have done something wrong, or the climate in our country just isn't warm enough. I had lots of roots about 2mm thick, with a couple of fat juicy ones, like you see in the supermarket but nothing worth cooking. It's such a shame, I had high hopes for them, still nothing ventured, nothing gained I suppose.

My most successful courgette plant gave me one last fruit and presented me with a big fat courgette, which I have picked for tea.

This warm weather has completely confused the plants. I noticed something red in the garden and on closer inspection saw it was a strawberry, being enjoyed by the woodlice and the raspberry canes had tiny fruit on them, which are now on the compost heap after their winter chop.

Today I have been in the garden tidying it for winter. A job which would have normally been completed by now but I am so reluctant to chop back plants which are still flowering their little socks off.

I know at any time there will be a hard frost and they will be withered but until then I just want to let them be.

I have cut back all which has completely gone over but there is still so much to do. The flowers might still be enjoying this sunshine but so too are the weeds. I have never seen so many weeds. I felt so disheartened at times, just looking at how much I still had to do, to make the garden look presentable. Not that anyone including myself will be spending much time in the garden in the weeks to come!

I think it is going to be a matter of getting out there when I can, however cold it gets and just do a bit at a time.

It really is quite amazing how fast time has passed since the summer. I am finding it hard to get my head around the fact that Christmas is around the corner.

It doesn't help that I am photographing products for a May promotion, no wonder I don't know what time of year it is!

With my wedding plans changed to next September, it's a rethink on the flowers I shall be growing next year for the decorations. Instead of peonies it will be dahlias and chrysanthemums, so this winter I shall be scouring the internet for these plants in beautiful soft shades of pink and looking forward to the sun returning to our hemisphere again.

Until next month.

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