The garden is now being shut down for the winter, with only leeks and our tuscan kale left for picking. Last year the kale lasted us all through the winter into spring.
The blueberry bushes and our pear tree are putting on a fine display of autumn colours at the moment and in the flower garden we still have a few roses blooming and the cosmos never seems to give in, even after a couple of frosts.
It was a very dry September this year, with some record breaking temperatures. Combined with the dry summer it meant we had a very meagre potato crop this year. The earlies got blight and the main crop were very small. The courgettes and squash have been excellent again this month and we have apples on two of our trees.
The star flowers at the moment are the asters and the never ending morning glory.
“…begin with the near and familiar. It is in learning to love and cherish our own little tree, or field or brook that we become fitted for wider and deeper affections”R. S. Thomas preface to The Batsford Book of Country Verse.
We live on a tiny road, that winds up through the forest from the village below to our hamlet and then on to the next village about 5k up the road. Between our house and the next village the forest varies between conifers, firs and deciduous mixed woodland, mainly beech, oak and ash. We have walked this route for over five years now, in all weathers and all seasons, building up a large library of photographs. During our walks we have seen wild boar, foxes, pine martens, stoats, feral cats, ravens and numerous buzzards and failed to photograph any of them! It’s an ever changing scene through the seasons, with autumn possibly the star as the forest really glows at that time of year.
The garden is nearly in full shutdown now, just kale and leeks remaining, though we have planted three raised beds with field beans as a green fertiliser to over winter. We have had one fall of snow so far which hung around for a few days but has now all melted.
Currently suffering from a bad attack of manflu, hence the shortness of this post!
We have had a very spectacular autumn here in the Auvergne, with the colours the best we have known. This has obviously led to much photography and the results are below, enjoy!
And over the last few days we have had our first fall of snow.
kale
The nights are drawing in and becoming colder, down to 3C last night. So the garden is mostly shutting down, though the kale and leeks keep going!
The autumn colours are showing well in the garden, especially our beech tree.
There are also a few flowers hanging on into late autumn, giving some extra colour to the garden.
potimarons and patipans
As the picture shows the squash have been picked and are awaiting many risottos, stews and curries.
The garden is slowing down now with some beds already empty with all the squash, courgettes and potatoes picked and stored. Still available are leeks, kale and borlotti beans, with fennel and cauliflowers available next month. Not sure if the fennel are frost hardy, so I may lose those if we get an early frost.
We also have a last flush of flowers with the asters being particularly good this year after we divided them from just two plants last year.
The garden is also full of dodgy looking mushrooms. I’m clueless on fungi identification so unless a local expert tells me they are edible, they are staying put!
Early morning low cloud hangs around the valley sides and comes and goes in a seemingly haphazard fashion, ten minutes later it had all changed into bright sunshine. The best camera is always the one you have with you and so it’s my trusty old iPhone 4 that took these.
the last rose
It’s been a mild and dry November so far with only a couple of frosts overnight and the last few days sunny and peaking at 18c – 20c.
We have cleared and covered up some beds for winter but others are still productive. So we are still picking beetroot, swede, leeks, fennel, chard, kale and cauliflower, and aside from carrots we haven’t had to buy any veg for weeks.
In the flower garden we have one lonesome rose, borage and the indestructible self seeded calendula still flowering. The hyssop is now gone over but the dead flower heads still have a fantastic structure especially when backlit by the morning sun. The beech hedging is turning a burnished bronze and has grown well this year, as has the mixed berry hedge at the end of the orchard.
looking north
looking south
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