Autumn tidying

Today was a tidying up in the garden sort of day. I cleared all the tomato plants from the raised beds . The tomatoes have been pretty good this year but some had succumbed to blight. The green ones should ripen indoors and I’ve left a few in the seed house as well

These are all Tigerella which are very beautiful when they are still green.

I sowed broad beans and phacelia in the tomato beds in the hope that it isn’t too late. I also sowed some late lettuce, replacing the seeds that I’d sown about a month ago and which were all consumed by slimeys.

Then I went out into the front garden to do some tidying up there, including deadheading the roses which are still blooming fantastically. I accidentally cut off one of the Boule de Neige flowers, so put it in a vase in the house

There are lots more like this on the bush outside, as well as the red Gertrude Jekyll and Benjamin Britten.  While I was grubbing around beside the roses I noticed that the lavender was needing a good trim, so brought lots of that into the house as well, leaving some for the  bees which were still buzzing around in the sunshine

Then the rain came on but I persevered with my tidying up, giving the fairy mounds a good hair cut before the winter:

The fox, or whatever it is, that has been digging up the bees’ nest had pulled back the wire grating that I put up to protect it so I put that back just in case there is anything still there.

The fairy mounds mainly grow long grass and some wild flowers but underneath the grass there is the most beautiful moss: