The kitchen garden in September

It’s been a glorious end to September, blue skies and low autumnal sunshine giving the garden a rich golden glow.

Our apples and pears have cropped heavily this year and we’ve started to pick our bounty. The pear trees branches are drooping heavily with weight of the fruit. Sadly I’ve just noticed an apple trees that is leaning at a 45° angle with the weight of its harvest. I’m hoping I can pull the trunk back up with a sturdy stake and a tree strap.

I’m still filling the house with flowers from the cutting border. The sunflowers are fabulous, but, it’s the dahlias that are the star of the show, they really take off into another dimension come the autumn. Long may the frosts evade us.

We continue to crop courgettes, tomatoes, kale, spinach, salad leaves, runner beans and beetroot. We’ve just started to harvest our butternut squash and borlotti beans. An oddity for this time of year, I cut our first crop of purple sprouting broccoli, I can only think I sowed it far too early. It was not a pleasant addition to our supper, six caterpillars were discovered floating in the water and further intruders were discovered on our plates. It’s not all rosy living the ‘Produce from the garden’ good life!

As usual here’s the September summary in pictures:

SunflowerInstant happiness! Cut and come again sunflowers.Cosmos PurityA sea of cosmos ‘purity’PearsPearsApple and pear harvestApple and pear harvestBorlotti beansBorlotti beans, dried in their pods on the plant. I can’t wait for a borlotti bean and sausage stew!Tomatoes in greenhouseTomatoes still going strong in the greenhousePlum tomatoesDelicious plum tomatoesHerb bedMy herb bed, packed with sage, thyme, parsley, oregano, chives and garlic chives with their beautiful white pom pom flowersButternut squash HunterButternut squash ‘Hunter’Runner bean flowersRunner beans flowering and cropping wellCourgetteCourgettesKale RedborTastes amazing, looks stunning in the vegetable patch and will see us through till springKale Cavolo NeroCavolo Nero, an italian kale perfect with pasta, it will also see us through until SpringPurple sprouting broccoliThe offending purple sprouting broccoli, fingers crossed it will be at its peak after Christmas

Flowers for the kitchen table

Cosmos 'Purity' on a tableCosmos ‘Purity’ in a jam jar

My second favourite cut flower Cosmos ‘Purity’ (dahlia’s are no.1 of course!). I’ve just picked this bunch from my cutting border, perfect for the kitchen table. A graceful, country farmhouse look. They’re easy to grow from seed in early spring, I planted eight plants into my cutting border and I pick a bunch this size every other day. One for me, one for a friend and several for my honesty stall. The key is cut lovely long stems, never let a flower go to seed on the plant and you’ll have flowers to pick from June to the first frosts.