Last cosmos bouquet

last cosmosBeing a Thursday this was market day in our scruffy but endearing agricultural town.   And that meant finding a bouquet of flowers for the stall holder Madame Orisette.   But the cupboard is almost bare. I think this will be the last of the cosmos flowers in the garden.   And I have added some verbena bonariensis blossoms as well, just to bulk it out.

It is blustery and cloudy today; a mistral is blowing down the Rhone valley and it has even touched us here on our snug mountain.   Mont Godin protects us from the worst of the wind but it does mean that there were chestnut burrs to watch out for as they plummet from the trees, and a sun hat to try and keep on one’s head. cleared quadrant

I decided to finish the weeding of the vegetable garden. Putting it to bed for the year if you like.   There wasn’t much to do.   Just hoeing and a light weeding and removal of the spent sunflowers.

cleared vegetable gardenBut I do have quite a few things left despite the vast tracts of bare earth. Runner beans (no surprise there), swiss chard, tomatoes, basil, parsley, marjoram, a few coriander seedlings and yet more tomatoes.   So that’s not bad.

And now I can concentrate on other parts of the garden.

One of the biggest joys this autumn has been collecting seeds. I have been haunting the shrubs in the calabert garden with pockets full of envelopes and a beady eye for seeds.

So far today I’ve collected a haul of gaura, ballota, bupleurum fruticosum, caryopteris and valerian seeds.   The ballota is fast becoming one of my favourite plants. It’s outrageously tactile and fluffy.   I must try and find a way to make more. Seeds were very hard to find in the flowers, and I am not sure if the cuttings will take.   But I think I have all the bases covered for now. ballota