October flowers

A jungle of dahlias, zinnias and cosmos. How about that as a delightful return?

The whole potager is a jungle too.  But at least I have this bright and productive end of the patch. I can step over a sea of rocket, a tangle of green beans, small tomatoes trailing all over the paths, my eyes only on the forest of lovely flowers.

Armfuls of blooms.

And in October one usually looks on them each day as a miracle. The frost will cut them down overnight as soon as it gets cold.

And then I will have a huge long bed of greenish black slime. On stalks.

But there is no frost in sight. It is still absurdly warm.

We had some rain in the past two weeks. I found half an inch (11mm) in the rain gauge.  So that brings it up to a thrilling inch and a half since July.  Andrew says the Ardèche experienced the second driest September in 100 years. Only 1985 was worse. No rain at all.

And looking at the forecast I can see just warm weather ahead (21C in the daytime, 9c overnight). Perfect for our house guests.  Not so good for the garden.

Gillie is always keen to get stuck into some gardening projects.

I won’t subject her to weeding this:

But I have an idea of being a bit creative with some fencing, like this.