montbretia for basket weaving

recently read in a book on basket weaving that the dried leaves from flowering plants such as irises and montbetia can be used. I only have a few irises in the garden,new plants this year and I'm not sure whether they would normally keep their leaves through winter or not, so I haven't chopped these back. montbretia leaves always die back and if not gathered up quickly turn into a soggy mess so I'm happy to chop them back a little early and they are now strung up in the garage to dry. cutting them back has made the step from patio to lawn visible and has given the snails one place less to hide.

collecting seed

hoping to avoid buying so much seed next year, particularly for flowers, so I've been going round today to see how many plants have properly set seed. a long spell of warm,dry weather has allowed the seed to ripen and dry out well on the plants. the nasturtiums have grown wildly this summer, flowered profusely and set a lot of seed - some is so ripe it's fallen from the plant but I've picked this up as well. grew calendulas and tagetes for the first time in a long while and both of these have set seed. these 3 seed-types I've brought inside to dry, then later I'll store in envelopes or used film canisters. plants such as nigella (love-in-a-mist), aquilegia and foxgloves generally just grow wherever the seed spreads to. as I've cut back the old dried stems of these flowers I've shaken any seed still in the pods in areas where I would like them to grow next year.
also started taking the seed beans from the runner bean row. they are starting to turn yellow and although not totally dried out I'm bringing them in while the weather is warm and dry rather than risking them getting wet.

picked this week

the last pumpkin - this makes 4 good big ones ready for Halloween, lots of small cucumbers, small number of runner beans, baby corn, a savoy cabbage that was so eaten by bugs that it only made one dinner, some second shoots of broccoli, still have rocket and spinach leaves, and a couple of courgettes

cucumbers

cucumbers are still continuing to crop but the Sweet Crunch which are supposed to be a small fruiting variety are as large as the Marketmores. best crops, though rather weird, have come from the Crystal Lemon plant. at their largest they grow to the size of an apple but easily develop tough skin and a lot of seeds. the very oddly shaped one at the bottom of the picture is a Marketmore grown outside in the bean row - this is the only fruit from the plant and not really fit to eat.

birds

lot of birds visiting this morning. half a dozen sparrows, possibly a few more, flitting about the feeder, 2 blackbirds pecking at the lawn, blue tits on the rowan out front, long-tailed tits on the one next door, a robin sitting on the swing, a wren hunting insects on the roses, a pigeon disturbed out of the sycamore by a cat(not Puddin) and magpies flying over.

clearing up

decided to bring in the last pumpkin - it had trailed from the pea row into the raspberries and was very difficult to support. had thought this was smaller than the others but, comparing them in the kitchen, it isn't really - longer and less rounded, it might have made the biggest pumpkin if it had had time to grow.
the pumpkin was the only reason to have left the pea row in so long. it had already turned brown and dried out, so now that has been outed leaving a row of self-set flowers - foxgloves, feverfew and aquilegia mainly.
harvested some more baby corn. have had enough for several stir-fries but not quite enough to be worth freezing.

picked this week

runner beans, cucumbers- crystal lemon and sweet crunch, a couple of tomatoes, beetroot, the last 3 pods off of the alderman peas, 2 pumpkins,baby corn, courgettes, peaches and picked the apples today. Weather dry but not as sunny and warm as last week. Some nights have been cool ; weathermen talking about ground frosts.