the rustle of spring

well the rustle of autumn actually, but it is time to be thinking about bulbs, even though everything is still flowering madly and cropping hugely...........we are eating the new potatoes which are wonderful, especially the Pink Fir Apples....we don't know what the other kind are, but they're all perfect, and completely un-slugged. and all that on a regime of being thrown into the ground and completely neglected...............i've moved the gooseberry and whitecurrant bushes, the whitecurrant looked very unhappy in its tub so i've moved the strawberry into it instead and moved the whitecurrant and the gooseberry to the potato bed beside the rhubarb. then in go the field beans to be green manure..............Dad's raspberries are on the other side so they can lean against the shed, with fenugreek at their feet.......the chard is still going strong so we might as well keep eating it until it packs in, all the winter salads are coming along too.............the courgette is kindly producing one or two at a time which is just right........one of the beans has died but the other still looks fine..............and of course there are tomatoes every day, and blueberries................
...........i really should do some drawings next year in spring............i remember there were some bare bits but of course now that it's bulb time i can't remember where they were. and no doubt the Garden Elves will rearrange the planting plan..............alliums are my latest new thing........some in the "purple patch" with Queen of Night tulips...........and some in a pot with narcissi so i can see what they look like...............
...........the escholzia that came up with the patio rose looked absolutely beautiful so i've harvested the seeds and re-planted them.............i have no recollection of putting them there before but i guess i must have, it may have been last year though............
...........the front is still irritating me...........a couple of autumn croci have come up and they do look very nice so maybe i should put in some more as there's nothing else much at this time of year once the summer flowers have gone over............i intend to try leaving the geraniums out, as they should survive, but i might take cuttings just in case they don't.........and i've added some croci to the square tubs so there'll be something to look at in spring........
..........there was a surprise when i dug up the raspberries at Mum and Dad's............a paeony. i don't remember there ever being one there before, but i've heaved it out and added it to my paeony patch, which also contains the irises "Harmony". no doubt it will sulk...........the others sulked for about five years i think after i moved them from the front, let's hope it has more emotional intelligence than those ones...............
............winter onion seedlings have come up so i wonder if they'd be OK in a pot...........lettuces are doing OK and we must remember that in that wooden tub are the gladioli Byzantinus........