I went to see if any gourds needed collecting and ended up harvesting all kinds of things. Mr B gave me a huge bag of Conference pears, which prompted me to look at my tree. There were a few pears, including this one with a special sunroof addition. I quicked a few more from the tree, which felt less than rock hard and came away easily.

I picked one apple from the tree as it came away very easily. It’s been a couple of weeks since the slightly sharp windfall, so we’ll see how the fruit is coming along. Clearly this year it’s no use looking in the books to see when stuff should be ready.

A number of the green warted gourds from the trellis were picked today. The Jack Be Littles are further behind. The ones at the bottom are pretty orange and the bigger ones further up are still quite pale. I should end up with a nice range of sizes on these.

This monster *might* be getting a little more yellow in the light? It’ll be great dark green, and then if ultimately changes colour, I’ll have two for one!

Now that the last gourd from Bed 1 has been cut, I can make a good amount of photo space here. Clearly it needs to be used in the morning and shaded, not in the afternoon after the sun has gone behind the tree. I can get rid of a borage or two as they’re finishing off, and leave the viper’s bugloss, which is still full of flower.

The sweet pea is covered in greenfly and has been for a few weeks. I put a ladybord on it a while ago, but clearly she didn’t make much of a dent. I gave the plant a spray, but the plant was still in the sun, so it may end up being its last hurrah.

The sunflowers are winding down, so I took a couple of little ones to go with the asters, rudbeckia and calendula I picked. Next year I want to see if I can do better with the rudbeckia. They’re not really a cut and come again flower, but as a cut flower they last well.

Mr B went home with a big harvest as I was lining mine up by the gate. We both like this time of year and he’s already started on next year’s digging. He’s got a double plot, which is huge. I like bringing home all these preservable harvests and starting to tidy up. There’s not much point in trying to water the tomatoes under the tree, so they’ll be on the compost heap soon.

I didn’t do gardening per se, just harvesting, as I need to not screw my leg up for Paris. But having been down there I can see jobs lining up – deadheading, watering, weeding, pulling up, digging.