We’ve had some lovely weather up here in Manchester this weekend, I’ve had plenty of fresh air, so I thought I’d write an autumn update,

all about my new dog, how the garden grows and plans for the coming months

Me ‘n’ my Buddy

If you follow me on social media you may well know I’ve got a new dog, called Buddy. He’s a rescue dog from Hope to Hounds; they rescue dogs from Cyprus, who have been abandoned. He’s been poorly for his first 3 weeks with us and we weren’t allowed to take him out. Thankfully he’s improved every day and now he’s doing all them classic puppy things, like stealing Mum’s shoes, ripping paper and running after autumn leaves!! He’s adorable; here’s a video of him

Autumn events

I’ve been busy volunteering at weekends with Operation Farm events; there was the Mossley Horticulture Show where I was a junior judge and I ran a seed planting stall and last weekend we did the #SoupShare at the Harvest Festival.

I love both of these annual events and it’s always great to work with the other volunteers from Operation Farm; we always have a good chat too, like me and volunteer, Lisa, when we were talking about fennel, she asked my advice and I said to her about the bronze fennel in our garden and how lovely it is.

Up in our top garden

My Dad has been busy in the garden, mainly doing some maintenance and landscaping jobs. He’s built a new compost area near the blackcurrant bush. Improved the steps going up to the pond and cleared the area at the side of the birdfeeders. We’re still harvesting produce, including carrots, shallots and purple spuds!

This is the last of our apples too. This variety is called Discovery and they are lovely and sweet

My Dad’s had a bit of a re-jig in the garden too; he’s dug up and replanted a couple of shrubs and plants that were getting too crowded. In the next few months, we are going to plant some bare root raspberries.

Wildlife in the garden

Despite the wind and rain we’ve still had some fab wildlife visit the garden, including:

Insects – mosquitoes are great for moths, but not for humans – they’ve enjoyed feeding on my Mum (12 bites this week!). Wasps are starting to die off, but there’s still the odd bee around and it’s humongous spiders in the house season!!!

Butterflies – in the garden we’ve had comma, red admiral, gatekeeper and at my Grandma’s, a painted lady

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Mammals & amphibians – there’s been a cheeky squirrel stealing nuts from the birdfeeder, a tiny frog (size of a 10p), which the dog tried to eat and the bats have been lively and flying really close to me, my Mum and Dad.

Birds – was really great to see a woodpecker and nuthatch return to the birdfeeder. It’s also been alive with blue tits and sparrows

New greenhouse

We haven’t got space for a huge greenhouse in our garden, so we’ve just bought a ‘space saver’ one, for the backyard space. It arrived last week and I’m looking forward to assembling it with my Dad. And then I’m REALLY looking forward to filling it with plants, lots of plants!

Houseplants

Allotmenteer Roy, gave me a coleus, which has  beautiful rusty red leaves and he gave me a tip – to not let it flower. I have also got a chilli pepper plant, we have used the chillies in sauces and they are quite mild, thank goodness. Seeing as I’ve got no more room in my bedroom now, I’m taking over the front room. Mum and Dad are happy #NOT !!!

My carnivorous plants are just starting to die off, so in winter I will put them in an unheated greenhouse. My cactus are doing very well, soon I will stop watering them.

Front yard

Our next big project is the front yard; at the moment it’s partially flagged and the planting is a bit of a mess. We’re going to dig it all up and start again – we’re going to clear it away over the winter, remove the flags and get more plants in the spring.

Next few weeks

In the next few weeks I’ll be going to a conference about climate change (more about that soon) and I’ll be writing a #WildAboutGardens blog, all about wild bees.

Hope you’ve had a good weekend folks and kicked some autumn leaves!