Friary Gardens

We visited Friary Gardens on a beautiful warm day at the end of September. From their web site: 'Friary Gardeners offers horticultural training and greater independence to people with disability through the raising of annual and perennial plants from seed, growing flowers and vegetables, the sale of plants and produce and the provision of gardening services to the local community, particularly those who are elderly and/or have a disability. All the revenue generated by the sale of plants and services is "ploughed" straight back into the work.'
They are also growing plants for Great Dixter now! It is a magical place with a wonderful atmosphere. I wish I had time to volunteer!

Bridge Community garden September

Lots of stuff growing at the Community Garden in September in spite of still waiting for funding for the hard landscaping and an unexpected mysterious flood, possibly from an underground spring, which meant digging a few ditches to drain it. We wondered if we could start selling bottles of The Bridge Community Centre natural spring water. We have pumpkins, leeks, chard, perpetual spinach, jerusalem artichokes, kale, brussel sprouts, cabbage, courgettes, salad and lots and lots of raspberries.

September colours

Jewel bright like the burning sunsets at this time of year.

Harvest

My tomatoes all got blight. I didn't trash the lot and cry over empty pots of tomato sauce like my neighbour. I removed the brown bits and waited. The weather turned drier. I was careful to water the roots only. I removed more brown bits as they appeared. Soon my plants had no leaves left. Nearly all my tomatoes ripened. I only lost a few. As it became colder I removed the unripe ones and let them blush red in a bowl on the kitchen table. Next year I will plant my tomatoes in pots and fill the raised bed with peas.




























Tomatoes from the raised bed in my garden.
Salad and the raised bed.
Courgettes and the raised bed.
Cucumbers.