Autumn clearing and an attack on my Brussels

Chrysanthemum Elizabeth Lawson

I thought I would brighten an otherwise dull day with a picture of this Chrysanthemum from my greenhouse.

Well today is a typical dull, damp autumn day. It is the sort of day that makes you feel you should be out there tidying and clearing, but what to do? Well sweeping the leaves up is one possible job, but is it worth it when the tree still has as many left on it waiting to fall, probably not! So i decided to have a go at the flower bed. As I said in a previous post I like to leave some dead material in the beds to give some colour and winter structure. It is important however to remove decaying matter from around the base of perennials to prevent crown rot. I have found a nice easy way to do this. When I went to the Hampton Court Flower show a couple of years ago I bought an antique muck rake, this is brilliant for dragging through the beds to pull out the rubbish.

I had a suprise when I went into the veg patch this morning, my Brussels had been attacked!

Large White butterfly Pieris brassicae I was quite suprised to find them still going strong after last weeks frosts although according to my books they can still be around in December. I thought I had cleared the plants about a month ago and they had been recovering well. Now I know that Sprouts aren't everyones favourites, Sharron loves them, I don't mind them, however to me the best bit to eat are the Brussel tops or leaves sadly the caterpillars agree with me!








Finally I have found a way of recycling all those old plastic flowerpots!