First, the current success:
The lettuce are doing well at the moment. As with the onions, I have been deliberating over the necessity of a cloche. In a few nights the night time temperatures are expected to drop to three degrees Celsius but at ten degrees tonight I think I’ll deliberate a bit longer.
I’m also toying with the idea of moving the compost bin as I think it might have attracted a resident that I’m not comfortable with in the garden. Still, I will continue to monitor the situation as there is nowhere to move it to right now and I feel the need to rest my bones a bit.
Not that the need to rest stopped me from chopping down the Jerusalem artichokes this afternoon. The flowers had mostly finished and the stems were very much dead.
The hosta is also about to disappear for the winter
and the blackberry bush is in its autumn glory.
Even though I’ve decided it has to come out, I’m glad I left the bush so that I could enjoy the leaves. Some leaves on the strawberry plants are the same colour and it seems the leaves on the deciduous trees in the garden are also starting to take on an autumn hue.
There are lots of buds on the apple tree, so I am now curious to see whether these will become branches or fruit. I did read somewhere about the different type of buds but I can’t remember now.
Growing out of chaos 
My Hostas are at the same stage.
Nice to see your strawbs looking good. Mine didn’t last spring. But then mine were in a vertical garden and I forgot about them…. Oopsie. B-)
Yes, easy done! Are you going to keep them in a vertical garden?
I don’t know. If I can get a bit of a drip irrigation going… Maybe.
Otherwise I’m a little too hit and miss when it comes to watering. They’d be dead too quick.
Drip irrigation sounds a plan…
Setting it up is a pain. I did it in a friends lean to and hanging baskets. I had to use a timer and drippers.
The bit issue is that I don’t have access to an outside plug that I could use.
Oh, maybe not drip watering then!
No. As much as I’d like to… I’d have to set up another power point outside to put a timer on it. And then encase then both somehow.
Without spending serious cash I don’t think I could do it.
I don’t think serious cash would be worth it in view of the limit returns. Better to find a patch of ground in your garden for the strawberries.
Unless I could come up with an always on drip.
That would mean leaving the tap on and having a two way splitter to two houses and leave one with a suppressor and open a tiny amount all the time. Much cheaper and easier to do
Well, I don’t know about these things – technical stuff isn’t an area I’ve ever really learned about – but if you could do it, that sounds a plan.
It is possible. It’s how those hanging basket irrigators work. It’s just that I will leave them on a tiny bit all the time
I see. Hope you can do it.
Lovely update thank you for sharing Helen my strawberry’s fail even my new crows i have got do not seem to be growing have a blessed day
It could be the variety, Linda. The first strawberries I got (RHS) produce very few fruit, although they are still flowering now. They also produce few runners.
On the other hand, the strawberries I got two years ago from Old Sleningford Farm are magnificent. If only I could give you a runner or two to try out.
Your lettuce looks very happy growing in the container…nice that you can bring it in if it gets too cold for one night.
Now, that’s an idea, Karen. Thank you!