Aaah, a bit of sunshine after the rain makes everything feel better. After our glorious summer, August has been somewhat disappointing and rather chilly.

Hopefully the sunshine will continue now as I am feeling the need to have a big hack back and dig over as things are looking a bit shabby/ Some nice bare earth, that’s what’s needed. I’m also grateful for a break in the rain so I can continue harvesting....

Plumtastic

“Don’t forget to check that plum for little visitors before you eat it” I shout to my daughter, Rosie, as she helps me fill another bucket load of them from our orchard.

Actually she probably doesn’t need reminding, as she’s pretty good now at knowing that this, unfortunately, is a common problem in our plums, some years worse than others.

The little visitors take the form of pinkish-white maggots of the plum moth caterpillar that tunnels into the fruit as it’s developing in June/July and then later emerges to continue its life under flaky bark.

Unfortunately there are no pesticides that you can use against this moth but you can hang pheromone traps in mid to late May to trick the males into believing the scent from the trap is the female plum moth.

They then get caught on it’s sticky surface which leaves less males around for the females and therefore less eggs are produced.

As well as giving the plums to everybody I know I will be making plum chutney which my husband always moans about as the house smells of vinegar for days but he does like a bit of gingery plum cake.

Dramatic Dahlias

The flower I will definitely not be hacking back just yet, well only to continue picking and bringing in the house, are my gorgeous Dahlias, they are such good value as they keep flowering over such a long period, regular deadheading to aid this, and as cut flowers they have a long vase life.

I love the clashing colours of the bright orange ‘Happy Halloween’; the electric pink of ‘Mambo’ teamed up with the deep velvety Karma Choc...what a combination.