The end of September and I have to admit that with the cooler nights and early mornings along with the temperatures only reaching low to mid twenties centigrade recently that Autumn is with us.
The advantage for the garden is that the cooler temperatures and the little bit of rain we have now had have meant that more colour is appearing.
The orto as far as vegetables are concerned is still not producing much apart from tomatoes which although coming to the end are still ripening. We have also planted some peas, spinach and salad plants which are already up and if the weather stays mild may well give us some crops soon.
As for the fruit well I am ashamed to see how much is going to waste, I will post a photo that shows just how much fruit is covering the ground in our garden at the moment! We have used apples and pears in everyway you can think of and will have plenty of bottled, frozen puree, jams, juice etc to see us through the winter. We have even managed to find a few people who were able to take some fruit but most of our neighbours and friends locally have more than enough of their own.
There are still more apples to harvest, if we want an apple to eat we just pick it off the tree, which is absolutely the best way to eat fruit, the same goes for the last of the figs. We are now eating another interesting fruit from a small tree in the garden that we have been told is edible by the neighbours, never seen it before moving here. The Jujube, also known as red date or Chinese date, I looked it up on Wikipedia - Jujube and discovered they are believed to alleviate stress. They are certainly tasty enough, they have a sweet almost apple like flavour and we have been eating them straight from the tree. I think now I have read this we had better harvest them.
This afternoon we are going to harvest more grapes as we have discovered that they make a tasty grape juice which freezes well and will be the perfect way of using them for us. We are not interested in producing our own homemade wine as we are gifted with more than we can use anyway from our neighbours. Also to be honest there is so much great wine available at reasonable cost we do not need to.
To repeat myself from last month we may not have had a productive season with vegetables but we have certainly made up for it with our fruit, which luckily we do eat a lot of, well over the recommended number of portions per day for a healthy diet.
It is time once again for me to share some of my favourite garden photos from the last month with you. I always have difficulty selecting just a few so the interested gardeners and photographers amongst you will find the full album on Flickr. Our Garden in September
Here then is a selection of eighteen photographs from the month of September for you to enjoy.
Boundary is just this side of the wires.
Pampas Grass
Nicotania.
Ornamental Peppers
Cerinthe and Golden Rod
Rudbechia
Jujube as mentioned in the text above.
Seedhead
Olives
Apple
Tomatoes
Grapes
Persimmon
More Apples than we were able to cope with.
Rose
Cyclamen
Autumn Daffodil – Sternbergia Lutea
More photos can be found in my Flickr album Our Garden in September
This week as it happens to be Wednesday and these are outdoor photos I am participating for the first time in Outdoor Wednesday.
![Outdoor Wednesday button[5]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaZUIr7zH_zVfuwaTKnl-b7lXL-M5nKGIcc1-vL_UoDyp_Oa6rivDEbu9mqu6v4jsk0POHl889Bmo04aEq-LVUaX7ytyFu4DQgHtAN2QUaOjlYmrQ0MHZPNIzcOocbp1IOy4iHsQKDZxY/?imgmax=800)
Oh How I can almost taste those figs : )
ReplyDeleteJust thought I would share with you that my grandfather lived in Bari Italy and I have a step aunt there that I would love to find someday. I have always wanted to go to Italy (hubby and I often dream of going sometime for a few months and just explore and "live" the culture. I love reading your adventures and as I said before you are living my dream and I love living it through you : )
You have a big garden/orto. Besides freezing or drying those apples, the only thing to do is move them to a compost pile. This way, you don't contaminate the ground and invite rodents.
ReplyDeleteI envy your beauty and your harvest, but not all the work that this garden necessitates.
OMG how much stuff, in a way I'm jealous but I would die if I had to harvest and can all those produce.
ReplyDeletePlus I hate to waste things ;)
Lindy that Rudbechia looks similar to my Topinambour and is about the same height. I have cut all the flowers off the Topinambour though as I want the growth to go the roots. (Jerusalem Artichoke). I am fascinated by the Jujube, it looks and sounds very interesting. You obviously have a lot more ground than we have; we are limited to the number of fruit trees we can grow. Wish I was closer to help you out with apples and pears. I am still looking forward to the time when we are here for the first frosts and we can experiment with the medlar fruit. Diane
ReplyDeleteWhat a handful... But you must be so happy!
ReplyDeleteListen to Rosaria's advice (lakeviewer), she's a big gardening expert!
My son and I do this thing with Nicotania: we take a flower and cut off about 1 cm of the stem, making it into a small trumpet. When you blow air through it, it sounds like a mini bugle.
(we normally don't vandalize flowers...)
I'm jealous of the garden. In a good way.
We love Italy and have visited a few times. Especially the years my husband was stationed in Germany. All your photos are beautiful. Blessings. Debbie
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! You could make cider with all those apples;-) Are you sure that Nicotiana is Nicotiana? It looks like Mirabilis jalapa to me. Nicotiana is the tobacco plant, and usually has bigger leaves.
ReplyDeleteOh my, you have so many apples! I have one large apple tree and it produces so much fruit...I give so much away, and of course frezze, bake, eat fresh, whatever we can...this summer I gave boxes to a homess shelter...they loved them! Your yard is gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteI just loved looking at all you flowers and produce. Your photography is great.
ReplyDeleteHi LindyLou!
ReplyDeleteOh wow... your garden and flowers are amazing!
I enjoyed reading your profile and this post very much ~ I smiled when I saw your apple trees... and you are so correct when you write that the best tasting apples are the ones fresh from the tree!
So wonderful and such a gift from God when we have such abundance~
Thank you for sharing your beautiful bounty of fruits and flowers ~
*Ciao
~Maria
I love the photos! It still looks so warm down there. Here another chilly and rainy day, so these pics warm me a bit. Thanks for sharing Linda!
ReplyDeleteLove the Decor - I do hope that one day your dream comes true, meanwhile happy to share with you.
ReplyDeleteLakeviewer - We are fortunately keen and long established gardeners, not as much land here as our last two properties! Yes we have a compost heap:)
Alessandra -I absolutely hate the waste, we give away and use as much as we can :(
Diane - It grew exceptionally tall this year! The jujube is really tasty and a new discovery for us.
Eleonora - I must try that little trick :)
The Paint Splash - Welcome, good to meet you and thanks for commenting. Have you ever been to the Lazio region north of Roma?
Bookguide Sarah - Welcome and thanks for your comments. We have made apple juice amongst other things but are not cider drinkers, also you normally need cider apples not the varieties we have. I will check out your plant suggestion but they were Nicotiana seeds we planted! I wonder if the heat stunted their growth?
Linda - Welcome and thanks for commenting. You obviously can see our problem if you did all that with fruit from just one tree.
ReplyDeleteDonnie -Welcome to my blog, I am happy you enjoyed my photography.
Maria - Welcome. Thankyou for your lovely comment, I just wish I had been able to find more people to share the abundance with.
Caroline - It is chilly at night now but still beautiful during the day, temps in low 20's.
Hi Linda , your garden is absolutely amazing, what a wonderful assortment of fruits you have :-) Yes a shame that you cannot find more people to share with, only because your neighbours have their own .. You have been very busy with all your crops :-) and your photos are fab.
ReplyDeleteYour garden looks wonderful at this time of year! I've never tried jujube but will have to now. I know what you mean about all the extra fruit – we had an orchard when I was growing up and we used to beg anyone that came over to take apples. I remember my Mom and grandmother making gallons and gallons of applesauce – yummy! Have a lovely weekend. g
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful blue sky contrasting with the colorful fruits and flowers.
ReplyDeletePack some apples and send them to me!!!
You have a little piece of heaven there in your back yard! Enjoy!
Lindy, you have a beautiful yard, I love all the flowers and your photos. You do have a lot of apples. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteWhat wonderful photos of your garden! How awesome to grow such a variety!
ReplyDeleteYou have giuggiole (jujube)? What luck! Three years ago we went to the Festa della Giuggiole in Arquà Petrarca (Veneto) and had a lot of fun. I've wrote about the festa and some other pertinent info (they even had a jujube gelato stand - yum). Antonella Clerici even did a cooking experiment on her show. What fond memories, and 2010's festa should be happening around this time of year again. Here's the url of my post in case you or any or your readers might be interested:
ReplyDeletehttp://rubbahslippahsinitaly.blogspot.com/2007/10/festa-delle-giuggiole.html
Anne - Thankyou, we were so lucky to find this garden with a house that needed renovating!
ReplyDeleteGeorgianna - Do try the jujube. After the intense heat the garden seems to come back to life in September.
Simony - I wish I could send you some :)
Eileen - Welcome and thanks for commenting, hope you will call by again.
Pam - Welcome, thanks for calling by and commenting, always appreciated. We are very lucky with this garden.
Rowena- They have a festa for them, wow, thanks for the link I shall definitely go and take a look at that. Maybe I should do a post dedicated to the fruit sometime, then link to your post as you suggest.
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I love it!!!
ReplyDeleteYour garden is so so so BEAUTIFUL!!
I always enjoy seeing photos of your beautiful garden! Still so beautiful - even in September. I was surprised to see the photo of your Autumn Crocus. I've never seen crocus in the Fall here - only the Spring. What a lovely surprise. Also, thank you so much for adding my button to your badge collection. I really appreciate it!
ReplyDeleteRocio - Why thankyou so much for your loveley comments :)
ReplyDeleteAlissa - I have been told it is not an Autumn Crocus but actually an Autumn Daffodil, although it looks like a crocus. It is a Sternbergia Lutea! I must edit the photo label.
Lovely garden, Linda ♥
ReplyDeleteDona - Thankyou, we were lucky to find a country property with a garden that had obviously been loved at one time.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous pictures :) Are you expecting to get snow over winter, or will you stay warmer than that...?
ReplyDelete