16th September ~ Perfect weather this morning – cool and drizzly. Not too hot! Yesterday was very hot again and uncomfortable to work in. More cutting back and down and weeding. Compost heaps are overflowing. I need to work out a better system for organising and emptying them. Perhaps collecting material in a pile and adding gradually layered with grass clippings.

17th September ~ The works has slipped seamlessly into Autumn tasks which are important but there is plenty of time to complete them. The urgency of summer is over where it is a constant round of planting, cutting and watering.

18th September ~ September days. Hot and sunny then chilly in the mornings and evenings.

20th September ~ A very satisfying hour of reclaiming some of the cutting beds. Weeds have taken over in many places where the plants have finished. The soil is loose and dry and the weeds come out easily.

Discovered a little forest of Lagurus ovatus – Bunny Tails – germinating. It is a hardy annual so I am hopeful that these will over winter well and flower early next year. There are also multitudes of Briza.

Swarm of bees in the poly tunnel. They buzzed around then settled for the night on the supports and on the flowers.

21st September ~ Beginning to sort out seeds, seedlings and greenhouse. I need room in the greenhouse for all the pots of seeds. I’d left some trays of sown seeds on the floor of the greenhouse due to lack of bench space. They now have cat footprints in them. Hopefully will still germinate. Many things need to be potted on or be planted out and that will make room for the new seedlings. Keep up with the pricking out.

22nd ~ Family party ~ Bees still resident.

9th September ~ I made a few wreath bases from twisted stems. These can be covered with moss or straw or used as they are with foliage tied on.

10th September ~ Beginning the Autumn change around. Many plants are flopping, crushing and squeezing out smaller plants around them. I know I plant too densely so I’ll try and make a space around each plant for it to expand into. Weeding, cutting down and thinning out in the front border today. There is a long way to go but it’s a start.

11th September ~ Some of the seeds sown last week are starting to germintate.

12th September ~ First sweep of the Autumn leaves. The Birch tree is always the first to shed leaves, in fact it sheds all year and also spreads thousands of tiny seeds in every pot and on every bed. It’s surpising that we don’t have a forest.

13th September ~ A busy day of wedding flowers. Buttonholes and corsages in a white and burgundy colour scheme. Aching hands but they looked good.

14th September ~ very little achieved in the way of gardening. Recently, since it became cooler, I’ve become relaxed about watering and now everything in the tunnel and greenhouse needs water and some of it needs staking. We are having hot days again.

15th September ~ A satisfying day of weeding and clearing spaces between plants. I swear things have doubled in size during the last month. We had all the hot weather when they struggled to stay alive but since it’s been raining they have made the most of the warm temperatures and damp soil. It’s a good time of year to be cutting back and moving things around. Some plants will now put on new growth before winter and make a mat of green.

Beech nuts all over the ground under the beech tree. I wonder if we will have an invasion of Squirrels. I don’t remember seeing so many before.

3rd September ~ Very fine wet rain which soaks in a short time.

4th September ~ I have a lot of planting out to do. I have small Lupin plants which I understand do better if established in the Autumn. I hope they won’t be razed by slugs. Better send the ducks in. Also Gaura. I’m not sure how hardy that will be so I will try some planted under cover. A few things need to come out of the poly tunnel so there will be room. Bulbs will start arriving soon!

5th September ~ There is a definite chill in the air first thing in the morning. Once the sun is up it’s warm again but there is no doubt that Autumn is coming.

First Ranunculus claws arrived in the post today. They are replacements for ones which were the wrong colour last season. Fingers crossed for these.

6th September ~ Pulling up the Daucus in the poly tunnel. It got too tall really and has not been worth the space it took up. I’ve saved some seed from it and hope it might self seed as well. I have self seeded plants outside which have done well.

7th September ~ How do the days go past so quickly? More cutting for drying and trying to sort what is already dried. It’s important to cut and bunch in 10s, 20s etc to save on sorting and counting once dried. Ask me how I know?

8th September ~ New plants. A visit to the Rare Plants Fair at the Bishop’s Palace, Wells and then a visit to a friends’ meant a boot full of new plants. Lots of plans to rearrange the garden, it’s the perfect time of year, but no time, frustratingly.

12th August ~There is nothing like knowing people are going to see every part of your plot to focus the mind. A good day of tidying and clearing. I wish it always looked this tidy. Thought it is August and there are too many bare patches and not enough colour. I know I say this every year but I need more cosmos, dahlias and friends in the front beds and borders. Open days at the weekend as part of the Flower Farmers’ Big Weekend.

13th August ~ Replaced all the earwig traps which had been dislodged and blown away in the gales. There are still earwigs about but they are causing less damage than they were. Unfortunately still targeting the dark red dahlias. Dahlia plot looks fab considering it’s new this year and was a mess of weeds a few months ago.

14th August ~ More heavy rain. All water butts and tanks are now full and I have filled all watering cans as well. We are unlikely to have more drought but I am twitchy just the same.

15th August ~ Weeding, edging, tidying – it’s all coming together. As I go round I can see ways to improve things for next year to grow more efficiently and what we need more or less of. The season is changing and many things have reached their peak and will now begin to tail off. Thank goodness for Dahlias, Zinnias and Cosmos which are all flowering prolifically. I don’t like to think of the end of summer but there is a chill in the air in the evenings and it feels like change.

16th August ~ day on, day off! Heavy rain again today – really no let up all day and it’s very squelchy underfoot. Not possible to do anything much outside but I did manage a short time in the shed with some dried flowers and the beginnings of a wreath. Apart from that prep for the open day in the way of signs and cakes.

17th August ~ Day 1 of Flower Farmers’ Big Weekend. A glorious warm sunny day. We had a stream of visitors who made all the preparations worth while.

18th August ~ Day 2. Even more visitors. I’m very happy to spend a day talking to people about plants. Plenty of cake was eaten and money raised for Dorothy House.

5th August ~ Dahlias are really taking off now. The earwig traps are working as long as I remember to empty them every day. Perhaps the bark mulch paths were a mistake. Probably an earwig magnet!

6th August ~ A small amount of rain tease us.

7th August ~ There is so much to cut now it’s exciting. Someone questioned why I grew so many different things and had not grown a large quantity of a few things. I think that would be a different kind of business. Having all the grasses and twiddly bits to hand makes all the difference when creating interesting designs.

8th August ~ Dahlias are hung all around our house to dry. An interesting experiment with the heads which have opened too far to cut for vases. So far they look promising but may be very fragile.

9th August ~ Our beautiful ducks have destroyed my last planting of lettuce. They really do very little damage when let loose in the garden but have a taste for lettuce and spinach. I’ll need to find some way of covering the few which are left. I do give them lettuce leaves so…

10th August ~ Be careful what you wish for. We have had a decent amount of rain but they bring heavy winds with them. Thankfully we have staked and netted most things and the nets are doing a good job. I’ve just been out to check my dahlias and they are all standing up superbly. Completely by fluke, I think we’ve planted them in a sheltered spot!

11th August ~ a few things had fallen in the high winds so some staking was needed but we got off pretty lightly really. Good progress in tidying the Cutting beds. Mr C did valiant work edging the membrane paths and I cleared some plants which had gone over and removed plenty of weeds making it look better for open day next week. In truth the garden is very dry and green and there is little to see in the way of flowers. There are even bare patches. I always mean to have more colour in August but have failed again. The cutting beds, at least, are brimming and, of course, there are the dahlias.

Stung by a bee.

Torrential rain this afternoon and thunder. I know my fleece is outside and I wonder how many tools I’ve left out.