Feelings of melancholy as the nights draw in are mixed with the joy of crips autumn sunshine, for a colourful #SixOnSaturday this week.

The last vestige of summer is holding on as the cosmos continue to flower. There’s a rather pleasing colour clash between the flowers and some background foliage. The first frosts are forecast very soon, so these bountiful flowerers will be gone soon.

I have not quite got around to sorting out the greenhouse yet. Consequently, I’m still holding out a little hope that the last few tomatoes ripen. A stripey one here is close to going orange….

Wonderful foliage is everywhere when i take the trouble to look for it. Blueberry bushes are one of the most stunning for autumn red.

A wonderful contrast is to be found in the yellow-brown hues of amalanchia, another wonderful autumn shrub.

Even the perennials in the flower border are a flush of exciting colour in mid-October. Here is the last flash from this year’s euphorbia. Tones of yellow to pink are an unexpected pleasure.

Last this week, before the blackbirds finish them off, take a look at these lovely cotoneaster berries. This bush sits in a sheltered courtyard, the berries last longest here as blackbirds are shy about coming so close to the house.

One of the joys of doing #SixOnSaturday is that I really take the time to look at what is going on in the garden. I hope you’ve enjoyed these six little snapshots as much as I have.

That’s my #SixOnSaturday for this week. Join the sixes on Mastodon or other instances in the Fediverse via #SixOnSaturday, we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

What will they throw at us next? Some tempting warmth this week, but now there could be. month’s rain this weekend. For my #SixOnSaturday, here are some calm scenes and rich autumn colours for this week’s viewing.

I’m going to keep showing off the dahlias as long as they keep going. There’s still a sweet little pastel one having a go at flowering.

There is also a good showing from a spiky, cactus type in a glowing autumn red.

The veg garden has been productive this year. Kale has done really well, I suspect because there were so very few common white butterflies.

And apples, will anyone take them? We are drowning in apples. Time to take another bucket full to work each day!

And for my last image for this week, here is some autumn calm by the pond, before the big storm came.

That’s my #SixOnSaturday for this week. Join the sixes on Mastodon or other instances in the Fediverse via #SixOnSaturday, we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

After a warm, windy and sometimes wet September, it has been fun to spend time reflecting on what sums up the early Autumn garden. I’ve gone for rich colour in fruit, flowers and foliage to celebrate the Harvest Moon. Here are my #SixOnSaturday.

Colour starts the show. This is the time of year when I love dahlia more than ever. they blast on until the nights get really cold. I picked this little lot this morning for a vase for the house.

In the veg garden, despite a wet and miserable July, August ended warm and sunny. Climbing French beans have just gone for it this year. Purple beans look great in a salad and if quickly steamed, they retain their colour on the plate too.

Nearby, autumn raspberries are doing their usual thing. Today I picked enough for 2 bowls of fruit, filling for a cake, and a tub for the freezer.

The mid-summer damp has also been great for this season’s blueberries. There are a few rich purple fruit left, even as the foliage is turning it’s gorgeous autumn bergundy.

Another rush of colour comes from nerines, which have just started to flower. A wonderful rush of colour in the dry south-facing corners near the house wall.

Butterflies have suffered this summer. Yet at the back-end, my garden is now full of red admiral. Take a close look here: not just a few tattered leaves on some mouldering apples. there are 3 red admiral butterflies feasting here. I hope they don’t get too drunk.

That’s my #SixOnSaturday for this week. Join the sixes on Mastodon or other instances in the Fediverse via #SixOnSaturday, we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

Mid-September finds me in denial about the end of summer. I do love summer. Let’s keep it going for just a bit longer with some wonderful Dahlias for my #SixOnSaturday. First up is a very simple one, grown from seed, that the bees love. Simple open flower, vibrant lemon yellow.

More beautiful in its structure and perfection of form, it is hard not to love a full orange cactus-style flower.

To really ramp up the glamour, I actually remember the name of this one: Totally Tangerine. Not sure the name fully fits, but the complexity of flower, stamens, shape, make this a very interesting variety.

Hard to know where to go after that one, so right back to the simplicity of a single coloured, pure white, and satisfyingly large flower.

This next one is a very cheerful type, I love the way the petals seems to flow from yellow through to red. Then there’s a lovey flush of both colours at the centre of the flower.

I think this next one is a new one this year, back to the simplest of flowers and a single strong colour. what a rich vibrant red.

I would challenge anyone not to love all these dahlia. I’ve been growing them just a few years, mostly in pots. They bring thrills and spills of colour and form to the late summer garden. Hope you enjoyed this week’s six favourites.

That’s my #SixOnSaturday for this week. Join the sixes on Mastodon or other instances in the Fediverse via #SixOnSaturday, we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

After a week away cycling in the lovely Scottish borders, and then some urgent family commitments, I’ll have to make it a very quick #SixOnSaturday this week. It’s September, and I guess that mean the harvest, so here are some wonderful fruit.

First up, we have SO many apples this year that some of the tree branches really are breaking off.

Pears have not had such a dramatic year, but they are almost ready too, and they always seem to ripen in one huge clump.

Back to apples, I have a couple of trees of cooking apples, they are not ready yet, but ripening nicely in the Autumn heatwave.

In the greenhouse, this year’s crop of grapes are coming on rather well too.

yet another variety of apples makes for a lovely pale golden juice that isn’t too sweet.

And last, but very much not least, there are oodles of Autumn raspberries ripening.

That’s my #SixOnSaturday for this week. Join the sixes on Mastodon or other instances in the Fediverse via #SixOnSaturday, we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

Wow, the last post for August already, the bank holiday weekend down in England, the expected cool and winder conditions. What to do? I’ll show you some hot summer colour to warm us all up.

Dahlia first, a wonderful bright bright red. Most evenings, each bloom seems to end up with a little golden bee attached for the night. Great spot to wake up for breakfast I guess.

I am a huge fan of crocosmia. This one is lucifer, though it does look a little orange. It may be a hybrid between lucifer and a smaller orange one. They are very vibrant and make an interesting cut flower, but rather thuggish!

Garden lilies have been decimated by lily beetle this year, especially the ones I grow in pots. Except for these, which flower much later. Maybe I need to invest in some later flowering lilies for next year: these are gorgeous.

For a few years now I’ve tried zinnia from seed. So few of them grow and flower, perhaps we just don’t have the warmth. But when they come through, the blooms are lovely.

Much better from seed, my cosmos are huge this year, some nearly 2m tall. They don’t last well in the rain, but if carefully deadheaded they do keep on blooming.

Last but not least, another really wonderful potted dahlia. This one is bigger than my hand. No bees, but a perfect flower.

That’s my #SixOnSaturday for this week. Join the sixes on Mastodon or other instances in the Fediverse via #SixOnSaturday, we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

I know it is late summer now because my evenings and weekends are filled with harvesting the bounty of the 2023 growing season. This week I’m showing off some of my latest fruit and veg, soon to be prepped for drying, freezing and maybe even canning this year. BTW, I did win some prizes at my garden show last week. Take a look here: https://mastodon.scot/@julie3dharris/110877827848568978

At the very end of their season (and a little too late, some were too soft and shrivelled already) are my purple gooseberries. These will hit the freezer as there are not enough for jam this year.

I also cleared my broad bean patch in the last week. These have been magnificent this year, I’ve at least 3 boxes for the freezer, great to pull out for stir fries and ‘garden pasta’ dishes that will remind me of summer in months to come.

I suspect I’m mid-season now for tomatoes. I long ago gave up trying to grow them outside, we are simply too cool and windswept in this part of the world for them to thrive. But in the greenhouse, I’m very pleased with the results.

An all-year rounder that I’m very fond of now is the ‘walking onion’ (also called Welsh onion). This is a perennial, seems to avoid the white rot that attacks other onions if I grow them, and pops up with lots of lovely little onions at the top of the stems. I use these as ‘cut and come again’.

A fruit at the very start of the season are apples. I have 9 trees (legacy of past custodians of the garden), no idea of the varieties. These are always first, they don’t store well, but do make lovely pink juice.

Last, but very much not least, I’m attempting to grow Trombochino squash this year, as recommendation from the “Gardeners World” TV program. I don’t know if these plants are hardier than other squash (most of which have sulked/died already), or if I just gave them more care, but they are looking fabulous so far. Apparently these can be eaten like courgettes now, or left to left sweeter and browner into Autumn — I’m planning to try that with some of the fruit.

That’s my #SixOnSaturday for this week. Join the sixes on Mastodon or other instances in the Fediverse via #SixOnSaturday, we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

I’ve chosen very simple sample of garden loveliness for this week’s #SinOnSaturday. Today is my local village Annual Flower and Produce Show. I’ve entered mostly in the fruit and veg categories (plus one big bunch of flowers), here are some of my favourite entries.

I hope there’s a good chance for a prize for courgettes this year. After watering and gently singing to them this week, I’ve managed to collect 3 decent fruit, all about the same size. Fingers crossed.

Tomatoes are good too, though 2/3 of these have little blemishes on the bottom, so I’m not sure if they will be be up to scratch. From the top they look so good I just had to enter these 3.

There’s always a ‘veg not in schedule’ category. I have entered a handful of achocha, a Peruvian vine, related to exploding cucumber. My plants do very well in the greenhouse, and not badly against a south-facing wall in the garden. they are great chopped and used like bell pepper.

Although the rhubarb path got a bit exhausted back in dry June, it has been revived by the July rain. I am rather pleased with my offering for this year’s show.

The last veg on show today are my chillies. The variety is “Nigel’s outdoor”, supposedly hardy enough for outdoor growing in the UK. This seems to be holding up. Two of these fruit came from plants in the greenhouse, the other from an outdoor one. Looking good, but maybe not similar enough for a prize this year?

Last up, I won first prize for raspberries last year, this year it was hard to find 12 fruit on the plant. There are plenty of fruit, just not ripe. I did manage after some rummaging around.

Wish me luck, this lot and more have been delivered to the village hall now. The show opens at 2pm and I can go see how I’ve done.

That’s my #SixOnSaturday for this week. Join the sixes on Mastodon or other instances in the Fediverse via #SixOnSaturday, we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

August is the time for harvesting veg, feeling chuffed about the successes of chilli, toms and beans, wishing I’d got more radish in, and wondering why beetroot just didn’t grow at all. Also, a week to to until the local Annual Flower Show, so need to sing gently to my plants. here are 6 of the best so far for #SixOnSaturday.

Nothing nicer than a courgette flower, except a flower with fruit behind (this one isn’t).

Brassicas do SO well in eastern Scotland, especially in a year like this, with low butterfly numbers (but I do wish there were more…it is too cool and damp). Cavalo Nero is a favourite, with gorgeous texture and colour that it retains when steamed or stir-fried.

In the greenhouse I’ve realised that less is more with fewer chilli plants, in bigger pots, giving me more chillies. Now a little bit of sun to heat them up would be great.

I am looking forward to Queen of the Night ripening up. She’s a rich purple-black tomato, medium sized. Hoping that the promised black-to-red interior colour will appear as the seed provider promised.

Back in the garden, it has been so cool this summer that spring-planted chard hasn’t bolted, each plant is growing strong, will be a great autumn crop.

Last but not least, a much more transient garden joy: runner beans, looks like we’re going to have a huge crop this year.

That’s my #SixOnSaturday for this week. Join the sixes on Mastodon or other instances in the Fediverse via #SixOnSaturday, we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

As summer rolls on, I am still struggling to choose from a huge range of options to show here every Saturday. I have once again chosen a colour theme. This week I will focus on white flowers, often overlooked by those of us who love bright bold colours, yet these blooms glow right into evening and provide great contrast for cut flowers. Here are six wonderful white’s for my #SixOnSaturday.

First a patch of oxeye daisy winds its way through a narrow border near the garden path. Each one has a neat form, and a whole swathe is so bright and cheerful.

A lot less exuberant for my second choice. Yet potato flowers signify tasty dinners to come and have a delicate scent (which can be overwhelming en masse….near my home grow huge fields of tatties that offer a musky heady smell on warm windy days. Notice the tiny fine hairs across each petal and down the stems.

I didn’t realise that the mixed zinnia seeds I’d sowed would give me white blooms. Given the trouble needed to make these exotic beauties grow in this part of the world, I’m not sure this is my favourite variety, but is it one of the few that has made it past cold rain and hungry snails.

I am fond of astrantia. This is the closest I have to pure white. The tiny details on every flower are breathtaking.

Making its own way into the garden is a native mallow. Pretty, although can get in the way as it likes to pop up right along the path boundaries.

For my last this week, the cool weather is keeping sweetpeas happy. This one is highly fragrant, almost perfect white, with a tiny hint of lilac along the boundary of each petal.

That’s my #SixOnSaturday for this week. Join the sixes on Mastodon or other instances in the Fediverse via #SixOnSaturday, we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot