colourful october

October, and the air is cooling at night. The nights are drawing in, and the first frosts may be with us this weekend.

Both allotment and garden are lively with colour.

The alysum (Little Dorrit) won't stop flowering and we work around flowers like the calendula (pot marigolds) to ensure that there is pollen for insects as late into the season as possible.

In the photo on the left, mustard has been sown as a green manure. A tidier, less wildlife friendly gardener, would have pulled up the marigolds that are still in full flower.

I have left them in. And the seedling borage that is coming through.

They will all provide cover for soil invertebrates during the cold months ahead.