Monday 16 August

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A chill in the air. I for one am not sad to feel this summer slipping by. The changes in the weather have been unsettling. Too many storms. Too much sun. Not enough roses.

Tuesday 17 August

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A bonfire next door and the air is thick heavy with woodsmoke. And then suddenly the sun again, sparkling as if it were June. The Agastache is thick with more bees than I can count and two butterflies. I feel like I have done my bit for the butterflies this season; every single kohlrabi has been reduced to a stick by cabbage white caterpillars. 

Wednesday 18 August

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More beds cleared. Now is the time for starting to think about dividing and moving perennials. I bought three Campanula takesimana 'Pink Chimes' in early summer and they have been decorating the courtyard ever since. I cut them back and tip them out; each pot yields about ten tiny plantlets, complete with a section of root. (Note, I find early autumn rather than mid or late autumn better for this job as they have a bit of a chance to get some growth on, but do remember to keep them watered well if the weather is warm and dry.)

Thursday 19 August

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I planted five devil's bit scabious (Succisa pratensis) plugs a few years ago and they have finally flowered. This is the good news. The bad news is that they are planted in what, now we have rearranged the beds, is smack in the middle of a path. I have also been quite vocal in my views that there is no room for purple in my new colour scheme. I cut all the flowering stems I can and put them in a bucket with branches of bronze fennel that were also in the wrong place. (I did not weep for them; I have more bronze fennel than one person could ever need.) Suddenly the purple was muted and softened, almost smoky. I added a few sprigs of rudbeckia triloba and suddenly discovered what Piet Oudolf has been going on about all this time.  

Friday 20 August

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This is a public service announcement. If you are growing beans, tomatoes or courgettes, pick them daily. Hourly if you can. With a glut of chard as well, many of the meals we eat are now quite green and home-grown. With a big tub of soft ewe's cheese from Durslade Farm Shop and a few boxes of eggs, I think I am set until September.

(I believe the picking regime also applies if you grow cucumbers. I genuinely cannot see the point of cucumbers so it is unlikely that I will ever grow them.)

Saturday 21 August

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We are forecast a storm so I spend the day indoors, packing one thousand, six hundred envelopes of hardy annual seeds in preparedness for stocking the Gather shop for autumn sowing.

The storm never arrived, or if it did I missed it. 

Sunday 22 August

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The Victoria plum is cropping so heavily, boughs are breaking off. I support them with shepherd's crook lantern holders but they still snap. Maybe the storm came in the night as the path is scattered with windfall apples. I harvest all the greengages I can reach and roast them with star anise because I can't find the jar of stem ginger in the pantry. Even without sugar, they are exquisitely sweet and fragrant. Just gorgeous. I dye some woollens with tea, and some pillow cases with dock and iron. We walk the dogs across golden fields in the falling light. Maybe August isn't so bad after all.