Pictured above: Piggy Sue.

Monday 17 October

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I know I say this every year (and I really do know, because I have years' worth of my daily journals to look back on now) but I cannot believe I still have sweet peas. The pot on the courtyard just keeps giving. Not long stems by any means. Partly because of the time of year but also because the trellis that they were being grown up was snapped under the weight of a squash. They don't seem to mind, and they just wave about in the October storms, hanging onto what twigs they can find.

Tuesday 18 October

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I can tell, almost before I open my eyes, that the morning is a misty one. The quality of the light, even the sound, is different. Softened and muffled, with only the outlines of cobwebs and the rising sun defined and highlighted. It burns off by breakfast time, and the day is one of huge blue skies and the warmth of late summer rather than early autumn.

A note to say that germination has been incredible this autumn. I have had so many messages to say that most people's sweet peas are 100% for germination, and even quite tricky things like echinacea (or maybe it is just me that finds them tricky) are popping up like weeds in the seeds trays in the greenhouse. I think the balance of warmth and wet is just right for seeds. Make the most, for the rumours are of a cold winter.

Wednesday 19 October

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A day at the kitchen table with a notebook and a microphone. I do adore talking to people about their passions. India Hurst on bearded irises. Carrie Thomas on Aquilegia. Becca Stuart of the Garden Gate Flower Company on roses. There is a level of knowledge that comes, not just from experience, but from a deep love of a particular plant. Philippa of Just Dahlias is wonderful and shares some beautiful varieties that she has grown from saved seed. I will admit, I get little done for the rest of the day; I am too busy hanging dahlia flowers upside down from pieces of string.

Friday 21 October

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Talking of knowledge, I am ready for the next level of learning about soil. I am ready for new words (flagellate protozoa) and new ideas (fungal vs bacterial dominance in soil) and even new kit. I am not sure I have even seen a microscope since my Chemistry A-Levels.

Like a fungal hyphae, a day at Damson Farm learning about the Soil Food Web, I can feel my mind making threads of connections between ideas and happenings. Why my beautifully top dressed new annuals beds are not germinating Larkspur and agrostemma but an abundance of ribeye plantain and cleaver seedlings (likely that the compost was too rich in nitrogen; it was made in the summer when grass clippings were abundant) but my broad bean beds are immaculate, with pert, young plants, perfectly spaced (the compost was made with lots of wood clippings and so is more fungal in nature).

We stare down the microscope at the alien looking species, with whom we share evolutionary roots.

Saturday 22 October

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I had let go of hopes for some last roses. Usually there are signs by late September and there were few buds to be seen. And then suddenly, as I pulled up at the back of the cottage, the windscreen was filled with beautiful white blooms. The Mme Alfred Carriere, the first to bloom and the last, had put on one final show.

She is in the wrong place; I attempted to train her to loop along and across a length of estate fencing separating the kitchen garden from the parking bit. Unfortunately, Mme Alfred Carriere is known for her liking to head upwards, and my lateral efforts have done nothing except encourage tall shoots that head straight up into the air.

For many years, I have considered these stems as a sign of my failure, but this year, I just see them as potential cuttings. By this time next year, I will have found a place for the next generation of upwardly inclined roses to thrive.

(I should say at this point that rose cuttings can be fabulous but there are some roses it is illegal to propagate because they are covered by breeder's right, like a sort of plant copyright. However, I cannot for the life of me find a list where I can find out which roses I can propagate and which I can't so I am a bit stumped. I know someone will know the answer to this, if it is you, please get in touch.)