More than spring, I love autumn. There is a smokiness in the air from the wood fires, it’s not too cold when you can walk in the parks and there are still days of sunshine when it is not too cold to sit outside. Nature is settling down for a sleep over winter and there is quietness like when someone is preparing for bed and mysterious shadows especially in the afternoons. Animals are busy gathering food to last over the winter and we are also busy foraging and preparing chutneys, jams and other delicacies from the bounty that nature presents in autumn. Autumn is a season of great generosity from nature. What I enjoy the most are the autumn colours which are quite unlike spring when branches are still bare. The trees and shrubs display their most amazing colours in leaves, berries and barks. Soon these will become nature’s own special compost. I have been walking around in London and Cambridge, taking photos of autumn scenes. I feel so energised when I go out to the park. I hope you like these photos!
The open squares day is a great day to visit gardens in London- big or small. London’s hidden green spaces open their gates for public enjoyment and discovery.
The very first London Garden Square Day took place in 1998, with 43 gardens taking part. The aim was to draw attention to the contribution that green spaces made to the city- in fact, almost half of London is green. The open Squares days offer opportunity to explore those private and more secret gardens which are not generally accessible to the public and to join in the community events taking place. Caroline Aldiss, a resident of Collingham Gardens at the time, founded the event in 1998-9 with the support of the London Parks and Gardens Trust and English Heritage. She thought that a day when all the green spaces could become open to the public, would be good event for the summer and for people to become interested in gardens and gardening.
This year I visited St. Mary’s secret garden in Hackney with its wonderful array of tables selling home-made produce such as jams and chutneys, honey, plants, bird houses, tea and cakes. Along with the buzz of people, bees and birds, it was a lively atmosphere and inspirational. For over 25 years, St. Mary’s Secret Garden has offered a safe space where people with support needs and the local community can get hands-on experience of gardening, gain a sense of inclusion and receive the benefits of horticulture and other eco-therapy activities.
Each summer, my olive tree and other plants get mealy bugs and woolly aphids. Now I abhor both of these. Looking up the Internet suggestions on how to get rid of these in the most eco-friendly way, If found the use of soap solution along with physically touching the stems and picking them off. How ghastly- I’d never touch these! I have been cutting off the branches each year and that has also helped with pruning. But this year, the tree appears to give off snowy showers when I shake it and I didn’t even feel like pruning it. I’ve tried the home made soap solution but I think the solution needs to stick to the infestation to be effective. I’ve tried vinegar solution but don’t like the smell.
This year, while thinking about the ‘stickiness’ aspect of the solution, I found some unused Ecover floor cleaner. I added 25% cleaner to 75% water along with a pinch of turmeric to act as disinfectant (total 500ml).
When I sprayed this, the foam actually stuck to the branches and nodes where the insects were. You need to shake the bottle from time to time as the turmeric tends to settle at the bottom. Almost immediately I noticed that infestation was gone!
I will have to wait and see if it does return but the olive tree looks amazing now. You have to be careful not to spray surrounds but as you see that my tree was next to wood, it was okay. Also, don’t spray edible plants with this spray. Ecover floor cleaner, which has linseed oil as an active ingredient, claims to have the following eco-credentials:
Fresh perfume from plant based ingredients
Cleans floors effectively and quickly
Excellent natural floor care and protection against staining
No petrochemical based ingredients
No residue of unnecessary chemicalsFast and complete biodegradability (OECD-test 301F, full product)
Minimum impact on aquatic life (OECD-test 201&202, full product)
Against animal testing
Suitable for septic tanks
I am not advertising for Ecover as this was just an experiment but I thought it was better to use this than sugar soap and WD40 which also some people have used as insecticide.
The cost of Ecover is £3-50 for 1L, so my spray works out to be less than 1pence for 500ml.
Someone else tried my solution for her rose bush and says it has worked on the aphids. So you can try it and let me know if it works for you in the comment section below- good luck!
PS- as an added advantage, I use this mixture to quickly spray and clean up wooden floors and non food use areas.
My friend Jonathan went out and found these lovely autumnal colours in the local park.
He took these photos and I wanted to share these with everyone because of what someone decided to do with the fallen leaves. Ephemerally beautiful, arranged in the manner of the art of Andy Goldsworthy, these are worthy natural artworks by an unknown creative.
But this kind of beauty is also found in many smaller seasonal vegetables and plants that I have been photographing recently-
Spring is not the only time to find beauty in nature! In case you are interested, BBC has done a short film about why leaves change colour in autumn, which you can find here.
Nature is not mean with her gifts to us. This is a pear tree which grows in a community centre where I volunteer at the reception every five weeks. Yesterday, I not only had four pears for lunch but also brought back a bagful to give away. Having been grown organically and being in season, they were deliciously sweet. I don’t normally like pears but these were out of the world. Eating with the seasons mean that Nature is more than ready to shower us with its abundance.
The Canny Gardener 