Mrs B bought some Russet apples last week, which brought to mind a picture I have of my mother sorting russet apples on the lawn at the old place, around 1984.  Crops of fruit were always impressive with my parents in charge and normally ended in vast quantities cooked, frozen or bottled.

I was thinking of those harvests as I sat down to review my own efforts in the garden this past summer.  Fruit was not a great success, although we got a few apples, and enough raspberries to keep us going for a while with no danger of having to deal with any surplus.

Vegetables were not great, apart from the runners and French beans and some awesome aubergines in the greenhouse.  The suggestion from Paddi and Richard to plant the aubergines in the partial shade of the tomatoes really seemed to work.   Elsewhere squashes were poor and we only harvested two courgettes in total.  An unwanted record, that one.

But there’s a good reason for the poor crop of veg, as the priority this year was flowers.  These were an undoubted success, inasmuch as we got enough to bloom on the 13^th July for THE WEDDING OF THE YEAR.

But looking ahead we need to get more flowers for longer through the season.  So now comes the important planning bit, seeking out early bloomers, like tulips, ranunculus, and sweet Williams and other biennials.  And then, perhaps, something that could still be flowering into October. Which brings us to dahlias, flowers I once regarded as too blowsy and flash, but which I now realise could create an absolute bonanza of cut flowers.

It will require some investment in seeds, corms and bulbs, but the rewards should be there from April through to October.

It is the planning for a new season and new plants that keeps me going through the shortening days, and If I can apply myself to cultivating blooms like my parents produced crops of fruit, this time next year I could be looking back on a summer of flower power in the Midlife Garden.