Get stuck in – autumn’s just around the corner

AFEW days ago I noticed all the fruit on my fig tree had disappeared.

The branches had been stripped bare, leaving nothing but the leaves. Now the leaves have their uses (just ask Adam and Eve – who were known for plucking fruit from a tree that wasn’t theirs), but who could have taken my figs?

Was it mice? Around here that’s always a possibility. Maybe it was the squirrels that ran along the top of the fence, or could it even have been the milkman on his rounds?

I couldn’t blame any of them as ripe figs are a small slice of heaven and if I came across a tree covered in them I’d be tempted myself.

But between birds stealing autumn rasps to wasps feasting on plums, this is the time of year when gardeners have to be extra-vigilant if they want to enjoy the fruits of their labours themselves.

Some fruits take more watching than others and I’m still waiting for the first to appear on my sweet peppers.

At the moment the plants are covered in flowers and I don’t see how they can possibly develop fruit and ripen before the end of the season.

It’s the first time that I’ve grown the small, lunch-box variety and they’ve been slow to grow. I anticipated this so sowed them early, back in February, and have cosseted them every step of the way, but I suspect the real problem is a lack of sunshine and there’s not much I could have done to change that.

However, other things in the garden have flourished in the damp conditions.

The photinia is finally a hedge, not just a line of small plants.

The agapanthuses, natives of the Drakensberg mountains in South Africa where they also have wet summers, have bulked up and the Verbena bonariensis, normally a plant that likes to keep its feet wet, has gone wild.

Each is now more than 2m high and the cuttings I took in June have rooted and put on furious growth. I’ll have to move these on into individual pots and find a sheltered spot to overwinter them before planting them out in spring.

And I’ll take cuttings of my new salvias. I picked up two at Gardening Scotland – ‘Love & Wishes’ and ‘Dayglow’ which, together, add a vibrant injection of pink, crimson and burgundy to the borders.

Both are frost-hardy, which means it’s touch and go whether they will survive the winter, so I’m going to lift both and bring them into the greenhouse while also taking cuttings so I have many more of them for next year.

Between taking cuttings, collecting seed, rooting out thistles, potting up seedlings, lifting carrots, deadheading flowers and protecting fruit from hungry visitors, there’s suddenly lots to be done.

So, for the next few weeks, I’m going to have to roll up my sleeves and get stuck in if the garden is going to be in good shape once autumn settles in.