Beneath the chandeliers the 'cream' of gardening media sat and waited

And the award for best photogragher and writer on an allotment blog for 2008 is... someone else!

Wild about our 'wildflowers'

As the leaves drop and the darkest nights draw in there is still much to do at the beach hut

Rose scares us if not the pigeons

We have got two plastic owls, two foxes, and yards of net, yet the pigeons are still eating more than us. Help?

Our Ring of Fire red hot chillies

A few favourite recipes for our homegrown chilli peppers

Recovering Bright lights chard under net

Planting calendula seed by the calendar is more complicated than it might appear

Jane Scotter at her Fern Verrow farm

The gardening guru who makes our winter growing worthwhile

The perfect green-apple tang of an unripe tomato

I don't have a recipe for chutney. I don't make the stuff. I buy it from farm shops and market stalls, from people who cook in faded, flowery aprons and know what they are doing with unripe vegetables, vinegar, brown sugar and spices. It is their glowing ochre and green tracklements, thick with onions and coriander seed, turmeric and green tomatoes that make a piece of hard cheese or soft ham worth eating.

Last week I picked a good handful of unripe tomatoes from the skeletons that line the vegetable patch, sliced them thickly, dipped them into beaten egg, fine polenta and fried them in groundnut oil till crisp. The insides softened and had a delicious stab of sharpness to them, and benefited from the bowl of garlicky mayonnaise at their side. I recommend it to anyone who has few green tomatoes to use up and doesn't feel like boiling up a vat of chutney.
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Our rooting messindrome garlic

More beans, some sweet peas and a rare visit from the autumn sun and the second fox

Now I am not sure it is an eagle owl. Anyone know?

Our eagle owl keeps a beady eye out for food thieves, be they pigeons or people

Teasels produce fine seed favoured by finches

It is the month to look after your birds, bats and brassicas

The beech at the plot gate turns gold

A last look at a much-loved garden brings a lump to the throat

Gospel Oak pupil's bulb ready for planting

Lots to learn with the Gospel Oak School Gardening Club

Jane Scotter's beautiful biodynamic broad beans

Making the most of a small plot with early peas and broad beans

Still flowering after all these months

Some plants, like some people, just keep on giving

The yellow flag iris seeds

The sap is slowing, the seedlings are growing, just wish the pigeons would leave the leaves alone