Garden Diary – Turning the harvest into Curry & Pear Cake

The first week of September had the house smelling of curry and pear cake, as the harvesting continued. We make other ready meals for the freezer but we do love curry and cake.

Not necessarily at the same time, you probably know by now that we eat our low sugar fruit and vegetable cakes for breakfast. Although, the gardeners mate would happily eat curry for breakfast, he rarely has!

After hearing on the radio this week of how, what you consume affects your mood and mental health, I felt really sad that as a nation we’ve moved so far away from scratch cooking being the norm.

It’s not that many years ago that every household cooked from scratch every night, ready meals literally hadn’t been invented!

I know everyone blames lack of time, but as metal health problems are becoming an epidemic, especially amongst the young, surely it’s essential to promote the benefits of unprocessed food.

On a lighter note there was a definite change in the weather, most noticeably how much cooler it was in the mornings. Luckily we still had enough sunshine to keep the flying insects happy and there were many around still in the garden.

I watered a plant pot and as the water went through to the saucer I saw a ladybird upside down kicking its little legs, luckily it jumped straight on to my offered finger and we went off in search of scrumptious aphids.

Of course the showers are exactly what the garden needs so I try not to complain, even when I got rather wet trying to get to the car. Unfortunately I couldn’t run as my back is still causing me problems.

By the end of the week, the rain reached a crescendo on Sunday with heavy downpours for most of the day, watch those water butts fill!

There’s a wonderful scent again down in the white garden as the Jasmine is having a small second flush. A few flowers are having a second go, they’re never as big or impressive as the first flush but still.

The real stars of the moment are the Michaelmas daisies with their mass of pink and purple blooms.

Who remembers Ken Dodd’s diddy men? If not you can google them! They had very tall colourful hats, and the long pink flowers on my Phygelius just reminded me of them. My mum was a big Ken Dodd fan and was over the moon to have met him in Manchester airport once. And even more pleased that he was happy to speak to her.

Monday 1st September 2025

The flowers of Phygelius remind me of Ken Dodd’s ‘diddy mens’ hats. Some of you may have to google this 😃🎩💕🌿💕

#magentamonday #pinkflowers #bloomscrolling

What would you make with this trug full? 🫑🍅🥒🌶️🧅

In our house it only means one thing….. Curry!!! 🍛

#curry #Homegrown #scratchcooking #kitchengarden

Tuesday 2nd September 2025

The September look of Michaelmas daisy ‘Patricia Ballard’ in amongst Persicaria & the dark leaves of Physocarpus. And it’s noticeably cooler in a morning 😬🌿💕🍂🌺

#BloomScrolling #Flowers #september

Wednesday 3rd September 2025

Two little friends in the garden yesterday 🦋🐞

I accidentally nearly drowned the ladybird, but managed to rescue it in time 😊🐞🐞🐞 #wildlifewednesday #insects #mygarden #butterfly #ladybird

Just listening to how food stuffs affect your mood & mental health. Is this surprising?

If I put rubbish fuel in my car, it would jump & spurt & not go properly. Same with food & your body.

Shame we’ve moved away from a society that scratch cooks as the ‘norm’! 🥲🥒🍅 #cooking

Thursday 4th September 2025

Take a last mouth watering look at the final 7 ‘Beth’ pears of 2025 🍐

My consolation is all the pear cake that’s now in my freezer 😋🍰

#pears #kitchengarden #growyourown #homegrown #homemade

I wish I could identify all the different species of bumblebee that visit the garden 🌿🌺🐝

They are as ever enjoying the sedums or Hylotelephium if you’ve managed to get your tongue around their newish name 😁 #InsectThursday #savethebees #bees