62. Marigolds and tomatoes

Today was a golden September day, the early morning sun lighting up the thatch on the Roundhouse. It is harvest time, and the Garden is full of abundance and plenty.

As a child my favourite service in our English village church was the harvest festival when the altar and windowsills were piled high with loaves of bread, apples and plums, sheaves of wheat and barley, potatoes and cabbages. The Garden in September reminds me of that special sense of harvest.

Apples continue to ripen, and the vegetable beds are full of chard, beetroot, lettuce and fresh herbs. In the polytunnel marigolds jostle up against the tomatoes, protecting them from greenfly, in an exuberance of late summer scent and colour.


A time of harvest, a time of thanksgiving.