October’s here already. Where did this year go? In the garden, it was not a really good year, as spring was both cold and wet. Plants got off to a bad start. Tomatoes especially were held back a month, as they are a plant that needs a lot of sunshine as well as constant feeding.

We have been harvesting our tomatoes since the beginning of August. The fruit may not be big, but there are lots on each plant. I like the “money-maker” variety, which produces big fruits on vines. We also have a yellow variety that produces an abundance of cherry-size fruit on low growing plants that spread out.

There is nothing like the flavour of a hot tomato on a summer’s day. Our overflow plants sown outside in beds are finding it difficult to ripen with all of the rain and little sunshine. We have them covered with large umbrellas to force some ripening.

In the flower garden, some flowers are coming to an end after a nice display all year. Roses that were pruned after their first show are coming into bloom again. We are fond of roses, especially the old varieties with their lovely perfume.

We have several here in the garden in containers. One of them is the Huguenot rose, brought from France by our ancestors who were escaping religious persecution during the 1600s.

Another rose is the “old bush” variety, which was the inspiration behind Thomas Moore’s famous melody. In Dublin’s Botanic Gardens it is a protected shrub with a cage around it. I think it has another name also. It is a delicate shrub, and I have to look after it more than the others.

We also have a very old moss rose in deep red with a beautiful perfume, as well as a double white with a deep perfume that fills the garden. It’s a pity I don’t know their names. These grow alongside several old ramblers in light pink and deep red that have a mass of blooms all summer.

These are all old roses that were here when my husband bought this house. We also have some modern roses, but they have very little perfume. We have white and red roses along the roadside and they produce an abundance of red hips just now, with the Rosa Mayesiu producing some bottle-neck hips.

I think every garden should have some roses. When kept dead headed and well fed, they will continue to produce blooms all summer long. It’s still not too late to sow all kinds of bulbs – so plenty to keep us busy in the autumn garden.

Another great ploughing event over and done with for another year. It was hard for the plough people to compete this year and turn a competent sod.

I was busy at the Irish Farmers Journal stand – it’s great that people want to say hello – while Anna May McHugh was busy across the road signing her book. A kind of autobiography, it is a great read for young and old. CL