When we left to go on holiday in mid August the grass was late-summer brown and the evenings were still fragrant and warm.  In just over 2 weeks the grass has become lush green and there is a real chill air.  Even the radicchio is feeling the cold and starting to turn red.  It won’t be long before jute leaf sacks will be needed for making leaf mould.

It has not been a good summer for butterflies in our garden.  A few commas and tortoise shells but little else that I have spotted. 

There has been an abundance of hoverflies though, particularly on our Echinaceas.  Hoverflies are very welcome, as their maggots eat aphids and and they can be good pollinators.  The RSPB offers good tips for helping pollinators in your garden and if you want a quick fix bumblebee nests and pollinating bee logs look attractive as well as serving a useful purpose.

This year has been the worst I have ever known for climbing beans.  Three attempts with the reliable climber Blauhilde have failed to produce a single plant.  Is this due to the conditions in 2009 or in 2010?  Or is it just me?  I have filled the space with climbing borlotti beans, but they are very reluctant to climb.  It seems my bean poles will not be needed this year.

I don't know whether it is the dry weather, but everything this summer seems to flop if it isn't staked.  These rusted flower stakes look stunning in a herbaceous border, and you can force them into the hardest ground.  If you fancy flopping rather than hitting the high street this summer, you could try the online shopping town.  We are in the Online Shopping Town on the Eco Friendly and Gardening Gifts streets.

At this time of year our large office window can confuse young birds.  A pigeon and bluetit have both flown into it in the last few days and this swallow did one better.  It flew into the office in seach of flies and paused briefly by the window before flying out again.  Another swallow did the same this time last year.  I wonder if its the same one?

I like marigolds in my vegetable garden very much.  They self seed everywhere so can be a bit maddening, but they are easy to pull up and they are a great pest deterrent.  Aphids and carrot fly steer clear of marigolds, and even ground elder and bind weed are reluctant to share a bed with them.  For me, they are the best companion plant.

Thank you to everyone who entered our scarecrow competition and congratulations to Bletchingdon Primary School for producing the winner.  There were so many fantastic entries, which showed how much fun everyone had had with the kits.  Please take a look at our scarecrow gallery to see what I mean.

Research into pollinating insects is really, really important and its great news that £10m funding has been provided for the Insect Pollinators Initiative.  We are continuing our support too for bumblebee research and have this month donated £500 of our hard earned profits to our friends at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.  They do stirling work, to help bumblebees like this little fellow which this morning was feasting on our delphiniums.

The RSPB's Nature Count is such a good idea, but somehow the week went by and I never managed to spend an hour counting the birds and mammals in our garden.  Its a shame as I might have been able to include this young spotted woodpecker which is enjoying our trampoline.

For those of you who are considering making a clay oven I have a little tip.  Plastering sand.  Not sharp sand, or mortar sand or concrete sand, but plastering sand from Jewsons.  Mixed with pure clay, plastering sand makes the perfect cob mixture that sets like concrete.