91Èȱ¬

Well we’ve had some wet and very windy weather so I was lucky to get in most of my late apples for long term storage. I like to leave them as late as possible, indeed the are still hanging on as they do, but the others are all safely packed away in a dead deep freezer. The good ones that is, there was an awful lot of small ones (my fault as I neglected to do enough thinning this year) but also, annoyingly, an awful lot of maggoty ones. Quite unusually so, and what made it more irritating was it seemed to be the bigger fruits that were most often affected. Or is that just life…? Still, those too have value cleaned and juiced, or fed to the hens, or both.

My pears continue ripening with the incomparable Doyenne du Comice in full flood. So liquid each morsel is almost drunk rather than eaten.

My late autumn raspberries, which are my own seedling, are now losing out to mould, but they have been gorgeously delicious, and their foliage is unusually well-coloured on this variety - not the normal drab tones.

Under cover Cape Gooseberries are cropping well at the moment, especially the huge plant I’ve been torturing in a small tub which has borne more than I’ve ever seen before, certainly pays to treat them tough.

And the last of the outdoor strawberries are ripening under plastic bell cloches. I have horse chestnuts (AesculusÌý hippocastanum) all round the house now. My children heard the Gardeners' Question Time recording from Great Ryburgh and were convinced placing these about will stop those dreaded spiders from coming in. I’m pleased to go along with this though I doubt any veracity in it, and it’s too late anyway, I’m sure they’re in already.

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Actually I love spiders, they’re all good friends eating nothing but insects and never ever damaging plants. Mind you I get unnerved by the sight of some at night in my ‘tropical’ polytunnel - they’re huge and look really evil, with a skull and cross bones like design on their back. Perhaps they came in with some plant? Better not to disturb them just in case. Which is difficult as I can’t give up night patrols with a torch yet. Slugs and snails always find their way indoors and carry on munching long after those outdoors start hibernating.

I grow many salad crops through winter: , loose leaf lettuce, rocket, Winter purslane (claytonia) and so on, all attractive snail fodder. I diligently collect them up and pop them in my Snailcatraz. It’s a snail wormery where they’re held captive in a plastic laundry basket sitting in a moat. They have old pots to live in, soil in trays and water in the bottom. I give them lots of leafy stuff and paper (they love it) and in return I get a liquid feed when I rinse the lot through. I rather enjoy making them pay back for all their damage rather than just squishing them underfoot.

Bob Flowerdew is an organic gardener and panellist on 91Èȱ¬ Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time.