Apparently King James I encouraged his subjects to plant mulberry trees in an attempt to cash in on the booming silk trade.  However, it turned out that silk worms were fussier than he had realised.  They eat only the leaves of the white mulberry tree, and not the black mulberry which is the only one which can survive in our climate.

Thankfully alpacas, which were also imported for their silky soft alpaca wool, have adapted better.  They also have very cute faces.

In my experience, whatever the weather there are always winners and losers in the vegetable garden.  The rains in July brought the return of the dreaded potato blight, but the sunnier than average August has meant plump, ripe sweetcorn and squashes.  All too much for a traditional Sussex trug!

Like many people this autumn, we have had an abundance of apples.  Cookers will store, but our Katy and Discovery dessert apples will not.  So, we filled one of our vintage crates and left it by the gate with a Help Yourself sign.  They soon vanished.  The children then used a friend's apple press to make a dozen or so bottles of juice.  But there were still more apples.

So this weekend, we had an archery tournament.  Hitting the conventional target was easy enough, but hitting the apples proved more difficult.  I guess William Tell must have been more practised!

You know sometimes you get free seed packets with your magazine or newspaper.  I don't usually get round to sowing them as I invariably have more than enough seeds of my own.  This summer though I was seduced into trying these small reddish brown fellas.

They have been ok, but I realise now that our farmyard really needs the blaze of late summer yellow that traditional sunflowers bring.  These would look grand in a luxurious border at Great Dixter, but next year I think I will return to the more familiar yellow flowers, which is what our favourite garden bird food is made from.