Autumn at the Domaine de Montrouch

So it is Autumn here at the Domaine de Montrouch, time to slow down, kick back and relax- not a chance, now thing start getting really busy. OK the markets have slowed down, well Lezignan Corbieres and Perpignan have, Caroline’s lovely organic market in Narbonne is still buzzing, and the move to outside the Hotel de Ville does not seem to have an adverse effect, quite the opposite actually.

The days are getting shorter, and the electricity is getting lower. If we want to watch telly on an evening we have to get the generator going. the fridge is off and the evening are taken up with me being trounced by Caroline at Backgammon by candle light.It sounds romantic, but going for a pee in the middle of the night at the Domaine de Montrouch can be a tad hazardous, having an old incontinent dog does not help.

In the garden, ignored for the last five months as we have struggled during the drought to keep our herbs alive, the pants that have survived need a little love. Well tough love to be true, the rosemary, sage, tercriums, helichrysum Italicums, and all the other garrigue plants need clipping back to stop them getting too woody. the lavender needs all its flower stems hacked back, the thymes have started to regrow so need their long stems clipped to stop them getting too leggy. The decorative sages have finally stated to die back so need be cut back to theri base, the lemon verbena is starting to go yellow so it is time for decapitation, with the stems hug up in the bathroom so Caroline can have her tea all Winter.

It is also time to put the ends on the poly tunnel. I didn’t bother last year as we prefer to keep plants as acclimatized as possible. It was a mistake, despite the mild January the long; cold and wet Spring meant that all our plants were at least a month behind were they usually are. Yes having an open poly tunnel is good to avoid diseases that can spread quickly in a stuffy atmosphere tropical heat loving plants like tomatoes, cucumber and basils need, warmth both to germinate and to establish a good root base.

First through I have to clear it out, and cut down the mountains of brambles growing around it. How weeds grow in the poly tunnel over Summer I do not know, it can get up to 50C in there, and it is as dry as the Gobi desert, the ground is like concrete,  but grow they do.

Plant wise we are still germinating parsley, and coriander grows really well all Winter here. I have already made a start on the tip cutting, the Lavender Dentata has been ravaged, Thyme Mastichina, Spanish Thyme, Thyme Vulgaris, Garrigue Thyme, and Thyme ordinaire have all been planted into the every useful Orgasyl, in organic plantation soil with organic growth hormones already mixed in. Next week I will do the rest of the lavenders, lavindin, thymes; rosemary, tercriums, and make a start on the helichrysums.

The recent rains have finally meant that the chainsaw ban has been lifted, whoppy, so it is into the forest to collect firewood. Well not exactly the forest, though I will go in and cut down some big dead trees I can see from the terrace. The first priority is to finish clearing up around the house. We have some beautiful well established trees around us, but they are surrounded by mainly much smaller green and holly oaks. these small trees represent a major fire risk so have to be pruned out ad the lower branches of the bigger trees lopped off to a height of 1.5 metres so that fire cannot spread along the ground. It is not an effective way to harvest firewood, a lot of work for not a lot of gain but it is worth it, it creates a lovely forest canopy of strong oaks, the soil underneath is slowly rebuilding itself after decades of depletion, and of course it massively reduces the risk of fire. After the fire that destroyed 1,200 hectares of the other side of Mont Tauch two years ago it is worth not taking any risks.

Last but not least is all those jobs that got put off all Summer, the house is a bomb site, the workshop a total mess. The generators need a lit if tender loving care if they are to make it through another Winter. The rood need clearing off all the sedums that have rooted on the tiles, and a few tiles need replacing. I have already cut back most of the ivy but as always there are a few stubborn bits in hard to get too points of the guttering. And I think it is now time to build a serious drying room to start making dried herbs.

So that is my Autumn’s work cut out for me.