Season Finale
By the time October arrives at the kitchen garden at Thyme in Southrop, there is the sense of an ending. In the adjacent water meadows, the migrant cuckoos that announced summer have departed along with the swallows that skimmed the grassy fields for insects. Hedgerows are packed with hips, haws and sloes, all of which can be turned into sweet-sharp jellies to brighten the winter months.
In the kitchen garden itself, head gardener Victoria Bowsher is thinking ahead. Because it is so close to the River Leach, part of the garden floods in winter, so she has to ensure winter crops are growing out of harm’s way. But this is also a time for bounty, with pumpkins ripening in the
