I love Sundays.  I’ve spent the day in the most beautiful way, gardening.

The garden is looking very autumnal with our show stopping Virginia Creeper turning the brightest shades of red, crimson, orange and yellow.

The creeper crept all along our fence during the summer offering its green leafy coverage in abundance.  But it’s this time of year that this fast growing vine produces this bold splash of colour turning the entire garden red and creeping into next doors garden and onto their conifer, producing garlands of decorative red leaves.

The red hydrangeas are all but spent.  I cut a few heads for decoration, they have darkened drying out and have turned a lovely claret red.  So I pottered taking pictures and tidying the garden.

So gardening jobs for the weekend.  Gardeners Worlds Monty Don said it was time to take all of the tomatoes from your tomato crop those that are green you should put in a drawer with a banana, they will ripen.  I have a lot of tomatoes now.  I could make a batch of tomato sauce or what about a tomato pickle?

Hmmm autumn sandwiches with beef and tomato relish.  Here’s my relish….

Autumnal Tomato Chutney

Ingredients

• 500g red onion, finely sliced
• 1kg tomat0, blanched peeled and chopped
• 4 garlic clove, sliced
• 4 red chilli, chopped
• 4 cm piece ginger , peeled and chopped
• 150g brown sugar
• 300ml red wine vinegar
• 5 cardamom seeds
• ½ to 1 tsp paprika

Method