Waspish problem

We've had some interesting and quite unusual visitors to our garden this year a colony of digger wasps.

They have set up camp in an area of dry banking and on a piece of gravel pathway in the front garden, dotting it with a neat collection of miniature mole-hills.

Using my Collins Guide to Insects, I have tentatively identified the delicate, yellow and black wasps as Crabo cribrarius. I learned that the mole-hills are nesting burrows each containing an egg, together with one or more anaesthetised flies on which the wasp larva will feed when it hatches.

Further observation revealed the wasps in other parts of the garden, catching houseflies and carrying them off towards the burrows. Fascinating. One more example of what a complex ecosystem even a small garden can contain.

We are not yet troubled by the more usual variety of drowsy autumn wasps, though I don't suppose it will be long before they start to blunder indoors in search of anything sugary. Here's a useful tip I heard recently; if you cut up windfall apples and leave them in an out-of-the-way part of the garden these should distract wasps from damaging good fruit still on the tree. I've been trying it out and I have noticed that not only wasps but also butterflies and blackbirds are quite partial to the fruit as it begins to rot.

We've had a bumper crop of Bramley cooking apples on our old tree, for the first time since we moved here nearly three years ago. The branches are quite laden down with fruit, which is slowly ripening in the early autumn sunshine.

Bumper crops are just as likely to be due to last year's weather as this year's. Last year's fine summer gave new wood plenty of time to ripen and form fruit buds, while this year's warm spring was kind to both blossoms and early pollinating insects.

Even when they have coloured up, apples may not be fully ripe. They are ready to pick only when they come away from the tree easily, with just a slight twist. Apples that have to be tugged off are not really ready.

The first of my apples will be ripe in a week or so; I'll try to hand-pick as many as possible to reduce bruising. Bramleys are good keepers so I will lay them out in cardboard boxes, not touching, and store them in the basement where it is cool and dry. Some people like to wrap each apple in paper but I prefer not to as it's easier to spot any that are going off.

It's best (and most tempting) to eat the biggest apples first, since smaller apples keep for longer. With luck and good management they should last into the New Year.

Jobs for this week

Raise the height of cut on the mower and cut lawns less frequently as the cooler weather slows down growth.

Plant daffodil bulbs in rough grass. When planting bulbs in flower borders, mark where they are so you don't dig them up later by mistake.

Collect seed from perennials such as Jacob's ladder, Eryngium, Campanula, Geranium and Salvia. Store them in paper envelopes in a cool dry place, remembering to label them first.