Gardening: This week

1 You can buy a Henchman from Heygate Engineering, Manor Farm, Hannington Tadley, Hants RG26 5TZ. Tel 01635 299847. The smallest model costs pounds 329

1 Collect windfall apples this weekend and freeze them for apple crumble all through the winter. Cut out any damaged bits, peel and quarter. Lay them out on a tray, freeze overnight and then bag them up the next day

1 Christopher Lloyd's subtropical garden at Great Dixter looks its best in September and October with cannas, bamboos and dahlias, in a lush Rouseauesque jungle. Tel 01797 253107

1 It's a good time to start harvesting seed for next year's plants. Cut whole spent heads of sunflowers and hang them upside down in a paper bag so they can shed their seed over the next month without you having to do a thing. Do the same thing with somniferum and corn poppy seed heads

1 If your French beans have got too big and tough to make good eating, don't just pull the whole lot up and chuck them on the compost heap. The beans inside are delicious. Pod them like broad beans and eat them as flageolet, those round, pale green beans you usually get in a tin