In the garden: signs of autumn
Mellow fruitfulness! Nature’s bounty! Harvest home!
Oh, how deceptive a picture can be. What the photo actually shows is a corner of the garden where brambles are out of control. They come in from the field and are ten feet long before I notice them. It’s like Sleeping Beauty’s bower down there and I could spend all my gardening time just tackling brambles. I do of course have many other things to do, such as digging up nearly every plant in the garden.
Woe! My flower beds have been invaded this year by a horrible moss which mounds itself up, gets right in among the plants and, I’m pretty sure, has choked some of them to death. At first, I tackled it piecemeal, then decided the only thing to do was to take out the plants and start again. As I have heavy clay soil, this is very hard work indeed. Any plant I want to keep has been potted up, many more have been sacrificed. On the bright side, all this digging has loosened up the soil nicely. Where possible, I’ve shovelled garden compost on the newly cleared patches but I’m running out of usable material. There are bound to be small pieces of the moss left, which may grow again but I shall hope to keep on top of it. And next spring, the fun of replanting. Three beds done, one to go. I feel tired just thinking of it and am rather glad it’s raining today.
At the moment, everything is about next year. Foxgloves have been dug up from all over the garden and lined out in front of the shed for next year’s display. There are cuttings and seedlings in the greenhouse and a little nursery outside it. I will not be planting any wallflowers or tulips for the deer to eat.
This is indeed a ‘mossed cottage tree’ and last year produced no fruit at all. This year, it’s bowed down with apples and all the good ones are at the top.
The coral fruits on this Berberis are quite a sight. Picture this shrub the size of a small tree and you can guess that it’s rather spectacular.
I absolutely love sedums and am disappointed with their performance this year. Every stage of their flowering is attractive and they have a way to go yet. They’re already covered in bees.
Promising babies. There are quite a few more.