Through the Garden Gate--November 2022

The garden is still looking autumnal, with the grasses putting on a show now. The only flower still going is the Salvia Amistad, looking very untidy in the raised bed. The crab apple has an amazing amount of fruit and the colour is lovely. There is a blackbird which has discovered it and we often watch him balancing on the branches pecking at the fruit. It will take it some time to get through it all, I think. I am eyeing it up myself to use for Christmas decorations.

The hydrangea in the front garden has started to take over and spread its branches over the path near the front door, making it seem quite gloomy. It was also making access difficult for the postman.  As it's an area in shade most of the time I decided it needed to be brightened up and made more welcoming. I have been reluctant to cut the shrub back too much in case it stopped flowering, but I decided something had to be done. I cut the branches on the side near to the door to clear the path, then I made up some winter pots to put on the step outside the door. Cyclamens, ferns and heuchera, which I hope will grow ok in the shade. I love the different shades of pink which you can get with the cyclamens. I put some pots of them outside the side door too.

We went to RHS Harlow Carr early in November. We always like to do an autumn visit, the colours are beautiful at this time of year.

Even the seed heads give colour and interest.

These were by the streamside, I'm not sure what they are, maybe Gunnera seed heads.

I have been gathering evergreen foliage as I will be making my Christmas wreaths soon. I love doing them, but the preparation takes longer than the making of them.

I am linking this post to Sarah's blog at 'Down by the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post.

Through the Garden Gate--October 2022

 

Throughout October I have watched the garden gradually change colour, it now has a lovely mellow look to it. The Rowan has been lovely, its leaves changed colour from green to red quite quickly and I looked out the window the other day and there were no leaves left, just the yellow berries. When did that happen, I wondered. The berries are still there and show up quite well on their own, but I'm sure the birds will soon discover them. The Crab Apple is heavy with red fruit and the silver Birch leaves which were completely green at the start of October are now yellow.

 

The grasses which are turning yellow and bronze are brightening up the borders now most of the flowers have finished. It's always good not to be too hasty in cutting back as many of the perennial border plants although finished flowering and starting to wilt take on some lovely autumn tints.  The sedums are still dark pink and I will leave their seed heads on through the winter for interest and as a home for insects.

The Liquidamber tree has been slow to get growing since it was planted five years ago, but this year it has decided to grow and has shot up. It looks beautiful now in autumn with green, yellow, red and maroon leaves.  I am enjoying watching it change colour.

I emptied all the summer bedding plants from their containers and have bought some autumn bedding, mainly cyclamen and violas. I will probably buy more, they do brighten the place up.

Last week it was my birthday and we had a day out to RHS Bridgewater. This was the third visit since it opened last year. 

The herbaceous borders in the Welcome Garden were colourful with grasses, dahlias and asters. 

The walled garden is quite a big place with a community garden, vegetable garden and The Paradise Garden. It takes some walking around.

The Paradise Garden is quite relaxing with the water features.

The Chinese Streamside Garden is a favourite with us.  This area is to be developed further with Chinese influences; we're looking forward to seeing the garden develop more with all the future plans.

I am linking this blogpost to Sarah's blog at 'Down by the Sea' for her monthly 

'Through the Garden Gate'   post

Through the Garden Gate--September 2022

 

Cooler weather has arrived now, which means get out the jumpers and scarves and wrap up warm when we're outside. We've also had rain--that's been very welcome. 

The garden is starting to look autumnal as leaves change colour. The Rowan is now full of yellow berries and the Crab apple tree is full of pink fruit which will turn darker over the next few weeks. We get a lot of big birds in the garden, crows, magpies, pigeons are regular visitors.  They come from the big trees which are just further down from the garden. The smaller birds seem to be happier in the front garden. But on a few mornings recently I have been so pleased to see lots of blue tits and long tailed tits flitting about the back garden, going from the Rowan to the Crab apple and the twisted Willow. It's been a lovely sight, perhaps the bigger birds are not such early risers.

In the flower borders many flowers have started to go over, but there is still lots of colour from the Rudbekias, Rogersia, Japanese Anemone, Cosmos and Sedum--all lovely Autumn colours.

The Sedum last for ages and the seedheads still look good when the flowers have gone over. These have flopped over, I should have put a plant support to help them stand up.

The Cosmos haven't been good this year, but there's still a bright flash of colour in this little corner.

Hydrangea 'limelight' is a good one for late summer and autumn. It really lives up to its name. There have been more flowerheads this year and I have been able to cut some for the house. It looks good with the yellow grass in front.

In the front garden the hydrangea by the door is heavy with blooms which are now turning a lovely dark pink.

Hostas have turned yellow, they will soon need to be cut back as the leaves will get very slimy.  They are very bright at the moment though. 

I've been struggling with arthritis pain recently, but fortunately there hasn't been much work to do in the garden. It's been a nice change to just potter around or sit and enjoy the changing colours. Richard has been cutting back some of the shrubs in the front garden which have got so big they were taking a lot of light away. This is a job which aggravates my arthritic hands so I just stood by and supervised!

I am linking this blog to Sarah's blog at 'Down by the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate'  post.

Through the Garden Gate -- July 2022

Where did July go? It seemed to fly by and I am late with this blog post. 

The weather has been very dry for ages and I seem to have been spending a lot of time watering. Obviously the tubs need regular watering, but normally I rarely water the flower beds. There have been a lot of plants which were wilting in the heat and I have been worried I might lose them. So extra watering has been done. We had a few days of extreme heat when it was too hot to do any gardening or even to just sit outside. The hot weather just drains me of energy and doesn't agree with my arthritis, so I spent a lot of time indoors resting. Our front garden is quite shady and we don't spend a lot of time there, but when it was really hot we were really glad to be able to sit out there in the shade.

It's that time of year when I find the main jobs in the garden are just deadheading and cutting back. But sometimes it can look a bit bedraggled as flowers go over and I wait for the late summer ones to come into bloom. There are a lot of gaps, where flowers have gone over and the soil has been so dry it has not been the right conditions for planting any new ones to fill the gaps. The astilbes which like a moist soil have been struggling and are now looking brown and shrivelled up, even though they are in the damp border. I'm wondering if they will come back next year.

You don't always need flowers to provide colour, this Hakonechloa grass is a lovely and bright, there are clumps of it around the garden.

This bright pink phlox flowers from July onwards, but its got  battered by the rain this year.

I love this white Lysimachia, but it does tend to flop over onto the grass. I've put a few extra plant supports in this year

Geranium Rosanne is a very reliable plant and keeps going throughout the summer.

I don't know the name of this rose--it's either 'Rachel' or 'Pride and Prejudice', I got the labels mixed up. I do like it though.

So the flower beds are not looking great. It's cooler now and thankfully we have had rain. Proper rain which has soaked the ground and refreshed everything. Perhaps the garden will start to look better now.

I am linking this blogpost with Sarah's blog at 'Down by the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post.

Highs and Lows on the Allotment

Last time I blogged about the allotment was when I was making plans for the year and buying seeds. Well, the allotment has now changed from empty beds and bare soil to looking like an allotment should with rows of vegetables growing. How it all changes in just a few weeks from bare soil to showing green.  For a while it was quiet and relaxed on the plot as we got on with all the preparation jobs and then suddenly it seemed like everything was happening at once with so much to be done--sowing, planting and weeding.

We haven't had much rain the last few months and last week the weather was really warm with record breaking temperatures. Its been too hot to do much allotment work except to harvest fruit and veg and do watering.

In the greenhouse the tomatoes and cucumbers are doing well and we have been picking some lovely little cucumbers.  There are so many of them we pick them while they are small to encourage more to grow. There are tomatoes appearing but not ripe yet. 

I thought I would try growing aubergines this year, I've never grown them before. I did read that they are hard to grow, so I have just got two growing in tubs in the big greenhouse. They have looked very healthy so far and produced plenty of flowers. I was really pleased to see that the first flowers on each plant have now produced tiny aubergines. However it looks like something has been eating them as there are  holes in them, one being very badly affected. I got rid of this one and decided to cut the other one while it was still small before any more holes appeared.

The onions are flopping over now so I will be pulling them soon. The cabbage bed is full of big cabbages, and they are looking great as the cabbages start to form hearts.  Also in that bed are Kale and Swedes. 

I was disappointed that the peas haven't done well this year.  The first lot were started off in lengths of guttering and there were three varieties.  They seemed to get weevil damage early on and some recovered but others didn't. The best ones were 'Onward' and I have been picking those recently. The second lot of peas sown straight into the ground also suffered from being nibbled by the weevils-or I have wondered if it was pigeons. So I had one last attempt to get some decent peas and sowed purple podded peas in guttering, then planted them out and they look ok so far.

Another disappointment was the broad beans. I don't usually have any problems with blackfly on broad beans, but this year I was amazed to see some of the plants totally infested with them. I pulled up the affected plants which was actually only two, then sprayed the rest with soapy water and pinched out the growing tips of them all. I hope this will keep the blackflies away now. I have been able to pick some of the beans and there are plenty left still.

The ground has been looking very dry and cracked with the lack of rain and I was thinking some of the seedlings might  not  survive. I have been watering as best as I can.  But in the last couple of days we have had some rain.  It may not have been enough to get deep down into the ground or fill up the water butts, but the soil now looks damp, the seedlings have perked up and everything looks much fresher.  

So although there have been some low points, the high points are that I  have plenty of crops to pick and I am buying less veg from the supermarket each week now.

Through the Garden Gate--June 2022

We've had a lot of dry weather recently and very little rain. What rain we've had hasn't always been enough to really soak the ground.  But the flowers are blooming and as the late Spring ones have gone over the early summer ones have taken their place.  Now the garden is looking good with blue Veronica, Nepeta, Scabious, Astrantia, Campanula, Roses, Clematis and many more. And the patio tubs are full of colour too.

I have been cutting back the early flowers now they have gone over--I might be lucky and have a second flowering from some of them later in the summer.  Cutting back has left a few gaps in the borders.  I am filling these with some hardy annuals which I have grown from seed--Cosmos, Zinnia, Ammi Majus and Larkspur are some of them. I grow most of the hardy annuals in a cutting bed at the allotment, but any spare plants, I bring home to plant in the garden where there is space.

Since we moved here five years ago I have been trying to get a few Foxgloves growing. All the little seedlings which they produce are potted up and then when they are big enough, planted around the garden.  I couldn't resist buying another one recently which is a lovely cream colour, as well as another Astilbe. Both of these plants grow well in the bottom border which is partial shade and can get quite damp. Another plant which also grows well in this shady bed is Persicaria. It has lovely pink bottle brush type flowers and is much admired by visitors, but it is inclined to take over and spread along the bed. So I've been digging some of this up and this has made space for the Foxgloves and Astilbe.

We have a lovely white Valerian on one side of the archway which is often visited at this time of year by a Humming Bird Hawk Moth.  They are fascinating creatures, but I haven't been able to catch this one on camera yet as it darts about very quickly.  Only Holly the cat will pose for a photo!

With a lot of the big garden jobs now done we've been able to sit and relax and enjoy the garden more. Although it can be difficult to sit for long as I always seem to spot something that needs doing.

I am linking this blog to Sarah's blog at 'Down by the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate'  post.