Fresher...
The weather is fresher and so am I - a Fresher. Started the RHS General course at Reaseheath last week, today was the first full day of teaching. Thumbs up all round so far - especially the canteen! A good hot lunch and a coffee for £2.85. We covered garden surveying in the morning and had an entertaining half hour with tapes, string and pegs squinting down lines trying to guess at right angles (we lacked compasses, you see...). The afternoon was a return to Miss Horsefall's Latin class of '75 as we staggered through plant nomenclature ('With me everyone, Narrrrrow, Narrrrrarsssss, Narrratt!)
Into the car for the hour long drive back through the Cheshire countryside accompanied by Gardener's Question Time and This Sceptred Isle (1530-1590). Pure bliss...
In the real world it's raining and cold with 12mm of rain in the last three hours and barely 10C. Must get some wood cut - nearly cold enough for a fire.
Perfect gardening day
Inspired by last night's GW and contributors to the GW MB and with the weather on my side, I've made good progress.
- Cleared the tomato plants out of the polytunnel (they all rotted - not enough sun, I think) and sowed some winter salads instead
- took cuttings of the chocolate cosmos
- divided one each of the two new geraniums this year, Kashmir White and ???
- planted up tubs with cyclamen, heather and euonymous
- collected seeds from scabious and did another round of seed sowing
- OH made progress on the shade tunnel
and much more - feels great. Weather was perfect, sunny, light breeze 16C.
September gems
The ubiquitous and still brilliant verbena bonariensis. Have about 10 new young plants from cuttings so it'll be everywhere next year.
Rose 'The Times' It has not stopped flowering since May
The sunflowers are finally flowering - not before time. This one is 11ft tall.
9sq.m done, 150 to go
Treated the lawn to a scarify, aerate and top dressing. Problem is it took me about an hour to do a patch 3m x 3m, which just leaves the remaining 90% or so. An elephant task this - to be done in small bite sized chunks.
Picked and cooked one of the baby pumpkins yesterday. Not as sweet as butternut squashes, but tasty anyway. Still picking runner beans and carrots, beetroot and leeks still to come.
We moved our eldest daughter into Uni today - end of one era, beginning of a new one for her and for us. Nicely landscaped halls I thought, a view over a field and birds flitting through the trees. I think she'll be fine. Three for dinner tonight.
And suddenly it is autumn
A week ago night-time temperatures were 13C or more. Last night it dropped to 3C. The air is still, chill and clear. Summer is over. In the cold stillness outside the plants seem to be holding their breath, stopped in their tracks and preparing for their slow retreat into themselves for the winter. A few of the leaves on the birch tree have turned gold and the lawn is lightly spattered with them. I've put the central heating on this morning.
The bright pink cosmos looks a little out of place now in it's fresh cheeriness against the softening hues around it. This garden comes into its own in September as the colours warm and the middling greens of summer separate into yellows, coppers, bronzes and reds. There will be colour from the fuchsias, roses, spirea and sedums well into December if we don't get a cold snap.
Just awaiting the delivery of the netting for the shade tunnel - there's still time to take more cuttings and divide plants before winter. I start at Reaseheath on Wednesday - a new chapter.
A 'Tuscan' evening
It's 9.40 pm and still 22C out. Like our nights in Tuscany. But on cue (as per BBC forecast) it has just started raining. Heard the lightning on the radio and here it is.
Got the frame up for the shade tunnel - and not much more done today - too hot. The garden is heading to that time where I let things go. If it's happy in autumn, fine. If not, time to let it shut down and stop mollycoddling it. The hanging baskets are dying because I've stopped watering them. The sweet peas are looking thin and tired because I'm no longer removing every last seed pod. Acceptance of impending autumn is good.
4th September
Japanese anemone 'Honorine Jobert'. Not quite as happy as it would be in more moist soil, but it lights up the border under the birch tree just fine.
The new shade tunnel frame.
These sunflowers were 2" high in late June. They may be called 'Russian Mammoth', but they need to stop growing and start flowering quick or they'll run out of summer.
Perfect day...
Steady sunshine all day, the lightest of breezes, 18-24C and still nearly 19C now at 8pm. Spent nearly all day taking cuttings and sowing perennial seeds. Moved some of the successful cuttings out of the polytunnel and into the cold frame - which is full.
We had another go at constructing a shade tunnel out of plumbers polypipe, but I think we're heading towards a simple wooden frame - everything else seems too complicated.
Also had a go at filling the hold in C&R's lawn - a rectangular dip about 3' x 2'. Folded back the lawn and filled in with compost and sand. Might have to do a bit more levelling when it settles.
My hands are grubby and slightly tingly from handling gritty compost. I'm well and truly ready for the brill and home grown runners that OH is cooking for us. Wonderful.
