September is ending well in terms of sunshine but I still feel I’m missing out on rain. The quantity of stored water is diminishing as I continue to water specific plants. Our apple harvest is good and bad. So many apples fell during the heat waves and there is high incidence of brown rot on one of the trees. Although we could probably get a few bottles of juice this year we have decided to enjoy the crop as eating apples. The good ones are particularly crisp and tasty. Here are six other things from the garden.
One
The garden feels a bit topsy turvy. Here’s a resurgent antirrhinum, flowering again after a desiccating summer.
Two
I kept a number of young plants in pots over the summer rather than plant them out. It was easy to see them all together and remember to water them. Here’s a Japanese anemone that I propagated from a root cutting. This went into the garden this week.
Three
This liriope has been in the garden for several years and hasn’t really caught my attention. This year is the best it has ever looked and it’s still rather scruffy. Probably time to divide it.
Four
I thought I had dug out this fuchsia last year. It did not look happy, but it has fought back and although it is quite small I give it huge respect for re-appearing. I’ll leave it alone.
Five
The hylotelephiums are having a very good year. I’m enjoying this phase of colour before it turns deeper red.
Six
This is one of the plants I’m still giving a can of water to every now and then. Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’. I’m showing this again because it still has it’s ivory colouring which I like.
I’ve sown a few seeds that I collected from the garden. I can report that the hollyhocks that seed themselves quite happily have rejected my seed tray of peat free compost topped with gravel. I wanted to have a few more white ones but only one has germinated. I have managed to get two blades of pennisetum villosum to appear which I consider to be a great success. Astrantia also turned up its nose at a space in the greenhouse. We can but try. We have a new fox cub in the garden. A gorgeous creature but not a welcome one as it chews the compost bags and strolls through the border with impunity. I hope to be able to start on moving a few plants soon. I have definitely got my spacing wrong and this needs to be sorted out. I hope your gardening spaces are enjoying the gentler conditions. Jim’s garden is closed for visits but generously, visitors to Garden Ruminations still get to have a peek.
Lovely hylotelephiums. I had one in a pot last year that got munched by vine weevil (I hadn’t realised they were susceptible.) I stuck the surviving portion in the ground. It’s got through the year, and now hopefully will grow nicely in future.
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Spacing is something I have always struggled with, I’m determined to get better at it and will be moving some plants around over the next couple of weeks to allow them more space.
I love your description “a desiccating summer”, very apt. Lots of lovely colour in your garden still, I especially like the hydrangea.
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I enjoy sedum (Hylotelephiums) as their color changes in the fall. Mine usually become covered in spiderwebs giving them an eery look. Foxes are rare in our area since the coyote population has risen. It is a menagerie.
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It’s fantastic to have wild animals like foxes in your garden. We don’t have these like that so close here… Though it’s probably best not to have a chicken coop.
As for your 6 choice , the Liriope and the hydrangea ‘Limelight’ are the favourites.
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Hylotelephium is nice. I still know it as a Sedum. It never fills out like that for us.
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Liriope are nice except for the foliage. The NT gardens here seem to like it. I know there are foxes around here – evidence left in the unfenced part of the garden, but fortunately they haven’t come into the actual flowering section. Their calls are quite eerie.
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There has been plenty of noise here the last few nights. Territory maybe.
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Well done that fuchsia and that snapdragon is a beauty. I also struggle with spacing. I did re-do one border last month, but it’s now full of large seedlings so any spacing has disappeared. Apparently we’re due some rain over the next few days – finger’s crossed.
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Topsy-turvy is a good way to describe garden conditions for so many of us this year. September is being kind to us, but April through August never seemed “normal.” Anyway, you have a healthy crop of Sedums there, and the Fuchsias are lovely.
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Thank you. ☺️
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I also have some nice but unwelcome wildlife – a pigeon that has eaten most of our brassicas and has now moved on to the yellow mustard seedlings. I’ll need to start netting new areas better.
The Japanese anemone looks good. I’ve just been given one by one of my visitors, which is exciting as it’ll hopefully brighten up a shady bed.
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Oh the joys of netting. Keep an eye out for small birds that somehow find their way in!
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Yes! We’re mostly going to use wire-type protection or cloches, which will hopefully be safe – but still worth keeping an eye on it.
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Liriope seems to like hot weather, mine is by far the best it’s ever been, unless it’s just that there are fewer slugs. I have a self sown white Antirrhinum in my allotment polytunnel that I intend to collect seed from. They seem highly resistant to both drought and slug damage, both big plusses; I can’t understand why it’s taken me so long to appreciate them. Your experience of mollycoddled seed faring worse than the self sowers struck a chord, Geranium palmatum for me right now.
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