There’s no denying it. The leaves are falling and every now and then a cold night sneaks in. It’s time to move to those autumn/winter jobs. I left two tomato plants standing after the big greenhouse clear out but even those must be dealt with now. The mower blades will be set to high as the mower is used to collect leaves and tulip bulbs will be planted. This weekend I will take the scented leaf pelagoniums into the greenhouse but I needed a some more compost for their over-wintering pots, Of course that was fatal:
One
A trip to the garden centre, even at this time of year, is a dangerous thing. Compost was purchased – peat free of course – but the route back to the exit went via the reduced bench and there were a few 3l pots of Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’. Well they might as well sit in my garden as stand in the garden centre, don’t you think? Especially at a bargain price of £4.50 a pot. They’ve gone into my new orange and magenta border. Dreams of next summer already!
Two
Speaking of borders here is the long border in its autumn clothing. It’s definitely winding down here. The asters at the far end keep going but the roses are putting out smaller and smaller flowers and the autumn crocuses were felled by the rain.
Three
The cuttings of salvia ‘Amistad’ were growing so strongly that I decided to pot them on. I used a very gritty mix to start them off and the root system had developed well. I’ve got six at the moment in the hope that I can get three through the winter.
Four
In the front garden the hydrangea that this year flowered blue has faded into the usual autumn colour. I enjoy its muted tones at this time of the year. I was not so fond of the blue, a result I think of the mulch it received last winter.
Five
Also looking autumnal in the front garden is my mystery plant. It does flower but I never seem to catch a photo of it. The single black berries are very attractive. I think it is some form of cotoneaster.
Six
The greenhouse clear out meant bringing in the romano peppers. A few had just about ripened and a week in the kitchen has moved them on a bit more. Time to eat them!
A cold night is forecast for Sunday and my evergreen agapanthus are already showing a few yellow leaves. The time for fleece has arrived. It’s also time to see who else is taking winter precautions. A trip to Mr P’s site is called for. Who’s still got colour and who is wrapping up for winter?
I garden in London and so get a little complacent about frosts. But this week the lawn has had a light frosting and it was clearly a sign that cold weather gardening had to start. Last year’s fleece was in shredded tatters in the shed and I hate all those white flaky bits. I hot footed it to Homebase and found some delightful green bags of 35gsm fleece with very handy draw string pulls. I usually fleece up the agapanthus armed with a stapler but these jackets were easy to pull over the plants and the fetching shade of green is slightly less obvious than white. Job done.
I was certainly lulled into complacency by the balmy days I experienced in Suffolk last week but the cold evenings are changing the colours of the garden. The persimmon tree is looking beautiful even as the leaves are falling.
The previously sun scorched hydrangeas are also taking on their winter hue.
But elsewhere the summer container plants are still in good health and I will leave them out throughout the winter. In mild years I have been able to carry the geraniums over into the next summer.
The white antirrhinum sowed from seed is still in flower at this end of the garden but elsewhere I have collected seeds from another plant that has done its bit for summer.
I recently planted out some gaura and pennisetums in a west border and alongside them I put in some Echinacea purpurea ‘White Swan’, which still thinks there’s time to put on a display. Thank you!
