Looking round the garden with a view to taking photos for GBFD this month, it was obvious that there weren’t many deciduous leaves that warranted being photographed for posterity. It is too soon for autumn tints, they will hopefully be ready for next month, so this month it was up to the evergreens, especially the clipped evergreens, that provide the interest in the garden this month.
Box ball and Euonymous Emerald and gold
I really must learn to be more patient. When I saw the first Cyclamen hederifolium popping up in the woodland a month ago, they were immediately photographed and a post written about them. If only I had waited, there are now easily three times as many flowers, making the woodland look really pretty, in spite of all the fallen leaves and everything else looking so dry.
Looking back at last months offering for GBBD, I can’t help but notice the difference between the garden now and a month ago. Now there are leaves falling everywhere, making the garden look very autumnal, they are mainly horse chestnut leaves, but also oak leaves, which are usually the last to drop around Christmas time.
We have to make the most of it when the undergardener is feeling quite good and plan any outings for the week before he has his next dose of chemo. Having had a whole day out by himself on Thursday (trains!) he decided that he was going to take me to a garden that appeared in last month’s “The English Garden” magazine.The garden in question was at Pen Mill Farm in Somerset and what a beauty it is too with lots of inspiration for late summer borders.
Early to bed, early to rise ……..makes sure that a girl sees a wonderful sunrise! In the summer, the sun was waking me at 5am, but now I wake at about 6 am, this morning it was 6 15am and this is what I saw.
Once the tiny flowers of Cyclamen hederifolium start unfurling, I begin to think that autumn can’t be far away. We don’t seem to have had much of a summer so far and already the woodland has a definite autumnal feel with all the horse chestnut leaves on the ground.
Showing through all the leaves are the tiny white and pink flowers of the cyclamen. Day by day, more flowers are showing, each year the corms get bigger and bigger.
Having arranged to visit our son and dil who live near London, we usually just stop half way for lunch at a pub in a little village. Thanks to Jessica at Rusty Duck writing a post about the garden at Hauser and Wirth Gallery in Somerset, designed by Piet Oudolf, I realised that it was just off the A303 which we would be travelling along, so seemed the ideal spot for a break. It was a shame about the weather, we had rain all the way, but it didn’t stop our enjoyment of the garden.
Having been working in the gravel area recently, I’ve been surrounded by pots of foliage that have to come into the conservatory for the winter as they wouldn’t survive outside. In adding to the pots some plants that are borderline hardy, I think that these will survive outdoors with a bit of protection. If I move them under the arbour and wrap them in fleece, then they should be ok.
Various Echeverias.
I thought I would give an update on how the alterations are coming on in the gravel area at the back. This is work in progress, so there is still plenty more to do! A lot has been cleared out, by Neil, the benches have been given 1 coat of preservative and 3 coats of pale blue “Cool Breeze” by me. All the painting was done in between watching the Olympics, sometimes I was painting at 6am, sometimes quite late in the evening, it worked, I was able to watch all the events I was interested in, as well as getting all the painting done.
August has been a very dry month for us in the SW corner of England and the plants are suffering from the lack of rain. We have thunderstorms forecast for later in the week, so hopefully that will make a difference. In spite of the heat and lack of rain, the flowers keep coming, you have to admire their tenacity.
Buddleja are now flowering which brings in the butterflies, this is a Red Admiral.
Altro Verde
Deb's Garden Blog – Journal
Diary of a Suburban Gardener
Gwirrel's Garden
The Amateur Weeder
Wellywoman
Wife, Mother, Gardener