Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness - and almost a frost!
Monday, September 20, 2010
The heavy morning dews, the mist in the valley and the smell of
wood smoke in the air - yes folks September is here and autumn is
well and truly into its stride. Dark by 7.30pm so a shorter
gardening day which is welcome after such a busy year. Swallows are
slowly disappearing form the skies and the owls are more audible
after dark,as they often seem to at this time of year. The trees
are turning fast and already there is good colour on the acers and
liquidamber, as well as the native trees that surround us. Very
good crops of berries too.
Weather
A quiet month so far with some sunshine in the first week, cloud
and rain the second and last week some very cold nights with the
wind in the north and minima of 1c last Friday. I had all my
horticultural fleece out over many tender plants and veggies which
took best part of 2 hours! Was I relieved on Saturday morning to
see that everything had come through unscathed, especially as we
have our last group visit of the year tomorrow. We never want the
garden year to come to an abrupt end in September and in the last
few years we have been very lucky with the first frosts not
starting until mid-late October.
Garden Update
Although things are obviously slowing down somewhat there is
still a lot to see and promise of yet more to come before the end
of the season. Now that the main summer flush has ended it's
possible to study plants more carefully and appreciate their
intrinsic merits which is sometimes lost in the many layered hues
of high summer. The relaxed "shabbiness" and informality of autumn
is something I do look forward to, as are the border stalwarts that
make autumn so exciting (more of them below!!). We never want it to
end but we know that the days are dwindling down and such colour
and variety won't be with us for much longer. So we enjoy it whilst
we can in its bitter sweet grand finale.
What's looking good
Late flowering clematis really come into their own now with some
choice viticellas hanging on (Huldine, Kermesina and Blue Belle
especially looking good). Clematis tangutica "Lambton Park"still
full of buds, flowers and seed heads all at the same time is pretty
impressive too. There is also an interesting texensis x
crispa grown from seed with lovely short recurved bells in pink
with white edges, climbing all over the remains of a large
filipendula to about 6 feet. Such a thrill to have grown such a
beauty from seed over the last 5 years. Also from seed and at last
getting into its stride is clematis rehderiana, the so called
"cowslip clematis" on account of its sweet scent with pale lemon
bells in profusion that will eventually make 12 feet or so. There
are a few herbaceous clematis too with heraclifolia and tubulosa
"Wyevale", both scented, making important statements in their own
part of the garden. But if there is one above all others it must be
clematis triternata rubromarginata. a cross between flammula and
viticella purpurea . It's flowers are not unattractive and very
generously produced but rather small, the main attraction being its
very strong sweet scent on warm days, coming from the flammula
parentage.
On the subject of climbing plants there are other treasures too
notably dicentra scandens - yellow lockets to 12 feet, aconitum
volubile one of several climbing forms of the common monkshood,
various ipomeas, tender annuals in shades of pink and blue, and in
the case of ipomea lobata yellow and orange. Towering above them
all however is the current star - coboea scandens alba, the "cup
and saucer" vine to 20 feet plus, in white, scrambling with
clinging tendrils over several shrubs and fences and bringing a
touch of the tropics to the autumn garden in Wales. Fabulous -
Absolutely Fabulous! There I go again!! Plants bring out the worst
in me!!!
It wouldn't be autumn without a special mention of asters.
Because of a lack of sunshine here they are rather slow this year;
the nova belgii are now flowering well with "Helen Ballard", "Marie
Ballard" (the best ever in my opinion with large fully double blue
flowers), "Grey Lady", "Marie Anne Neil" and "White Swan" to the
fore. Some mildew but not too destructive this year. Plenty of
species forms just starting and the eagerly awaited cordifolius
cultivars "Little Carlow" and "Photograph " tantalisingly close to
blooming.The same also applies to the A.lateriflorus cultivars. So
much still to look forward to!!
Dahlias are going well as are the many salvias dotted around the
garden. Those from central America which need short day length to
flower are reaching their peak especially the "in your face" red
salvia darcyii, a strong growing red, and involucrata, in a really
shocking pink to 5 feet. We went to Kew Gardens on October 28th
last year and there was a bed dedicated to late flowering tender
salvias. What an absolute joy! Such magnificient colours defying
the onset of winter and making it seem such a long way away.
Go on join me in pushing the boundaries that little bit more and
take some cuttings to be sure of a similar display next year.
There is still more to come but you will have to wait until next
month!
Wildlife
I have solved my blackbird problem with the tomatoes. They began
to make serious inroads into the crop, asking all their friends
over for a "tomato fest" courtesy of Cilgwyn Lodge Gardens!
No more. I made some netting mesh doors for the polytunnel and
sorted the problem. Not that they didn't try every way to get in
but eventually gave up and turned their attention to the elderberry
crop instead. Result!! Wrens rather mockingly still come and go
getting through the smallest gaps in the mesh. They don't eat the
tomatoes and last winter the tunnels were a haven that got them
through the severe winter.
Rabbits have now replaced the blackbirds as arch enemy number
one but fortunately there is so much food around they haven't done
much damage to date. They seem to be rather partial to achilleas at
the moment and as there are plenty they are welcome to them. I wish
though they wouldn't dig up the ground so much. And in all of this
what does Bojo our beloved cat do? He sleeps and sleeps and sleeps
and just occasionally helps himself to a rabbit snack!!
Visitors
We continued to have visitors throughout the month which was
great and as always met some lovely people. We have our last coach
party tomorrow from U3A Gardening Group Llanelli to end our best
ever season. As the result of our efforts this year and the support
of all our visitors we will be paying over £3,000 to The National
Gardens Scheme from the 750 visitors we have welcomed this year.
Needless to say this has been a record year and we are so grateful
for all the support and generosity we have received. As the garden
visiting season ends, so the autumn/winter series of garden talks
begins and we have 17 bookings already for talks on a variety of
topics from Whitland in the west to Llangynidr in the east.
The next few weeks we will have time to become visitors
ourselves, firstly this Saturday to Malvern Autumn Show and on
Sunday 17 October to Hergest Croft Autumn Plant Fair in Kington,
Herefordshire - for more details go to www.hergest.co.uk A lovely way
to end the garden year.
VERY LATEST UPDATE - 21 SEPTEMBER
We understand that the winner of the Daily Mail
National Garden Competition will be announced in this Saturday's
Weekend section of the Daily Mail. We are as curious as you will be
to find out who has been selected as the overall
winner.
Following the visit from U3A today we have done our final sums
for the year for the stats required by the NGS. We have had 740
visitors and raised £3,205 for the charities supported by the NGS -
a record by some way. We were really pleased to send the cheque to
the treasurer tonight and are looking forward to recharging our
batteries for 2011. We hope to have another successful year again
with your support. We will continue to provide news updates during
the winter so please stay in touch.
Best regards and "winter well"
Keith and Moira