Sights, sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not - welcome September
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
After a series of recent Septembers that were more like summer
than autumn, this year it has been back to a more traditional one
with trees turning very early on, exceptionally heavy dews every
night making it difficult to mow the lawns not to mention all the
worm casts, plenty of late colour in the borders and a superb late
vegetable harvest with 26 different kinds cropping at the same
time. A special cosmic event was the total eclipse of the
moon combined with a super moon/ blood moon.
Amelanchiar lamarkii on 3 September
Better known perhaps for their wonderful scent in
late winter, witch hazels are one of the best colouring of
shrubs
The super moon at 2-00 am was so incredibly bright that
even at 60x zoom there was sufficient light to capture
craters.
Just under 2 hours later with the eclipse under way,
the blood moon was difficult to pick up even on a brilliantly
clear night. Our last chance to see it again until 2033. It was
nonetheles pretty special- it had to be to get me up at that time
of the morning!!
From my earliest childhood years onwards, September has alway
been a special month for me. Why it should have had such an impact
when I was so young I don't know but living in rural
Gloucestershire in the 1950's I have vivid memories of native
woodlands all around magically changing colour, hedgerows full of
blackberries, nuts and wild rose hips, of gathering fallen branches
for firewood to warm a tiny cottage that had no mains services
where I lived alone with my mother until I was 5. There was
also the joy of gathering fallen conkers from huge horse chestnut
trees to thread onto strings and challenge boys of all ages
at school and in our wider community. The winner was the one
who could break the conker of his opponent. All sorts of tricks
were employed to gain an advantage for one's conkers which included
soaking them in vinegar or baking in an oven, always having
to remember to make the threading hole for the string first!
Does anyone play conkers any more? Sadly I very much doubt it. All
our childhood games and pastimes were outdoor activities that have
probably gone the same way to be repllaced by virtual reality games
and other largely sedentary distractions.
Weather
For the first time for ages I can say that it has been an
enjoyable month with a balanced mix of weather which you would
expect at this time of year. No severe weather events made for
strong continous growth and although we have had some torrential
rain at times much of of it was overnight raiising river levels and
turning the Paddock Pond brown, which is fed by a small stream
rising on the hill behind us. A settled spell of weather at the end
of the month was very welcome as was the unbroken sunshine .
Some cold nights but no air air frosts thank goodness !9 night time
temperatures below 10c
Min 2c on 6th, 25th and 26th Max 20c on 10th
Garden Update
I alwaye feel that September is the first month for a long
time when we can relax and fully enjoy the gardens with no
pressures of visitors or to keep up the high standards of
excellence that we strive for. So no rush to clear the fallen
leaves and apples, to mow or edge the lawns, to deadhead quite so
regularly ( except for the hanging baskets that still look good) or
to keep the nursery quite so tidy. Work of a different sort takes
over including maintenance jobs, gathering seeds for sowing later
on at home or to donate to The Hardy Plant Society's seed exchenge
scheme and taking cuttings of tender perennials to overwinter in
the polytunnels. Cutting hedges and trimming back overgrown shrubs
is an essential task that I like to complete by the first week of
October if weather permits.
Many summer flowering plants are still going strong,
parttcultarly dahlias, crocosmias, roses, anemones, chelone,
actaeas, hydrangeas and salvias to name just a few (see pics below
and for more of the starring cast). In the cooler conditions that
prevailed for most of the late summer, a range of annuals has
continued tio flower well and make a significant contribution to
the autumn borders. Asters on the other hand are very
reluctant to get going and their colour show at the moment is very
spasmodic and rather disappointing even though they are plastered
in buds and totally mildew free
The Paddock Garden with masses of colour against
the background of a newly mown field
Alonsoa is a wonderful, long lasting annual from S.
America
Another annual new to me this year is rudbeckia "Prarie
Glow" with wide 1 metre branched stems in different shades of
deep orange and yellow
In this north facing moist border is this lovely autumn
colour combination with yellow kirengeshoma palmata var. koreana
paired with hydrangea arborescens. "Annabelle" and aster n.b
(recently renamed as symphiotricum) "Marie Ballard" a personal
favourite For more details about the name change of some asters go
to www.rhs.org.uk then
type "the splitting of asters" in the search box
One of the stars of the autumn borders is the japanese
anemone in this case the white and justly popular "Honorine
Joubert" At least that is what I bought it many years ago. Recently
published reports have suggested that many anemones in circulation
are incorrectly named.
Another autumn star is the hardy fuchsias which has
revelled in the cooler moist conditions.
We have a good range of dahlias in all forms and
colours; one quite different form is a type called "Honka" a good
upright form with outward facing star shaped flowers
An unknown sanguisorba over 6 feet tall with upright
pendant flower heads looking great with a Jap anenome
And in the north facing Paddock Border is a more
common white sanguisorba behind the white hydrangea
Although a house plant this poinsettia desrves special
mention. It has never been out of flower year round since I bought
it in November 2012!! They rarely flower for more than a few months
either side of Christmas so this one is special
Last month I published a pic of an unusual form of
hydrangea with balloon shaped buds quite unlike other hydrangeas.
This is h. kawakami group x involucrata in full bloom -
attractive and very late
During the month I scarified the lawns, an all day job then
scatterd 2 tons of sharp sand and a top dressing of grass
seed. It was clear when doing this and from all the holes dug in
the lawns by blackbirds. that there are patches of lawn that
have been infected with lawn grubs mostly May bugs or cockchaffers,
and leather jackets from daddy long legs or crane flies. At this
time of year there are few remedies that can be applied so we will
just have to wait and see what long term impact they have
The tools of the trade - Scarifier and rotary mower to
pick up the thatch
After the application of sharp sand
And in just 10 days almost no trace of the
sand
As already mentioned we are at last enjoying an unprecedented
late vegetable harvest with the latest peas we have ever had
and courgettes cropping as if it were high summer. An extended
sowing season of runner beans has proved its worth with less
surplus than previous years and plenty to come well into
October. Considering all the rain in August and their late planting
out we have had a good crop of Sturon onions , small but blissfully
free from onion white rot which can be a real pain in a wet
summer.
French bean "Amethyst" and pea "Hurst Green
Shaft"
Sweetcorn "Lark"
As to pests and diseases we have been lucky on the whole:
clubroot has largely been kept at bay, carrot fly has continued to
affect crops but some late sown varieties missed the worst of the
fly and are coming in relatively clean'
Very few cabbage white butterfies around so for the first time
in many years I have been able to avoid spraying by picking off the
few caterpillars from the 100 or so brassicas we have doing very
well.
Capsid bug is a well established pest here affecting a wide
range of host subjects including hydrangeas, fuchsias, impatiens,
dahlias, and some salvias. They can wreck the new tip growth and
emerging flowerbuds throughout the season. This year they have been
very late but have now begun to infect a few plants, a bit late to
do much serious damage. It is one of the most reported garden pests
to the RHS, but is treatable with Provado for those who are not
organic or alternitive non toxic sprays such as those based
on garlic. One thing you can't do as with caterpillars is to pick
them off ( have you ever seen one?!) as with the naked eye,
they are impossible to see.
The biggest disappointment has been the tomatoes, our worst crop
for 8 years, partly as the result of a poor sunless summer,
early tomato blight, and having been sent the wrong seed form an
online company purporting to sell our favourite mini plum tomato
called "Rosada" which turned out be the most mediocre and
tasteless small bush that you could ever imagine! We do still have
a crop but less than half of what we normally expect and definitely
no bragging rights of tomatoes at Christmas this year! or unlimited
tomato soup, a speciality of Moira who likes it so much she
consumes most of it!!
Tomato "Gourmet" is a really good taste but it is so
slow to mature that the skins are tough. Notice the large number of
green fuits so late into September"
What's looking good?
Just for a change how about what's smelling good? A wide range
of the many autumn flowering plants we grow here have the added
bonus of strong perfume particularly later in the day after 6
0,clock. Planting them near to the house or adjacent to frequently
used paths brings them even closer to our olefractory senses. Top
of the list are the brugmansias which have flowered continuously
since early August and show no sign of stopping, protected
from frost at night with a double layer of horticultural
fleece.
Yellow brugmansia (again!)
Actaea simplex "Brunette" A tall imposing shade
lover for a moist spot with long bottlebrush highly scented flower
in Augist and September. Dark foliage sets off the flowers
beautifully
A very late tall lily in mid month. Var
unknown
At 17 years old a very special friend is a huge clump of
impatiens tinctoria with large flowers from June until the frosts.
Hardy with winter protection coming back every spring from large
tubers.
Honeysuckle lonicera "Heaven Scent" - enough
said!
A rarely sighted Red Admiral butterfly this year on
cowslip scented flowers of clematis rehderiana
There is a surprisingly strong perfume on the flower
heads of sweetcorn which is quite strange as they are pollinated by
the wind and not insects
There is a huge cast of old favourites jostling for
attention, old, long established and much treasured
contibutors to the autumn feel of the borders. Many gardens start
to look past their best at this time of years but with a little
imagination and effort the garden in September can be one of the
most vibrant and colourful of the year.
Of all the fine plants on display in this border the eye
is immediately attracted to the yellow daisy rudbeckia sullivantii
"Gold Sturm" (it does help it is at the bottom of the picture but
all joking apart it is for me a top 10 plant and one I could not be
without
Unobtrussive in its part shade situation is the ginger
family relative roscoea, a seedling from Brown Peacock superbly set
off with a real thug persicaria "Purple Fantasy" Pull it all up
every spring and replant small sections to keep it in
check
Of the many fine tall umbellifers for all
seasons, one of the best is the 5 foot tall red stemmed selinum
wallichianum. It flowers later than most from early august until
end of Sept, it is generous with its seeds but not invasively
so
Comos is a great choice for late colour when others are
fading. Here paired with annual Ammi visnaga "Casablanca" it makes
a pleasing entrance to the gardens.
Wildlife and countryside
Throughout the month tawny owls have been regular visitors on
most evenings very close to the house but rarely seen, ususally two
calling to each other. An indelible sound of autumn on colder and
drew drenched evenings.
Other birds seen regularly have been the departing swallows and
martins, jays intent on raiding the ripening sweet corn, red kites
in large numbers exceeding 10 or more and herons.
Having waited for years to capture a pic of a heron
visiting the Paddock Pond, I snapped this one on a large lake at
Penllergare Woodland Trust just outside Swansea. Go to www.penllergare.org for
more details of this fascinating restoration of an historic formal
garden, lakes and pictorial landscape
Butterflies as last month have been almost non existant after
such a cold damp summer. Even the usuall butterfly magnets
such as sedums, echinaceas and rudbeckias,verbena bonariensis have
failed to attract them.
An unusual event for September has been a late grass harvest for
silage mostly, with a good few neighbours trying to make up for the
poor harvest earlier this summer. Modern machinery makes it easier
to gather the crop quickly before the weather turns to spoil
it.
Harvesting the "Lodge Field" opposite Cilgwyn Lodge (our "car
park" for visitors) is now blown silage whereas for many years it
was old style square bales of hay which took at least 4 days to
make and needed masses of manual labour. Now the harvest comes in
over the course of a couple of hours
And after the harvest is cleared red kites and all
manner of other birds particularly corvids, descend to find rich
pickings
Swallows and martins came and went in just a few days
mid month with none of the "shall we, shan't we go" on the overhead
wires.
Native trees ( beech, elders, maples started to show
autumn colour much earlier in the month than normal, and those in
the gardens are much more advanced.
Visits and visitors
It was a great honour to welcome to the gardens Tom
Hart-Dyke, from Lullingstone Csstle in Kent, whom we have known for
6 years. Tom is a superb plantsman, a plant hunter and the
very best of company. Tom gained widespread national
publilicity in 2000 when he was captured and held hostage for 9
months whilst botanising for orchids in the Panamanian rain forest
- one of the most dangerous parts of the world. At gunpoint and
threatened with his life on numerous occasions Tom and his friend
Paul Winder survived their ordeal (Tom told us that he bored
his captors to death talking about plants all the time!!) and
returned home just in time for Christmas 2000. Given up for dead it
was the best present their families could ever have wished for.
Their story was told by Tom' in a captivavating book entitled
"The Cloud Forest". Whilst in captivity he used the time to devise
a "World Garden" to be built in a 2 acre walled garden at his
ancestral home. He subsequently fulfilled his dream and it is now
open to the public. For more details of Tom and his amazing garden
go to to www.lullingstonecastle.co,uk
Tom and Moira in front of the Lodge
Tom and I try to completely obliterate Moira from this
picture. At 5'2" it was proving difficult! for her to stay in the
picture!!
During the month it has been good to go garden visiting
ourselves whiich has included National Botanic Garden of
Wales, The Abbey House Gardens, Malmesbury, Wilts. An NGS tea party
for people who open their gardens in Carmarthenshire and
Pembrokeshire is an eagerly awaiited annual event at the home of
the County Organiser Jane Stokes and her husband Ivor and a good
chance to meet up with peolpe who have become friends through our
common bonds
And finally as always in September there is the annual
pilgrimage to Malverrn for The Autumn Show now in its 20th year. A
superb event with all the sights, sounds and scents of the
season.
Have an enjoyable and bountiful autumn and enjoy your
garden.