The local hedgerows too are full of fruits. Sloes glint dusky blue along with red Hawthorn berries and shiny black Elderberries. Only today, I watched a flock of chattering Starlings feasting on ripe blackberries, which have been so sweet and juicy this year.
Birds flocking together are a sign of the colder months to come but there is still much to enjoy in the garden. My sweet Peas which had a sketchy start with the scorching summer sun have a second wind and the flowers are bigger and stems longer than they have been for the season. The bunch that I picked today is scenting the kitchen and there are still plenty to come.
The Pyracantha on the front of the house is also covered in berries – deep orange and in huge clusters to be enjoyed by us before they are spied by the Blackbird who always seems to be there when we come out of the house, flying off with an annoyed call when we interrupt his dinner!
Teasels give an architectural air to the front garden, standing tall and holding plenty of seed for Goldfinches. I cut them once they are totally dried and shake them to remove any leftover seeds. Although they germinate readily in the spring, they are easily identified by their spiky leaved, ground hugging rosettes that can be pulled out if they threaten to overwhelm their neighbours!
The grasses in the front garden are at their peak now - all floaty flowers in dark brown on stems that flex in the breeze - and the purple New Zealand Flax is coming into its own ready to be enjoyed through the winter months when the plants around it die back to the ground.
The evergreens in the back garden are also coming to the fore as perennials are cut back and tidied for the autumn. The variegated Holly has put on huge amounts of growth this summer with the help of the seep hose irrigation, but stubbornly produces only one berry – I have no idea why! The Fatsia japonica is covered in tropical looking leaves and is rapidly outgrowing its space but as yet there are no signs of the knobbly green flower buds that open in November. This plant is due for a major prune next spring but until then, we will enjoy it in the winter when the leaves clatter together during windy weather.
Still to come is the spectacle of autumn color and we have plenty of shrubs that will change dramatically over the next few weeks. The golden leaved Viburnum opulus ‘Aureum’ will assume red and purple tints before the leaves fall and the plant is moved to a new position in the garden to make way for the raised vegetable beds – only one of many winter projects!