Pumpkins attempting an escape over the wall into the grounds of the chateau ... I had high hopes of strimming down in the Hornbeam Gardens today, in order to bring them back to the order that I enjoyed for a week or so in August (see below). We've had the most gloriously dry, hot weather all through October. (Officially a record over the last 15 years; must be true, because I saw it on the news tonight!) It was not to be: throughout the day the air was heavy with moisture, and the tables and chairs on our balcony never had a whiff of sun to dry them off. Apparently on Saturday, when November 1 and All Saints Day hits us once again, our Indian summer will be officially over. Sad. I've always had a great dread of November. It seems to me the most frightening month of the year. One ray of November hope since I moved to France has been the realisation that St Catherine's feast day is the 25th and anything woody planted then will (it is promised) be bound to root well. (Pity I've never 'taken root', since that seems to be the responsibility of my patron saint!)
Still, the grass/weed regrowth has not been too bad down below, and I have managed to include two or three hours of strimming over the last week. This year grass maintenance has been a struggle in the lower garden. The petrol mower that I bought to keep everything cut back after strimming definitely didn't enjoy being out under its neat little tarpaulin all winter and we're thinking it's a write-off.
I'm wondering about replacing it with a good quality Flymo - electric, because the petrol versions are heavier and I'm worried about carrying it down the steps from the shed whenever I mow. Still, we've got through yet another season of gradually beating back the bush and it can only get better. (Can't it?) The hours I've spent researching the best way to manage rough grass and slopes would make your eyes glaze over ... they certainly have mine. Any suggestions for a favorite mower that might manage our conditions?
The Hornbeam Gardens looking really, really clean after Nick strimmed them. This is the next area of the garden where I'll be getting my spade out this winter, with plans for a cut flower garden above and a shrub/bulb wilderness below. Eirig the dead cat's Magnolia soulangeana did have to be replaced, but is thankfully growing on strongly now. 
The prospective orchard lies on the other side of the hornbeam hedge. This winter I'm planting young fruit trees to train as espaliers along the line that runs this side of the two little walnut trees in their circles. I think it will be both decorative and allow us to fit in more cultivars. 
My much vaunted willow woodland is struggling a bit. The willows themselves are doing just fine (and will be cut back for the first time in spring 2016), but it's proving difficult to keep the weed growth down. That's the price you pay when you have a largish garden and you just want to bash on and put plants in the ground! If I was younger, I'd be tempted to take it more slowly, but I'd like to enjoy and make things from my willows for a few years anyway.
I think the only (temporary) solution is probably landscaping fabric and slow weed removal before planting good ground cover species.
Any bright ideas, dear reader?
Rose 'Gertrude Jekyll'. I'm very excited about this. She nearly died on me, but last autumn she thrust a strong new shoot up and this year it's the same story. If it were left to my terrible memory, I would not really be in a position to say definitively that this is, indeed, Ms Jekyll and not a sucker impersonating her. But I've started to keep a garden journal: it's created as a different Excel document for each month of the year, with a separate sheet for each day. This means that I can refer back to the previous year's entry as I update daily. On 27 October I was fairly pleased to read that in October 2013 I'd had the same fears - but she flowered well in the summer. Now I can be sure that this incredibly thorny shoot really is my lady, and not just an imposter. Thank goodness for a journaling habit ... 
Rose 'William Shakespeare' (planted in late summer) is growing on vigorously, although he is tending to mirror 'Munstead Wood' a little, as per the comments I read about him before purchase ... 
I'm so glad I cut those Leucanthemum x superbum back so many times this summer. It's becoming cold and damp and all my plants are beginning to huddle miserably in on themselves. Shasta daisies and Linaria 'Canon Went' still look chirpy ... Posting this evening is my attempt to 'regularise' myself (see last week's post). Hopefully you'll drop by again on a Wednesday evening to see what we've been up to at Garden Dreaming.
