It has rained
A lot
No seriously, there has been a lot of rain and sunny days and the first few nights of frost. Autumn is upon us.
The Knot Garden, which has been worrying me that it might have Box Moth, looks very healthy again and so my worries seem unfounded (time will tell).
The pansy hanging basket I bought a couple of weeks ago is now in place. I have become a woman of hanging baskets, who knew that this would happen to me.
In the driveway the Pin Oak is colouring up nicely for autumn. I am so fond of this tree, it is growing well after being planted for a few years now. It seems to take a year or two for a tree to really put down its roots, but then suddenly they decide they are home and they grow. This is always a delight.
The colder nights coming in mean that there are now fewer pots. The more tender have now been moved into the not big enough greenhouse or the not big enough conservatory. You might think that if I had fewer plants that both would be big enough, but that is just foolish logic.
I took these photographs after two days of almost constant rain, then the sun came out but the garden was still totally saturated.
I like this photo as it shows how the garden warms up in the morning. Sunny Pond Border is sunnier and warmer faster than the shade on the Conservatory Border. The sun reaches the Conservatory Border fairly quickly, but it holds the frost just that little bit longer. I have to bear this in mind when planting.
The Burtoneque Curl is bejewelled with windfall apples. I collect what I can and leave the rest for the birds, squirrels and foxes. I rake them up when I need to mow the lawns but only to move them to the side.
The sun was just right at this precise moment to silhouette the echinops' stalks in the Prairie Borders against the two Aldi Acers.
I step back and look along the Prairie Borders towards the Dancing Lawn. I like the curve of how the garden moves around this area.
On the eating apple tree the Clematis cirrhosa 'Freckles' is flowering well. This is one of my favourite winter flowers. It will flower for months and provides valuable food for late and early pollinators.
I always like the view down through the Wild Garden where the turn of the season into autumn colours is very pleasing.
From the same point I can turn and look along to the two Aldi Acers mentioned above. The shrubbed Amalanchier is adding to the autumnal picture at this point.
The Woodland Garden, that lacks the appropriate amount of shade to make it an actual woodland garden, currently is still home to the perennial sunflowers that are cheerfully flowering away.
I wander down the garden and there is Trev on his favourite chair. Again you can see that this area is still in shade and when it is frosty this part of the garden takes a long time to defrost.
This shady area will soon be lit by the Hamemelis.
Stachyurus chinensis 'Celina' is getting ready for the spring.
and as usual I shall be watching the Edgeworthia anxiously hoping that it will get through the winter.
It is already covered in flower heads.
The Carol Klein Acer is turning into its autumn red.
Flowers are still hanging on in the garden. This Clematis 'London' was slow to start flowering but has been very good once it got started.
and there are still nasturtiums in the vegetable borders.
I end as is traditional at the pond. The pond is almost full from all the recent rain. I now am fairly confident it will completely refill this winter which is more than it did last winter. This is a good thing. Thanks as ever to
Helen for this meme.
