End of Month Review - September 2016

September has come to a close quite mildly, a bit rainily and fairly sunnily.  In some ways it is clearly autumn, the nights are longer and there is a bit of a chill in the mornings.  Yet in other ways autumn feels a little late.  There is some leaf-fall but it has hardly kicked in properly just yet.  It feels like autumn is holding its breath......
The Knot Garden at the front of the house looks ok.  I'm back to worrying about it a bit again.  I feel like the need for a change but I don't know what it is that I want to do.  I do want to kill off that patch of crocosmia in the foreground right corner, but it resists all attempts to remove it at the moment.
At the side of the house the sharpies are still looking ok.  They have grown quite a bit this year and as soon as it gets a bit more chilly I shall bring them in for the winter.
The pots at the entrance to the back garden are also still looking good.  The echiums at the front make me very happy.  I shall coddle them all winter to keep them alive.
The Long Shoot is looking quite colourful.
I love this view of the Pond Border.  The large perennial sunflower is a total thug.  I grew it from seed and originally I had three clumps in this border but they began to totally take over.  I removed two and I dig up lots of this remaining clump every spring.  It is a great plant, it stands up without staking, it flowers late in the season and flowers for weeks.  Once it is dead the stalks will remain upright until I remove them in the spring.  Best of all, this time of year it is the first plant to catch the morning sun.  I look out of the window and the yellow is shining like a beacon.  It is just a fab plant.
The Conservatory Border has been a bit scrappy this year, but it looks ok.
The Prairie Borders are at their blondest.
The Exotic Borders has bananas in it, so it must be exotic.  The tithonia and sunflowers are still flowering well.
They have had a row though, they are clearing turning their backs on each other.
The Woodland Border is good in parts.  It does suffer from a lack of shade, which is a fairly vital part of a woodland border.  Ho hum.
and the fernery, which to the trained eye might look like a few ferns surrounded by weeds, is, well, a bit weedy but actually making me happy nonetheless.
This is one of the beech pillars.  After nine years of growing they are starting to take a bit of shape.  They were 18 inch twigs when they were planted, I have had to be patient. I do now clip them to keep them at a height and a diameter.  I am hopeful that this will help them thicken out a bit.
The Wild Garden has had its first cut of the year.  It only gets mowed two or three times a year.  I need to rake it quite hard and then I shall sow some more yellow rattle into it.  I think it really did help the grass not be so tall this year so I need to persevere.
The Carol Klein Acer has got badly wind-burned.  It has never got this burned before and I am not sure if we have had wind from an unusual direction (not a euphemism) or if we have just had more wind than usual for this time of year (also not a ephemism).  Either way she looks a bit poorly.
The edgeworthia on the other hand, is looking good.  It is maturing really well and becoming quite a large shrub.  There are quite a lot of flower buds forming so I am hoping for a good display in the spring.
and whilst autumn might be holding its breath before the great leaf-fall, the Magnolia Leonard Messel is already forming its flowers for the next spring.  Its enough to make me hold a lion cub up in the air and start singing about the circle of life.....
The pleached hornbeams have done well this year.  I have trimmed them fairly often this year and I think this has helped them get more bushy.
The Courtyard is still quite colourful too.  The fuchsia Thalia is giving a flash of red and the hydgrangea Miss Saori, which is still rather small, has flowered very well after a slow start.
I finish on the pond as is traditional, which now has a dolphin on the side.  The dolphin is not in its final position yet, but it is ok there whilst I consider this.
Thanks as ever to Helen for hosting this meme.