Late September in the Garden

This year has been a funny old year for the weather in the UK, we had an very dry start to the year over the last winter, which gave rise to a hose pipe ban, and then once the ban was in place it didn't stop raining! Now we are in late September and it kind of feels like we never really had summer, we sort of just had a year of spring.

The days are now drawing in and there is a noticeable nip in the air first thing in the morning. We haven't yet had a frost but know a few other gardeners have (some even mentioned frost in late August!)Anyway, at this time of the year, just before the first frosts is often when the garden looks at its best, so with a nice dry day we took quite a few photos of how the gardens looking now. With it being the end of the month I thought it was a good time for a garden update blog.

Aloe polyphylla, this plant has had a great year after being planted out

Kniphofia northiae

A selection of succulents, with a vase we spotted at a car boot sale, now rusting quite nicely.

Knickers watching over the patio near the house.

Agave parryi var. huachucensis

Philodendron 'Xanadu'

Mixed planting at the edge of our middle patio. I love the striking foliage of Canna 'Cleopatra'

Various shades and textures of foliage next to the middle patio, this bed has really filled out this year.

Large leaf Ricinus, a gift from another exotic gardener

Beschorneria septentrionalis

We have created a number of succulent bowls on the patio for this year with Echeveria 'Topsy turvy' on the right hand side.

And a close up of the flower!

New plantings by the pond have taken off with the wet cool summer

Yuccas, in the blue bed

We have some nice weather forecast for this weekend, so it looks like we may have quite a pleasant end to September. We certainly deserve it, lets hope summer next year is a much warmer experience!!
Gaz