The sky hung heavy this morning with grey and cold looking clouds; I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had snowed although the temperatures weren’t quite low enough.
For me today has signalled the change of the seasons from Autumn to Winter. This isn’t because it is the start of December, no it is more of a feeling, a sense. The warm autumnal tones have gone from the trees even the leaves lying on the ground have lost all colour. Due to the excessive rain we have had there is a dampness and a sense of decay hanging over the garden.
But venturing out with a mission to complete the bulb planting closer inspection soon showed that there was much of interest if you took time to look. The Bidens is still flowering and I think it has a kind of faded shabby elegance about it. The Phlomis russeliana which I had been considering removing has finely earnt its place with wonderful seed heads and sumptuous leaves.
In my last post I christened one corner of the garden the ‘Confused Corner’ as I don’t know what to do with it. Today I planted 100 bulbs I had been given in it. It sounds a lot but they were soon lost in the border so the impact won’t be as in your face as I had hoped. While I was cutting back the perennials to make space for the bulbs I found myself in a ponderous mood and re-named the corner border – the Corner of Indecision. I then went quite Bunyanish and started renaming other parts of the garden in the spirit of A Pilgrims Progress. So I ended up with the Slope of Aspiration, the Patio of Promise and the Border of Despair!
I suspect the grey skies may have had an effect on my mood.
After a couple of hours of steady work all the bulbs were planted, the majority of the dead perennials were cut down and lots more of the leaves were collected and put in the leaf mould pile. Cutting back the dead Helianthus has really highlighted the Calamagrostis overdam which is planted along the top of the slope. The flower heads look particularly wonderful when the sun comes over the hills.
So winter is here and we turn our back on the garden and towards the fire-place and preparations for Christmas. But if you look really carefully the bulbs are beginning to put their heads above the surface and I feel the anticipation for Spring beginning.
