SUCKERS AND STUFF

 

There are times when one's inability to do anything is a surprise - Came back from Scotland with an old fashioned cold and am still shattered - NO it is not Covid.

First walk up the garden and I notice the rabbit has reopened the burrow on the upper banking. So I have stuck a big stone in the opening and we wait.

The one of three large rhododendrons we bought at Stonefield Castle and looked dead - all its leaves shed - has come back to life - fingers crossed.

There is also considerable bark damage on two or three of our white birches. I could blame the deer but actually think this is grey squirrels getting at the phloem. If the bark loss encircles the trunk we will have a dead tree. 

Anyway it is a way for infection and fungi to get in. 

Not good

I wandered down past the osiers that are the remains of the willow tunnel we once had and they have sprouted +++. Do I want to make baskets? Should I just prune all the new shoots. They could be tied in bundles for the woodburner?

Elsewhere we are suffering from suckers! The grey poplar in the lawn, the damson and greengage all over the place, even in the middle of the veg beds and rhubarb.

Up under the shade of the Guelder Rose I noticed a familiar leaf. The yellow tree peony had sown itself. I may need to dig that one up and pop elsewhere.

Sometimes when one delves into a shrub there is a surprise. Never noticed these before as they were well hidden.

This is the growing end of a fatsia branch - fascinating.

We do still have colour here and there - apart from the dahlias - 

Buddleia and day lily.

Hilary's Rose and cyclamen.

I was discussing the bountiful crop of acorns everywhere last night and we got onto elderberries too. Some things have done well - was swapping pears for apple juice.

The leaves are starting to fall - I am waiting for the cercidiphyllums to smell of caramel (or chocolate)(or toffee). They are also called katsura.

And we have other leaf colour like the Choisya ternata sundance or Mexican Orange, the Hypericums and even the water lilies.

The Sedum or stonecrop has come out to feed the bees now autumn.

And the Cosmos Purity goes on and on - no frost yet.