OPINIONS

 

Cut that tree down, trim that hedge, organise more and pop goes the wild garden (or is wild garden and excuse for doing nowt much?)

And autumn approaches - hips on the roses, some small and some more luxurious. 

Some flowers are flourishing late in the year but we are still waiting for the Michaelmas daisies.

The sedum line the paving by the house, the blue clematis released to flower by the removal of the bay tree.

But someone is right as I cannot do it all any longer, brain is fading, body shot at, and someone else is fed up doing all the weeding, seeing the ravages of slug snail, mouse, pigeon and - well you get the idea.

We have lit our first wood burner of the year end as the weather cools. Plants have arrived - tulips from Sarah Raven and some ranunculi and hollyhocks from Farmer Gracey.

They need to be planted.

Down in the veg beds are moribund redcurrants  (they only feed the birds anyway), asparagus going brown and wispy, and one cannot eat the holes in the Cavolo Nero. 

The gardener sweeps around with his strimmer but wet grass does not mow easily.

Algae is back on the pond, the Tutsan is berried up ready to seed all over the place and the ash trees behind the bottom shed have the plague (and are just next door).

So on we go, and on and on and on . . . . . 

THERMOSTAT DOWN/UP AGAIN

 The garden is flourishing, perhaps too much? Our white birches stand tall at the far end of the garden as do the swathes of uncut grass.

Time for the strimmer?

There are long shoots and tangled thorny clumps of bramble in the wood and the bottom hedge will need laying, perhaps this winter. Unlike the blackberries in the lane hedges the ones in the woodland might flower but do not bear much in the way of fruit.

But we do have apples and pears. I have been up in the far lawn and cut out two twenty foot high osiers that have been flattened by past storms. I used my small hand chainsaw. The chain can come off and I have to be sure I put it back the right way around.

One gnarled old willow is sprouting vigorously and there are signs of ash dieback in some of our mature trees. To remove them would be very expensive so we watch and wait.

We may not have many butterflies though yesterday I noted a few gatekeepers and a couple of small whites. We do have plenty of buddleia flowers if they are hungry.

I do like plants that sow themselves, well some like the feverfew and mulleins and woundwort. Others seem to grow well even in the untended areas - yellow loosestrife and acanthus. The former is, of course. a wild plant. The red flower on the left is good(?) old Lucifer.

And then there is the gunnera getting bigger and bigger.

Not far away is the pond and wild plants - greater willow herb (though this seems everywhere this year), the fat pods of the yellow flag, meadowsweet and thistledown.

So much going on and so little desire to do stuff. Anyway it is raining again.

WAITING FOR

 The garden is very still, hot and humid, waiting. Mist in the morning - it seems a bit early for mellow fruitfulness.

The lower garden pre strim is lush with paths in the long grass. There are a few wild flowers like the wild carrot but it does seem to be mostly grass - so much for yellow rattle.

When the sun shines it is hot, 31C on Monday, and the doors in the extension are wide open. We have a new flush of flowers.

I am not sure I like the ratty tailed white flowers here but the valerian seems to go on for ever. The wild fuchsia by the gate I planted to remind me of hedges at Glencolumbkille is loaded with hanging flowers.

Elsewhere there are warms colours, yellows and reds in abundance. The rose is called The Poet's Wife.

But we have blues and purples - a shrubby clematis and Perovskia Blue Spire (never blue).

Just to confirm we do have weeds I found this delightful clump of nettles and bindweed yesterday.

And of course we have fruit - friends picking the glut of plums and damsons but leaving the elderberries and pears - the latter not yet ripe.

I notice that something has had a nibble at the pears.

But fruiting bodies that are not edible - well I have not tried to eat them - are also interesting - yellow flag iris and marsh thistle.

One thing I do like is the peeling bark on the white birches but this year the eucalyptus is doing a much more spectacular job. And then there are surprises like the horse chestnut sapling deep in the wood.

And so to wild life, no not the rabbits that gather by the cattle grid in the morning but the butterflies. Suddenly the garden is full of them, especially red admirals and speckled woods.

Let me finish on a small and perfect not with this little geranium -

Perfect.