Hold onto your Hats

Autumn is screaming through this garden at an alarming pace; leaves are falling, flowering plants fading and shutting down, even the fish are slowing dramatically in the cool morning, the Koi particularly (all two of them) are losing interest in food. Last year they were still feeding into October.

Swings and Roundabouts

There have been some failures in the garden this year, but successes too – sounds like politics doesn’t it. The sweet peas have flowered wonderfully unlike last year when they produced only foliage. The Delphiniums, New Zealand doubles, (which I chose to grow in large pots this year due to the disruption of moving the pond) have bloomed well, but developed some mildew on the leaves, due, I imagine, to poor air circulation since I grew them close on a sunny house wall. The herbs (tarragon, parsley, chives, garlic chives, thyme, sage, coriander, chillies) have been a huge success. I grow them in large pots on a low wall by my kitchen where the airflow is good to draughty and the sun is south/west. Coriander is particularly easy to grow but tends to run to seed quickly, however by seeding it regularly e.g. as one lot germinates just sow another and another and so on, to keep it coming, a good supply can be maintained.

Some exquisite successes

Gillenia Trifoliata which I first saw growing at the Botanical Garden of Wales, and managed to locate in a nursery near Frome flowered for the first time this year – presumably because I finally found a place in the garden where it was happy – having failed for the last two years – I think it prefers the ground to a pot.

Acidanthera (aka Gladiolus Callianthus) is another all time favourite of mine, but I’ve managed to lose it through forgetting to lift in the autumn. This year I’ve grown it in pots and it’s been reasonably happy. Next year I hope to grow it in water pots and sink them into the ground – by hoisting a flag above each one I may even remember to lift them for storage. These have a strong scent which reminds me of bathroom freshener; unfortunate I suppose – still – admire the beauty of the flowers, try to ignore the pong!

My all time favourite “Angels Fishing Rod” (Dierama Igneum) flowered this year for the first time. I saw this at Great Dixter some years ago growing by the pond and it looked wonderful with its arching wiry stems nodding at the waters edge. Mine grows in the impoverished soil of an ornamental wall in dappled sun and seems happy, so I’ll leave it there. It has the ability to self-seed apparently, I hope it does – there’s nothing I like more than the odd ‘freebie’.

A word on the Wildlife

It’s been a good year for butterflies; I photographed a comma butterfly yesterday, a rare visitor to this garden – it stayed all afternoon to feast on the second flush of buddleia.

We are lucky enough to be included in the foraging area of a young hedgehog, which has visited through the summer and now the autumn. It arrives at roughly the same time each evening to feed on any blackbird mix and sultanas left by the birds and we have been supplementing this with a few extra morsels to help build weight for the winter hibernation. It dislikes noise and sudden movement, even a camera shutter will drive it off, but careful observation and above all, quiet, has been rewarded – oh for a quiet garden!