Hard work is paying off
The autumn colours this year have been stunning and the leaves have stayed on for weeks. Over the last 10 years, we’ve consciously planted trees and shrubs with autumn colour in mind and are now seeing our hard work really pay off. The first frosts of the season , along with a cold northerly wind, are bringing the leaves tumbling down, although even when blanketing the ground, they’re a welcome and colourful addition to the garden. Where the leaves are lying thickly it’s a relatively easy job to pick them up. We’ve made a start on this and are filling up the wire leaf bin. Over the last few months we’ve removed a couple of old shrubs and an old grapevine, which left a huge pile of woody prunings which couldn’t be composted. A chilly, grey day was the perfect excuse for a timely bonfire to burn it all. Frost has blackened the top growth of the dahlias, so I’ve cut them down and left a couple of the larger plants in the ground with a thick mulch of garden compost, which I hope will protect them over winter. Smaller tubers have been lifted and are drying off on the potting bench. These will be stored in the shed in an old apple crate packed with scrunched up newspaper. There are still a few flowers to enjoy, one surprisingly being Nicotiana sylvestris. These plants didn’t grow well all summer and I nearly put them on the compost heap several times, but I did leave them and have now been rewarded with blooms! My favourite at the moment though is chrysanthemum ‘Emperor of China’, which is a lovely old variety and a real treat at this time of year.
Tales from a Country Garden 