There’s nothing nicer than a sunny, dry autumnal day for clearing the leaves. Dry and crisp and so light to pick up and clear off the driveway, it made it a pleasant job today. From here on in until Christmas it is a weekly task to keep on top of it all, and as sad as I am a beech tree next door got taken down, I am enjoying the extra light and lack of leaves to clear up.
With the brown bin collection having been suspended indefinitely, it is certainly making me rethink how to tackle the garden this autumn. I’m never one for cutting everything back and ‘putting the garden to bed’ so to speak, but if ever there was a time to encourage people to leave their flower beds to die back naturally and provide a habitat for wildlife, this has to be it. I think my plan for this year will be to keep weeding out the ground elder and other perennial weeds and leave the rest of the plants for seed heads and winter interest and hope the bin men are back by the time spring arrives.
In preparation for the lack of garden waste collection I have emptied one compost bin and turned the other. I have to say I am regretting letting my husband put a load of fine sand from his fish tank on the compost heap, not sure what I was thinking when I agreed to it, but I now have compost with speckles of white sand through it. Salt would be minimal at the time of being put on the heap and it certainly won’t damage the soil as it has been on the heap for a year and by the time it has been spread around the garden I’m guessing or hoping I soon won’t be able to see it as it gets pulled down under the soil. I have also managed to empty the leaf litter bin which has been breaking down for a couple of years. I haven’t quite managed to figure out how to speed up the process for the leaves but I have bagged up the leaves that hadn’t broken down enough to go on the bed in the hope they will continue to breakdown over the next year. One way to reuse those empty compost and Strulch bags. I generally add some compost activator as the compost bins are in the shade in summer so they don’t generate much heat. Time seems to run out for weekly turning.
On a visit to Longacres last week I was really pleased to see lots of Erysimum Bowles Mauve and Liriope Big Blue in stock. Another excuse to add to my liriope collection out the front but I can’t figure out the Bowles Mauve in my garden. It is teetering on not being sunny enough for it really to flourish without going woody, but against the bright green of the euphorbia in spring, nothing beats it. I need to try and cram some in and have come to the conclusion in my garden if they last two years that is good enough for me as they add a constant splash of colour for most of the year. Two years ago I took cuttings which I over wintered in a cold frame and a couple of those are still flowering now and are a great size. If I can get those to keep flowering and get some flowers from the azalea behind it, which I cut back hard a few years ago to get it to be a better shape, that would be a great purple and orange spring combination, with a wonderful scent.
At last I caved in and bought myself a new second trug! I bought my first gardening trug 19 years ago and it has done so well. Now the handles are hanging off and I’m rather sad to replace it, but I’m loving the quality of the trugs in Longacres at the moment. I have had one a few years and it is still in perfect condition. It really helps to have two trugs on the go, so that I can put perennial weeds in one, and green waste in the other. The green waste can then go on the compost heap knowing that you won’t be spreading the perennial weeds throughout the garden and the perennial weeds can be bagged up, ready to go to the tip where the heat from their compost heaps will kill off any weeds.
Still so much to do in the garden at this time of year. I’ve yet to get around to planting up the tulips bulbs in my pots, and from looking at my other purchases it looks like purple is the theme for this month, with a selection of allium ‘Purple Sensation’ and wood anemones to go in the garden. There always has to be a few narcissus ‘Tete a tete’ to go in as well, who doesn’t love a purple and yellow combination… In the meantime I’m just going to potter and enjoy the autumnal colours.
