Rain, rain, go away, come back another day… it just seems endless at the moment, doesn’t it? It has been a mast year for acorns this year, they started falling in August and still they keep falling. I reckon I’ve filled 3 brown bins worth of them and still there is more. Now to follow that we have the leaves with all of their beautiful autumnal colour. Our driveway glows orange with the beech leaves. It is certainly keeping me busy in the garden.
With the announcement of a month’s national lockdown, yet again our gardens will be our saviour. We won’t have the glorious weather of spring to help us this time, but never has there been a more important time to force ourselves out into the garden. I’ll be honest and say I spend a lot of time looking out the window thinking I need to get out there, when I should just get the layers on and get out. Even a 5 minute wander will be good for your soul and you’ll be amazed at what is emerging. I can already see our magnolia tree, which has few leaves left, is full of leaf buds, ready to burst into life next spring, grape hyacinths are growing daily, it’s all happening out there, have a look and see what you notice that you’ve never noticed before.
With some extra time on our hands, we can start thinking about presents for Christmas maybe? If you are new to gardening this year, the list of gift ideas is endless and such fun to shop for. Here are my must have’s to get you started. A hand trowel and hand fork are a must and I love these neon ones from Burgon & Ball, it makes them so much easier to find in the flowerbed. I’d also recommend the Burgon & Ball Kneelo kneeler, I couldn’t be without mine, it helps my back relax whilst weeding and is waterproof so the damp doesn’t soak through to your knees. My Felco number 2 secateurs are 15 years old and still going strong and I wouldn’t use any other make, they are worth the investment and then there is my leaf rake and compost scoop. Both of which get a lot of use.
The next set of tools to have are the spade and fork, leaf rake, leaf scoop, edging shears, loppers and hand shears. This selection will cover all basic gardening jobs in the garden.
Whilst trying to keep on top of leaf and acorn clearing, there is still time to move shrubs and plant out hardy perennials that can establish before winter. A few weeks back I moved a philadelphus ‘Belle Etoile’ that was a couple of metres away from where it should have been, in its new place it gives the flowerbed some symmetry with the other ‘Belle Etoile’ down the other end of the bed, and I’m hoping the roots can establish over winter and it will bounce back well next year. I’ve recently purchased some healthy looking digitalis Dalmatian Purple, Pink and Alba to go in the main flowerbed to give height to the centre of the bed, with my open garden in June in mind I’m hoping that these will be in flower for this event, you can never have too many foxgloves in my eyes.
The chrysanthemums have now gone over and so it is time to pull them out, and plant some fresh bedding plants. After the success of the primroses last year I decided to get some more. They flowered for months on end so I am hoping to have the same success with these beautiful Primrose sweetheart. Having been grown just outside Guildford at Perfect Choice, it is great to support a local grower and we’re lucky to have such great quality plants grown and sold so locally at Longacres.
A few years back I transplanted one of the chrysanthemums balls into the border, tucked away under the stipa tenuissima, it is no longer ball shape but I love how it flowers each year, just quietly doing its thing in the bed and is a burst of colour when everything else has gone over. Maybe I should do the same with my chrysanthemum’s this year rather than composting them.
The salvia Hadspen and Amistad are still flowering away well and adding a burst of late colour to the border. The salvia Amante haven’t flowered well this year so I might look at moving them to a sunnier position in the garden in the hope I can get them to flower a bit earlier. Gardening is a constant learning curve, and don’t be afraid to move plants if they aren’t happy where they are. It really is trial and error and we are all learning every day. I’m pleased to see that after a long wait my aquilegia seeds have germinated. I had no faith that they would. Collected from my garden I will protect these over winter and plant them out next spring.
With work easing off over the next few weeks it looks like I will have a chance to get all my bulbs planted, and I seem to have collected quite a few over the last few months, here’s my latest haul, I’m rather behind with them all. I can now get the tulips planted as the risk of tulip fire has passed so it looks like I might have a few busy weeks in the garden ahead, I can’t wait to get started.
