My garden in September

In my garden September has been all about fruition - finally the sunflowers flowered, and the tomatoes started to show the briefest hint of ripening, then suddenly boom! they were ripe, and quite literally burst with the influx of rain we had suddenly!

I’m surprised to find that I have no other garden photos this month - usually you’ll find pictures from around the borders, but I think that tells its own story and just how much the sunflowers took over, and while they were late bloomers they were so good when they got going, in fact it’s the middle of October now and they’re still going, just not quite how I thought they would be.

At the start of the month the height discrepancy between the two remaining sunflowers was huge, and as the month progressed it got even larger. Both did eventually make it higher than the wall, but only just in the case of the smallest one. That wasn’t any bad thing though as it meant I could quite easily check progress, and I was surprised to see a ladybird nestled in the flower head one morning.

Gradually though the yellow petals started to appear, and unfurl. It was a slow process though, and I was particularly impatient it must be said. I was also curious about the flowers growing on the side shoots and how they would turn out.

But we had a flowering sunflower, finally - and it was the smallest one that flowered first. Clearly it knew how impatient I was and decided to put its energy into providing a flower rather than height - and I’m glad it did, as I was beginning to think it might not happen at all.

Similarly the tomatoes had been keeping me guessing, but they too finally started to show the vaguest hints of turning colour. Though not all of them.

And just with everything, once it starts it starts and then the rains came and some of my poor tomatoes burst!

But during those rains the tallest sunflower also flowered, so I wasn’t too upset for long.

Finally we had two flowering sunflowers, even though the first one did well to hang on for the largest sunflower to do its thing. And not long after that the side flowers started to flower, but the winds also came - and that brought new attention to my sunflower watch, but that’s for next month’s update, where I might also have pictures from elsewhere in the garden, who knows?!

My garden in August

August was a busy month in our garden, and I know that because I have lots of photos to choose from for this post! It was one of mixed weather and the month that we took delivery of our new log store which MOH started to build in the garage, thankfully it wasn’t too heavy for us both to move into position, alongside the bins. As well as storing logs, it has a really handy side cupboard which is ideal for storing bags of compost, bark, grit and gravel, which aren’t exactly the nicest things to look at are they.

It is now finished, and I’ll include the finished picture in next month’s update - but here for chronological order and correctness it is under construction. In our old house we didn’t have a garage, so didn’t have a space like this to act as a temporary workspace - it’s been a godsend though, as it also has level flooring and I’m told that assembling this on gravel wouldn’t have been the thing to do. Thankfully there was agreement that the patio wasn’t a suitable place either!

Anyway onto things more pleasing to the eye…

We had another spell of roses flowering which was most welcome, and it was great to see the spots of pink from the patio and out of the window. The roses will idc find more permanent homes, but not just yet.

Elsewhere in the garden it’s been about sunflowers and produce - peaches, tomatoes and chillies mostly.

Towards the start of the month the sunflowers were still relatively small, they’d grown a lot, but they hadn’t reached the top of our garden wall and peering inside the flower heads weren’t formed yet. Keeping a close eye on them over the month meant tracking their height and progress, and it wasn’t too long before they were level with and then taller than the wall, which acted as a good measure for my informal tracking.

By the end of the month both of them were taller than the wall and the main flower head was starting to form. Phew, though there was still some way to go if we were to get flowers, and hopefully a bit more summer too.

Our outside border had really grown and so one morning I took my secateurs out there for a workout, the result was much lower bushes and a better view up the road from the window. The lavender has also gone over already so that’s another job to add to the list, trimming the eight or so bushes we have throughout the garden - at least it’s fragrant work, if not a little slow going.

It’s great to see the lavender in full flow though and is a great waymarker for people trying to find our house!

My £1 chilli plant continues to do well and has produced more chillies since we’ve picked the ones it came with. Not bad for a £1 and a very fruitful walk back from the pub one evening. I am concerned about what I’m going to do with it when the weather turns, but for now it’s happy on the garden table under the crab apple tree.

We’ve had quite the success with our peaches, from the nectarine stone that dad planted some years ago. I think they must have reverted to peaches as the skin’s definitely furry like peaches, not smooth like nectarines. We had three fruits but one we lost fairly early on, leaving just two to develop into peaches that look like proper peaches.

This one dropped off towards the middle of the month and looked to have some kind of rot on one side. I’m not sure what the cause of this was, but as only one side was affected we tried a couple of non-affected slices (and have lived to tell the tale) - and it was so, so sweet we had high hopes for the remaining fruit.

With the warmer weather appearing most days, or at least for some of most days, I took advantage and moved my sun loving indoor succulent onto the garden table. It wasn’t long before the edges of its leaves were tinged red, a sign that it’s happy I think, rather than sunburn.

The crab apple is doing its thing too - we don’t have as many fruits this year, so they may be heading for an autumnal wreath rather than a jam jar, but that’s to be expected I think as we pruned it last autumn and I think it would prefer a spring pruning - something to note for next spring.

The tomato plants, in pots again this year, are fruiting and I’m hopeful we’ll have a fair few cherry tomatoes for the kitchen. They seem to have been green for quite a while, so I may need September’s sun to ripen them.

But there’s always something to do isn’t there? We have three or four Ceanothus or Californian Lilacs and they take up a lot of room in the garden bin, so I’ve been spacing out pruning them. I’m done now, but having my own compost heaps in the future will help I’m sure, though I think these would need to be chopped more finely beforehand or else they’ll still be there, fully formed, the next year!

But that’s something to think about another time.

My garden in July

The roses from last month, continued to flower and I’ve spent a good morning or two deadheading this abundant rosebush in between showers - but it was so, so worth it as the rose bush has continued to flower throughout the month. The potted roses have also repeat flowered so if you’ve not been convinced before about deadheading, definitely do it!

This month the oxeye daisies have also been one of the stars - I just have a single pot of them, but look how well they’ve done. Last year I had three flowers, but this year so many more. I’m looking forward to getting them into the ground at some point so that they can really maximise their potential. My garden plans are starting to form more in my mind, but my challenge is to get those down on paper.

Our previous garden was best in the early spring, but here it’s definitely a late spring/early summer peaking garden, or rather the side border is. I’m loving the flowers on all of the hebes.

What has really stolen my heart though are the european smokebushes - we have this green leafed variety, and the darker burgundy leafed version; they are both delightful and well, just, frothy!

The buddleia is full of flowers, and full of butterflies. Despite being cut down much earlier in the spring, it’s regrown and then grown some more. I’ve discovered that the main stem has a label so it was definitely planted on purpose, and not the self-seeded plant I first thought.

The flowers on the Lady’s Mantle are a beautiful yellowy-green, and also frothy. They have tumbled over the edge onto the gravel.

The two surviving sunflowers are thriving next to the wall, where they are as I hoped enjoying the warmth from the sun and the wall. It’s been great to measure their progress as they grow brick by brick, edging ever closer to the top of the wall.

Elsewhere in the border there is more colour - the orange berries on the rowan tree, and the pink fuchsia flowers whose stems are also a beautiful pinky-red.

Ah yes, the burgundy european smokebush - isn’t it a beauty?

The sunflowers aren’t the only plant that is hugging the brick wall on the boundary - the foxglove flowers are hanging on, and I’m sure there’ll be more to enjoy next year.

Edging towards the top of the wall…

The outside border has grown and got a bit wild, so I’ve spent some time out there pruning and squishing as much as I can each fortnight into our garden bin, priding myself at my ingenuity at packing quite so much in. Instead of a usual robin companion, I’ve been enjoying the company of the butterflies which are regulars at the buddelia.

I found an unwanted and leafy tall shrub, which after some googling I classed as a weed. I cut its leafy branches off, then as it looked to have enough space around it I decided to get the root out.

Mission accomplished. But quite a mission it was.

What better to end this post on though, with the raindrops on the leaves of the lady’s mantle.