I've been meaning to write this post since last weekend when I popped out into the garden and found more colour than I was expecting to see. I'd convinced myself that everything had turned autumnal almost overnight - and it almost did - but it seems my garden isn't quite ready to give up its colour. With a blast of sun shining on it too, it'd be easy to convince ourselves that maybe it was more like summer after all, but only for a moment!
The blue geranium seemed to be enjoying the sun as much as me, I'd not noticed before but it almost has a white ring at its centre as well as tie and dye like petals!
The patio pots I planted up at the start of June are only just coming into their own, as you can see I've still flowers in bud but these impatiens are doing well, even if they're a bit nibbled. I'd bought some really small lucky dip plug plants and while they were good value, they've taken a while to actually flower in our north facing garden so it's not something I think I'll be doing again next year.
The hardy fuchsia provides another pop of colour as we walk up the garden and despite giving it a serious hacking earlier in the year, it's still flowering and is giving the pyracantha berries in the background a good run for their money.
The sedums are just starting to add some autumnal pink in the garden, we've these throughout the garden in clumps which works to unify our space. I was especially pleased to see these looking so well as these are the ones planted in my gabion planters, I'm taking it that they're happy there!
In the sleeper bed I'd randomly planted some of my seedlings - and then promptly forgot about them - until now that is, this beautiful cosmos has just started to flower and it's great to see its vibrancy as I turned the corner of our garden. I quite like the idea of forgetting where I'd planted seedlings, as it does bring a nice and unexpected surprise, well as long as MOH doesn't mistake them for weeds as they're not marked that is!
I've also discovered a little friend looking for a new home. It must have been quite traumatic for him/her while I was watering the plants. I hope I haven't washed away any chance of a family they'd been busy with. He was persuaded to look for alternative accommodation gently, and encouraged to hop over the lawn back into the beds for safety, so hopefully he'll be fine. We see several toads in our garden, and hear them rustling their way through the garden after dark "on manoeuvres" and we definitely have less slugs and snails where we see the toads, so they're a good thing to have.
Not such a good thing to have right now is squirrels. They are fast becoming the bane of our garden, what with their digging and sudden penchant for my succulents. I've many leaves that have come away from the plant, and while I know I can grow new plants from them, and I'm in danger of being overrun by succulents, it'd be much better for the leaves to stay attached in the first place.
The squirrel is also popping into the greenhouse and digging, not in a helpful way though. In much the same way as he's - or they've - been digging in the grass. MOH is far from pleased about how many holes he has in his grass at the moment, and if I were the squirrel I would be giving MOH quite a wide berth.
On the plus side I should be able to fill another trug with all these new succulent plants, or start my own succulent business!!
Near the patio the hibiscus has continued to flower, it seems to still be enjoying the weather although I've got my eye on it and the forecast. I'm still in two minds what to do with it over the winter, but a more pressing concern is what to do with it when we're away in October, in case there's an unexpected cold snap.
I found some pots at the back of the garden which I'd also potted up with those tiny bedding plants that are in full flower and conveniently they were red and white so they've been brought down to the front of the garden to keep the hibiscus company, and with the added advantage of giving the illusion of colour throughout the garden when looking from the house.
The pear tree at the back of our garden is full of pears. We gave the tree quite a severe pruning in the Spring and this is how it repays us, I'm not hopeful for the fruits being edible though as we've not had much success in the past. They are rock hard and the longer we leave them on the tree, the more likely that pesky squirrel is to have sunk his teeth into them.
If you've any ideas on how I can win with these pears, I'd love to hear them.