Sliding into autumn

The signs have been coming, haven’t they?

It’s been clear that a change of seasons has been about to take place, not least because of the autumn equinox on 23 September. There’s been subtler ways that our days have changed though over the past few weeks, and I’m sure yours have too.

We’re no longer wearing shorts and we’re sad about that! Now we’re most likely to reach for our jeans and long sleeved tops. My sandals are still there tempting me to put them on - and occasionally I do - but mostly now I’m choosing proper shoes or trainers. I’ve not yet broken into a coat yet - there’s a few months before that’s likely to happen, but a fleece and/or a waterproof is now a consideration when leaving home, though thankfully not always required.

There’s still some sun at times during the day and it’s been great to make the most of that, I’ve been able to time when I leave the house to coincide with the best of the weather, and I’m grateful for that. Just yesterday I spent an hour or so with my head in a podcast walking around a new-to-me local garden, taking pictures as I went.

CONEFLOWERS TUMBLING OVER THE BORDER AT HALL PLACE BEXLEY THIS WEEK

The food we’re eating has changed too - less salads and more heartier food, which is great - even lunches now have something hot, and I know that soup will once become a regular on our table. For me, autumn food is always welcome I think it’s of the best seasons food-wise! The slow cooker is making more of an appearance on my kitchen worktop and I’m regularly cooking recipes from Sarah’s Slow Cooker Series - they’re seriously tasty, and definitely worth a look if you need some inspiration.

The temperature is lower as you’d expect, and we’ve had one much chillier day this week. That’s meant we’re finally using more than a sheet and a patchwork quilt on our bed. The heating isn’t on yet, but we have progressed to the summer weight duvet - we have the duvets that click together, so there’s a few layers to go before we’ve reached maximum levels yet. Even so, the past few winters we haven’t even made it to the winter duvet stage, let alone both clicked together - but we know it’s an option if we need it.

A MAGNIFICENT DISPLAY OF PUMPKINS, SQUASH AND GOURDS AT NT STOURHEAD IN OCTOBER 2021

In the garden the leaves on the sycamores are still green and don’t look as if they’ll be coming down just yet, but there are other changes; the plants that suffered most in the summer drought are recovering, and our grass is finally green again. It’s patchy, but it’s green and patchy - which is good news. The squirrels are collecting food for their winter stores, and annoying MOH by digging holes around the garden - though I’m pretty sure they never come back for whatever they’re digging!

This weekend we need to move some pots and put away the sun loungers for the winter. I’m debating (with myself) whether it’s time to cover up the garden table and chairs just yet, or if we’ll be lucky to get a little bit more use out of them, even if it’s a snatched hour or two here and there.

I don’t know about you, but I’m here for it - autumn is probably my most favourite season, what about you?

An autumnal feel with pops of summer colour

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.

Dahlias, roses and fuchsias in Dad's autumn garden

At the end of last month we headed up to Norfolk and one of the things that struck me was how colourful Dad's garden was still. The dahlias, roses and fuchsias were putting on quite a show. They were the attention grabbers, but looking around more closely at the garden, there was more to it than these.

These fuchsias always remind me of dancers, not quite a ballerina but more a glitterless Strictly kind of ballgown, and it's easy to see why I needed to hold it up to get this shot. The leaves are starting to tarnish, but that just makes it more appealing. Like a dancer that's had a good time, or one that had done the rowing boat song. Yes, that's never a good idea is it?

In the greenhouse the Aloes were huge. Just look at them. I am the mum of these, all of them. Well apart from the babies at the front, Dad can be the mum of them as they arrived on his watch. But they're huge, clearly the Norfolk weather and the greenhouse work for them, I hope they've managed to survive the colder weather since then ok. 

Also in the greenhouse the purple oxalis was creeping out from under the staging. I regularly take cuttings for my greenhouse and it never does as well as this. I've a sneaky suspicion I'll be taking another cutting quite soon. And helping myself to some of the many burgundy heuchera's that have been potted on to see how they do.

The leeks were also thickening and no doubt there'll be a good crop. The beetroot Dad pulled up for me, I politely declined. The side you can see looks perfect, but underneath someone - or rather something - had got there first and it went straight onto the compost heap.

The mushrooms in the grass appeared overnight, and who knows what they might be. Knowing your mushrooms is a great skill to have, but not really something to take a chance on either. I think I'll stick to admiring the flowers. The nerines were still out and looking more swirly and curly than I remember.

And oops, this fuchsia came off in my hand. Thankfully there were plenty more, so I think I got away with it...

And just when you think the colour is done, you pop to the car and are reminded there's many more roses and dahlias in the front garden too.

We're in Norfolk soon for a couple of days and it'll be interesting to see how much difference a month makes. I'm hoping that some of the colour remains, but who knows. It's been feeling more wintery here and I know if I were a plant I'd be considering shutting down too. Heck, some days I feel like that as a human too!

Have a beautifully colourful day.