Late September and the beginning of October signifies the start of the autumnal, foliage colour changes that I adore. The weather is chilly and damp with a few sporadic sunny spells. This is when some of the greens of summer change into gorgeous russets, bright reds and oranges, deep purples and buttery yellows. Last month the enkianthus foliage went from green to bronzy purple, but this month they have gone bright red just before they fall.
Enkianthus bright red foliage
The golden foliage of the Acer shirasawanum aureum take on red tinges especially if the leave are in the sunshine. In autumn the develop red stems and veins before they go brown and fall.
Acer shirasawanum aureum in the sunshine.Acer shirasawanum aureum red veins, stems and tips.
Another tree/shrub that gets red stems is the viburnum and the darkish green leaves take on a purply colour. It sporadically flowers all year round.
Red stems and leaf colour of Viburnum X Bodnantense Dawn
The fuchsia is still flowering away and there are still a few flowers appearing on the honey suckle nearby. Once the flowers go on the honeysuckle they develop bright red berries much loved by the birds. The leaves on the honeysuckle in the raised bed are still green whereas the leaves on the honeysuckle on the patio have taken on purple tones. It looks good next to the purple flowered hellebore (the only one flowering at the moment) and the bright yellowy green of the Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’ grass.
The dainty red and purple flowers of the fuchsia growing across the pathway.White honeysuckle flowers.Bright red honeysuckle berries next to red unopen flowers of the fuchsia.Honey suckle with purple leaves next to a hellebore with purple flowers.
Soon the purple leaves on this acer will change to a bright red red colour but for now it goes well with the purple of the sempervivum ‘chocolate kiss’
Sempervivum ‘chocolate kiss’ in front of Acer palmatum dissectum ‘garnet’
On the patio, in a half barrel, is a small cherry tree, Prunus Shirota Mount Fuji that has lovely green leaves during summer until they take on a peachy yellow colouration before turning bright orange just before drop.
Prunus Shirota Mount Fuji autumn colouration beginning.Prunus Shirota Mount Fuji foliage colours of orange, peach, yellow and green..The cherry tree foliage colours darken just before they fall.
The witch hazel (Hamamelis inter Diane) leaves also go from green through bright yellows and oranges and the bright reds.
Hamamelis inter Diane bright orangey red autumn foliage.
The persicarias are still flowering away, as are the astrantias, gaura and a few roses, even this little foxglove. It may look a bit odd but it is kind of resting on it’s shoulder.
Foxglove flowering in October.
As much as I am loving these autumnal colours I am already looking forward to the spring colours so I have been planting a few more bulbs. There will be some in the garden, some on the patio and a few in the conservatory. The recently revived indoor cyclamen have lovely fresh foliage and I expect to see flowers fairly soon.
Well it hasn’t been very warm this August and we have had quite a bit of rain. There is even more slug damage – the echinacea have all suffered. I just have little spikes instead of leaves, and any leaves that did manage to grow got snail damage! I caught the culprits in action so no question of who did what. I did think that the hairy leaves might just put the critters off eating them – oh how wrong I was. I tried them in the garden, then in pots on the patio, then in pots on the patio table.
There is still plenty of colour about, still in flower are: roses, Japanese anemones, verbena, selinum wallichinum, nepeta, erigeron, fuchsia, persicaria, gaura, astrantia, cyclamen, agastache, viburnum, water lilies, and even some foxgloves are still flowering. Going over now are the purple loosestrife, oregano and lavender. There are little carpets of purple flowers of cyclamen in various places in the garden.
Large white flowerheads of selinum wallichinum.Tall white persicaria.Tall red persicaria.Tall pink persicaria flowers.Pretty astrantia flowersDainty white, butterfly-like flowers of the Gaura.Cyclamen flowers.From the patio, end of August 2024
As autumn approaches (rather quickly) there is colour in the berries of the rowan, holly, enkianthus and honeysuckle. The foliage of the enkianthus is turning a lovely purply/bronze colour that looks great with the heuchera solar eclipse.
Bronze coloured foliage of enkianthus and it’s green berries.Heuchera solar eclipse bronze and lime green foliage.Fern with purple ribs and purple tinged frond ends.
The fern here has purple ribs and purple tinges on the frond ends that go well with the deep purple foliage of the heuchera next to it. There are still young bronze coloured fronds popping up in some ferns in the stumpery.
Bronze coloured fronds of the rosy buckler fern.
It is almost time to plant the narcissi and crocus so I did a quick check on the stored ones and found that some of the narcissi had some mold on them so they had to be chucked. The little oxalis palmifrons bulbs had very long shoots already and were becoming a bit soft so I chucked most of them out and planted the few best looking ones (ever hopeful). The cactus in the conservatory had another gorgeous flower on it just for one day – the fragrance was fabulous! Also in the conservatory I started to water the indoor cyclamen after their summer rest and the leaves are coming through now. There is moss growing at the base of the tree fern in the conservatory and as I was spraying the fern I thought the droplets looked good on the moss sporophytes.
Sprayed water droplets on the sporophytes.
I have made a few decisions about the ground cover plants in the stumpery: the sweet woodruff is rather rampant and is covering up other plants so that will be coming out (perhaps I can leave some behind a large log and just keep it in check), the violets are getting every where so some of them will just get ripped out, the same goes for the bugle. The lovely little creeping fern. Blechnum penna-marina, is becoming a bit of a thug and it’s rhizomes are intermingling with other plant roots so I will keep some in a large pot. It has got all tangled up in amongst the saxifrage and it has taken a while to untangle it all.
Blechnum penna-marina coming up through the saxifrage.
The dogwood that has been struggling in the damp corner beside the ramp has been moved to the stumpery where it should have more space. The large fern just kept flattening it where it was. The jobs for the weekend are putting some Blanket Answer in the pond as for the fist time ever we have blanket weed. Horrid stuff! Plus the usual cutting back, dead-heading and keeping up with the weeding. I suppose I ought to do some work in the front garden too.
We have had a mixed bag of weather over July – some rain, some sun and some overcast days but over all not too bad. I have found more plants decimated by Spanish slugs; two artemesias in separate troughs with not a bit of greenery left, one nepeta and they are still having a go at a mint plant in a pot (they are not supposed to like these plants according to the internet). I have put a clear plastic cloche over one artemesia to see if I can keep it alive at least. Slugs have never gone for these in the past! And talking about slugs (as I often do) I have been watching them by the pond and found them wandering around the water lily pads. One Spanish slug stretched itself from a pad over the moss covered stone half submerging itself in the process. A leopard slug spent the afternoon just lying around in a little puddle on a pad like it was at a spa. On the patio I have found the Spanish slugs like to drink from the birdbath. I haven’t found any other slug do that.
Slug going from lily pad to moss covered stoneLeopard slug on water lily padSpanish slug having a drink from bird’s water dish.
We were so pleased when we got a large jar and did a spot of pond dipping and found a tiny eft (baby newt). Great news so we know that we at least have a male and female about and that eggs were produced and hatched.
Eft (baby newt)
On the wall of the raised bed I found a very pretty pinkish-brown snail. Probably a Cepaea nemoralis and they are plymorphic so you can see different colours of these.
Pinkish-brown grove snail Cepaea nemoralis)
In the conservatory I came across a pretty little daisy miner fly, and a frog-hopper on the basil. The fly had gorgeous green eyes. My photos don’t do any of the creatures justice.
Daisy miner fly (Tripeta Zoe).Common frog-hopper
I have noticed this summer that there are not as many butterflies around. I have spotted a few holy blues, meadow browns and orange tips but not many others. Lots of small bumble bees around but fewer big bumble bees. There are also fewer wasps and flies around. Some of the plants are taking ages to get going and some are just not reaching their full potential. Even the stephanotis in the conservatory hasn’t flowered yet – not even a bud so far. The purple loose-strife by the pond edge is not looking quite as dense as it used to and the rogersia hasn’t flowered this year. However there is still plenty floral colour about. In flower now: hardy geraniums – especially Rozanne, some roses, Japanese anemones just coming into flower now, heuchera, various persicarias, geums, golden spirea, fuchsia, some meadowsweet, oregano, erigeron, cyclamen, honey-suckle, purple loose-strife, pickerelweed, water lilies, astrantia, achilea, potentilla, lavender, woolly rock jasmine and gaura.
Hardy geranium RozzaneView from the patio
In the conservatory the only things in flower right now are the basil and a couple of sempervivums. The sempervivums usually have clusters of flowers but this one has had them in a V shape.
After a couple of lovely sunny days the garden is becoming lush. The weeds have shot up along with everything else. The wet weather has been good for some plants like the candelabra primulas, the roses and the rhododendron. I tried moving three of the primulas over from the pond overflow area to the damp corner by the ramp. Only one survived, two were completely destroyed by slugs. A bit like the Achillea millefolium ‘Lilac Beauty’ I have been trying to establish near the pond last year. The slugs got one so I potted up the surviving two and put one pot in a different area of the garden and the other pot on the patio table. The one in the garden only just survived overnight whilst the one on the table is still great. The patio table is becoming a nursery for sick plants. I have now put the damaged one on the patio to see how it does there.
Achillea millefolium ‘Lilac Beauty’ before the slugsAchillea millefolium ‘Lilac Beauty’ overnight slug damage
Some primula get ravaged by slugs but some are spared and I don’t know why. The white primula snowflake don’t get much damage at all and they spread freely but my primula apple blossom gets some damage but doesn’t spread freely. The primula denticulata, veris and vulgaris just get the odd nibble, vialii have disappeared.
Primula Apple blossom
Another area which has loved the rain is the raised garden. We pruned the viburnum and syringia last year (and a bit the previous year) so sacrificed some flowers this year but they are looking better. I might take out the Zepharin drouhin rose entirely as it is always a bit hit and miss there. The beautiful acer is now swamping the blue hardy geranium so I may have to find a new spot in the garden for the geranium.
Shady side of the raised bedRhododendron Gomer Waterer loving the rain
Along the back wall the pink hardy geranium is looking good next to the dark leaves and pink flowers of the Sambucus nigra f. porphyrophylla ‘Eva’ . The Generous gardener rose growing over the arch has been teasing us for a few weeks with all the lovely buds but yet to open.
Generous gardener buds yet to openPink geranium beside the dark elder
In the pond the number of tadpoles appears to be depleted. I thought maybe the newts had eaten them all but some folk have said that they may just have found better hiding places since there are more predators about. I still haven’t found a good flat headed flowering plant to go beside the pond – they all just get eaten by the Spanish slugs. The little iris versicolour Gerald Derby that hasn’t flowered for a couple of years has just started to flower again – yeah! I had been thinking of pulling it out. It isn’t all that showy but it is pretty and dainty.
blue iris versicolour Gerald Derby
In the conservatory my lithops are splitting. Sometime lithops split into two and sometimes into four. Mine are splitting into four new leaves.
Lithops splitting.Lithop splitting – 4 new leaves
I took the very scary decision to chop my aeonium. I didn’t want it to get too tall as the head is very large and also they look better when viewed from above. I really hope it survives the chop and I potted up bits of the stalk too so you never know, I may get a few if I am lucky.
Aeonium Voodoo chopped
The furry Kalanchoe tomentosa ‘Dorothy Brown’ flowered this year but I kept waiting for the flowers to open up more before I took a photograph not realising that they didn’t open any wider so now I will have to wait till next year to get a photo of the furry flowers.
As I said in a previous post my Nepeta Junior walker drowned in the very wet autumn/winter/spring that we had so I ordered three new ones form Crocus. They have never let me down before but this time they did. They sent one lovely looking plant, one not so good, and one diabolical plant. Who thought it was ok to package these and send them out? I complained and was offered either a refund or a replacement. I asked for a replacement (big mistake). The replacement plant didn’t have a single leaf. To be fair – the rest of my order was ok (although they could have been in better condition). I am now going to try and buy plants in person whenever possible. I do still have a few good nurseries mail order to buy from.
Nepeta: the good, the bad, and the crapNepeta replacement plant!
Let’s end on a good note: the bees and other pollinators are loving the rhododendron. the deutzia, saxifrages, chives, honey lilies and all of the hardy geraniums and primulas. Soon the Generous gardener will erupt in beautiful flowers. The other roses have started to bloom and smell gorgeous (although we didn’t get round to pruning this late winter so they look a bit more straggly than usual. The sun has just come out.
Finally we have had a few nice days – still cold but not quite so wet. The news was saying that we have the wettest 18 months till March this year since records began (maybe they just meant England but we have been very wet up here too). I am still eagerly waiting for some signs of new growth from a few newly planted plants (last year) but so far it looks like they have died. I had also taken quite a few Nepeta Junior Walker cuttings to sell at the Duddingston Kirk Garden Club sale but sadly they didn’t make it. Some nepata in the stumpery also didn’t make it. I found vine weevil grubs in one of the large pots on the patio that contained some heuchera, but at least I managed to take cuttings of the heuchera and saved them, I then fed the grubs to the birds. I found one adult vine weevil in the conservatory but so far I haven’t found grubs in any of the plants in there, that may be because I put a top layer of gravel on the succulents so it couldn’t lay it’s eggs in the soil. So, I have ordered vine weevil nematodes to treat the patio, conservatory and back garden. I hate the blighters – apparently every adult is female and they can lay hundreds of eggs from April to September. Just as well they can’t fly. Trouble is, that to use the nematodes you need a soil temperature of above 5ºC and wet soil. In Scotland we have to wait a while longer than England before the soil temperature is high enough for the nematodes to survive. The temperature is ok now so I had better get on with it.
Vine weevil grubs
Most of the narcissi have gone over now except for the narcissi Pipit Most of the tulips are over, as is the cherry tree, mahonia, spirea Bridal wreath, rosemary and the epimediums. Now taking over are the saxifrage mossy white and saxifrage andresii carpet purple along with the purple honesty, white wood anemones, bluey purple pulmonaria and yellow erythroniums in the stumpery. The bright orange berberis is looking good just now and the ferns are all just beginning to unfurl their fronds.
Colour in the stumperySaxifrage mossy whiteSaxifage andresii Carpet purple
There are loads of little splashes of purple all around the back garden from the Viola labradorica. Not only does it have delightful little purple flowers but the leaves take on a purple tinge too. They will self seed everywhere but I love them. People do say that to make your garden feel more cohesive it is good to do repeat planting, either the same plant in various places around the garden or a similar colour repeated throughout. I have done this with a few plants such as the viola, bugle, perrywinkle, hellebores, geraniums and aquilegias. I was hoping to do the same thing with nepeta and erigeron but a few of the erigeron just died leaving empty spaces in some areas. One of my spirea japonica white gold died too but the one right beside it is fine – I have no idea what happened there.
Viola labradorica
I am glad to hear that the weather will be getting a little warmer soon so I will be able to get in the garden a bit more, although the colder weather has maybe kept the number of slugs down as I haven’t seen that many – yet.
If a plant is struggling to cope with the conditions in its allotted area it is better move it to somewhere it will thrive rather than just survive. So I have moved a clematis over the to the far side of the garage wall where the roots will be in more shade but the plant itself will be in the sun for a good part of the day. In its place is a more vigorous clematis which should cope with the conditions better but I will put something over the root area to protect the roots from getting too hot. The periwinkle which was way too overgrown was removed as I have loads of periwinkle around the garden. The blue centauria has now gone as I was sick of it being covered in mildew. It is a shame as the bees loved it, but, I will find something else for them to enjoy, although in the mean time I have put a colourful fern in its place. The fern was originally over by the wall and although it did like it there it was hidden from view by the foxgloves. I have dotted some erigeron seedlings (left over from the plant sale) in various places that looked a bit bare. Now then, the dark leaved hardy geranium is a conundrum – I have two planted about a foot apart and only one is mildewy and the other is just fine. I think I will dig up the sick one and give it some TLC on the patio. Both the red astrantia and the pink one are looking great just now as I dug them up from the garden and put them in pots on the patio where they are less likely to get damaged but the huge slugs.
Red astrantia Gill Richardson groupRed astrantia flower
There is still a lot of colour in the garden – the Japanese anemones are out in their full glory, as are the persicaria, purple cyclamen, fuchsia, and the phlox. Still going are the heuchera, erigeron, gaura, oregano, sellinum and there are sporadic flowers still on the roses, hebe, viburnum, and low growing campanula. The grass flowers of the miscanthus ‘Red chief’ are just coming out and they look great next to the deep purple of the acer palmatum dissectum. In the pond the purple loosestrife is just going over and there are still some pink water-lily flowers, blue pickerel weed and some yellow monkey flowers. The deep pink berries of the rowan are looking splendid and the deep purple – almost black berries of the elder will soon be picked off by the birds and squirrels. The dark purple foliage of the cotinus, heuchera, elder and acer really stand out amongst the greens and golds of the other plants and for bright highlights there are the silvery leaves of the snow in summer and the wormwood.
Guara lindheimeri The brideFrom the patio
Indoors there are still flowers on the stephanotis and a few of the sempervivums. There is one indoor cyclamen which is in full flower while the others have yet to get going. I have one little flower on one of the lithops which is exciting as I didn’t think I would get a flower so quickly. I also found a couple of bright pink cactus berries this year on the Old lady cactus (Mamillaria hahniana). Apparently the slugs like the berries – I took one berry off to photograph it and the next day it was almost all eaten. The colour scheme indoors reflects the garden colours with the deep purple shades coming from the foliage of the sempervivum chocolate kiss and the aeonium voodoo. The variegated leaves of the cheese plant, spider plants and mother-in-laws-tongue bring some brightness and the echivera have a lovely pale silvery aqua colour with a soft pink tinge. Kalanchoe tomentosa ‘Dorothy Brown’ may look boring to some but I love the hairy green leaves tinged with brown. Of course you can add more colour with your containers too. Upstairs during the summer I need to keep the blind closed to prevent the room overheating so only plants that do well in shade can cope so they are all the dark green foliage plants like Dracaena fragrans and Dypsis lutescens, the peace lily copes well too. My air plants do get a day light as they wouldn’t cope at all in the deep shade.
Flower bud in a lithopLithop 1st flowerLithop flower side viewMamillaria hahniana (old lady cactus) with berry.Pink berry (seed pod) from Old lady cactusKalanchoe tomentosa ‘Dorothy Brown’Crassula ovata cutting in a bright colourful pot
Just now the tiny baby frogs are all around the garden so before doing any work in an area ii is best to just ruffle the vegetation before cutting or digging anything up. They are so well camouflaged and so very tiny!
Tiny baby frog on a rock.Two tiny baby frogs by the pond.
You often hear that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but within the garden there are certain plant combinations that work better than other. I happen to think that if there are too many different textures, colours and shapes all together then you can lose the overall effect, they all battle for your attention. I usually have a picture in my head of what the overall effect should look like when I pace my plants together and sometimes things workout the way I had imagined them and sometimes they don’t. For example I planted a purple leaved cotinus behind a pink climbing rose and a white astrantia: the flowers of the astrantia have a pinky/purple colouration in the centre when young and the zephirine drouhin rose is a nice pink and these should look great against the purple leaves of the cotinus. The dog had other plans and crashed around behind the cotinus and broke a few branches and it is still only about 30cm high. The rose doesn’t appear to like that spot and is struggling. I will replace the rose with a honey suckle to grow up the arch instead as it has purple tinges to it’s leaves but has vibrant flowers which should look good against the cotinus (once it does get going).
The pale pink climbing rose Generous gardener looks good against the purple leaved Sambucus nigra ‘Black lace’ and picks up the pink of the flowers too, but I will have to make a decision soon of how high I want the sambucus to grow as I don’t want a huge tree.
Generous gardener and Sambucus nigra
The relaxed habit of the moss roses go well with the rather straggly foxgloves in the woodland stumpery, and the purples look good together. The purple of the moss roses fades to almost lilac as the rose goes over.
Moss rose William Lobb with foxgloves.
The dark purple of the Munstead wood rose is picked up in the verbascums (possibly Raspberry ripple) behind it.
Rose ‘Munstead wood’ against Verbascum ‘Raspberry ripple’.
By the patio I have a pink combination that works well. I did have a struggle to get the Cistus parviflorus to thrive as the rather heavy wood pigeons kept trashing it. That area is quite heavy clay that holds the water well and these all thrive there now. The rose Gertrude Jekyll is still quite young but I do like the way that even though they are all pink flowers – all the pinks work together as the flower shapes are different, and each plant has a very different habit and leaf shape, so it keeps the combo interesting.
Gertrude Jekyll, pink astilbe and Cistus parviflorus combo.
Beside the ramp into the back garden is a shady, damp corner. The front of the corner gets a bit of sun and the cowslips enjoy that area. Being yellow they add a bit of colour in what could be rather a dull area. They go well with the ferns.
Primula sikkimensis with Osmunda regalis ‘Purpurascens’ and other fern.
As you wander around the garden your eye should travel easily along as the colours repeat themselves on the way. I have dots of deep purple in every bed, pinks, and blues with highlight plants with white or yellow or gold. It doesn’t matter if the colours are in the foliage or the flowers or even the containers or background.
Colours working together around the garden.
It goes without saying really that this applies to the pond too.
Purple Lythrum salicaria with Thalictrum flavium Glaucum yellow.
I just had to show a few other photos of plants that caught my eye this month.
I planted this fern (Dryopteris erythrosa ‘Brilliance’ or Japanese Rosy Buckler fern) a couple of years ago but the shrub along side it grew right over it so I moved it last year. It has taken a while to get going but I just love the vibrant copper colour it brings to the shady woodland area. It really shows up against the predominantly green background but goes well with the purple/bronze shade of the heuchera in the front.
In the conservatory it is the flower spike of the Sempervivum Mint marvel with the white flowers with reddish/purple centres that stands out amongst the pinky/peach colour of the other sempervivums.
Sempervivum ‘Mint marvel’ flower spike.White and reddish/purple flowers of Sempervivum ‘Mint marvel’
Wildlife I have spotted in the garden (and managed to get a photograph of) in the last couple of weeks include: a seven spot (?) ladybird larva, a mottled grass hopper (Myrmeleotettix maculatus) and a few meadow brown butterflies (Maniola Jurtina). The photographs are not great (taken quickly with my phone) and I have yet to see a meadow brown on an actual plant – I only see them when they have come into the conservatory).
Seven-spot ladybird larvae (Coccinella septempunctata)Myrmeleotettix maculatusManiola jurtina (female I think)
Now it is back to rain, rain, and more rain so not much gardening happening just now.
Thanks to my wonderful physio Nicholas, I have been able to get back into the garden again to catch up on a lot of jobs. Harry has been helping me to dead-head and move a couple of things, but I have been able to do a lot more now, although I will have to be careful how I move the heavy pots on the patio. I haven’t taken many photographs so quite a few plants have gone over like the hebe, syringia, rhododendron, aqueilegias and weigela. They had been absolutely covered in bees, but now the deutzia and philadelphus are in full bloom along with the geraniums, foxgloves, cirsiums, clematis, catmint, centaura, candelabra primroses, heucheras, Lady’s mantle, and astrantias, which are great for the bees and other pollinators. The astrantia again have been a mixed bag where the slugs/snails are concerned. The white ones don’t even have a nibble whereas the dark red one (Astrantia major ‘Gill Richardson Group’) is almost entirely eaten. I am going to dig it up, put it in a pot on the patio and hope it survives.
white astrantia in shady cornerwhite astrantia in shadeastrantia on patio in the sunslug/snail damaged red astrantia
In a corner of the stumpery where it gets a bit more sun than the rest of that area I have planted a few different plants to see which one likes it there the best. The erigeron was good there last year, the little red mossy saxifrage are ok, and the dark leaved geranium is now happier than it has been in the last couple of years. I am still undecided. The rogue foxglove will either come out once it has flowered or I will transplant it.
deciding which plants stay
The seedlings from the golf course trees get absolutely everywhere in the garden and you really have to weed them out when they are tiny. I have to get right in amongst the plant to fish them out. Once the roots get hold when they are in the middle of the plant they are much harder to remove. The ferns especially are a nice moist spot for them to survive.
tree seedling nestled inside a fern
I am going to have to invest in some more plant supports for the bushy plants that hand over the edge of the path. I love how they soften the edge but it often means that I have to roll over them with my wheelchair to get past. I missed the boat again with the large Patty’s plum poppies and the keeled over in that very heavy rain we had just a day or so ago, and all the petals fell off. The roses have just started blooming now so I should get some pics very soon.
bushy Lady’s mantle over the path
I am disappointed with a couple of plants that I bought for the pond a couple of years ago. The dwarf bulrushes died, and the variegated yellow flag Iris not only didn’t flower last year but it failed to flower this year too, and is not variegated. It looks like it might be the tall yellow flag iris which will be too vigorous for our pond. Grrrrr!
this iris should have been the smaller variegated yellow iris
I do love sitting on the patio relaxing with a cuppa but I tend to just see all the things that I need to get on with. U have hardly done anything in the front garden so it is a monument to weeds and the yellow irises are now past their best. I had been rethinking the front garden and have not come up with any ideas yet. I was going to take up a few more slabs but that was when I had a garden help and they were going to help keep the weeds under control. I may just take up all the slabs and just have keep the border but add a couple of drought tolerant plants. I just don’t know – something to think about while I sit on the patio in the sunshine.
Again, I haven’t done much in the garden at all due to medial epicondilitis and biceps tendinitis in the right arm, triceps/deltoid pain, acromioclavicular joint pain in the left arm, and shoulder and neck pain from osteoarthritis. No fun at all, but now things are a little better I can start to move about more as long as I don’t overdo things. I am getting back out into the garden again to see what I have been missing. The flowers that are going over now are: snowdrops, crocus and small iris (Katherine’s gold). The witch hazel was looking great in January with it’s lovely deep orangey, spidery scented flowers but they have gone over now. The indoor plants that are still in flower are the fabulous cyclamen (although they will soon be over so I will start to dry them out for their summer rest period), peace lily, and the trillium. The trillium ought to be in the stumpery area of the back garden but the slugs kept getting them so they are in a pot in the conservatory for now. I took a few cuttings from a very old Easter cactus that I rescued from a friend and they have tiny buds on. I did find a couple of leaves on them which were stuck together and when I pulled them apart I found a small green caterpillar inside some woven silk threads. It could be a Tortrix moth (either Carnation tortrix – Cacoecimorpha pronubana, or the light brown apple tortrix moth – Epiphyas postvittana). I don’t know if it was already on the plant when I got it or not. I had thought the small eaten areas on the leaves had been slug damage.
In flower now are: mahonia, hellebores (some lovely large clumps and some rather spindly specimens), large daffodils, tiny tete-a-tete narcissus, pink heather, yellow epimedium, winter honeysuckle, white periwinkle, rosemary, chionadoxa, primrose, erythronium snowflake, pulmonaria, the pink corydalis and a few grape hyacinths (that I keep forgetting are there). The hazel is monoecious which means they have male and female flowers on the same plant. The male and female flowers of the tortured hazel look so different to each other – the male flowers are the lovely yellow catkins that dangle and are blown about in the wind so the pollen lands on the tiny red female flowers. However they can’t be self pollinated, they must be pollinated by another hazel. There are only a few flowers on the Pieris so maybe there has been some frost damage – we shall see if we get more later.
It was March 13th when we spotted the first frog spawn in the pond. It was difficult to count the individual clump but I would guess that there are at least 5 clumps, so we have at least 5 female frogs about. We did find a couple of dead frogs in the pond after winter but I have no idea what sex they were.
The crab apple that we planted last autumn has survived the winter and has tiny buds on so I am hopeful that we get some blossom when the weather warms up a little. At the moment it is sunshine and showers with a drop in temperature due at the weekend. We have put up blinds in the conservatory on the left side only as this is the direction that it gets the sun from. We will wait and see if that is enough shading for the plants but we may have to get a couple on the ceiling too. It is may favourite place to be in when the sun shines just now.
On a very sad note: Kate Dick, our Duddingston Kirk Garden Club president has passed away after a short illness. She will be sadly missed by us all at the club. RIP Kate.
There are still plenty of flowers for the pollinators to make use of in mid August: cyclamen are beginning to flower just before their foliage comes up, persicaria, Japanese anemone, nepeta, erigeron, plox, selinum, potentilla, heuchera, tierella, geum, salvia, sweet peas, roses, verbena, lamium, wooly rock jasmine, some hellebores, some verbascum, honey suckle, fennel and oregano all still going. Just going over now are the purple loosestrife, pond lily and pickerel weed. There are a few sporadic flowers on the astrantia and hardy geraniums and campanula. Some shrubs and small trees think that autumn has come early and are colouring up and leaves are falling so it is time to get the pond net out to start clearing the fallen leaves off the surface. The rhododendron still looks poorly. Everything needs a good drink but we are still just getting the odd small shower that is hardly getting very deep so I am still having to water certain plants. The white phlox is looking great but the label says Phlox paniculata ‘ice cream’ but when I googled it they should be pinkish flowers or white flowers with pink centres. This may have been wrongly labelled and could be ‘White admiral’ instead.
I have moved the succulents that were in the conservatory onto the bench now as we did have a start date for getting the conservatory fixed in August. That has now changed to September so I have just left them on the old bench for now.
The front garden is not looking great just now as the perriwinkle is all dried and brown and there is nothing in flower except the weeds. The mahonia and epimediums are looking ok as is the hedge so there is still some greenery. The Virginia creeper is doing well so it should colour up well in autumn. I would like to get more lavender and a few other drought resistant flowering plants out in the front garden for next year.
While I am out in the morning doing the watering I usually come across some bug or other. I was watching a wasp trying to get a grip of a dried mealworm that had fallen from the bird food. It had a real wrestle with it but gave up. I try to look up the Latin names of the beasties I find but they can be hard to identify so I have no idea if they are what I think they are.
Pentatoma rufipes (Forest shield bug)
wasp wrestling 1/2 dried mealworm
Tachina fera flies mating on selinum
Athalia rosae (turnip sawfly)
Babies breath and unknown rose
Phlox paniculata White admiral?
Honesty seed heads backlit
Pots on the patio August 2022
Succulents on the old bench
From the patio August 2022
Excuse the photo of the view from the patio – yes it has the bottom of the bird feeder on it! You can see how the deep shade creeps up the garden from the back due to the trees in the golf course. By 16:00 most of the garden and part of the patio is in deep shade. We used to be able to have BBQs in the afternoon in the summer sunshine, and have our dinner out on the patio at 18:30 but sadly not any more. This year however, the shade has been a blessing in during the heat waves.
