Is summer over already?…..

Officially, autumn started nine days ago, but I am trying to look on it as just another phase of summer….. And clearing out some of the now spent summer plants has given a different feel to the garden.

But first I want to share a few of photographer Marc Gascoigne’s rather lovely pics. I have decided that the house needs to contribute more to its upkeep so I am hoping to hire it out for the occasional photoshoot. Since my iPhone and I have definite limitations in this area I asked Marc if he would take some pictures of both house and garden. This was about a month ago so the cardoon is still in full flower.

There are still apples on the apple tree…

And the raised patio is looking very lush!

Now, a month later we have done some pretty dramatic pruning on the apple tree and the mimosa (which had shot another 20+ feet into the sky over the summer). The cardoon, the macaleyas and two rosemary bushes have gone  from the big border – but the crazy alliums are still there. They have actually dried rather well so in due course I will bring them inside to go in a winter vase with the enormous cardoon heads.

There are still a lot of geranium Rozannes to be cut back and both the cotinus and the corkscrew hazel need some pruning but I am also going move one of the little acers to make some space. Although the border was amazingly lush and green this summer, there was relatively little colour so we need to work on that…

However all that no-mow grass has finally been mown. Well, strictly speaking it hasn’t been mown at all – it has been painstakingly cut back by hand with an edging tool. I am sure this is not a very efficient way to do it (and it was certainly very hard work) but a strimmer seemed far too dramatic and doing it this way allowed me to do it gradually over a number of weeks. I hadn’t cut it back at all last winter so it had got very matted and although I suspect I will get a rollicking from my ecologist friend Michael for disturbing goodness knows who, I thought we should go back to basics.

It has certainly opened up the view from my study.

Meanwhile, the oversized pink and white fuschia in one of the fuschia pots has gone quite mad and had a massive second flowering. Not sure really what was going on there as while this guy is obviously super happy the fuschias in two of the other pots have died! Almost unheard of in the many years that I have grown fuschias.

At the front of the house the two new beds have ‘bedded’ in a treat and even the pittisporum Irene Patterson that I did my best to kill by moving it at totally the wrong time, is leafing up well, although it does still have quite a few naked little branches.

And finally – here are Darby and Joan keeping an eye on the goings on around the bird bath and the pond.