September garden diary – is autumn calling?

Ah goodbye September and with it the summer days as  autumn calls and the year mellows. The  autumn solstice – those mysterious harbingers of our year intoned by the weather men has passed us by and yet the life of the garden continues.

This  September the garden has continued to thrive here at Ednovean Farm,  with the native hedgerow, that helps the garden melt into the countryside providing an unexpected bounty of juicy black Sloes berries  that tempted us to make  some  Sloe Gin for Christmas.

We checked out the  the National Dahlia collection for you too, as the month has drawn to a close, to enjoy the final autumn blooms of September, upon the recommendation of one of our Bed and Breakfast guests – and did I buy one – read on!?

September in the Ednovean Farm Garden

Glossy blackberries lay ripe on top of the Cornish banks now and in the fields, tractors trail flocks of seagulls in their wake, Here at Ednovean farm the young fox cubs  are out and about now and one mischievously stopped by the stables to eat my gardening gloves – a sure sign of autumn in the countryside.

This month in the garden I’ve  loved working in a little hidden cobbled corner overhung by on of our bigger Olive trees, watching the ripening  apples cascading along the branches of our Vintage West country Apple trees and the rich native berries in the hedgerows.

This September the Italian Garden hedges that had started to resemble something from a Harry Potter film, arching menacingly overhead and absorbing all of the light in that part of the garden, were finally dealt with decisively by a father and son combination with the aid  of tower scaffolding.  We also took the opportunity of “a man with a chain saw” to take out the last hedge that flanked the long gravel border beside the Italian garden and I think it looks altogether more inviting.  Maybe it will need a couple of well place plants to balance the new view – we’ll see today when we finally clear all of the debris.

 

The National Dahlia collection

Last week a guest that stayed with us, drove all the way from Kent to visit the National Dahlia collection at Varfell Farm near Longrock. So as it was a nice sunny afternoon we decided to check it out. What a dizzying collection of blooms there were, of every colour and description arranged in orderly rows within sight of St Michael’s Mount.

If you have herbaceous borders it is definitely worth a visit and entry is completely free.  I believe the collection is about to close for the year, depending on the how kind the weather is to it over the next few days, so do check out Winchester growers website before visiting.

I was not going to buy on of course………. but was finally seduced by a discreet Bishop of Landaff with dark glossy leaves that I’ve tucked in a pot in one of teh courtyard gardens

Cold cures!

And finally with winter just around the corner and the season for sniffles fast approaching just maybe you’ll be interested in this natural cure for coughs? When I was posting my morning photo on  our B&B Facebook page of a comfortably velvety plant, I mentioned that I’d had a persistent cough over the Bank Holiday and one lovely ex-B&B guest gave me the following advice

“If you are indeed having a cough, that picture of a green plant is the treatment for you……….. do you know about Mullein?? Harvest this, dry the leaves then crumble as needed for a hot herbal tea….. does wonders for your lungs!!” I wonder why I chose that plant that day!?

And finally!

Well I’ve actually found one plant the rabbits don’t enjoy – the humble begonia that I used to under-plant an Olive tree in the newly formed Pergola garden – we must have snobby rabbits because the adored the lavender!

I hope you’ve enjoyed a peak into the the passing season in our Garden here at Ednovean Farm and for a final wistful  look back over our summer here in West Cornwall just follow the links below