Almost overnight the fig leaves have turned to rich buttery yellow at Ednovean, as October draws to a close. Can it really be November approaching, with the change of the clocks to winter time?
So now seems a good time to look back at the changing seasons as summer turned to autumn in our garden. Join me for a tour around the cusps of the seasons in this triple garden diary.
August
August is always a tranquil time for our garden. By late summer the garden rests, almost somnolent with contentment for a year well lived.
The late summer is a time for pottering in the garden before sitting down to admire the view!
The grand restructuring of the garden of the springtime has given way to gentle tweaks by late summer. Tweaks such as smart granite sets to edge the Project garden paths.
They make a chic compliment to the contemporary pergola I mentioned when writing about “Our Ednovean Summer”
We left the great spires of the Echiums long into the autumn before forming a work party to uproot them and carry them out to the bonfire in early autumn. Each year we do try to cut back on the numbers. And each year they magically appear beguilingly established in their chosen spot! I do believe there are fewer plants to overwinter this year though. Probably!
Unpredictable seasons
The seasons just haven’t arrived in the quite the right order this year. Consequently we had chilly nights in August and warm balmy evenings in October. The summer equinox was cooler than the autumn one
Yet our garden mainly sailed gently onwards, whilst Charles growled dismally at his vegetables! What did our garden learn this year? Tolerance and patience!
September
September brought us an Indian summer of delicious sunshine with occasional damp days when spider’s webs hung like flotsam in the air. September is a time when the final grasses stir and a rush of energy shivers through our green world
October
Early autumn is always a wonderful month for the grasses here at Ednovean – from tasselled Miscanthus to dramatic Pampas. Each grass will gloriously hold court just for a season before swaying to a golden blonde and finally being cut back in February.
As they gently sway in the gentle autumn sunlight I only half remember the hours of labour that will be needed in the spring to clear the dead leaves and spent plumes to keep the exquisite restless movement that whispers through the garden.
So today on the cusp of the seasons we’ve planted a new net of Daffodils around the feet of the apple trees in our little apple orchard and would you believe I’ve just seen the first spring shoots under the Olive trees!
