The slow approach of autumn
Sunday, September 9, 2018
After posting for the first time, a mid month News item, which
covered early August News, the weather went slowly dowhill and
early signs of Autumn began to appear.
Plenty of early berries like this sorbus (mountain ash)
which as well as other native and ornamental trees was
flowering earlier than usual.
The garden still continues to look good with all the later
season favourites going strong and new ones appearing on the
scene.
This fine stand of aster frikartii "Monch"
With Moira then still not having had her long overdue knee
operation, we took advantage of the opportunity to get out and
about as much as possible to gardens large and small and a range of
other interesting destinations. Moira has at last just had a
date of 19 September for her operation.
The increasingly changeable weather has made it difficult to
plan work in the garden especially mowing the lawns, which have had
to make do with far less than they usually get
(only 3-4 a week-may be not much by your standards but as you
know I am a lawn nut!!)
The frequent, often heavy rain has brought on masses of weeds
everywhere adding to the workload!
It's not all hard graft however, so please read on to learn
about all the other good things that have excited us, and by
the way after being inundated with e. mails cards and phone
messages following our "Gardeners' World" appearance things have
calmed down, but it was great fun while it lasted. Our August
website hits registered just over 700 well above our normal
average. If you are one of these thanks for visiting and please
keep it up and tell your friends and family.
Weather
A stark contrast with July. with some very heavy rain, overall
rainfall of 3.5" during the month. Changeable weather
predominated
8 rain days, 12 changeable days, only 5 completely sunny
days with some humid days, 3 thunderstorms and lightning Max 26.7C
on 4th, 9 days above20C. 13 nights below10C min, 2.3 C on 11th
after 22 C in the the day!!
A typical sky during the month. Very few days of
unbroken blue sky
The green green grass of Carmarthenshire. Quie a
contrast to a couple of moths ago
Garden update
Vegatables are cropping well but brassicas have been badly
affected by the heat and drought, but particularly by the cabbage
white butterflies which always seem to find a way under the
protective covering of fleece. Some cabbages have had their crowns
eaten out. For a staple vegetable it is quite a loss.
This summer I planned lettuce sowing and planting
out so well that we have not yet run out of salad since the middle
of May. I am too modest for words! All being well we should
continue to have a crop from the garden until late October
and then some from the polytunnel. Having been banned from eating
salad crops for nearly 5 months whilst undergoing chemotherapy, it
means a lot to me to be able to eat salad every day now as I do
enjoy it.
Beetroot and French beans however in a range of colours are as
good as I can remember them and the potatoes are ready
for harvest as soon as we get our next spell of dry
weather.
Spuds ready
for harvest with haulms cut off for ease of
digging
From left to right "Pablo" , "Burpees Golden"
"Chioggia"
Leeks were planted at last, as soon as the late peas were
harvested. Less vegetable beds than I used to have,so
best use has to be made of them as soon as they become
available.
The 2 cooking apple trees in the garden which were here when we
came 42 years ago, are laden with fruit, half of which
has already dropped from the trees or has been gorged upon by
hordes of crows. Still plenty of good fruit to come
however.
Sadly it is the end of the road for the best cropping of
sweetcorn you can imagine, on 60 highly productive plants of "Earli
Bird" over half the crop having been spoiled by blackbirds pecking
them, which I have seen on the job and possibly finished off by
squirels. Only half of most of the cobs are ruined, but are now
inedible, being tough and rather tasteless
Hydrangeas , almost 70, continue to make a substantial
contribuition to borders everwhere, and the paniculata flowerheads
make that marvellous change from white to shades of red.
One of the best is Hydrangea p. "Everest" well
named for its perfect peaks of pure white flowers. Later than
most to start turning pink
Unlike "Vanille Fraise" which can't wait to start
turning pink then deep red. Still one of my
favourites.
Hedge cutting awaits next month.
What's looking good?
A shady but gently understated border at the top of the
House Garden featuring Japanese grass Hakanechloa Macra, "Inula
Hookerii" a vigorous yellow daisy, and other choice plantings such
a s blue aster (now Symphyotricum) "Marie Ballard" and a range of
hostas and hydrangeas, and other little treasures waiting to make
their contribution well into autumn.
A month later than normal Cyclamen hederifolium
"Album"begins to get going under the shade of an acer.
We have some fine thalictrums in many shady
areas of the garden like this T. rochybruneanum, and relying og
Hydrangea Paniculata "Limelight" for support. 5 feet tall with
delicate lavender flowers Totally charming like all members of the
genus.
Hibiscus have revelled in the mid summer warmth
for the first time since 2006. "Red Heart" is a striking
form.
Unusual seed pods on baptisia australis, another
plant that is showing the benefit of a hot summer with deeply
purple bloated seed pods
A mixed border leading up to the greenhouse and
featuring mostly single dark leaved Dahlia. In a terrble year for
capsid bugs on a wide variety of plants, the single dahlia forms
seem to be far less afected than those with multiple flowered heads
which I think give protection to the bugs.
Dichroa febrifuga, a rather tender hydrangea
relative for shade, hence grown in a pot for a choice, rather shady
location outside the conservatory.
Some tender plants plants never come out from the
protection of the large tunnel where they put up an attractive
show. I am becoming increasingly fond of the myriad forms of
begonias and adding height to this display is the bulbous Sinningia
tubiflora, with arching vaguely lemon scented flowers. It occurred
to me how like a mini Cardiocrinum Giganteum it looks! It
bulks up quickly to give new bulbs from which to propagate All of
those in the pic were split from parent plants in early spring this
year. An attractive and good value plant.
Wildlife and Countryside
An amazing event mid month was the sight of a female Goshawk, a
fierce raptor, attacking a murder of crows, as a gathering of crows
is known. She failed to make a kill but certainly caused a
great deal of consternation and quickly put the crows to flight. We
were gratefut at the time that we had Tim, an experienced
birdwatcher friend of ours visiting who gave us a positive
identification, Shame as always at a time like this I had no camera
to hand! (I probably wouldn't have captured a picture if I
had!)
In a bid to get a picture of a goshawk and pass it off
as the real thing, very cheeky that! we paid a visit next day to
National Botanic Garden for Wales which now hosts The British Birds
of Prey Centre www.britishbirdofpreycentre.co.uk/
and I found a male Goshawk in a cage with its keeper but not that
morning flying free so no chance to hoodwink you!! You can see
however how relatively small is the male of the
species.
Particularly when compared to this huge specimen
of a White Tailed Sea Eagle
Another good bird sighting was of a kingfisher over the paddok
pond, which we haven't seen all year. Another unusual passing
waterbird was a goosander which with a pondful of fish we
definitely don't want to see again again as they are varacious fish
predators.
The grass has greened up at last and is growing away strongly
much to the delight of our farmer neighbours who are looking
forward to a late greas harvest next month to replenish what they
have already used sinnce the early summer harvest. It is good to
see the countryside looking like Carmarthenshire again. And with
the grass, for the first time in many years, have come large
crops of field Mushrooms in adjoining fields.
Gerallt, one of our farmer"neighbours" a couple of miles
away, has had so many he has even been sharing them
around our nearest village which was a very public spirited
gesture and much appreciated.
Visits
Because Moira's knee operation is only a few weeks off (we hope)
after a wait of 22 months, we have taken every opportunity to get
away for short breaks and outings to a variety of locations
encompassing; Somerset, Devon, Buckinghamshire and
Gloucestershire and other locations closer to home. Unsurprisngly
for us they all centred on gardens, but also included stately
homes and other cultural venues. The garden has suffered at times
but fortunately one of our young neighbours, Sion, stepped in
to do the watering for us which was an onerous task because not
only the nursery and protected areas had to be watered twice a day,
but also the veg garden and all the recently planted borders. It
was quite a baptism for him on the first occasion he had done
it but he proved himself to be thorough and reliable.
Here are pics of some of the places we visited:
Somerset, Forde Abbey www.fordeabbey.co.uk
What are they all
waiting for?
Woosh - a 180 feet
tall fountain
Knightshayes Court,
Tiverton, Devon www.nationaltrust.org,co.uk/knightshayes
Part of the very large
walled kitchen garden
Which is full of all sorts of
quirky features
And what about a terracotta
army of plant forcers in the midle of Devon?
More strange goings on in a
childrens play area where I stood out as the only adult without
children in tow!!. It really was fascinating to see how 4 extremely
large felled oak trees had been fashioned. The kids,
including me enjoyed it, but I am beyond climbing them like they
did!
And alongside the River Exe
- the Fishermans Cot, the hotel pub restaurant where we
stayed
Just over the road
alongside the river was a private garden full of fine plants like
this mature specimen of clereodendron trichotomum fargessii covered
in masses of sweet scented flowers to be followed later by the most
striking blue berries
Pan Global Plants in
Gloucestershire, one of the best nurseries we know and a
particular favourite, with a large selection of rare and unusual
plants, many collected by the owner
www.panglobalplants.com
2 more Somerset
gardens both in one day on a South Wales Group Hardy Plant Society
outing.
Kilver Court www.kilvercourt.com/garden
Hauser & Wirth www.hauserwirth.com
A facinating
combination of world famous art gallery combined with a prairie
style garden designed by Piet Oudolf as an art feature in its own
right. This captured the attention and admiration of many of the
HPS members who can often be very fussy about their choice of
gardens and plant selections. Almost without exception they spoke
very highly of it on the way home and deservedly so too,
particularly for the extensive and intruiging range of cultvars of
more familiar genus which got us all scratching our heads to name.
Late on we came across in the shop an excellent guide
book!
The old original farmhouse
one of several buidings around which the centre has been
fashioned
The newer parts
Painting with
plants
HPS Members deep in
contemplation!
An exhibition taking
place at the time entitled "From the Stony River to the Sky"
byAlexander Calder, a pioneering American artist of the
20C known primarily for his invention of the mobile, made of sheet
metal and wire. Without an excellent guide I guess it would not
have been readily accessible, it would have been difficult to
appreciate some of the many pieces on display!
Topped off by an award
winning restaurant and bar it represented one of the best and very
different garden outings we have had.
And closer to
home
National Botanic Garden for
Wales
www.botanicgarden.wales/
Thank you for visiting the website
and please accept my apologies for the late publication of this
month's News and the shortfall of pictures in some items. I have
masses of good pics, but for the second time in 3 months after I
thought it had been fixed, I have had substantial probles in
carrying them across from files to the text of the website. And
doesn't it always happen, but they are some of best!!