It happened this week, the day I stepped outside to take Mr BigNoseDog on his old man's dawdle & realised myself under dressed for the weather.
Much as I hate to admit it, autumn's not going anywhere.
This week, it's six things that autumn brings to the garden.
1. Colour.
The summer heat wave knocked out half my heucherella plants in the not-so-shady border. Once moved to the truly-shady front garden, the survivors put on an impressive amount of new growth.
Now that they've begun to change colour, this one has leaves at 3 different stages, all on purple stems.
2. Bulbs.
Most autumn bulbs are lessons in delayed gratification, but not the saffron crocus.
This tall fella looks like a choir master.
3. Seeds.
The heliotrope've come inside, the hope being they'll live through the winter.
I'm collecting their seeds in a plastic yet classy champagne flute. Next year, it'll be cuttings for the hydropod from this (or a newly purchased) lot.
4. Fungi.
On the BigNoseWalk, the endless rain's brought forth a plethora of fungi in every green space.
At home, we open the compost bin &, Surprise! There's this little guy.
And his weird looking friends.
5. Winter climbers.
The new garden has all these great walls, & hopefully they'll soon be hosting winter climbers. I've 2 types of winter clematis - a pair of the evergreen Winter's Beauty (not pictured) . . .
. . . & then this clematis Napaulensis (above) that gave me a scare by going dormant over the summer - apparently its hot weather party trick.
And lastly, a winter blooming honeysuckle, also named Winter Beauty. Let the winter games begin!
6. Romanesco.
We discovered Romanesco love this year but too late to plant a summer crop. Two of my neighbours promised us some from their earlies, but then theirs bolted during the hot spell we had.
We've got some great looking winter Romanesco that we hope to share with said neighbours. Not one plant has produced even a baby head yet, but I think there's still plenty of time.
And that's all she wrote.
Thanks again for stopping by. Stay safe over Halloween. There're many a scary crittur out there.
See you, next time.
Great to hear the surviving heucherella are rewarding you. Crocus choir-master - love it!
ReplyDeleteHopefully there'll soon be singing in the saffron patch as I harvest the scarlet stamens.
DeleteOne of the things we discovered with our winter brassicas a couple of years ago was that it was our impatience that was at fault - we left the cauliflowers, sprouts and greens to grow on much longer than previously and shockingly had a really good crop, we had really underestimated how long they take. We went from not a single one in about 5 years to a year's supply in the freezer!
ReplyDeleteI've been scouring the internet this week to reassure myself, so I'm glad a real live person agrees w/the experts that yes, these guys are right on schedule.
DeleteI must look into heucherella. I fancy a bit of evergreen colour during the winter months.
ReplyDeleteThey're a great addition.
DeleteA lot of fungi here too. I found 2 new species yesterday afternoon: one on my lawn and the other when I stored the winter wood. I will post photos soon.
ReplyDeleteAbout romanesco, as I said last week, mine gave its fruit and others soon; I hope it's not too late for yours.
You had gorgeous romanesco. I've read & Tanya seems to confirm that brassicas can last well into winter. As these were planted at the time recommended for a winter crop, I can only hope they'll actually produce one. If not, the foliage is pretty spectacular in its own right, especially as other things die back.
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