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| Acer leaves the colours of a Van Gogh. |
At this time of year, posting Six on Saturday highlights how much change happens in a lil ole week. Bees are hand jiving in the fatsia japonica while the acer leaves that were golden only three weeks ago, are now shrivelling into a burnished copper.
1. At the beginning of the week, I had to accept that the lawn needed one last mow. CFS keeps me on a strict energy budget & mowing sends me into serious, angry-letter-from-the-bank overdraft. I bit the bullet & bought an electric mower as my hoped-for solution. No petrol smell, no petrol weight, no metal parts. For the moment, a great & inexpensive solution to the year's last (anticipated) mow. We'll see how long this light weight baby lasts, come next year.
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| My new mower. |
2. No surprise that bulb planting gobbled up a good portion of the week. None of these bad boys were mad purchases of exotic new residents, unfortunately. Rather, a clutch of brown bags containing bulbs that'd grown in pots - narcissus, tulips, daffs & some Can't Remembers (i.e., bulbs I didn't label so can't remember what the heck they are).
Planting last year's bulbs is like getting a card from a really good friend who's moved away. Except for the Can't Remembers. That's more like reading what people wrote in my year book all those long years ago, wondering who they were & what they were talking about.
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| Old friends & forgotten favourites. |
3. Planting bulbs got me close & personal with what's already setting the stage for next summer. My daisies bloom in late spring/early summer, so they didn't surprise me so much.
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| Daisy in waiting. |
4. But the Michaelmas daisies did surprise me. On the other hand, this fella bloomed in mid-summer for the first time, so perhaps it's changing its game.
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| Aster getting an early start. |
5. I came across a little green stranger snuggling next to the purple sage. Obviously not a weed, but what the heck . . . oh my goodness, how did I forget that I'd planted a sedum there this year? Probably because after a short struggle, it'd withered away. I'm very glad to see it didn't succumb. This may've been a Purple Emperor, although here, it looks quite green.
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| The sedum lives! |
6. The last 10 years've been fairly nomadic for me, with a new garden every few years. My current one is the first I've had with no pond. But since there's a Doodle at our house, we must have water to splash in. This week, the pool got drained for winter, with some help from said Doodle.
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| I think all the water's out now. |
While I love the blousy look of late summer & early autumn, everything happening this week tidies the garden for next year. The sudden neatness gives the whole place a feeling of anticipation. I guess every week in the garden is a good week after all.
Once again, thanks so much for stopping by my little patch of the world. Do check out the gardener behind Six on Saturday for his own six & links to all the other great Six gardeners.
