Golden Garden

It definitely feels like summer outside this week, but there are plenty of signs that we're already well into the season to follow. It was hot and balmy this afternoon but while I got some gardening jobs done I realised that the sky was rather still and very quiet. All this dreary summer long the housemartins, who nested above our bedroom window, have flitted in and out as they raised their four broods and every sunny day the skies over the meadows were thick with birds chattering and calling to each other.

But now they've gone. Off again for another year, maybe heading out across the Channel or pausing down south for a pit stop while the sun shines again. Driving past the farm yesterday there wasn't a swallow left sitting on the telegraph wires. Susan Hill likens the arrival and the departure of the swifts as "hidden apostrophes around the summer" as most are gone by the second week in August. The housemartins though stretch the season on and it seems strange that the week summer finally reappearred, they have not.

My Sarah Raven sweet peas have been a roaring success this year. The scent from this dark mix I planted in a half barrel on the patio are so heady that it carries on the breeze and into the house. My only problem with them is that once they're in a jug they can look rather sombre without all the greenery. I've mixed mine in with other flowers but next year I think I shall plump for the brights mix instead.

Another sign of Autumn despite the tempreatures. I've spent the afternoon potting up crocus and narcissi for a lovely show by the doors early in the spring. While I was at it I put these sweet cyclamen and a pretty heather in a planter for some colour for this season. I'll add a few more I think and in a month or so I'll pile up some gourds we've been growing and a pumpkin or two on the doorstep.

Florence in the garden 

The hens have really matured now and we're finding two or three eggs a day, the boys are besides themselves! Plenty of arguing goes on everyday about who's turn it is to check.

Autumn flowers are filling the garden with late colour and the bees are having a field day. Helianthus Lemon Queen (I think, it came from the WI with no label!) is a real favourite of mine. I should have staked it really I suppose but I do enjoy the way it weaves and waves around. Last Autumn I split it and now it bookends my patio border and I get a lovely view of it from the kitchen window with pots of dhalias behind.

I've added lots of asters to the garden this year. I think ideally, if I had the space, I'd indugle in a big prairie scheme but with fewer grasses (not so mad about those) but in our little patch I'm adding asters and rudbekias where ever I can manage to fit them.

This lovely plant is Aster Little Carlow, I've been wishing for it for a long time and found one at the Chatsworth Plant Fair a couple of weeks ago on an afternoon out with my sister.

Not sure which this is, it was the only flowering plant in our garden when we arrived and its a very lovely thing. There's something so simple but perfect about asters. I love the colours and the way they wave in the breeze and look fantastic in this low, golden late September light.

 

Talking of which, the sun has just set. 7 o'clock and dusk outside already. I can hear a tawny owl calling from the wood. Must go and fetch that washing in and put the hens to bed. Night night.