It's a 'gold star' for my gorgeous grasses
Ilove the change of season from summer into autumn, though I'm not so keen on darker mornings and evenings. It's the time of year when I take stock and see where improvements could be made for next year.
The school report phrases ‘could do better’ and ‘must try harder’ apply to the vegetable garden particularly. We've harvested a reasonable amount of produce – potatoes, beans, carrots and salad onions have been good. However I haven't managed to grow a single edible beetroot, and although lettuce from three sowings have been tasty, they bolted all too quickly, as did the spinach. Tomatoes in the greenhouse have been disappointing, particularly ‘Gardener's Delight’, which are normally reliable. Regardless of an annual mulch of compost maybe the soil in the greenhouse needs digging out and replacing for next year.
On a positive note though, we have plenty of colour in the flower borders with the autumn border in the orchard still looking particularly good still. It’s full of yellow helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ and rudbeckia ‘Herbstsonne’, which look so bright and cheerful. Ornamental grasses are coming into their own. I’ve tried to plant them across the garden where the late afternoon sun shines through – maybe a ‘gold star’ on the school report for these!
I was very excited when a large box of bulbs was delivered, and then wondered if I’d been a bit over ambitious in my order! I’ve chosen many late-flowering varieties of tulip, which I hope will flower in time for our NGS opening next May, and these will be planted in pots. I’ve made a start with planting pale blue Iris reticulata ‘Alida’ in a terracotta pot, together with viola ‘Honey Bee’, whose flowers I hope will last into winter.
Read more about the garden at www.talesfromacountrygarden. wordpress.com.