Monty’s month
Lawncare and harvesting
This is one of my favourite times in the garden. Along with lots of good flowers, and masses of ripening fruit and vegetables, its fading elegance gives it dignity, and the knowledge that every fine day is one of the last makes them precious. It’s a busy time, too, with cuttings to be taken, seeds to collect, much to harvest and hedge cutting all to complete before the weather turns. The garden seems translucent this month as the light slants ever more from morning’s brittle brightness to the soft evening depths that press closer and closer back into the afternoon. By the end of the month darkness falls by 7pm and night has become longer than day. This changes everything. The hedges and trees are thinning, so this canting light filters through them and the garden takes on an ethereal quality, yet is still rich with colour and substance as though summer is growing old but refusing to let go.