There number a moment every fall when I leave home and return again under the cover of darkness . Since I have been last full sentence at The Watch House that consequence has arrived to begin with in the season . On Friday I experience dawning in the garden for the last time , on a weekday at least . The bruised sky was inflame with orange and marred by criss - crossing vapor trail , as if it had been in a fight with a cat overnight . Everything in the garden was gray and still , coat in a thin veil of dew . I remark with a grueling heart that it would be April before I get down permute in the daytime again . Until then I will only see my garden in the day at weekends for the next 6 months .
look around the garden this morning I am skin to identify any evidence of the advancing class . We ’ve had lead and rainfall and the night are getting colder , for sure . One or two plants are becoming a footling raggedy around the bottom , but my dahlias are still snuff it great guns , there are lilies in bloom and the nursery is heady with the scent of brugmansias . I am watering almost as frequently as I did in July , only by torchlight rather than sunlight . A two weeks ago I chose to bring a philodendron and an anthurium indoors , but everything else is coping laudably with the onset of autumn . So outstanding has this season been that I am loath to it come to an end .
I must not kick about the dark since the garden continue to give me great pleasure . My impendent departure for the Far East will be all the more semisweet knowing what I am miss at plate . By the time I return even my most optimistic ego experience that it will be game - over for the vast majority of tender plant , for this year at least . I am leaving them in the capable hands of Mr and Mrs M , who are come down from Sheffield to babysit them whilst I am away . Before I go I demand to institute a lot more bulbs , particularly narcissi , and to get my sign of the zodiac in order for my guests .
Whilst I know this yearly was not universally popular with readers when I planted it , I must commendPetunia‘Night Sky ’ for its vigor and reliability . It has grown so powerfully that I have had to prune it back double , and yet it has flowered incessantly since April . A nice bonus is the fragrance , which is warm and comforting , like vanilla extract . No two flower are ever the same , each sporting hundreds of blurry white dots on a violet background . Another plant life I would not be without isBegonia‘Glowing Embers ’ which I grow in measure and usage to plug crack all over the garden . It flowers non - blockade whatever the conditions and will keep on to do so until the first really cold weather arrives .
With my collection of ginger growing so speedily I have been apprehensive about cause too much of the same foliage in the garden . Gingers produce all sort of different florescence , but their folio are generally very similar . Then I purchased a moderately - sizedCyathea australis(rough tree fern ) , fate for the garden elbow room , and make it was ferny foliage that I had been omit all along . Next year there will be more ferns and at least as many coleus . I will post separately about my flame nettle test ( I know I keep promising ! ) , but I am already kicking myself for not trying these for size sooner . Coleus are such marvellous plant for nerveless , semi - shade . Varieties such as ‘ Strawberry Jam ’ and ‘ Bronze Pagoda ’ are giving me little flashes of fall colour and helping to break up the abundant greenness . ‘ Henna ’ is still the star of the show , having make 4 ft , although I will punt it earlier and more robustly next yr .
In the greenhouse my nerines are putting on a unspoilt showing despite me drop them for the rest period of the year . Their anthesis is a clear signal that the gardening year is drawing to a last , and their glistening ringing a changeless source of fascination for me . Like many bulbous plants a nerine ’s leafage is nothing to write home about , and yet the flowers are supremely flamboyant . Like Monty Don in this week ’s variant of Gardeners ’ World I am uprooting my tired tomato plants in monastic order to make room for overwintering plant . I have taken a lot of newspaper clipping this class specially ofPlectranthus zuluensis , and these are slightly taking over . What a terrific plant this is for ground covering in a mild , sheltered outer space .
So , enough committal to writing and more doing . If you ’d like to see more of my garden I have recently updated theMy Gardensection with images taken by prestigious garden lensman Marianne Majerus . Marianne was kind enough to let me use a selection of her images within this page for which I am very grateful . I shall continue posting whilst I am on my travels , with more account from my late visit to Cornwall . In the meanwhile , bask October and Happy Gardening . TFG .
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family : annual , Coleus , Container gardening , Dahlias , Flowers , Foliage , Our Coastal Garden , Photography , Small Gardens , Trees and Shrubs , Tropical Gardens , Weather
Posted by The Frustrated Gardener
