Late Autumn in the Garden

The glorious autumn weather we've been enjoying for the past few weeks lasted until the middle of this week and now we have winds and heavy rain, but the temperatures remain on the warm side. On the colder wetter days at work I've been adding new pages to the nursery website, four in the past week which adds interest and information for customers and browsers. It's always good to provide helpful advice and information to people looking to buy plants or sort out a problem area in their garden. You can visit them here or here, here or here. I have also started work on a catalogue and doing the plant list pages on the website.

Gentiana sino ornata is brightening up the patio

There isn't much nursery news at the moment, everything is sliding gracefully into late autumn and winter, blown along with the winds we now have. As I write this the rain and leaves are passing the office window horizontally! We still have some spring bulbs for sale and trees and shrubs for winter interest which you can read about here and buy the plants in the nursery. Evergreens will add lots of interest to your garden in winter, giving colour, structure and somewhere for birds to hide and roost.

Another thing I like about this time of  year is that sunset is when I am driving home,
so I get an opportunity to do some photography

There was some lovely light and cloud over Blackmount during the week

With the wetter, windier weather the leaves are really beginning to fall now, the nursery is covered in a blanket of beech and ash leaves. I won't do anything about lifting them until the trees are completely bare and I start the garden tidy up for next year. The leaves that are hanging on are still beautiful rich yellows and oranges. It really has been a glorious autumn and will make the winter feel a bit shorter. Despite having wrapped up the greenhouses for winter, I've got the doors open still as the temperatures are back up, even the night time temperatures are 8 to 11C! I 'm not complaining as it means the plants get plenty air and the cost of heating the greenhouse over winter will be less. I at last got the two new pieces of glass for the wee greenhouse, yes I know it's taken nearly ten months, but that's me. 

In which Bracken meets a pumpkin!

I took Monday off again, I feel it's important to make the most of the nursery quiet season to give me some time off. There will be no rest nest year once the busy season kicks off. Luckily the weather was good and I managed to get another day in the garden. The sun was shining and it was comfortably warm so I started by tidying the greenhouses. They don't need much at this time of year, but with everything packed in tightly, it is important to keep on top of dead leaves, mildew, etc. I touched on this subject in this blog here.

Olives developing on the tree in the greenhouse

An old favourite I rediscovered this year, Osteospernum 'Whiyigig'

I took out all the runner bean canes and stored them away undercover. As with the bubble wrap for the greenhouses, careful storage of these items every year means they last for years and years, so I really get my moneys worth out them. The sweet pea and bean roots were left in the ground to add nitrogen and everything else went in the compost heap. I made the most of the sunshine on the autumn leaves and walked along our road to get some photos before the leaves come down.

Sunshine through autumn leaves

Beautiful burnished colours

Looking along our road

I decided since it was dry and calm and there was a bit of woody garden rubbish lying about to have a bonfire. There is something quite right about bonfires in autumn, so while I was pottering about doing other jobs the bonfire got rid of lots of rubbish, and I enjoyed the smell and the smoke filtering through the trees and sunlight.

I love a bonfire

Smoke and sunlight

As the compost heap was full to over flowing, I decided to turn it over, it's the first year, so the second box is empty, making this a relatively easy and quick job. Now I have an empty box to fill once I start the garden clear up in a couple of months. Some quick weeding of the worst weeds in the back garden borders made the place look a bit more cared for.

Blue skies and autumn leaves

Winter is coming

Of course noting would be right without a fuzzy dog

Working my way back down the back garden, I tidied up my outdoor potting bench. Pots back in the shed, labels in to the kitchen to get washed and rubbish cleared away. Although I don't cut back plants and tidy borders until after New Year, I did do a bit of that with the moving troughs on the patio. The plants are crammed in so the smaller ones are a bit swamped with the larger leaves dying back. Some hair cuts of bigger plants and removal of leaves opened up the plants a bit more and will let air and light in. It's great to see so many plants have survived the move from my last garden, and hopefully they will continue to do so until they and I find a permanent home.

Clay pots on the outdoor potting bench

Troughs after a bit of a tidy and cut back

On Tuesday we didn't have a grand day out as we usually do, but caught up on some chores and shopping in Livingston. Banks, post offices, birthday present buying and lunch out. We then went to visit my Uncle and my cousins who are up staying with him for a few days. It was great to catch up and feel I do still have a family to be part of. We discussed ideas for his garden to make it more manageable for him and enjoyed some time together. Then it was home to dinner cooked by our resident chef again. How many 14 year olds cook dinner every night and do it really really well? We are very lucky.

Late afternoon light on the trees at the back of the house

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