Autumn watch

The nights are drawing in

Misty mornings and clammy days are the order of this week. It's a perfect time for walks with sodden leaves underfoot and brilliant colours all around. 

Dreary days, much brighter in person

Autumn Watch 17 October

17 October 2012

The trees in town are way ahead of us, I am feeling a serious case of colour envy! How can this be?

Autumn watch

I just love autumn, the damp chill and falling leaves muffle the noise of the traffic and make everything feel mystical somehow.

Our garden is starting its change and the conkers are the first to yellow.

Autumn watch: conker trees win

See the  Russian Vine, trying to get into the picture? 

Just you wait until I get the ladder up there...

Workmen and their tools

After much fuss, the ailing chainsaw has been exchanged for a brand new one. The children are delighted with the box and don’t yet realise that its arrival in the house implies another weekend pushing a wheelbarrow.

Work in the garden has been held up by rain and birthday celebrations. The break has done my body good (fizz always does), the scratches have healed and the aches have gone too. 

What's in a name?

I called it the rose garden, because there must have once been beautiful roses here. By the time we arrived, we found only aggressive dog roses which will be replaced with a more passive herbaceous selection – I planted peonies, fuchsias and many bulbs that are supposed to ensure colour all summer. Seems silly not to rename it now... Suggestions are welcome.

The rose garden; a work in progress

This week, the rose garden will be made winter ready: brambles and ivy curbed to a manageable hedge, everything trimmed, fence mended and young trees (not sure what they) staked.

These young trees are fast growers, there are a fair few of them and they appear to be on a runner root system like strawberries. As I am removing so much vegetation, these trees are staying even though they look like trouble.

Are these Elders? Using the tree and shrub identification table I am nearly sure. The plants have been choked in the undergrowth, so they aren't standing up straight and haven't many berries.

NO PAIN, NO GAIN

The weekend was spent with a chainsaw and hedge trimmer. We chopped and trimmed until the days were done, burned an astonishingly large pile of plant material and a fair few calories too. Today I look like I have a pet wild cat or self harm issues: scratched, splintered and aching.

PROGRESS IN THE ROSE GARDEN

I have targeted the rose garden first, finding the right hand hedge to be a bramble and ivy haven, with some substantial conifers in the undergrowth. It’s all going: much as I love blackberry crumble; I very much dislike the nasty spiky bramble. Unfortunately the chainsaw broke down before it was excused so the desired effect has not been cultivated by the time Sunday drew to a close.  Still, I am thrilled by the feeling of accomplishment and the promise of all the power training I am getting – no gym membership could possibly compare.

Russian Vine, what a creep

A tree with a Russian Vine coat

How can one plant grow so fast?! It is truly amazing that this feisty vine will take on a rather substantial tree within one season.  Thanks to proper gardeners like James Alexander-Sinclair I now know that it is Fallopia baldschuanica or Russian vine.

I have also read about fairly drastic action needed to get rid of it – nothing short of Blitzkrieg tactics: cutting, slashing, poisoning and torching it. The pyromaniac in me is not brave enough to incinerate the tree. I wouldn't mind if it stuck to the fence, maybe there is a deal to be struck.

GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS

In the beginning, there was ivy.

The Rose Garden

This is my project: to return our garden to its Edwardian splendour. The challenge is significant, considering the size the property. 

I endeavour to update this blog with pictures and plans, in order to prove my worth and show what can be done with a bit of determination.

The formal path



To start with, we have weeds, ivy and other strangling plants invading the beds and trying to pull down the trees. Cutting back the summer’s growth and pruning will keep me busy quite some time, best be quick before the frost!

The herb garden -
seems only rosemary

The garden is enormous, possibly too large for me to manage alone. Still I intend to give it a go, hoping for some help from my family but more likely to get some from the trusted man who brings the lawn mower and keeps the garden outside the house. I may have to pay more people.



I do appreciate comments and advice, particularly as I am a gardener of little experience and not that much strength.

Daffodil

Daffodil the guinea pig

This is Daffodil, who now lives under a tall tree in a ramshackle Edwardian garden.   He has put it to me that, with a little enthusiasm, this could be a spectacular place.  Anything for a beloved pet, I shall do it.

There is a formal garden, herb section as well as play and wooded areas. Having a clear start and sensible planting plan for the spring must be pivotal to having any effect on the state of the garden.

What could possibly go wrong?

Flickr Tags: guinea pig cute