Six things in the garden - SOS 12.10.2024

 There is nothing quite like a walk around the neighbourhood and looking over walls etc to catch what is looking good in gardens locally.  For a wider view and also into back gardens the place to go is firstly over at Jim's at 'garden ruminations' and through the links there within the comments you can view many other gardens.

The bucket which if left out gives me an idea of the amount of rain that has fallen.  It was a bucket load, really, right up to the top over two days, I wished I had taken a picture! The mulches have been ordered and are now stacked ready for application, but I did have time to do a few jobs as soon as it stopped. I was suffering with cabin fever after the two days of rain, and being outside in the garden is a sure cure.

Yesterday it was dry and sunny, yes all within one week such a huge variation.  

1. I am in need of pink asters as I have seen some lovely ones along my local walks.  In the meantime here is a little dwarf one: Symphyotrichum novi belgii 'Trudi Ann' which has survived the downfalls very nicely and is front of the conservatory border. 

2. Just as I thought I had seen the last of the bumblebees for the season, when the sun came out there they were, and I suppose it is because there are still several plants in bloom, with the asters, and yet to flower chrysanthemums.  The Fuchsias seem to have been a good food source.  I've allowed this Fuchsia which is a hardy one with quite large flowers to grow with some wooden stems over a couple of years with just the softer growth cut back, I had seen this way of treating hardy Fuchsias on a garden visit to East Lambrook Manor with the Alpine Garden Society a couple of years ago.  On Thursday and Friday they were humming with the sound of the bees.

3. Ladybirds too have been noticed, such as this one on the seed head of grass Miscanthus nepalensis,  I'm not sure if this is a 22-spot ladybird or it could be a harlequin ladybird.

4. I guess a snail enthusiast would have been delighted to find this sight in a pile a broken crocks stored in under the potting shed, and then gone on to find many more.  Snails too go into hibernation.

5, When I am scrolling through Facebook I come across interest groups probably selected for me by AI and my eye was caught by the Kusamono and Shitakusa group.  The form is a little miniature gathering of plants to show alongside Bonsai.  I have neither the fancy pots or the artistic flair to participate, however it has perhaps shaped my view of the arrangements I had made in the past.   I have been known to grow little miniature gardens in old bonsai pots or shallow dishes, and also love the moss which grows on them. Here moss covered stones were appropriated from another bowl that had recently been dismantled. 

Having found a little self grown fern which will probably grow into a Japanese painted fern Athyrium niponicum which I have had in the garden for a long time, I placed Sisyrinchium biscutella to act as 'the grass thing', and a little creeping Thymus serpyllum minimus which I just happened to have bought from Graham at his stall at Wells market.

6. Loropetalum Fire Dance has now recovered nicely after its ordeal and hard prune back in 2023. I find this red leaved Chinese witch hazel works well contrasting with other plants in the sheltered shady border. This will be one of the border that will be mulched over the coming week.

Loropetalum Fire Dance

Even when most garden flowers are over I still love to be out 'playing in the garden'.  This coming week I shall be mulching and moving plants indoors and into shelter in the shed. the garden is small so it all within my capabilities, which I am pleased about.