Leaves

It has been beautifuly warm this week with a little bit of sunshine here and there. Perfect weather to show off the peak of autumn colour just before a big temperature drop and proper winter sets in. In essence, this time of year is all about the leaves.

There are the ones on the trees, red maples, like this one in one of my gardens, and bright yellow field maple and hazel dotted along the country lanes as I travel around to work.

Cotinus

This Cotinus, probably Cotinus coggyria Royal Purple, looked stunning backlit by the morning sun, was in another customer’s garden.

They look amazing on the trees, but then they fall. When they first come down, leaves can look pretty good on the ground too but they are not great for lawns, where they block out the light to the grass and they are not so welcome on paths and driveways where they become a sticky, slippy mess and get trampled into the house.

Beech

Luckily I only have one garden where I rake leaves, the others have someone else with the proper equipment or they deal with them themselves. I don’t mind leaf raking, it’s good exercise and it keeps me warm.

The start of the raking

More leaves!

This is a pretty traditional garden for an old lady and I suspect the system has been in place for a long time. The leaves get raked up and narrowed to the leaf pile in the corner.

Leaf pile

A few weeks ago I forked last year’s pile over the wall at the back into the bay behind

One year old leaves, with a few new ones from the beech above.

The pile that was here, so two years old, has mostly been spread on the garden borders but there’s a little bit left and it looks like this.

It’s a bit lumpy because of the conker shells, all the conkers have to be picked out because they tend to grow.

When I look up and all the leaves are gone, it’s a good moment because the leaf raking has taken place over several visits but now it is done for the year and time to leave the leaf pile to work it’s magic.

And this is where I walked!

September Diary 2019

Sept 1st

Sweet corn from the allotment.

Sept 2nd

Tomatoes

Much cooler mornings now, a great opportunity to have a tidy up in the greenhouse. Picked the garden pearl as they were flopping all over the place and tied up and trimmed the others. Note new ball of string!

September 3rd

This outdoor cucumber is Marketer. I can’t keep up with supply, luckily the guinea pigs help out.

 

Still picking strawberries from the allotment.

Sept 10th

Good haul of produce from a customer’s garden. Keeping the tomatoes under control this year has worked well.

The plums may be on their way out but apples are ripe now in the orchard.

Sept 11th

First conker!

Sept 16th

Gardening in the drizzle but it makes for dewy photos. I planted these dahlias in a different place this year and they have been quite successful, for some reason the rabbits haven’t eaten them as much as in the main borders. And a beautiful unnamed rose.

Cleared a bit more pink geranium, a bit goes each year, and planted these rudbeckia to add a bit more autumn colour.

Sunday 22nd

Went to the allotment to squeeze an hour in before tea, 15 minutes later the heavens opened but we managed to pick cucumbers, courgettes and strawberries and dig some more potatoes.

Tuesday 24th

Allotment this afternoon. It rained all morning but when I turned over the soil there were still dry patches.  Cut back a bit more lavender and planted my Higgledy Garden hardy annuals using hazel plant labels from Woodview Gardens.

25th

Shifting a leafmold pile for an elderly customer and then raking the leaves up and starting all over again. Cyclamen and autumn crocus in the same garden.

30th

Courgettes still flowering and the Muscat squashes harvested and ripening on the wall.

November, a month of change.

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Happy November! #leaves #autumn #garden #leafpile

A post shared by Charlotte (@cjbee827) on Nov 1, 2017 at 1:31am PDT

It’s hard to believe, as I sit here with snow falling in the freezing night sky, that at the beginning of the month the leaves were still showing autumn colours, both on and off the trees, and there were some late flowers in the borders. It really has been a month of change, illustrated perfectly by my instagram photos.

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I tried to take pictures of fireworks but they are all of the streaky kind so here are some grasses at a customer's garden this week. They are kind of fireworky!

A post shared by Charlotte (@cjbee827) on Nov 5, 2017 at 2:44pm PST

Autumn is a good time for grasses, the more showy flowers have faded and the low light seems to bring out all the golden and bronzy colours. On a misty morning they look stunning decorated in a myriad of sparkling dewdrops.

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Sunshine through the Phormium leaves on a frosty morning. Yesterday.

A post shared by Charlotte (@cjbee827) on Nov 7, 2017 at 3:29pm PST

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbJbDvWjz68/my

Right at the beginning of November we had the first frost, you can just see it on the grass in the background. Frosty mornings led to bright sunny days and I still couldn’t really believe that winter was on the way. See First frost!

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Japanese anenome still flowering last week.

A post shared by Charlotte (@cjbee827) on Nov 10, 2017 at 11:28am PST

Then it warmed up a bit, well no frosts anyway, and flowers continued to bloom.

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And this is today, in a momentary burst of sunshine. #garden #gardening #sunshine #november #echinops #globethistle #stillflowering

A post shared by Charlotte (@cjbee827) on Nov 14, 2017 at 3:13pm PST

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This was out yesterday! #poppy #november #garden #gardening #flowers #autumn #remembrance

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Really not sure what this poppy was doing out in November but it shows how (relatively) warm it was.

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Echinacea #echinacea still in flower min November.

A post shared by Charlotte (@cjbee827) on Nov 16, 2017 at 2:59pm PST

This Echinacea was coming to an end but still looking beautiful in the cloudy but mild, middle of the month. And a bit wet by the looks of it.

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Proper frosty start! This should see the last of those leaves fall to the ground for the grand finale 🍁🍁🍂🍂🍁🍂🍁🍃

A post shared by Charlotte (@cjbee827) on Nov 17, 2017 at 12:40am PST

At this point there were still lots of leaves on the trees and lots of colour and it felt very much like autumn. I  started to think about what I could move and divide before the soil got too cold,  and cutting back and raking leaves were the main jobs in the garden.

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Today in the garden, warm but blowy hence the blurry photos. Hollyhocks and salvia flowering late, grasses in the sunshine. Fatsia. Viburnum bodnatense Dawn signalling the onset of the next season. Not necessarily in that order! #garden #gardening #flowers #autumn

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Hollyhocks hanging on til the last, but look at those shadows. If you want to see the rest of the photos on that list check out my instagram feed!

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Autumn last week.

A post shared by Charlotte (@cjbee827) on Nov 28, 2017 at 2:45pm PST

This was taken on the 23rd November, the last week where I actually warmed up as I worked. I love those soft colours.

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Cornus midwinter fire (probably)

A post shared by Charlotte (@cjbee827) on Nov 30, 2017 at 3:11pm PST

One week later, this week, wind from the north, no leaves left after a windy few days, but still a bit of colour. And two hats, two hoods to keep my ears warm.

The east coast of Suffolk got quite a bit of snow today, 30th November, but we only got enough to settle this evening, hence the poor picture, but showing the transition from autumn at the beginning of the month to proper winter at the end.

First frost!

Chard in the frost

We had the first proper frost here in Suffolk this week and it took me by surprise  Only the day before I was planting out some broad bean plants and taking cuttings from a rescued houseplant in my polytunnel. It’s one of those small ones by Gardman but it serves me well.

So, after scrolling through an instagram feed full of ‘first frost’ pictures I headed out myself to check on my poor, unsuspecting plants – and to take photos!

The sweet peas, which I had put out of the polytunnel, to harden off, ha ha, seemed to be fine and the cuttings inside were luckily in the propagator and also ok I think. They will need to be relocated to a windowsill very soon.

At my first garden, in the still open greenhouse plants still looking green. Sorrel seedlings, ✅, Salad leaves in the greenhouse bed, ✅.

The broad beans, which I planted in September also nice and perky.

What I am really hoping is that the caterpillars, which have decimated the cavalo for the second time this year, are not ok!

Some dahlias are still flowering.

Moving on to the borders, it seemed a good time to lift the dahlias and tuck them up for the winter. They are now all in the greenhouse beds where the tomatoes were. The greenhouse is on the side of a brick building and I think that this makes a difference in keeping the soil above freezing. The bricks heat up in the day time, even with a small amount of sunshine, and radiate it back at night like a storage heater. I also keep the soil completely dry. This has worked well the last few years although we haven’t had any prolonged cold weather for some years now.

Dahlias in their winter bed (I will cut them down).

This is really a bit of a luxury. At my next garden I dug up the tubers, cut them right back and put them in a large pot filled with old compost from empty summer pots. They are now in the shed although if it gets really cold, below zero for several days, I will move them to the garage. Obviously there were a lot less tubers just 3 plants.

My dahlias at home are mostly still outside and will have to take their chances until I have time to sort them out. I have a few more this year and am considering borrowing a bit of greenhouse space from the first customer.

New challenge – overwintering vegetables.

Autumn leaves at The Queen

As the autumn slowdown continues, I have been thinking about extending the season in the vegetable garden, especially at The Queen at Brandeston where I manage the veg plot at the back of the pub. I’m feeling  the need to challenge myself a bit to prove to that I am a real gardener! This will be my first proper attempt at overwintering anything except peas.

To this end, I started sowing seeds again in the greenhouse in September, firstly some mixed salad leaves and beetroot, for the colourful leaves. These I planted out with trepidation but they have survived.  A bit slower but also up,  pak choi, parsley, spring onion, kale, chicory, rocket, sorrel and a very few winter lettuce. I sowed several rows directly in the still warm soil but not a single one came up. I only get to visit the site once a week so it may be that they got eaten straight away but who knows.

 

 

Pak choi pricked out in the polytunnel at home

Chicory

Pak choi and chicory pricked out in the polytunnel at home.

Kale, spring onions, rocket, sorrel and winter lettuce in the greenhouse.

At the pub this warm October afternoon I planted out some of the pak choi and chicory, keeping some in reserve just in case! The kale is for the front in the edible planters. The rest of the seedlings need to be a bit bigger before I risk it although the plan is to cover the lot with fleece if it gets really cold,

Salad leaves under cover

I also managed to get in a few rows of broad beans for an early crop next spring. They will probably use the shoots and flowers in the kitchen but the first beans are sweet and tender too. I have plenty of saved seeds from this year’s crop.

Also in the garden over winter will be the salsify, sown in the spring, which will be ready once the leaves die back and sweeter after a couple of frosts.

There is an assortment of brassicas grown from seed in the spring as well. Kale ready now and flowering sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower still to come. Considering that they were completely stripped of leaves by caterpillars in the summer, they have recovered well.

Summer  (yes they were netted!)

October

With a good crop of pumpkins and squashes harvested for storing, if they survive halloween, they should be able to offer some really fresh and locally sourced vegetables on the menu.

 

October in the garden.

Here we are in mid October and I’m really quite enjoying the gardening at the moment. There are so many flowers still out, a few vegetables left to harvest and all next year’s planning to look forward to.

I’d like to say that I created these combinations deliberately but really it is down to a bit of luck with the weather and mother nature, although I did plant the dahlia and Anthemis so I had some hand in it. In fact, the Anthemis got chomped by rabbits early on and these are the first flowers.

The roses are still putting on a good show and the dahlias are hanging on in there too.  On a misty autumnal morning they are at their finest encrusted with sparkling dewdrops. With the asters still blooming, there is plenty of colour in the borders.

In the vegetable garden a final harvest of cucumbers and aubergines and the pumpkins and squashes are ripened up to keep over winter, if they survive halloween. I managed to get 6 large pumpkins from one plant so my customer should have enough for carving, soup, pie, cake and anything else really. The kale is beginning to recover from the caterpillar attack of the summer and should continue throug the winter months.

In the orchard, lots of apples and pears but also the first proper harvest of quince from a tree I planted 5 years ago.

Also in the vegetable garden, flowers! But aren’t the artichokes and Chinese alliums looking beautiful.

And just when I thought that maybe it wasn’t going to be a good year for autumn colour, the trees join in in! All in all a great combination in the garden in October. Let the shuffling begin!

And breathe!

I started this post at the beginning of September when I had been away for a week and returned to my gardens to find that autumn had arrived. August was hot, cold, cloudy, sunny, rainy and windy and already September is over with a mixture of storms and sunshine as well.

The hoped for Indian summer never came but there were, and still are, all those richly coloured late summer flowers and abundant pumpkins and squashes.

Dahlias at Houghton Hall

Harvested pumpkins left to ripen.

The dahlias have been good in my gardens too, I divided up the tubers in spring before planting in pots in the greenhouse so there were a good number but always room for improvement.

 

 

Also looking good for August and September the delicate looking, but actually quite tough, Japanese anenomes and the jolly rudbeckia.

 

August was a month of trying to keep it all going, like juggling balls in the air. A bit in the vegetable garden, a bit in the borders, doing the lawn edges and looking out for the giant sow thistles which seem to arrive fully grown. I always reach a point where I feel overwhelmed with amount of work still to be done and then it’s autumn and things that are cut back, stay cut back and phew! We can all breathe again.

 

I’m not saying that there is not still loads to do,  the weeds are still growing and deadheading continues, but I am taking time to enjoy the long awaited asters (Symphotrichum) and my head is full of plans for next year. The vegetable garden is slowly being cleared and I have even sown some late summer crops, a first for me. Tulips have been ordered and it will soon be time to cosy up with the seed catalogues.

Meanwhile, the roses carry on flowering.