The Garden Year: October 2021

October 1, 2021

Hello there and welcome back to my garden linky, which opens at the start of each month and stays open for the whole month - meaning you can link up at any time. You’re welcome to link any posts that have a garden theme - this could be your garden, the plants you’re growing or the gardens you visit, or anything in between - just so long as it’s related to gardening.

Plants in their prime this month

Beauty berry - callicarpas for it’s cluster of purple berries
Dogwoods
Michaelmas Daises

What to do in the garden this month

Move tender plants into a greenhouse or shelter
Cut back perennials which have died down
Prune climbing roses
The last mow for your lawn

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Post Comment Love 1 - 3 October

October 1, 2021

Welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suz ann e, where you can link any post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked and share some of that love. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’re here.

Happy October!

But seriously, how has that happened? I feel like we’ve missed a month (at least) somewhere along the way. Though this past week has felt the most normal, in a pre-Covid sense, for a long time. Petrol aside. I don’t have any petrol, and even less patience to queue but I know I will most probably need to break soon. But I really don’t want to join the bibbing idiots queuing for the garage down the road (and I should add I’m sure none of you are bibbing idiots). The bibbing and the perpetual queue outside our house means the garage has petrol, the other night (or rather morning) it went on until at least 1.30am, which wasn’t great.

But back to autumn. Aren’t these ceramic pumpkins lovely? MOH was trying to work out their purpose, and couldn’t quite comprehend their ‘ornament’ status. They’re made by the very talented Lindy Garner of Lindy Garner Ceramics, and I know these won’t be my only purchase.

The lodge with a gateway to the garden

September 29, 2021

Much earlier in the year while looking for a place to holiday in the UK during school holidays we stumbled across The Gatehouse Lodge at Easton Walled Gardens, and it looked idyllic. It was also very reasonably priced, and available on dates that suited us, so we snapped it up. Lincolnshire may not be on everyone’s holiday list, but it’s a beautiful county. The walled gardens are close to Grantham which has great transport links, and also less than quarter of an hour from my brother’s house as it turned out.

One of the attractions for me was the private entrance to the walled gardens, which holiday cottage guests could make use of when the gardens were closed. That meant we often had the beautiful gardens to ourselves and could pretend they were our own - the garden to holiday cottage was heavily skewed to the garden side here!

The homely and yet quirky interior was also a plus - not many holiday cottages come with their own chandelier and library, but this one did.

And this was how close to the gardens we were - I’ll share pictures from the garden another day.

Back in the living room we spent the evenings enjoying the view out towards the garden, and of the interior decor. Unfortunately the August weather meant we didn’t get a chance to make use of the small patio area, which was a shame.

It was great that the kitchen was well equipped, and the welcome package was very much welcomed by us. We now have a rule of checking out what holiday cottages have in the way of utensils and such before deciding what we might cook while we’re there - we didn’t need to here. In fact the only thing that was probably missing was some espresso cups - and you can live without them (or I can anyway!).

There were some great additions to the decor, this clock was one.

And I am rather partial to a fish shaped plate - we carried one around Dublin when we visited many years ago, and just about got it home safely.

It was a compact and bijou lodge, which we knew and were perfectly fine with. The bathroom was larger than ours, and tranquil - with some great tiles.