I ended last month’s post wondering where autumn was, well it definitely arrived! In less than a month, while there are still glimpses of sun, the weather has most definitely changed. So much so, that there’s a nod to winter’s arrival already too. That’s reflected by how much time we’re spending in the garden too - at the start of October the weather was still warm and sunny, so we started (and finished) painting the trellis around the heat pump. Between us we covered the three outer sides, then MOH quite literally picked up the brush to complete the inner three sides, once we’d replenished the paint.
The result is a much smarter housing for the heat pump, which now blends into the garage rather than being the prominent feature. It’s no surprise that this was one of the first jobs we tackled as even when we were viewing the house, this was something that was on our list.
WE DID PAINT OVER THE 1990S SHELL SUIT DIAGONAL DESIGN!
This month I’ve been tracking the mahonias and hebes which have started to do their thing. We had neither in our previous garden, though many years ago there was a large hebe at the end of our garden - it had grown so big that it didn’t enjoy the pruning we gave it, oops! Here though they’re smaller so we’ll be able to control those more - they’ve some really pretty flowers too, at the start of the month the flowers were just starting, so I’ll save the pictures for later in this post.
We have two mahonias and I’m keen to see how each do in the spots they’re in. One definitely has more sun, and it’s that one that I’ve snapped during the month. The other is in the inner border, and it’ll be interesting to compare them - though it’s currently much smaller and less developed. They’re fascinating plants, this one I’ve snapped leaning over the wall to get a top-down shot of it in the outer border.
As well as this there’s been other major news. Remember the potted rosemary that I brought with us from London, which I thought had died? Well, it seems not to have died after all - early in the month I snapped this admittedly blurry photo, with its returning green tips. Most bizarre, but perhaps it wasn’t a fan of the spot it was in - too much wind maybe? Anyway, I’ve moved it somewhere a little more sheltered to see how it gets on - hopefully it will pull through, but even so I may get another just in case.
You may have seen my post last week about Bramley Apple Day, well my crab apples have been having their say this month too. I wasn’t sure when to harvest them, and if I’m honest I think October was too late - they looked more apple like in September, so that’s something to note for next year.
They turned a glorious yellow shade though on the tree, with the branches truly overladen with fruit. I’d hoped to pick them and use them to make crab apple jelly, but even in the first week of the month I think they were too ripe. So a bit of a fail on using them, but definitely a learning point.
The hebe flowers are making up for it though, aren’t they delicately beautiful?
And look at the difference to the mahonia during the month - I can’t wait for this to burst into flower, and for the top to be crowned with its yellow flowers.
As you can see we still had gloriously blue skies in the middle of the month, and the butterflies were still regular visitors to the buddleia which is clearly enjoying its stay of execution - I’m so glad I went on easy on it, though it’s also blessing me with plenty of seedlings in the gravel so I know that if I choose to move it away from the tree then I can, as long as I do some pre work to ensure that if it doesn’t go to plan, I’ll have a backup plant ready to put in its place.
Towards the end of the month, and after Storm Babet which gave us a month’s rainfall in a single day, causing lots of problems and flooding throughout the county (thankfully though not for us, though the fields near to us did flood), the crab apples took a turn for the worse, and the poor tree looked even more laden down than before.
MOH gave the grass its last cut - once again prompted by the brown bin collection - and it was clear that more and more of crab apples were falling onto the grass, so as the tree was growing a little taller than we’d like we decided to give it a trim. The ladder came out for the first time since we’ve been here and I gave it a gentle prune, realising that the branches would spring up once the weight of the fruits was removed. I left them longer than perhaps I would have cut them, reasoning that if anything were to happen to it over winter, there’d still be room to manoeuvre.
It still has some fruit, though much less than before, and its retained its shape. Our plan is to keep this at a height that we can manage ourselves, but also to make use of the fruits. Since I made my autumnal wreath I’ve also plans to incorporate some of the fruits into next year’s version!
The rowan tree is also looking quite autumnal and suffering a little from Storm Babet, but I think that adds to its charm.
But it really is the hebe flowers for me this month. I’m not sure I’d ever looked at the detail of them before, but they are exquisite.
And talking of detail, I couldn’t help but take a photo of the dew on this spider’s web on our garden furniture.
Another pretty thing, though I’m less keen on its inhabitant not that it was anywhere to be seen - it was most likely making itself comfortable indoors, but that’s a whole other story!
