My Little Garden 26th Sept 2020
As we head into autumn, it’s been a week of ominous Covid-19 statistics and bleak warnings for the months ahead. New restrictions reached the public domain on Tuesday but by the time the PM held a briefing at 8pm in the evening there seemed to be as much consternation on Twitter at the delayed start to The Great British Bake Off as there was to the threats of dire consequences for being caught disobeying the rules. Curfews and U turns were firmly on the menu, to add to the fact that most of the country can only socialise in groups of six. Living as I do in Trafford Greater Manchester, which has even tighter restrictions, that seems like something of a luxury to me as households here aren’t allowed to mix at all. Fortunately for my family situation, it was announced on Monday that grandparents are now ‘permitted’ to provide informal childcare. Given that my sons and daughters in law would be unable to work without said childcare, I’m somewhat relieved, as I’m sure are many other families.
In the garden, the weather has changed considerably over the last 7 days and my six choices have quite an autumnal feel. I love to see these seasonal changes and am now itching to get started on the autumn tidy up and bulb planting. With a little ‘help’ from my granddaughters I suspect!
These are my choices for the last week of September.
1.The cotinus has just a hint of it’s autumn colours with red tinged edging to its leaves. It will look spectacular in a few weeks’ time.
2. As summer flowers start to fade, the colours of the foliage become much more important. I like this persicaria although I’m going to have to move it due to the plans I have for the border that it’s in.
3. The pyracantha is full of berries. They won’t last long as the blackbirds will soon be devouring them, but for now they look very colourful.
4. A plant that has two seasons of interest is the chaenomeles, or ornamental quince. And yes I have placed a few fallen ones on the bricks for the purpose of taking a photo.
This is how it looked in spring with it’s pretty little white flowers adorning a shady fence. I don’t know the variety unfortunately. It was bought at a plant fair at Wisley a few years ago and I remember it was a new one, but the label is lost.
5. I can’t not include some autumn flowers and this is one of my favourite little asters sparkling with early morning dew. This variety never lets me down and it’s just smothered in flowers at the end of September.
6. And I’m going to finish where I started with the crab apple tree from the header photo. It’s been a delightful addition to the garden this year. From the blossom in April…..
…….. through to the little crab apples themselves. A great tree for a small garden.
And that’s my Six On Saturday for this week. Links to lots more ‘sixes’ can be found on the blog of The Propagator who is the creator of this weekly collection, and there are many more excellent photos and blogs on twitter under the hashtag #SixonSaturday
https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/
Wishing you a great gardening weekend!
