My Little Garden 31st October 2020
This week seems to have been overshadowed by talk of tiers, Christmas and the prospect of another national lockdown. Here in Trafford, Greater Manchester as I’ve said before (and sorry to bore) we haven’t been able to meet family and friends inside the house or out since the beginning of August, and it hasn’t made any positive impact on our Covid-19 figures. In fact, since the schools and universities reopened in September the stats have rocketed, and I can’t see the minor additional rules imposed by Tier 3 making any difference. And as for Christmas, I can’t believe the number of people I have heard complaining about either how the rule of six will ‘ruin’ the day or how they’re going to ignore the restrictions anyway. Surely potentially exposing great granny to Covid-19 isn’t what the Christmas spirit is all about.
In other news, we had to cancel a planned short break to Derbyshire this week because they are Tier 1 and we live in Tier 3. It was going to include a visit to Chatsworth so I am really disappointed about that, but there’s always next year (hopefully!) Anyway, at the last minute we managed to find a lovely hotel in Lancashire which shares our Tier 3 status so off we went. It rained and rained and rained again, but the hotel was lovely and it was a real treat.
When we got home after our 24 hours of luxury it was too wet to do any gardening, so I was very organised and wrote most of this blog on Thursday afternoon.
There’s a bit of a theme to my six choices this week and it’s all about the colour red because the autumn shades are really starting to show in the garden. As Storm Aiden is on it’s way the leaves may not hang around for very long though!
1.I’ll start with the Cotinus which is turning colour beautifully and the markings on the leaves, which you can see better in the header photo, are just stunning.
2. The last of the zinnia flowers has turned out to be red. All the others have been pink and I was expecting this one to be the same. I can’t believe it’s waited until late October to flower and I really must sow the seeds earlier next year. I don’t expect this one to survive the weekend.
3. Skimmia are great little plants. The dark red buds are produced in Autumn and provide colour through the winter until the flowers open in spring. This one is destined to be planted in a client’s garden next week but it fits nicely with my red theme so I’m ‘borrowing’ it.
4. Probably more orange than red, but the leaves of this pretty little dwarf cherry deserve to be included. I have it in a container at the moment, but am tempted to plant out in the border if I can find the room. If not it will have to be re-potted next year.
The spring blossom is very pretty so has two really good seasons of interest.
5. There can be no doubt about the colour of this shrub. The leaves of this lady in red are quite dark through the summer but in the few weeks before they drop they grow lighter and redder. A lovely shrub which provides a fantastic backdrop for other plants.
Including the tulips and wallflowers in Spring. (Just an excuse for a tulip photo really).
6. Any talking of tulips, I have one or two bulbs to plant in various gardens in the next two or three weeks, including some of these these beauties.
So that’s my Six on Saturday for another week. More on tulip planting next week (if the weather proves suitable for making a start) and in the meantime don’t forget that links to lots more ‘sixes’ can be found on the blog of The Propagator who is the creator of this weekly collection. There are also many more excellent photos and blogs on twitter under the hashtag #SixonSaturday
https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/
Wishing you a great weekend and I hope the storm doesn’t cause too much trouble.
