Garden diary: October 2006

22 October 2006 - A wild autumn tangle

This week I've been looking at the garden and thinking I should probably get around to doing some actual gardening. When I was talking to my mother at the beginning of the week she said that they had done most of what needed doing in their garden, ready for winter. I had that slight feeling of guilt we gardeners get when we've not done any actual gardening for a while.

The following day I wandered about the garden and I wondered if I should try to do something with the happy tangle. There are long bits of climbing roses waving about in the air that should probably be secured to something, and leaves beginning to fall onto the flowerbeds and paths, from the Virginia creeper. Fallen apples have landed all over Woodland Corner, and into the pond (or pong, as I just typed, and it will probably pong, if I don't remove the offending debris).

I have removed some of the fallen rotten apples from the ground, and swept the leaves off the path, but that's only because I kept slipping on rotten apples and slimey leaves. Otherwise, I'm waiting for it to look like it's all dying off ready for winter. And so far it doesn't look like that at all. Many things - most things - still have their leaves, and many things seem to be growing still. A clematis has thrown up a tendril and attached itself to the lower branches of the apple tree.

It really has been mild this autumn - weirdly so. On a couple of afternoons this week Rosie the cat and I were sitting on the garden chair in warm sunshine and it felt almost like summer. The air was full of tiny insects, lit up by the low light, hovering above the lush greenery in the middle of the garden. On the wall, the ivy is flowering, and covered in insects too. All slow and tranquil out there, and lush and full, like the summer is extending itself a little further.

I've planted some bulbs in pots, and have tulips still to be planted. Though I can't quite remember where I've put them. Presumably they're out there in the messy shed.

The dahlias continue to flower, all red and burgundy and pink, loud and brash and lovely, flopping about all over the place. And, most exciting, my clematis 'Gravetye Beauty' has been flowering, for the first time. Photos to follow.

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