Close up of jug of flowers for Kate

 

 

In my garden in September

The seedlings are doing well although I wish I'd sown the wallflowers earlier. The plants I bought from the show I visited earlier in the month are still waiting to go in. This is partly because I want to dig out excess plants such as foxgloves, forget me nots and aquilegias for the garden at the environmental centre.

Border with late summer flowers and rosehips

The area around the path is looking quite good with Cosmos, Asters, Sedum, Nicotiana, Anaphalis and rose hips.

For a long time I avoided Asters because of mildew. I saw Aster 'Little Carlow' in a garden somewhere and loved it so I bought a plant. It has done really well although I have to protect early spring growth from slugs.  The only problem I had was forgetting to stake so it flopped over leaving a hole in the middle. I have read several articles recommending taking the top growth off to keep plants shorter and more compact so I have tried it with both the asters. I am really pleased with the results and will try it on other plants next year. The other benefit is that the tips I cut off were used for cuttings so I have new plants to give away.
The other aster is unknown and came from Mums garden. Its a lovely deep pink. Neither of the Asters have ever had mildew.

Aster 'Little Carlow'

One area I want to change is this border in front of the hedge. It's been dug out and replanted so often and I'm still not happy with it. It's the sunniest and driest part of the garden and the soil is full of hedge roots. Annuals prefer a soil that is not too rich so I think I will try this for my cutting garden.

Border in front of the hedge

I am still cutting flowers for my kitchen window sill. The Aster frikartii 'Monch' I wrote about in my last post has made a great cut flower. I snip off individual flowers as they die off.

Late summer and early autumn flowers

The jug includes flowers from one of my newest purchases, Chysanthemum 'Clara Curtis' and Penstemon 'Mother of Pearl'. Both are still waiting to be planted.

Chrysanthemum 'Clara Curtis'

Penstemon 'Mother of Pearl'

The weather has been quite changeable although most afternoons have been warm. One of the benefits of living on a hill and not been overlooked is the opportunity to see glorious rainbows such as this one.

Cut flowers

Here are the photographs I couldn't publish yesterday.

Aster Frikartii 'Monch' is one of my favourite plants in the garden. It starts flowering in July and still has plenty of buds on it. Bees, hoverflies and butterflies like it too.

Clary, dark Scabious from a mix, pink Cosmos and the last of the Larkspur. The Scabious has self seeded in the brick path. It's standing upright whereas the ones I have planted in the border have flopped over. I really like the colour, I shall attempt to save the seed.

As I write this the rain is pouring and the wind is howling.

Autumn is here.

A visit to a garden show and potting seedlings.

Yesterday my sister and I went to the annual Garden Show in Kings Heath park in Birmingham. We like going to this event, it's a friendly show in a lovely environment. We bought lots of plants, looked in the marquees at vegetables and flowers, picked up some information about wildlife, and had a picnic lunch in the warm sunshine. We had a great day.

Seedlings

Today I have been potting up some of the seedlings from the seeds sown a month ago (in the green trays). The seedlings all had their first set of 'real' leaves but I wasn't expecting the good root growth they had all made. I keep all my seedlings off the ground because of the slugs.

Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle'

Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle'

The hydrangea has been in this vase for a week. I really like its simplicity.

The cutting garden is slowing down. The Larkspur have finished, the Clary are nearly done. I am leaving the Nigella so that I can have seed pods.

A dark scabious self-sown in the brick path with Aster frikartti 'Monch' in the background

I have a vase of Aster frikartti on my window sill but it hasn't photographed well. It looks very airy and light. I'll try to photograph it again.

A job for the coming week will be to dig out all the forget-me-not and stipa tenuissima seedlings from the brick path and plant them in the borders. I will also be dividing plants to take to the environmental centre.

Incidentally, one of the plants I bought at the show is a chocolate mint. It smells like those peppermint creams that are covered in chocolate.