Autumn surprises

"There is a harmony
In autumn, and a lustre in its sky,
Which through the summer is not heard or seen,
As if it could not be, as if it had not been!" Percy Bysshe Shelley

In the northern part of Europe, we are able to enjoy the power and the wonder of the changing seasons in an exceptional way. In southern England, as I drive through the country, I pass through beeches with leaves blazing, hawthorn berries give the green of the hedges a rusty hue. Walking through the village I see wisteria in yellow and sumac in bright dark red.

In our little garden everything is changed. I no longer concentrate on individual flowers or weeds, I take in the collages of colour as leaves turn to yellow, orange, red and purple, and forget the obsessions of the summer.

Sometimes a neglected corner brings surprises. I didn't think that when in the spring I planted witch hazel in a big pot, I would be now looking at a picture that included yellow leaves, a lily stalk and the remaining green haulm of a sweet pea. 

 Or at the effect made by the brightly marked leaves of pulmonaria against the fallen leaves of the Viburnum plicatum. 

The breeze-block wall is now mainly covered by a regenerated Virginia creeper, at it's best at the moment.

Each day I tell myself that this will be the moment to tidy up and prepare for winter ….. and each day I put it off till the next, so that I can enjoy the ever-changing patterns. The first frost to penetrate our little sheltered space will tell me when to get down to tidying.

Competition

A Flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it, it just blooms. Anon

Gardening involves competition. I don't mean entering prize marrows for the flower and produce show, I mean the competition that we participate in every day that we work in the garden. We compete against the weather and the weather always wins. We also compete with the plants that compete with each other, and this is a competition I intend to come first in.

 

We returned to England after 6 weeks in France, where hollyhocks, cardoons and mulleins rule.

 

Meanwhile, the cottage garden in Dorset has been looked after by Rachael who has watered the citrus and Streptocarpus plants in the house, and the pots in the garden; she has dead-headed roses and lilies.



So at first glance, everything looks fine. The trouble is that some things have flourished at the expense of others.
 

I don't really like to call plants 'thugs', because that implies that they have a say in how they behave. But there is no doubting that when plants have the conditions that suit them, they will out-grow the neighbours that are of a more delicate nature. I have been very grateful for these successful plants while the garden was in development, because they fill spaces that are waiting while I experiment and get to know the 'terroir' and gradually populate the garden with the plants that we enjoy the most.

Wild strawberries and nasturtiums are the most troubling at the moment. The strawberries, with their clear green trifoliate leaves, scramble over the little stone walls in a most attractive way and, as a bonus, have charming white flowers and lots of fruit. However, they have put out so many stolons that the more compact plants such as pinks, and osteospermum have been swamped in the process. A prostrate phlox hardly has a chance of survival. I must win the competition for the weaker plants by putting a lot of wild strawberry in the compost bin.

The nasturtiums, of course, grow from seed, the seed that was scattered by last year's plants. There were lots of nasturtiums last year and so there are lots this year – lots and lots and lots.


Something has been attacking the leaves (black fly/snails?), so the plants are leggy, with few flowers, and many stumps which no longer terminate in leaves. Any space left in the compost bin has surplus nasturtium plants in it.
 

There are other plants on my hit list, but they may find new homes. Alchemilla mollis and yellow archangel will go to Burgundy, and Japanese anemone to Brussels. I like it when plants can find a new home, but compost is useful too.