"....no shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, no fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, November!
With apologies to Thomas Hood for missing a very large chunk of his poem, but I just wanted to prove him wrong. The garden does look a little battered and weatherbeaten but there are still plants giving their all and when the sun does shine the flowers do too. The images above were taken this week on a sunny and exceptionally warm day. There again, it's not such a rarity for the weather to be as mild as it has been at this time of year. I well remember bonfire nights when our then little children stripped off the mittens, scarves, coats and hats I'd dressed them in, because it was November for heaven's sake, only to find the evening balmy and warm as June.
So I am enjoying the final flourishes that some of the plants are giving - in particular an enormously tall cosmos which is coming out in many many flowers in various shades of pink. It stands well over 6 feet tall and I have staked it against the onslaught of the wind.
My exalted echiums have germinated well and I have potted some of them on. I have also put to bed the tender Plectranthus plants I was given some years ago and which I almost lost entirely last winter. This year I am leaving them in the only completely airtight greenhouse, up on the bench and will add a blanket of bubble wrap as temperatures drop. As a precaution I have also got a few bits in water here in the kitchen in the hope of roots sprouting so they too can be potted up and nutured indoors.
Even as I write this we are, once again, being battered by strong winds, surely the most noticeable 'climate change' in this region. Or is it just that we live so close to the sea and are therefore more susceptible?
I must admit to being less than enthusiastic about the garden in recent weeks and having spent several days filling the garden bin with cut down aster stems would like to eradicate them! Not really, they fill all sorts of gaps but I hink I'll try chipping them instead as they take so long to break down in the compost and the bins just aren't big enough.
So the growing season has drawn more or less to a close and it's time to settle down to long dark evenings by roaring fires and dream about the crops to come next year. I have resolved to keep it simple by concentrating on veg that I know I can grow well and plentifully instead of, as this year, filling the beds too tightly and reaping very poor harvests. Back to beans, courgettes, beetroot, lettuce and tomatoes for me with a large sprinkling of sweet peas. Let's hope spring comes early!
