It has been a warm November, until this week, and now a heavy frost today brings the temperatures back to normal, a busy morning cutting back and tying in summer raspberry canes at the community orchard and now back to my own garden.
The colours are still wonderful
The dogwood is lovely at this time of year, the red stems of cornus alba and the yellow stems of cornus flaviramea
The autumn colour on the blueberries. We grow them in pots with ericaceous compost, as they need acid soil which we do not have.
Even the hardy geraniums are going out in a splash of autumn colour
A good year for holly berries so will be great when I start to make the Christmas wreaths.
We still have flowers in the garden
Evergreen honeysuckle, flowering now
On the berm, Delosperma, newly planted this year so hopefully it will survive the winter.
I love the leaf markings on this Arum
With the late warmth during October there have been a couple of delicious surprises from the edible plants. Picked a kilo of autumn raspberries last week
For the first time ever the second crop of figs have ripened (well 2 have)
Figs produce two crops each year, the first we have been enjoying from late July to mid October, the second crop usually do not ripen in this country, and stay small, hard and green, then get picked off when the leaves fall to save draining the plants energy. Not this year, I have just picked two that have ripened, smaller, darker and quite different to the earlier crop, but just as tasty.
The garden does not “go to bed” for the winter just slows down a bit with bursts of colour and interest throughout the seasons.
My gardening also slows down with the cooler days and early darkness and there is less to do. Even if there are no jobs to do, a walk round the garden, maybe pick some things for lunch or tea, fresh air and a wonderful feeling.
Hope to do another blog in December.
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