End of Month Review August 2024

Here we are, August is over and September is standing with one foot over the threshold.  "The equinox is coming" she chants as she sashays forward,"the equinox is coming".

As I walk into the front garden to start taking photos for this review I see this toe like thing on the gravel.  Is it a toe I think?  It almost looks like a beak and a tongue - what could it be?  A fallen half emerged bud from the Magnolia is the rather more mundance answer.  Oh well, it is still quite a striking find.

The Magnolia has had a bit of a crown uplift, it was overhanging the front gate rather too much so needed to let more light in.  This is step one of the major front garden project that I keep saying will start soon, and I am hopeful it will.

In the back garden the tender bananas are doing really well this year.  They live in pots all year so I can bring them indoors in the winter.  I have kept them well watered this year and the frequent rain has helped with this.  I have not placed them here previously and they seem to like it and so do I.

This is Musa striped sikkimens which I bought last year (I think) and it did not do much.  It was towards the end of the season when I bought it so I did not expect too much.  This year however it has put on growth and the stripes have developed on the new leaves.  This is very pleasing.

A recent new addition is the succulent table.  I have had a few succulents for a while and this year I seem to have bought a few more.  I can't seem to resist.  Next month, if I remember, I will tell you about the parallel agave addiction, this seems to be a thing too.....

This is Echeveria Giant Blue Curls and it is growing really well.  It is not exactly my favourite, but I do seem to coo over it rather a lot.

The Smell Me and Dye Garden is looking quite blousy and colourful.

The Madder is flowering, I think it is also trying to take over its side of the garden!  It is quite a 'vigourous' plant! (we all know vigourous means 'thug' don't we?)

The sweetpeas have been very good this year.  Sowing them late always seems to work well for me.  I am starting to let them develop seed now which is something I have not done previously.  I will be interested to see how the seed I collect this year will grow next year.

The zinnias in the Smell Me and Dye Garden are here really for the bees, they have been really good this year.

The Courtyard Garden is looking seasonal.  The huge flowers on the Hydrangea Annabel are being propped up by the chair.  The Rhododendron Lutea is turning its autumnal red.  You can just see the pink of the Hydrangea Miss Saori peaking out.  

The yellow table is rather dirty, I will give it a clean but I seem to be rust-printing bees onto it.  I don't know if they will clean off and I rather hope they do not. I like the effect.  

The pelagoniums are doing well this year, I have moved this stand to be in front of the conservatory and they like the extra light.  The coleus is one I bought last year.  I kept it alive over the winter, which in itself felt like a victory and then it got decimated by slugs.  I took it indoors for a few weeks in the hope that it would recover and then popped it onto this stand.  It has remained slug-free here and has put on lots of new growth.  This makes me happy.

I turn around from this spo and the garden looks season-appropriate.  The roses are doing well and the Japanese Anenomes are starting to flower.  They nod in time to the words "the equinox is coming". 

Oh and in the Coal Bunker Border the Hexadecimal is flowering, ok, its real name is Heptacodium miconiodes but Hexadecimal is easier for me to remember.  It is a true sign of autumn is coming in my garden and it is a great shrub.  It has got rather large so I prune it hard every year, I would not be without it as the scent is wonderful.

The apples are falling from the Bramley tree and with each thump as they land releases the words 'apple crumble'.  "I hear you", I reply, "there will be crumble."

There is a lot of tall pink wafitness in the Pond Border.  Mainly from the althaea cannabina which is slowly self-seeding and is one of my very favourite plants.  I have divided it a little too so that I have some in the Pond and Conservatory Borders, it just plays so nicely with the other plants.

The Prairie Borders have evolved, they are not really very prairie any more; the garden is changing.  The echinops and the perennial sunflowers are dominating one of the borders and the one in the forefront of the picture I had changed to be a pollinator border a couple of years ago.  Some grasses remain but not many.  I did pause to think did I want to keep the prairie look and maybe I will return to it, but a change is as good as rest as they say.

Tim sits by the Amicia zygomeris, which is doing well this year but still not flowering.  Maybe it never will.

The Cyclamen hederifolium are drifting through the garden, they are a total joy.

and the conkers are falling.  The ground is littered with open shells and the odd complete conker.  The squirrels do enjoy them.

This is the Chionanthus Virginicus I bought way back in the day to celebrate the life that was my fluffy cat Chesney.  I still miss Chesney; new members of my cat family do not replace the old, they just all take their place.  This shrub was relocated from its original position when I did not move house. I could not leave it so I had dug it up to put it into a pot.  It has been in the ground again for a few years and it has struggled to re-establish but this year it is suddenly looking good again.  I have pruned back the trees that are near it to give it more light and I think this has helped a lot.  

Now that the Pleached Hornbeams have been pruned the arch from this part of the garden to the next is better defined again, this makes me happy.

and look, the Edgeworthia is starting to bud up.  Always an exciting time of year.

I also took a moment to appreciate the Carol Klein Acer, which is now a goodly sized tree.  I have pruned some of the trees from around here as I realised they were closing in over the acer, she almost sang with happiness and almost visibly relaxed into the sun.

The pond is a disaster this year, yes this is the pond, yes I will sort it.  Flipping 'eck.

Take care and be kind.

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