The garden, like an ageing beauty, (to use Helen Dillon's phrase) loses its freshness in August. I am reluctant to accept that it has peaked for this year - but here is the evidence - this beautiful leaf is one of the first to turn, and with it the garden turns towards late summer and autumn and that faint tinge of melancholy....
But there are pleasures to come - crocosmias, rudbeckias, aster, lythrum, japanese anemone, helianthus, phlox and more.
I try to retain the fresh vitality of the earlier garden for as long as possible, and one of the best ways to do this is to cut some plants down to the ground, water and feed, and wait for fresh new leaves to come up.
It's hard to do because it leaves holes, reveals weeds and slug damage and disturbs the whole integrated feel that the garden has attained at this point. But I steel myself and do it anyway!
next posting....which plants get the chop...
But there are pleasures to come - crocosmias, rudbeckias, aster, lythrum, japanese anemone, helianthus, phlox and more.
I try to retain the fresh vitality of the earlier garden for as long as possible, and one of the best ways to do this is to cut some plants down to the ground, water and feed, and wait for fresh new leaves to come up.
It's hard to do because it leaves holes, reveals weeds and slug damage and disturbs the whole integrated feel that the garden has attained at this point. But I steel myself and do it anyway!
next posting....which plants get the chop...
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