Fall leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day.
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreathes of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night's decay
Ushers in a drearier day.
Emily Bronte.
Well, here we are at the end of August. It has been a good summer in the garden; we have had plenty of rain and it has been quite warm − in other words, ideal growing weather. Summer work is easy in the borders, it is just a matter of keeping them weed free, dead heading and knowing when a plant is finished and needs to go to make room for another which is about to start showing off − or maybe just a cut back, as many of our plants will give a second flowering. The lawn on the other hand is at its most demanding in August and keeps Geoff busy feeding, weeding, mowing and edging. We have had a lot of compliments on the lawn this year – again, conditions have been good − but expert care shows.
Thanks to all who supported our plant bring-and-buy; I am pleased to say that we have made over £70 which I think we intend to spend on pots and plants for the heather garden. For those of you who don't know, we had some big half dead conifers cut down in the heather garden which has left us with gaps and stumps, so we thought it would be nice to place large pots on the stumps and fill them with colour to bring a little impact where once it was dull.
As for falling leaves and all of that doom and gloom … ‘not just yet’, I am happy to say but, once the leaves start to fall in the graveyard they make their way straight to the parsonage garden so we have lots of work to look forward to in September and October. In the meantime, let's enjoy the last of the summer and the autumn flowers. As you will see from Chris's photos we still have a lot of colour and some beautiful blooms in the garden.
Please feel free to let us have any comments or suggestions for the garden, we will be pleased to hear from you.