It’s been hectic these past two weeks and I suspect it’s going to be like that in the run up to Christmas. I missed last week’s six and didn’t manage to check out all your lovely blogs, but this week I’ll be able to take a tour and say hello.
The garden is in a sad state, there’s been so much rain and I’m tired of digging in heavy, muddy clay. I console myself with thoughts of snowdrops, narcissus, muscari, hellebores, little iris reticulata and more, that will bring colour back to the garden from late winter through spring. Perhaps this autumn will morph into a beautiful crisp winter. 😊
Acer ‘Bloodgood’
I caught sight of the Japanese Acer’s colour from an upstairs window on Monday morning. When the sun shines, the tree glows – but this was a heavily overcast day and the colour seemed unusually strong, a rich red with purple tones. I went out and took a few shots before the rain started again. It’s in a fairly sheltered area of the garden and the leaves have collected below the tree, but the colour of those still on the tree was beautiful. I’m glad I got a few shots; by next morning they were gone.
Hydrangea
The colours of the hydrangea leaves are captivating, if they can hold on a little longer I’m sure they’re going to be even more lovely than they are just now.
Rosa Bonica
These photographs were taken yesterday morning, the 13th November. What a pretty sight for a cold, blustery day so late in the year.
Heuchera ‘Wildberry’
Now, this is what I call purple. A vivid steely purple and probably not for the faint-hearted. It has waited a good number of months to find it’s home in the ground, but last week I finally braved the rain and got it into the soil. I’m hoping that its yet-to-flower plant-companions will blend well with its metallic colour.
Seedlings
The seeds of Ammi visnaga were sown during September, and growth has been slow, but steady. They’re tiny, but I potted them on during the week. They’ll go into the cold frame where Monty Don says they will not put on any growth over the winter but will take off in spring. I’m sure he’s right.
Up, Up and away
We knew that stormy weather was coming, but it wouldn’t be any different from any other storm; windy weather is one of the main features of where we live. We’re used to it (that doesn’t mean we don’t complain about it). “I’ll photograph the leaves on the ground tomorrow”, I told myself. When tomorrow arrived the trees were bare, but there were no leaves on the ground. The wind had taken them over the fence, into the fields or over the rooftops and onto the beach. Who knows. I had no leaves to photograph – instead, crab apples were littering the ground. Loads of them, and they’ve been dropping daily since.
Just for comparison, these were the leaves on the path on 7th November last year.
This week I’ve lifted the dahlias and planted a standard rose, ‘James L Austin’ but more about that another time. The tulips will be planted next week (that’s the plan) and that will be another job ticked off the never-ending list. As quickly as I score one item off the page, another (two or three) takes its place. But I think that happens to all of us. Meantime, I hope your autumn is still rich in colour and that you’re staying safe in these troubled times. Take care and be sure to check out more blogs from around the world on Six on Saturday.
About Six on Saturday
To join with other garden enthusiasts from around the world, and see how they garden, just take six photographs and post them to Twitter and/or your blog each Saturday. You can get all the details from The Propagator who kindly set it all up.
All photographs copyright of Catherine Wood unless otherwise stated
Notes From My Garden 
I’ll have to get Acer ‘Bloodgood’ for the garden. We grew it years ago and lost it and seeing your photographs makes me wish for it again.
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The colour was quite intense this year Paddy, it was a nice surprise.
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A beautiful maple.
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Welcome back! We missed you!
Gosh! The A. ‘Bloodgood is a magnificent colour! You do have some lovely colours in your autumn garden! It is lovely that the roses continue to bloom and add their softer colour tones to the garden. Heuchera have become one of my favourite foliage plants, and the variety of colours available are all too tempting! What a crop of crab apples! Good luck with successfully completing all those other jobs you have lined up for the week!
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Oh thank you – it’s always nice to be missed. 😁 Right now the wind has dropped but the rain is falling heavily and I think the garden is running out of steam. I’m busy planning Christmas and next year’s seasonal colours. We have to always have something to inspire us, don’t we.
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This Heuchera looks a lot like mine named ‘Forever purple’ and the colours are fantastic right now!
Very pretty acer too… You spoiled us this morning in colours, Catherine
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It is very similar, Fred. I can never figure out how they are able to differentiate between very similar-looking plants. Many look identical to me.
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Acer ‘Bloodgood’ is indeed that! Love the shot of the fruit on the lawn, makes a change from leaves, very original.
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They’re harder to get off the grass than leaves though. We put a garden tub down and made a game out of it for our two-year-old grandson. The only problem was that they ended up well into the borders and the following day I lifted my watering can and guess what I found… 🤣
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Quick thinking there Catherine! Just a little fine tuning and it will be the perfect game. 🙂
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We’re working on it. 😁
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Lots of lovely autumnal colour, particulary the acer. The flowers on your hydrangea still look nice and colourful. Mine seemed to go over very quickly this year. That’s an awful lot of crabapples!
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I’m surprised at the Hydrangeas this year – I still have a good few white flowers on H. ‘Limelight’ and I noticed yesterday that H. ‘Black Steel Zebra’ has a couple of new blooms opening. Weird. Yes – way too many crab apples were blown off the tree – the pics only show a small selection of what was on the grass.
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What will you do with all those crabapples? I made some jelly with mine but was rather underwhelmed with its taste this year. I will leave them on the tree next year although I don’t think the birds are too interested in them. Lovely colours in your garden still.
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Sadly the crab apples went into the compost – and we’ve been lifting them daily. Neither of us eat apple jelly and I don’t know anyone who would use them. We usually leave them for the birds. The fruits soften a bit later in the year and they peck at them then – though I’ve noticed that quite a lot of those on the ground had been nibbled.
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If you are so close to the beach, are you able to collect seaweed for the garden? The heuchera is a real beauty.
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We collected seaweed from our rocky beach (we have two, the other is sandy) last January (it was freezing!), chopped it and used it in the garden. I’ve thought about trying to make a liquid fertiliser with it Noelle, but the thought of a bad smell puts me off!
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One year the wind blew all the leaves away in our garden. My husband has spent every year since hoping it will happen again so he won’t have to rake them up.
I see your Bonica is still flowering away too. What a star she is.
Beautiful photos as always. I particularly liked the Hydrangea leaves.
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I can understand how your husband feels. 😂
I’ve just been to your blog and notice that you have Bonica still blooming in your rose garden. It’s a great little plant! I like the hydrangea leaves too – I’m hoping they’ll stick around for a while…
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Pity you couldn’t rescue all those crab apples. Beautiful roses.
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I did feel a bit guilty about putting them in the compost bin. 😕 Consoling myself with the knowledge that we still have plenty left on the trees for the birds. 😁
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What a lovely colourful post for this time of the year. Bloodgood is gorgeous. I have a very young Acer in a pot and it suffers dreadfully from the wind here. I must find it a more sheltered spot but I’m not sure I have one! Heucheras are my favourite foliage plants and usually grow well, but one of my latest one seems to have tiny holes in all of its leaves and I have no idea what is causing it.
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When I bought ‘Bloodgood’ I made a windbreak screen to sit round it. It helped it get through a couple of winters until it was growing fairly well, then I took it away. It wasn’t sightly, but it was only there during the winter.
That’s not great news about your Heuchera. I haven’t seen anything like that on heucheras but my golden hop was covered in tiny holes this year and last year and there was no sign of any predators. I hope you find the culprits.
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That’s a good idea. I have a windbreak in the shed I could use.
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Bonica – a lovely rose indeed. I’m in the market for an Acer Bloodgood – yours is a knock-out.
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The colour has been good this year – though I like it best in spring! 😁
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Hello Catherine! It’s good to see you back with such beautiful Autumn colours. What will you do with the feast of crab apples? I hope you had a good gardening week, able to tick off one more job than you add.
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Sadly they went into the compost bin Pádraig, the birds are pecking at those still on the tree. Oh, and all the jobs are finally getting tackled.
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I sowed ammi at the end of August last year Catherine, they came through the winter ok in a cold greenhouse but only a couple of them fared well when they got planted in the garden. That was probably down to me. I have sowed them again this year but in September. My orlaya though sown at the same time as the ammi were beautiful 😄
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I have my fingers crossed for them Anna – they seem to be doing ok in the cold frame, though overnight temperatures are dipping below zero now. 🥶
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Catherine, Thanks a lot for the visual treat, especially that rose👌🏻🙂
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Thank you, I’m glad you liked it. 😊
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🙏🏻
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