Tag: Cosmos

Autumn Sun

Published on by Catherine25 Comments

Autumn has arrived for those who mark their gardening season by the meteorological calendar. Despite the appearance of autumn in my garden since the end of July, I’m loving the sunshine and warmth that have unexpectedly arrived in my little corner of the planet. After all my complaints about the awful summer, I’m making the most of these five days of gloriously warm sunshine (24C/75F today!), appreciating the change and leaving my cosy scarves and gloves firmly in the drawer.

It’s Six on Saturday today and here we have six garden subjects that I’ve selected from the garden’s dwindling supply of plants.

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Late Summer Gardening: What’s Growing in Week Two of August

Published on by Catherine20 Comments

I opened the blinds early one morning this week and looked down on the garden. ‘Autumn has definitely arrived’, I thought, before remembering that it was only the 5th of August. The garden still has plenty of flowers, but that morning the garden looked defeated as the rain hammered down and the wind howled. I kind of felt a bit like that myself.

The explanation from the experts is that Scotland has either been under, or on the cold side of the jet stream that has stubbornly refused to move out of the way to allow warm air to flow up from the south. I think most of us here have accepted that all hope of a real summer has vanished. My mind is now starting to turn to late winter and spring flowering bulbs and plants. There’s always something else to cheer up home gardeners, isn’t there.

Here is my contribution to this week’s Six on Saturday.

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Late Summer Gardening: What’s Growing in Week One of August

Published on by Catherine21 Comments

My visiting family have all returned home and our house is quiet again. The garden has been receiving some much-needed attention – it’s amazing the difference deadheading and pulling annual weeds make! While we haven’t had a heatwave, we did enjoy a couple of pleasantly warm days this week. Hooray! Today I’m heading out to a lunchtime Family History event and the current rainfall means I can happily enjoy the the indoor activities without feeling guilty about neglecting the garden on a good gardening day!

Here’s my Six on Saturday peek at what’s blooming in the garden this week.

Dahlia ‘Carolina Moon’ is one of the more successful dahlias and has flowered again this year after being lifted and stored, over several years. It has plenty of buds and although the leaves are damaged, the flowers have so far survived with only a little bit of damage. How I wish I could say that about some of the others that have been mercilessly nibbled.

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Welcome to Autumn

Published on by Catherine27 Comments

Six on Saturday

Friday 1st September was notable for two big reasons. First, it was littlest grandson’s 5th birthday and he’s settled in well at school. We all knew he would. Second, if you observe the Meteorological calendar, it was the first day of Autumn.

So what do you like most about autumn? For me it’s the changing colour of the leaves on the trees, cool days where I get to wear a cosy scarf and gloves and not feel silly the way I did during a couple of days in July! I hope for a dry crisp autumn where fallen leaves crunch underfoot in the park and the sparkle of morning frost. Simple things to make me happy.

Our temperatures are apparently going to be 19C to 23C this coming week, better than many days we had in summer. My garden’s parched as we haven’t had rain for what seems like ages and there’s little rain showing on the weather forecast. I’ll have to get the hose out. In September?

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Gardening Resumes

Published on by Catherine26 Comments

My lovely family visitors have returned home. The house is quiet. We still have two grandchildren nearby to keep us on our toes (they do that with enormous ease) but it’s nice to be able to get back to my summer gardening duties. However, in just under two weeks my two teenage grandsons will arrive from the US for a visit, so I’ll possibly have to duck out again from Six on Saturday for a couple of weeks and I expect the garden will get a bit untidy, again.

It’s summer…so they say…and heading rapidly towards the final summer month, but I feel the garden is taking on that distinct feel of autumn a little bit before it’s time. Perhaps it’s because it’s so cool and there’s been so much rain or because the roses are currently taking a rest. In a few weeks though, there will be more colour back on the rose bushes, as they’re showing plenty of new growth. Meantime, colour is being provided by cosmos, clematis, hydrangeas, heleniums and rudbeckias (more about rudbeckias next week).

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