Woke early this morning, the sound of seagulls fighting outside as the dustbin men crashed their way up the street. An early rise called for tea and a mooch around the garden.
I love the garden at the start of the day, before anyone else is out in theirs, the heat of the day still a while away even nature is caught between the transition of night and day activity. One can feel as though you're the only one about and the garden is truly yours to experience. Just standing on the lawn, the dew soaking into your feet and clouds still drifting by with a pinkish hue from the suns arrival a little earlier, can make you really feel part of all that's growing and breathing around you.
On a practical note it helps to see the garden at different points of the day, where shadows fall, what parts get the first rays of sun, how planting looks in a gentler light. In our garden the sun slowly creeps back and forth over the year, by winter it will never quite reach us, stopping teasingly at the fence at the bottom. Now though it happily if a little lazily pools under the grapevine in the morning, creeps around the fruit bushes at the back and peers blearily in through the kitchen window.
It's been a full year, time off on honeymoon at the start and the news of a new addition to our family to keep me occupied, new garden clients to meet and gardens to get to now, house DIY (nursery and making it a little more child friendly) and all my regular gardens to maintain has meant that time has sped away from me a little. Already nearly a week into August and I still feel like it's early Summer, in fact I'm not even sure I remembered Summer appearing, seems like only last week that we were in Spring.
So as I stood outside this morning with cup in hand imagine my surprise as I could already feel the first wisps of Autumn in the garden, the dew had a sharpness to it rather than it's usual cool refreshing nature, there was a nip in the air and I needed more than a tshirt to be outside. The day's already warming up and no doubt it'll be another beautiful summers day but I can't escape that feeling of seasonal progress. Already the columbines and poppies are waving their seed heads about, rattling as our cat pushing past them, the foxgloves are done and the grapevine is full with ripening fruit. Even though there's still plenty of warmth and energy in the days the light is slowly starting to fade, with evenings creeping in and the mornings becoming cool and crisp.
Autumn is one of my favourite seasons, it's definitely in the top four as long as it's a proper Autumn that is, so I always look forward to it as I time of harvest and activity. It's like Spring only in a different colour, while early in the year we wax lyrical over the vibrancy of the emerging green, how quickly plants sprout and grow. In Autumn it's the reds, oranges and browns that stop us in our tracks, sunlight through a Liquidambar or Boston Ivy is a sight that never fails to bring an admiring smile to my lips.
Tis the season where evergreens and leave fall comes into it's own, shrubs which for the rest of the year have been overshadowed by their more showy Summer neighbours now begin to state their piece.
Back in May I bought six Callicarpa and have since spread them amongst clients gardens and my own, having only ever seen them occasionally I've looked forward to the chance to tend them and watch how they grow.
My wife has been a little less fussed by my constant admiration of what to be fair looks like a lot of other shrubs, green leaves and little flowers, maybe not the most inspiring plant to look at through the summer whilst some hairy gardener coos over it promising rewards of jewel like berries to come. This morning I gave them a check and there are indeed bunches of green berries perched along the stems, joyfully I rub my hands together and think of the show they'll be giving in a few months time when the leaves have dropped and their vibrant purpleness shines out. Okay that may be a little over the top but it's always fun to grow something you haven't before and to be honest it can be a little hard to promise rewards of a plant you haven't actually got real first hand experience of.
So Autumn is approaching and though we may want to hang onto Summer as long as we can it's important to always be thinking of what's to come in the garden so as not to be left with a blank canvas when the season passes. Have a look around the garden and you can always see areas where you can tweak things a little, we're heading into a good time for shrub planting so while we sit and relax in the garden it's useful to have a bit of a evaluating eye on you.
Late Summer and early Autumn are superb for constructive and sometimes destructive pottering, shrubs that haven't quite pulled their weight can be moved as they head into dormancy without the fear of disturbing them too much or them dehydrating in the strong Summer heat.
Get into the beds and borders with the secateurs and have a good old tidy up of seed heads and old foliage. I like to clear a little under all my shrubs so as to allow air to flow smoothly, this can help reduce the threat of rot or fungal diseases settling in, especially under annuals that are still flowering and areas that may have become a little congested. It's important not to be too tidy obviously, leave some leaf litter for grubs and seed heads for birds but chop back those you don't want self seeding everywhere especially Lady's Mantle and Buddliea chop back or else you'll be digging them out the cracks in walls for years to come.
I'll be heading out more in the mornings from now on I think, that quiet, cool, crisp morning state sets me up nicely for the day ahead and makes for perfect pottering with tea in hand and cat pouncing on any leaf that dares move in a mildly exciting way. Tis a beautiful time to be out and I plan on enjoying it for many weeks to come.
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