September

If you didn't have a calendar hanging on your kitchen wall could you tell what month it was? We can all tell

the season easily enough but distinguishing between the individual months can be more tricky, especially in winter. Since I've been working at Norton Conyers I've become more in tune with what happens in each calendar month, although Nature can play tricks by fooling both us and the plants with inclement weather that can make the garden slow to bloom, and muddle the usual signs. Luckily there is one month of the year that is usually foolproof, September is here tomorrow with all her glowing colours. The blues and pinks of high summer suddenly give way to startling luminescent yellows, mellow bronzes and vibrant crimsons. I like this month almost as much as May, it can still be warm but the temperature is usually more pleasant, I appreciate the crispness of early morning with its hint of cooler times to come, and the early autumn fragrances of harvested onions, ripening tomatoes and fermenting apples, accompanied by the hum of drunken bees and wasps gorging themselves on windfall fruit. It is also one of any gardeners favourite times of the year as we get to collect free seeds, a bounty that needs nothing more than a dry day for the looting to start. Already thoughts of the potential plants one can grow next year are flooding our minds!

"September; it was the most beautiful of words, he'd always felt, evoking orange flowers, swallows and regret"

Alexander Theroux