Leaf Time

It really is feeling more autumnal now, we have collected our first leaves of the season from the courtyard, where they pile up into the corners and get soggy and slippery, of course it will all to be done again on Thursday after this wind today! We are making good progress in the garden and have started renovating the area behind the peach house, this involves removing any failing shrubs including this apple tree which Giles soon made short work off with the tractor. We have had to be ruthless as the whole area is covered in bind weed and white root which has intertwined with many of the plant roots, so our only option was to remove any that were badly affected, then dig out the roots by hand, a job which is strangely satisfying despite the labour involved. We must finish in the garden by Christmas to beat any bad weather in the new year so we push on and hope despite losing an hours work from next week, non of us likes working in the dark, although Giles has threatened to buy us all a head torch!

"How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and colour are their last days"
John Burrows

All In A Days Work

We had some unexpected visitors first thing yesterday morning, Giles and Nicky had already managed to herd them into the old pig sty area where they could be contained when we arrived. Shandy had been denied her wish to try her paw at being a  sheep dog luckily so they seemed quite a calm bunch. They happily munched what they could until the farmer came to collect them. We were rather glad to see them go as we had to keep the gate shut, meaning a bit of a palaver every time we had to empty the wheel barrows. The compost heap is  growing rapidly as we continue to cut the garden back, all we need now is a really sharp frost to help us by blackening the tender plants and making the decision easy as to whether or not to let them have a few more days. At home I have been waiting for three weeks now, with my winter bedding in reserve, for the pots at the front of the house to start looking scruffy so I can replace them, but so far they still look resplendent, I shall have to be patient a while longer and reprimand myself for wishing for cold weather!

"To create man was a quaint and original idea, but to add the sheep was tautology"
Mark Twain

Autumn Is Here

Despite the sunny picture on the right autumn is well and truly here, we found that out on Monday! Being the sort of girls not to be put off by a little rain we dutifully turned up and started work pulling ivy off the estate walls, this is the only job to be done if the weather is really foul. Two hours later we were on our way home considerably wetter than when we arrived. Next time I think I'll just turn over in bed and wait for a better day. Luckily we fared better today when we started the big autumn cut back. This is a chance to get hands on with the plants again, see how they have grown over the season, divide any that require it and collect seeds as we go. This is a time of year and a job we all enjoy to start with although by the time we have cut back the whole garden it does begin to pall a little, then we will turn our attention once more to the woods.

"If you can laugh together, you can work together"
Robert Orben

Last Hurrah For The Garden

We had a touch of frost for the first time yesterday and this surely signifies the last hurrah for the garden, but what a way to go out! A glorious October day followed highlighting the mellow hues of autumn. It was a pleasure to work and made me realise why we toil in more unpleasant conditions if we get to share in days like that. For some of the fruit it was the end of the road, we cleared the greenhouse of the tomatoes which will happily ripen off the vine now, pruned the fig which has not thrived this year and picked the last of the peppers now turning a bruised purple and red. Apple storage took up more of our time laying the fruit in rows in the dedicated store, and setting up the trestle table for the pumpkins to keep them out of the frost. Lastly we picked the pears, and not a moment too soon as the birds have discovered them and they are perfectly ripe. Normally I don't care for them as they never seem perfect, either too hard or overripe, but if you can pick them off the tree at just the right time they are perfection with mellow tones of honey and a slight fragrance you just can't put your finger on. We have been told to expect a return to normal Autumn temperatures on Monday with gales and rain, but I shall remember yesterday in all its glory and hopefully that will see me through to yet another Spring when the whole magical cycle will start again.

"October is nature's funeral month. Nature glories in death more than in life. Every green thing loves to die in bright colours"
Henry Ward Beecher

September Projects

Things continue in an autumnal vein at Norton Conyers, despite the vivid colours of the rudbeckias and asters we are nearly into October already. That annual bugbear of mine, mulching, has now started in earnest and we spent the whole day barrowing one sort or another to various parts of the estate, I wonder how many miles we walked yesterday! Our latest project is to erect a greenhouse in the old piggeries where we can over-winter the salvias and propagate new plants next spring. It is good to see new areas of the garden move forward and with the house due to officially open in 2016 we must make sure every thing looks at its best. There is much to do if we hope to make the deadline!
"By all these lovely tokens
September days are here
With summers best of weather
And autumns best of cheer"
Helen Hunt Jackson

Nicky in action in the peach house, we are still watering every day!

Swan Song

September is the swan song for the butterfly, in one last glorious celebration they glide and feast on the asters that seem to bloom solely for them. It was hard to work yesterday when I would much rather have watched their antics and delighted in their enchanted fluttering. They are bold now with nectar coursing through their veins, some even chose to alight upon us if they approve of the colour of our shirts. How we will miss them as the flowers slowly fade and their bright shades give way to the dun coloured tones of the sleeping earth. Luckily for us some will secrete themselves away in warm corners and crevices to emerge glorious into the spring sunshine once more, and recreate the butterfly dance again next year.

"Just living is not enough" said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower"
Hans Christian Anderson

A Change Of Heart

The weather at Norton Conyers may have been dull and dank yesterday, but when you have colours like these to brighten up your day you barely miss the sunshine! I have revised my opinion of chrysanthemums as boring petrol station blooms, just look at them glowing against the colour of the bricks with a back drop of Chinese lanterns and dahlias, it brings to mind a firework display and suggests that they are the perfect autumn flower. Every year I  rediscover plants I  previously disliked only to have my opinion changed when I see them grown well. Here that means in the traditional way as part of a cutting garden, also an idea that didn't please me at first with the regimented straight lines but one that I now eagerly anticipate as the rest of the garden dies down and this area comes into it's own.
"Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons"
Jim Bishop

A self seeded beauty in a forgotten corner