Into Autumn

If the weather is too wet or cold for gardening, there's a better chance that I'll be writing about gardening, so after another long break, here we are back at the gardening blog.  

We had our first hard frost of the autumn last night, so there was a white frost on the garden this morning.  Unfortunately, I had to dash off to work before it was light enough for photographs.  The garden is looking tidy right now, as we have kept the leaves swept off the paths and weeds out of the joints between the paving slab.  There are still a few late summer flowers but most of the colour and structure comes from varying leaf shapes and shades now.

The herb garden is certainly looking a bit dull without the flowers of the roses, salvias or verbena bonariensis.  Since this photo was taken, I've put some new pots in each corner, of the same design as the tall copper-Verdigris effect ones by the path in the photo above, planted up with tulip and crocus bulbs for the spring.  It's always nice to look forward to some colour for the new year. 

In the veg plot, the brassicas are thriving.  There is also a very decent crop of leeks, although a few have been affected by a rot problem of some sort which has collapsed the stems.  I need to tidy up the currant bushes and there will be some serious lopping of the large hazel tree beside the greenhouse this winter, hopefully to encourage the pollarded stumps to throw up some nice, straight poles for use as bean supports or even to make hurdles to edge the beds and enable us to build them up with extra compost.

Unlike last autumn, when we were laying our new paths in the veggie plot, we can take it easy in our garden this year and use more of our free time for exploring other gardens and parks.  

We've in annual tickets for Trentham Gardens, as I want to follow the progress of the woodland meadow plantings.  Here are a few photos from earlier this month...

We're also planning to resume our strolls through the parks of the Six Towns: here are some photos from last weekend in Victoria Park, Tunstall, which is also seeing some much-needed restoration and improvement work and will be interesting to keep an eye on throughout the year.

One good thing about the shortening days is that the sun now sets within view of the landing window, rather than behind our neighbours' house so, although the lack of daylight limits what we can do outdoors, we can enjoy some glorious winter sunsets.