Walking around the cottage garden this week it feels very much like the end of summer. The dahlias are blooming, the dianthus are starting to go over and there is a crispness to the evening air that I know my summer plants cringe against. I love the autumnal change and welcome it as it signals the start of sweater weather, and which knitter doesn’t love sweater weather? So, here are 6 things happening in the cottage garden this week:
This is dahlia – blackberry ripple and it is the very first bloom I’m seeing this year. I didn’t lift them so I expected that these dahlias would be late but with this current change, unless we get a couple of weeks of good weather I see only two of these blooms ever opening fully. Lesson learnt, lift the dahlias and start earlier in the greenhouse for more blooms. It’s nice to know that they will survive outside here though.
The greenhouse tomatoes are about to ripen and the smell is divine. I had forgotten just how tasty and flavourful homegrown tomatoes are. So far we have had cherry tomatoes but the salads are almost ready…… it’s painstaking waiting for them. Little K believes that the elves come out at night and paint the tomatoes red if we have been good.
So if you have been a reader of this blog you will know of my love/hate relationship with fuschia. It’s redeeming quality is its food for the bees. Which are impossible to capture as they buzz about the flowers. IT’s a nice hum but this winter, this bush is about to have one mother of a haircut. Momma wants an outdoor breakfast nook and a lot less trees…….
My lavender had a bit of a haircut this week, er, a bit is an understatement but the cuttings I took two weeks ago seem to be very happy. I didn’t take much care when rooting these, I didn’t even remove the leaves but they seem ready to root and they are thriving!
Oh, how my love of sweetpea grows each year. I planted all the sweetpea outdoors this year and started none in the greenhouse or conservatory. That was a mistake and the germination rate was much lower than in previous years. So I’m stocking up on toilet rolls for next year. I’m eyeing up the seeds of this one though as it has beautiful long stems and very fragrant flowers.
I’m going to end this week with something new. This is what happens when you shake a foxglove seedhead over a plant pot. The germination rate was much higher than buying seeds from the shop so now I have the horrid job of trying to separate these and I have never done that with foxgloves before. I have two 5L containers who both have a host of foxglove plants so I guess my front garden is getting that makeover this year too. Who doesn’t like a challenge right?
Do make sure that you pop over to The Propagator ‘s page to check out more wonderful gardening posts and why not search the #sixonsaturday tag on twitter too to fill your feed with beautiful blooms. There is also a participant guide here if you would like to join in too. Looking forward to catching up with all of your garden posts this week too!
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