October Chill

Plum tree, first weekend in October

Mid-October, and the leaves are falling.  The plum tree, whose leaves normally start to turn as soon as the fruit is finished, has only started shedding leaves properly in the past couple of weeks; there are still quite a lot of leaves on the tree even now. 

Nights have continued to be mostly chilly, with a couple of air frosts in the past week, and the other trees have started to shed leaves too: the hawthorn has lost nearly all its leaves, and the big ash tree is dropping quite a lot.  The other ash trees are further behind (as usual - I wonder why?).



Double rainbow this afternoon

The weather picture has mostly been sunshine and showers, the sun often pleasant when it's out but definitely autumnal, and noticeably cooler in shade.  Today, after a cold night, the sun was bright but not warm and, when the showers kicked in, it was quite nippy - in fact we had a hailshower in the afternoon.  A lovely double rainbow though.  Last weekend I managed a quick lunch outside; today I can't say I was tempted.  Tomorrow is supposed to be brighter.

Despite the chill, there are still a few flowers out: the phlox is still in bloom, the perennial cornflower and Japanese anemones have flowers, as does the rose 'Blush Noisette', and sweet pea 'Tutankhamun' is only now slowing down.  Sedum 'Autumn Joy' of course is still at its peak.  There are a couple of self-sown marigolds in the vegetable patch, and the cyclamen under the holly tree.  The nerines are still doing well, and the schizostylus, which I had given up on as it is almost entirely swamped by the euphorbia 'Fens Ruby', has put out a flower spike.  The chrysanthemums are sitting stubbornly in bud, but the Michaelmas daisy is showing a touch of purple.  There are even a few flowers on the big hellebore, and one or two cowslip flowers in the lawn.

A couple of new additions: a new, dark pink, camellia in a pot in the front garden, and an end-of-season bargain chrysanthemum, a huge russet red one, in another pot on the patio.  The latter is seriously potbound, but I took some root cuttings which seem to be flourishing, so I think I've done well there.  Note for next year's planting: it will need to be paired with red/orange/yellow flowers, and/or possibly dark heucheras as long as they don't have too pink stems.  Don't put it near the sedum.  In the pot by the window, the heuchera/dark purple osteospermum/penstemon 'Sour Grapes' combination is working well (now that the orange dahlias are long gone!) but needs some brighter pink in the mix.  And down at the bottom of the garden, I'm very pleased with the bacopa - two plants have almost covered the surface of the big pot, flowered all summer and are still going.  (Pot plantings are on my mind because the order for next year's tulips has just gone in.)

The weather isn't yet cold enough for the birds to feed with great urgency.  The blackbirds are taking berries

Maybe brighter tomorrow

(although it has been a bad year for berrying shrubs), and the bread put out on the patio is mostly attracting sparrows, the robin and the dunnocks (and, from time to time, the fieldmouse).  The green woodpecker is around occasionally, mostly after the cooking apples, and I've seen a nuthatch on the ash tree.  Tits continue to come to the feeders, and the long-tailed tits have been about - the other morning they were in the plum tree and on the peanuts.  We seem to have a little group of three partridges who come in regularly, and pheasants have started to return - probably because the shooting started last weekend and it's safer in here!

One red admiral butterfly today - probably the last of the season.