August - summer or autumn?

Cyclamen hederifolium

I've always tended to think of August as summer; but in recent years I've been more aware of its being summer on the slide.  (This has more to do with my perception than any change in the climate.)  It's the time of year when temperatures often start to drop a little, green leaves start to lose their greenness and early morning dews show up spiders' webs.  I haven't seen any of the latter yet, but the weather has turned much fresher and showery, and it can only be a matter of days until the webs show up.  At least the rain has got everything growing again; the lawn is amazingly green after all the heat we've had.  Two sure signs of autumn coming on - blackberries fruiting in the rough area behind the fruit patch, and the Cyclamen hederifolium starting to flower.

Blackberries

Another sign of autumn coming on is that the birds are starting to be less demanding about food.  There is still the one little sparrow fledgling being fed, and a couple of young pigeons were on the lawn the other day, but crumbs put out on the patio are taking longer to disappear in the mornings.  There are still plenty of birds about, particularly tits, dunnocks and sparrows, and some robins and finches; the neighbours have planted a lot of Verbena bonariensis, which has been attracting bullfinches (a bit of a colour clash) who then come to us for a drink.  We've also had a young green woodpecker poking around the lawn; we seem to see one most years, usually only for a few days.

Dahlia 'Cafe au lait'

The dahlias are finally starting to flower: the 'Sam Hopkins' is very fine, but the showstopper is 'Cafe au Lait' which has produced a flower a good 6in across (that's 15cm for my metric readers).  Unfortunately it's a bit pockmarked with holes, so won't be putting in an appearance at the Garden Society Show.  There are also a few asters starting to bloom, and also the phygelius, which has responded well to being repotted (as has a sucker removed from it and potted separately).  It doesn't look as though any of the hedychiums are going to oblige this year; perhaps I should have left them in the greenhouse, although it has been warm enough for them outside.  A surprise bloomer is also in a patio pot; in spring I found a few corms in the greenhouse, removed from a pot last year, and planted them into a small pot with a label saying 'crocuses'.  Once they started pushing up leaves it became obvious that, whatever they were, it wasn't crocuses, and they were in too small a pot; potted on into something of a more suitable size, they grew on well and turned into Gladiolus nanus 'Nymph', and very attractive too.

Dahlia 'Sam Hopkins'

Not crocus! ...

... but Gladiolus nanus 'Nymph'

Bean 'Moonlight'

On the edibles side, the runner/French bean cross 'Moonlight' is producing well, as are the courgettes and tomatoes.  My six aubergine plants have one fruit each and are showing little interest in producing any more; I should really have potted them on into bigger pots.  The red peppers are also tiny; my fault for allowing the first sowing to dry out and sowing the second lot late, and not potting them on.  Note for next year!

I'm particularly pleased that my little fig plant has produced a tiny fruit; if it overwinters successfully, we might have our first fig next year!

A figlet (look closely ....)

Pros and cons of drought

After the rain mentioned in the last post, we had a further 12 dry days - mostly warm, with some cool nights, but nothing like as hot as it had been.  This weekend we've had more serious rain, today especially.  It's amazing how quickly the lawn has turned back to green, at least where the grass is growing; the moss is remaining a barren greyish-brown.  While the grass wasn't growing, it was relatively easy to see the runners of the creeping buttercup and the nasty little creeping potentilla that has world-domination ambitions, and to pull those up; even if the plants are still there, at least they won't be increasing as much as they usually do.  I also rather randomly pulled up some of the self-heal that grows in the lawn - but really I have more productive things to do than try to hand-weed a lawn.

Recent jobs have included pruning the cordons and the wisteria, and picking plums (more of them, and of better quality, than we had expected).  But mostly it has been weeding, as usual.  The recent rain loosened the soil a little, making it much easier to fork the weeds out and pick over the soil to remove root fragments (a necessity where couch grass and vetch have been growing).  The clearing of the area along the terrace edge is progressing inch by inch; the remaining seedling dahlia plants have gone in there, a case of better late than never - if nothing else, it saves me trying to keep their pots watered. 

Dahlia 'Ambition' with Panicum

A couple of the ailing plants that seemed to have responded well to being repotted have in fact died; not only my Euonymus microphylla but also the Alchemilla alpina and one of my veronicas.  The other veronica is surviving with its roots down through its pot into the gravel, so I will have to be careful when I get round to digging it up.  On the other hand my little sage cuttings have started to romp away.  I'm also pleased with Cosmos 'Xanthos' and Panicum 'Frosted Explosion', both of which I grew from seed, the former as a pot filler (lovely soft yellow) and the latter for cutting; the Panicum has been filling out vases of dahlia blooms among other things.

It would be nice if some of the weeds would succumb to the drought, although I'm not holding my breath.  One weed that does look as though it's going to succumb, though not to drought, is a largish ash sapling that seeded into the big berberis by the drive.  I've been wondering how to get it out for some time, but this year I've noticed that the branch tips are bare - a sign of ash dieback.  It's on the way out.  Sadly so is the big ash in the field at the bottom of the garden; it is definitely showing similar signs.

It's not only the plums that have done well this year; there's a good crop of blackberries in the hedge across the road, which I'm raiding daily.  They're very early this year.  The shallots have done well, and the garlic fairly well (but small); the leek seedlings are also much fatter than usual.  These were all in the same bed, and although I watered them very occasionally I can't say that they have been pampered, so I'm very pleased with them.  The courgettes continue to fruit nicely.  But the other veg have been disappointing; few beans, unless the runners get going soon, and potatoes are small.  I really need to beef up the soil in the veg garden this autumn; it's very thin and hungry.

It isn't a good year for butterflies, however.  I've been counting for the Big Butterfly Count, and the results have been disappointing.  There are good numbers of whites - and I've seen at least two green-veined whites - and a few gatekeepers and meadow browns, and the occasional common blue; but only one each of red admiral, peacock, comma, small tortoiseshell and painted lady, which is sad.  I did see a small copper a few weeks ago, and a hummingbird hawkmoth has also been on the buddleja, but the total numbers have been poor.