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 ....)