Dealing with the debris

Leaving the garden for any length of time is always a little nerve-racking.  Even in October and early November, when the weather is unlikely to be very extreme and there are few pressing jobs to be done in the garden, and even knowing that a kind neighbour is keeping an eye (and some watering) on things, there is always the concern that you might return to something unexpected.  While away on holiday we read online reports of heavy rain and the odd gale at home, and some chilly nights, so we weren’t surprised to return to rather a wet garden and cold-blackened dahlias, but there was nothing that was unusual for early November.  Piles of dead leaves on the drive and veg patch, and lying less thickly on the lawn (I would guess that the leaves from the big ash tree were blown away by the gale), were waiting to be dealt with.  The courgette plants were, as expected, only fit for the compost heap, and the summer bean plants were over (though I managed to salvage a few ‘Blauhilde’ pods for eating and some Borlotti pods for drying); the late-sown pea plants were still bright green but the pods were in poor condition.  All of these, plus the sweet peas, which were not completely dead but had collapsed into a heap, and the remains of the other dead (or nearly dead) annuals have been pulled up and added to the compost.

Gardening is often a regularly repeating cycle: 2019 sweet peas pulled up, more sweet peas sown for overwintering, to provide colour and scent in 2020.  I will put them in the same pots on the terrace, since they did so well there this year.

The late-sown veg seeds have not been a success; although some had germinated nicely, they have now disappeared (slugs, probably, although the pigeons and pheasants may have had a hand, or a beak, in it), with the exception of the parsley.  The various brassicas that I had planted out and covered with fine mesh netting have also gone, and again I suspect slugs; the netting would have kept birds off.  Ah well, an opportunity to clear those beds and mulch them heavily, in my new no-dig style.  Unexpectedly, however, the antirrhinums still have flowering stems to offer for cutting, and the little ‘Pink Sunday’ salvia, about which I had been so unkind, is standing up to the weather very well.  There were even a couple of Nerine bowdenii stems for a vase; they’re protected by a big, self-sown Euphorbia characias (which is casting far too much shade for them, but they don’t seem to mind too much).

Antirrhinums and Salvia 'Pink Sunday'

Mahonia 'Winter Sun'

With so many fallen leaves about and plants such as dahlias in need of being dug up/cut back, the garden has a sorry look about it at the moment.  However there are small patches of colour and other interest.  The pot of red dwarf chrysanthemums on the patio was in full flower on our return, and is only just going over now; the Mahonia ‘Winter Sun’ is doing what it says on the tin; and there are berries galore, mostly on the cotoneasters but also on the Viburnum tinus and the Euonymus europaeus (spindle).  And if you look closely, the leaves of Cyclamen coum are out, ready for the delicate flowers later in the winter.

Euonymus europaeus 'Red Sentinel'

Cyclamen coum

Winter feels like it has come early.  There was no autumnal warm spell this year; temperatures have been on the low side, with much chill and a few frosts, and one day we awoke to an unexpected light covering of snow.

There is plenty of wildlife about.  The squirrel has been visiting, and one late afternoon D spotted a big fox tucking into one of the windfall apples.  I wonder if he was responsible for the pile of pigeon feathers on the lawn?