Equinox

A vase of autumn flowers - sedum and rudbeckia

It has been all about the weather, this year.  The autumn equinox usually brings strong winds, but not this time.  A short spell of good weather broke on Friday with a thunderstorm the likes of which I don’t think I’ve seen in this country – hours of thunder and lightning, and rain hammering down all afternoon.  Then further heavy rain for at least part of most days since.  Several roads locally have been closed, and despite our relatively un-floodable position we had a lot of water in our cellar.  It has been worse in Central Europe, with serious flooding (as D, who was there and found himself stranded in Belgrade for a couple of days, can attest).

The equinox has brought all the usual autumnal developments in the garden, both animal and vegetable.  As the birds finish moulting and look to establish winter territories, they’ve been returning to the patio to feed; not just the summer cast of sparrows, dunnocks, robins, tits and blackbirds but also at least a couple of willow warblers/chiffchaffs and the odd blackcap – and, after a few months of absence, Lefty the lame woodpigeon has started coming for breakfast again.  I wonder where he spends his summer holidays?

A less welcome autumnal animal appearance is that of mice in search of warmth and food in the house.  We’ve no idea how they get in – upstairs! – but two have been caught in the humane trap this past week.  One I didn’t find in time, and he had to be buried outside, but the other little fellow was taken a couple of miles away and released in a country hedgerow to live his best life in the wild.

At least the rain has been keeping the plants going, but on the other hand, it hasn’t been good for seed-collection.  One of last year’s radicchio plants apparently survived both harvesting and the winter cold and I left it to flower and set seed; the flowers, bright blue, were splendid but I couldn’t find any seed in the heads afterwards – too wet?  That certainly seems to have been the problem with Cosmos ‘Xanthos’, from which I collected seed last year (and sowed it successfully this spring) but whose spent flowers are just sodden this time round – no viable-looking seed anywhere.  I’ll have to buy a fresh packet for next year.  It’s a useful plant in pots, a good filler and a soft yellow that fits most colour schemes.  I had this year’s plants in the windowbox, along with pink salvia and fuchsia, and in the big pot with Dahlia ‘David Howard’. 

Sodden cosmos in the windowbox

One plant which I hadn’t considered saving seed from is lobelia; it normally needs sowing very early to get it going in time.  However lots of lobelia has appeared from nowhere in the two tubs that hold my miniature daffodils, and I can only assume that it’s self-sown (in the used compost that I used to top-dress the existing contents?); it’s an unexpected but very welcome hit of colour.

Lobelia in the tubs

The first nerine flower buds are up – something to look forward to as the cold weather kicks in, which it is forecast to do at the end of this week.  Autumn is here!

Nerine buds