MID NOVEMBER AND STILL MILD

Well  it is mid November and the weather is still mild, there have been a few cold nights but no frost to speak of!

So the garden is still wearing it's Autumn colours .

The grasses and Phormium are looking good.

The Bamboo is still going strong

This Acer that we planted as a tiny twig is showing off it's winter colour.

A closer look of the leaves.

The Flax , Viburnum and Mahonia .

 Closer look at the  Mahonia.

The climbing Hydrangea.

The holly in berry.

 A view of the stem of the Snake Bark Maple.

A mass of shrub colour.

The pink  Phormium .

A peek in the greenhouse.

This lovely Hydrangea as been in flower for months.

A fern

More Fern's still in leaf.

A smaller Acer.

A Cotoneaster in berry.

This enormous Honey Bush should have been frost bitten and back down to the ground but instead it's in FLOWER! A very rare thing!

So now we are hoping the frost stays away long enough for them to flower, the flowers smell of honey when they open, hence it's name.

In the words of the minions BANANA!!! Dried out and ready to be put to bed for the winter.

The Green BANANA! that can stay in position as long as it's protected! Looks like some strange sort of scarecrow!

You can see the final pink Anemone just under the statue of  Niamh  the water nymph who will be covered up soon to see her safely through the winter months.


So that was a little wander round the back garden late this evening just before it started to get dark.



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NOVEMBER BRINGS THE COLD.

I do not know where October went! We have been very busy with other projects in October and now that's finished and things have calmed down.
Well almost as our youngest daughter gets married this month, so we will only be tidying things away for the winter in the garden and doing the jobs that must be done until this next event is over by which time we'll be almost into December.

But I thought I would share a few photo's of plants that have come back into flower due to the mild weather we have had up till now.

This little pot of pinks which flowers so well over the summer has burst back into flower in the last few days.
Paul's taken some cutting's of this lovely plant so hopefully we will have more to plant out next year.

The beautiful pink noisette  Ballerina Rose is also in bloom!

even this honeysuckle is full of new flowers!

The Iceberg rose is still reaching for the sky with it's blooms.

The Melianthus Major ( Honey bush ) is getting bigger than we have ever seen it! It's so big that we will need to move it once the frost's and cold weather have caused the die back, to another place with more room, so another job to do before winter sets in.

Even the fuchsia's are still going strong!

The pelargoniums still going strong along with the yellow, evening primrose you can see behind.

more flowers.

So this was still all on show this weekend but tonight the cold weather and even colder nights have arrived so over the coming days that plants will finally decided that it's time to rest for the winter and go back to sleep.


I will finish with another photo of the pinks, because they are looking so nice and deserve the honour.

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MOVING ON ANOTHER FEW INCHES.

Today Paul decided to clear part of the raised bed at the end of the garden and plant his grasses.
We have not split any of the plants in this bed for a good few years, so it is beginning to look overgrown and out of control.

On the way down to take the photo's I came across Mabel the lodger cat sunning herself on a pile of dried weeding, I don't think the ducks were too happy about it!

Paul had already made a start.

There were plenty of nettles plus the Geraniums have taken over quite a bit due to not being split in previous years.

This area will need sorting also over the next few months.

This Acer leaves are turning a beautiful red.

Lots of Apples on the Cider Apple tree.

Last weeks work is looking good

This side shadier but also looking good.

Yet more leaves turning red.

Yesterday Paul finished digging up the Roses and Clematis from this bed. It is amazing how open it now looks when you walk out the door of the house that's to the right hand side.I am really looking forward to having this building taken down and seeing the space opened up!

Here the raised bed area has been cleared and the grasses along with the green Banana have been positioned and planted.

From the side, Paul moved a formium with red leaves from the front garden to this area to add a splash of colour.

This space will need to be sorted out next weekend if the weather holds good.

This Orange Abutilon is still give some colour it the Cloisters.

When we put the new fencing up I took a few photo's from the neighbours side, shown above.

He spent a big part of this year levelling the ground and then relaying the lawn.

I thought you like to see the length of our garden if it was not split into rooms and different levels, our neighbours garden is narrow than ours we have about another ten foot in width up by the house going down to about another six foot wider at the bottom. Also from this position there is about another 25 ft of garden behind me! Ours must look like a jungle compared to this!!

GRASSES...PLUS....

We have spent today cleaning up the patio area where over the summer things have been left about and rubbish stored to one side.

It's involved a trip to the recycling!! and we are to make another later before they close for the day. But when we were at the garden centre earlier in the week they had some nice grasses on offer. Paul loves the tall grasses and we decided that we'd have a break from the cleaning up and go and buy three of them for the raised garden, which is at the very end and will need weeding and some splitting of plants before the winter sets in.

When we arrived there was not so many left and Paul could not find one of the one's he particularly wanted, so we decided to have a look round then go along to another garden centre.

Well we bought three grasses at the first garden centre then two more at the next so that's five not three!!

In the end we purchased five grasses.
Miscanthus Ferner Osten, Falmingo and Gracillimus plus Panicum Squaw and Hameln.

Yes that's a couple more than we went for but that's not really the plus, this is what else we bought totally unplanned.

Yes SEVEN box! Four Pyramid's and three ball's. And the reason we bought them today was that they have new stock in and this is the old stock and is starting not to look it's best especially up against the new stock, so it was reduced.

The three biggest Pyramid's were down from £60 to just £20 each

The two larger box balls from £25 to £10 each, the forth smaller box Pyramid also only cost £10

and this little one was down from £25 to just £5!!! So  a saving for all these shaped box of over £190!!

A couple of years back we'd put some box balls around the Magnolia on the left hand side of the Rose arch and had always meant to match this on the other side but had not got round to it due to the cost of buying shaped box.

Now if you were paying attention you will see we are one box ball short for the other side, this is because we were not going to necessarily repeat the positioning but of course now we are back home, we have decided to! So we will need to see if they have another ball on their old stock or failing that buy a new one!!

Paul's already planted them in place and it's meant that the rose arches and the trellis have now been removed and Paul is taking them apart.

Here are a couple of quick photo's I will take some more once the area's been completely weeded and edged etc.

We have now added a pyramid each end of the walk way.

The same this side plus the box balls have been put in matching places to those across the way!

I know that the new additions look a little tatty and brown compared to the four lush green existing balls but these will soon green up now they are out of their pots and in the ground, they will have the autumn winter months to settle in and start recovering ready to be lovely and lush next year.

We often wait until garden centres are going into the winter months to buy as this is when they have the best discounts on the bigger or more expensive plants that are no longer looking their best and they do not want to look after until spring!.

So though an unplanned purchase a very happy one because it 's saved a fortune, will have time to settle in and by next summer will be looking good and helping to bring the new design together.


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