A monthly diary of activities in Susan’s Garden.
Photo heavy, text light, following a natural timeline.
It’s been a long passage from summer to winter this year. With Susan’s thoughts turning to next year’s plans as early as September, and October’s rather murky presence, it was up to November to offer the short sunny days that afforded her the opportunity to finish her winter preparations. It’s the month of trimming and clearing and planting, punctuated by wet days and a return to long evenings indoors and later starts in the morning.
Planting the wild flower garden (ironic)
With the weeds finally cleared, it was time to sow the seeds of future splendour. Mixed bulbs randomly dropped and dug in at their point of impact, gifts of nigella seed heads gently relieved of their progeny and spread, others shed of their wrapping, mixed and sown. Everything raked under to await the spring sunshine and the warming of the soil. The project will be over by then, but I’m feeling an inappropriately proprietorial tug for this wee patch and can see myself wheedling a return invitation to capture its inevitable splendour next year.
Trimming the lavender
Next the turn of the lavender, neatly returned to perfect circles, enough foliage left from which next year’s purple haze will appear. There’s a technique to keeping these spheres close to the ground, wvwn as the interior grows woody with age.
And in the autumn sunlight, long shadows picking out the border of lavender, it’s ready for winter.
All peachy in the garden
There’s a community of gardeners that come together casually, without effort, swapping stories and seeds and cabbages and cuttings. Susan was the recipient of four one-year-old peach saplings, offspring of the trees from which she had received a crate of fruit in the summer. In they go!
Autumn housekeeping
And when the hard work is done, the leaves begin to fall and it’s an almost daily task to keep them out of the pool, off the deck and in the compost.
Stop her! She can’t escape - there’s more work to do! The project’s got another three months to run…
November diversions
