End of month view for October



Slightly late (and confessing that somehow I managed to miss last month entirely) here is the end of month view for October, hosted by Helen at patientgardener

I have lost it a bit with the garden as the winds blow.  The winds here in our bit of North Wales have been from the South and East for more than a week.  The good thing about that is that the temperatures are higher than usual for the beginning of November.  The bad thing is that our house is perfectly protected from the westerly and north westerly winds which prevail around here. We are tucked down and barely feel a ripple as the winds go by.   A south easterly though comes roaring across the valley and shakes the yew trees and drives me inside.  Today the wind had gone and it was a still, blue and gold day.  I planted some of the ludicrous numbers of tulip bulbs bought from Peter Nyssen out into the cutting garden - two of the big squares, both in triangles of Abu Hassan and Ballerina.



I love them both.  I have been growing Ballerina for so long now that there is a part of me that feels it is becoming a cliche but its lovely form and singing colour still works so brilliantly that I shall not change for the sake of novelty.  There is plenty of other room in the garden for varieties I have not grown before.



The side garden is now almost entirely foliage.  The hellebores and sweet box (sarcococca humilis) in the foreground will become more and more important as we go into winter.  It's not very exciting but it's not dreadful either as the contrasting colours and forms of the foliage take over from colour.


Out in the field it is the changing leaf colour which is most striking.  All the wildflowers have gone and the grass has been cut.  The damson and cherry are losing their golden leaves while the wild cherry at the back is a fine red/gold.




The cutting garden has finished really.  Everything is battered and much is flattened and gone to seed.  Yet there is still beauty in the cosmos, flowering as ever right to the wire.   I had totally given up hope of the  acidanthera in the centre here when it suddenly burst into beautiful and delicate flower more reminiscent to my eye of spring.  The annual rudbeckia has also gone on and on pumping out yellow and mahogany flowers above its rather coarse and uninspiring foliage.


Down along the field boundary the new bed which I have filled with hellebores and hardy geraniums is also focussed on leaf colour.



The sunny bank looks a bit bare where we have lost some of the conifer and, as it fell into the old quince tree and snapped it, some of the quince too.  But get closer and there are still salvias and valerian flowering  away and it is full of bees and hoverflies when the moment is right.  Not this moment obviously.  They saw me coming.


This is a picture which should come with some sort of disclaimer.  The kitchen garden is a total mess of weeds and dying plants at the moment but somehow this picture makes it look ok.  Do not be fooled.  The camera does, after all, lie.


At the far end of the garden where the chickens are supposedly enclosed when they feel like it, the two new houses which hold the Scots Dumpies and the new Welsummers have created a feeling of chicken city.  Any minute now I expect them to be hanging out their washing on lines strung between the runs and setting up stalls selling street food.


There are some unexpected pleasures too.  The wall at the end of the drive, although of old stone, is normally just a wall.  At this time of year the cotoneaster which covers it is a red, geometric beauty.  I know cotoneaster can be invasive but here it is not and the shapes it creates are beautiful.  By Christmas if we get cold weather all these berries will have been taken by birds.



And these are not really garden pictures at all I suppose but I love the way the rosehips swell and the trees begin to reveal their shapes as the leaves fall.

Comments

  1. Beautiful! I love the views across the valley and the Taj Mahal of chicken accommodation.

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  2. Ah! Success, I had trouble leaving a comment but it works now. Love the new layout and the photos have a brilliant almost 3D quality. You are so lucky with wonderful views, thank you for sharing your garden.

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  3. It all looks wonderful and still plenty of colour. Over here everything is coming to life almost as one watches it but I will always love your part of the world.

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  4. Elizabeth, which direction are you facing in the views over your kitchen garden? I imagined this to be looking north but I think I'm wrong. Why this matters I don't know. I love the imagery of the chickens hanging out their laundry and haggling. Thank you, again.

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  5. You have a lovely garden, mine is in dire need of attention at the moment but rain and wind are interfering with gardening plans. You've reminded me that I need to get some tulips to plant in my daughter's garden.
    I love that photo with the rosehips framing the view of the fields beyond - it may not be the garden but it's beautiful:).

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  6. Lovely images of your views and garden Elizabeth.
    "Hensville" is amazing! What smart new houses
    K

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  7. It's phenomenal. Beautiful. You must be so happy, Elizabeth.

    We never get a south wind here - always warm and wet from the west, with two blasts of horridly, bitterly cold winds from the east at some time during the winter. But at present - fierce from the south. Disconcerting. Damaging in some ways but watering usually dry ground too - which is handy.

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  8. Deep envy as always. It is the view that extends the garden that I so like.

    My place is looking a bit bedraggled - ah, but I have teenagers in need of cash, says jane! Trouble is, they are well practiced in being incompetent.

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  9. You have a lovely garden, even at this time of year. The berries on the cotoneaster are amazing.

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  10. Such wonderful pictures - and such a wonderful garden too. The chickens do hang out their washing, you know, it's just that, like the hoverflies, they hear you coming and take it in again. If you watch cows from across the field you will see that when a car comes they stop standing on their hind legs and drop down to be on all fours again. It's well known. There's always a look out to shout 'car' or 'human' or something. I've seen cartoons about it so it must be true.

    Anyway enough blether (or is it blather?) - the only thing flowering here are the nasturtiums that are blooming very prettily - a bright climbing orange against the grey stone of the walls.

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  11. Your garden looks wonderful - wish I'd had time to look around earlier in the week. My only colours are dying leaves and some pretty little violas.

    Feeling quite proud of myself because I planted onion sets and garlic yesterday. Really couldn't stay indoors when the morning was so beautiful.

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  12. I love the idea of a planned garden. Maybe one day I will know how to do that!

    And I'm wondering what sort of street food chickens might sell? Apart from roasted corn cobs, of course.

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  13. Hello Elizabeth -please feel free to delete this comment - I am just testing your dynamic view blog on my mac in the browser Safari,
    K

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  14. I come to read your words, and see your pictures, but I always hope to gaze on your Welsh hills. Sigh!

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  15. Hi Frith, the view along the kitchen garden is looking South. It is the most sheltered part of the garden and I suppose that is why is has been used as a kitchen garden for hundreds of years. The soil in the field is much better though. Kitchen garden grows fab herbs and good peas and beans with plenty of manure on the beds.

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  16. I hope the hens in the posh new houses are paying extra rent!
    Garden looks fab.

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  17. Getting as bad as me for hen houses - might nick the pavers idea for Chicken World here - it will help with the mud I think.

    One day I hope to see the hedge walk mature. Another 5 years perhaps? I recall our conversations about this what seems like aeons ago before you started on it, and now it looks really wonderful.

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  18. Even when viewed non-dynamically , the Abu Hassan is stunning ! Your garden photos are always a delight .
    As for Chicken City ? All they need now is a busker or two . The Scots Dumpies will probably give you a few Country and Western hits of an evening .....

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  19. What a fantastic view you have! Extraordinary. So lovely. Love your new tulips, beautiful colour. Know what you mean when you say you that you've 'lost' it a bit with the garden. We have too. It still looks beautiful, so am reluctant to go in and do an overhaul and at the same time, it is cold and windy and am less 'keen' to head out. I'll get over that soon I'm sure. Stunning view... am super impressed.

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  20. Now these should have been the pictures I posted after my visit, but I was chattering away instead. Actually that's a far better thing to have been doing - talking to friends and just enjoying the moment :)

    I must go and gather some rosehips. Foolishly I have committed myself to making some homemade Christmas decorations and they're just the thing I need - apart from some ideas...

    Thank you for your delightful summary accompanying your link to my blog - I'm most chuffed!

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  21. What a beautiful garden you have with all those different areas.

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  22. Thanks so much for sharing this incredible beauty with us. I find the death throes of autumn as lovely as the birth pangs of spring.

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  23. Your pictures are lovely - what a wonderful garden, and in far better order than mine. I love your new henhouses - a really good design. All of ours are pretty rickety now! And the views over the hills - wonderful to someone from the flatlands . . .

    Pomona x

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  24. I was about to say something about the chickens, but Fennie's comment is much wittier - as usual! I still think the kitchen garden looks lovely.

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