The garden is bright now with turning leaves and still dotted the lingering flowers of the nicotiana planted in vast numbers in the spring. I have cleared out a few of the very tall white ones, which took to lurching drunkenly after some strong winds last week. The broken stems (or possibly the seed pods?) smell sickly sweet. On realising this I tendered a silent apology to the lads erecting scaffolding on the plot over the back. The whiff of illicit substances was mine alone… which rather suits the slightly rackety air of decadent decline that takes over the garden at this time of year.
My bulb order arrived a couple of weeks ago (well the first giant box did, the top up one came last week) and since then my main excuse for not buckling down to a blog has been the need to get them in. At least a third were destined to replenish the white tulips in the long border, which were starting to look a bit sparse last year, and top up the allium (too many is an alien concept). Unfortunately, as we were late getting them in this year, there are dahlias galore still flowering in the designated spots. I spent yesterday grovelling between them sneaking the bulbs in in ones and twos under the impatient eye of friend robin. I have kept a bag aside which I hope will stay fresh till the blowsy ones give up and can be lifted – otherwise there are going to be some distinct gaps in the envisaged “sea of white”.
Pots present a similar problem, with the pelargoniums flowering doggedly and refusing to make way. Some of the annuals in the patio containers have even started to flush new basal growth. Could they be short lived perennials in disguise????. I am toying with moving them up to the gin terrace to see if they survive the winter. The only area of free rein so far has been the knot garden beds. I finally gave up on growing peonies there after two years of flowerless plants (there has been a great rehoming to the sunny side of the shade beds). The underplanting of primula which also failed dismally has been hoofed out and dotted around to fill (newly created) gaps. With terra nullius reinstated I have resettled the area with a heady mix of early and late tulips, allium and dutch Iris. Surely something will take this time……
And so, with a third of the order still to go I find myself having to contemplate the pond borders. Cue deep sigh.
These really will be THE (kids self there will be only one…) big job for this year. On one side there is an infestation of couch grass running under the Iris and on the other giant clumps of hemerocallis welded into clay subsoil and desperately needing splitting. To add insult to injury there are aquilegia interlopers everywhere and some bindweed which has crept along from the stream banks under cover of the highland garden heathers. Every time I tentatively pick up the tulips intended for those borders I swiftly find myself a different job – but procrastination has its limits and any day soon they will be the only ones left…Knowing my luck this will coincide with a period of chill wind and sudden hail showers.
