Dianthus

These Dianthus Jazz Festival look like Japanese Egrets flying through the air.
I have been working nights, and then lost the laptop for a few days hence the gap in posting.
The Autumn weather is here, cool days with wind and rain.
The leaves have fallen onto the pavements, ready for me to kick my way through them. Sending showers of leaves into the air.
The birds have been flocking into the garden, and topping up the feeders is nearly every few days.
We had six pidgeons feeding on the floor, and maybe fifteen Goldfinches.
Its hard to count with the dynamic movement of birds between feeders to trees, and back.
I planted the new Daffodils and Aliums the other day. Ninety bulbs went into the borders, to add colour next spring. There is something magical burying a bulb, covering it with soil, and waiting for it to do its own thing.
By next march the garden will be full of Daffodils, Narcissus, and the Aliums..

Spider And Squirrel

Autumn brings the mad web building of the garden spiders. They seem to spin their webs from plant to plant, in the concentric web pattern.
He has groovy markings on his underbelly. He sat in the middle of the web waiting for the flys.
The squirrel has been down into the garden this morning. He did a good impression of mission impossible jumping over a wall, going up a small fence, leaping to the big fence, and running along to the back fence before dissapearing into a tree. His tail is so fluffy, and floats around counter balancing him.
I'm off work today before two more nights. I hope to plant some Alium bulbs today and buy some Daffodils in town.

Lavender Bloom n Blogs

The Lavenders last flower that is still in bloom today. I love the smell of the plant itself and the purple flowers. The plants I bought have grown on a bit. Hopefully they will grow much larger next year, with more bee attracting flowers wafting their rich scent skywards.
I read on the BBC news site yesterday an article about ten years of blogger. I have been blogging for five years.
The ups and downs of my life have been recorded, along with the gardens I have had or helped on. the two different allotments I have had.
The photos get better across the years, and maybe my writing has improved.
The article asked is blogging still relevant, and why do people do it? The main answer was shared passions, and the feeling of community. American women took blogging to their hearts and now there are blogs on every aspect of modern life.
I enjoy how gardeners have used blogs to talk about their gardens, their plants, the problems they encounter. People are kind enough sometimes to leave comments, and often discussions rage on in the comments after an article.
The blog here is a mix of journal of the seasons, wildlife observation, storys, and occasional educational. I enjoy the mixture of pictures and prose.
Nobodys said for me to stop yet, so i'll keep on blogging about the things that I love. Blogs are part of the gardening world, and exist all over the world.
The link is a shared passion for growing things (flowers or veg, or both) and wanting to share the experience.
Like my love of the last Lavender bloom.

Books And Blooms

The Fuschia Royal Velvet has flowered on the kitchen windowsill. Large flowers with pink and purple colours, and so heavy that the pendulous flowers pull the plant over. The plant came from the Autumn flower show.
I spent yesterday weeding the borders, and putting my old compost on top of the dry soil. The black compost bin will supply more organic matter to keep the moisture in.
Some eager spring bulbs have begun to push up their strappy green leaves.
Now is the time to plant my Alium bulbs (gorgeous firework flowers in purple or white), and the Tulips at the end of this month.
The borders need some Daffodils and Narcissus. I'll go shopping after my night shift on Monday. As one season ends we plan for the next year.
I bought a book the other day called "The Lost Garden Of Heligan". A country estate with beautiful gardens lost all its gardeners during the first world war. The estate and garden fell into disrepair. They sank into brambles, and the structures fell apart. Untill a pair of men stumbled onto the jungle like gardens and decided to renovate them.
I have read a few chapters. The long dark nights are a good chance to relax with a good gardening book.
Monty Don has released a new book called "The Ivington Diaries" about his own garden over a period of fifteen years. Its on my wishlist..

On The Maple

This baby Goldfinch has fluffy, downy feathers and was not frightened of my camera. We saw him eating spilt Nijer seeds off the patios. He flew up into the foxgloves and under the birdtable.
The garden birds were singing out in force this morning. Great Tits chattered around the Apple tree with its delicious red Apples and the seed feeder.
A winter flock of Goldfinches is forming. More arrive every day with their black and red faces, and yellow wing bars.
I watched Autumn Watch last night and saw a bat survey. The volunteers drove along roads at night, at fifteen miles per hour with a bat detector box that increases the Bats noises to human hearing. They could work out later what species they had heard on the Bat box.
I saw Bats in the garden at twilight one night madly circling and diving, like dark acrobats. They may have been the scouts sent out by the colony to see if it was dark enough to come out to avoid predators.
I have seen my two Hedgehogs almost every night snuffling in the garden, eating all the bugs and worms that they can find.
The garden is alive with the wildlife, and I only have to go outside to see it. Adding a few bird feeders and waterbowls, growing a wide selection of native plants and flowers. These simple steps can encourage Wildlife to visit your garden.
What wildlife is in your garden?

State Of Play

The allotment at the end of the day yesterday. Cat took the photos for me as I put away all the tools. You can see the enormous compost heap on the far right. I need some compost bins to start it up. The Globe Artichokes are closest to the bottom. Followed by the Leeks, then Courgettes, and Squashes.
I only had a few plants in pots to start growing this year. They were quite late going into the ground. I had to clear the grasses and weeds that you can see at the far left. A few years of growth has given them about a foots deep worth of thick roots, embedded in compacted clay soil.

The camera shortens the length. Its about thirty five feet across and takes hours to clear a one foot length of soil. The square near the top is the onion bed. One hundred white ball onions went in yesterday to grow over the winter.
There remains about ten feet off the grass/weed mix to dig over and clear.I will be happy when that is done. The marking out can be done and plans made for the growing season next year.

Royal Velvet Teaser

The Giant Fuschia Royal Velvet has these large blooms on it now. I bought it at the Autumn Flower Show, and it has sat on the kitchen windowsill since then.
I did not think it would grow on well after it got battered in a plastic bag and carried all around the Yorkshire show ground.
I spent four and a half hours at the allotment today. We planted the Winter Onions today, 100 of them next to the Courgette bed.
The sun was shining, and the birds were in full song. A lone Robin sat at the top of the tree singing for his territory.
There was a chill in the air. Autumn is in full swing..