Today 
RSSGardeners' musings
Octoberfest
Posted by: James Alexander-Sinclair, 09 October 2007, 10.38AM
I do love the garden in October - especially in the sunshine. In the early Spring it is all about hope and waiting: all that mulch and neatly tidied brown border. A month or so later and there is green stuff and bulbs all over the place. Then we are into the crescendo of mid-summer and things happen quick and fast - every day a new beginning and a new combination. By September all the glories of the summer are exhausted and having a bit of a lie down - the mood is, well for want of a better expression, a bit post-coital.
But it is by no means all over as now the late summer perennials and shrubs (Rudbeckias, Asters, Ceratostigmas, Cimicifuga, Nicotiana sylvestris etc) kick in giving a second wind to borders. October comes and even the late-arrivals at the ball are beginning to lose their energy - their ties are loosened and they sit smiling in the corner (slightly cross eyed) rather than strutting their stuff centre stage. The grasses have reached their full - if rather understated - magnificence, the occasional rose clings on, the Sedum has sprawled and the seed catalogues thud onto the doormat (postal strikes permitting).
It is the most relaxed time in the garden not just because the plants are semi-comatose but also because there is not a lot to do: there seems little point in weeding much (the nights are too cold for most annual weeds to bother with seeding themselves), why bother to tie back a sprawling plant when you are going to cut them all down anyway soon? Even the grass stops growing quite as relentlessly. It is best just to watch: in the morning the spiders webs are glimmering with dew, the sun sneaks over the horizon at a much more civilised hour, the light is different, the sun (when it is there) is just the right temperature, the trees are beginning to turn, the apples are ready, the Nerines are just starting and the last tomatoes are still warm in the greenhouse.
Enjoy it now because tomorrow anything could happen (and, probably, it will rain).
Comments
Marysa
09 October 2007, 03.07PM
Brian
10 October 2007, 04.00PM
Rachael
15 October 2007, 01.06PM
keeneandrumsey
18 October 2007, 06.36PM
James A-S
19 October 2007, 07.18PM
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