Goodbye summer – EOMV September 2016

Here in London we have had a lovely September and a great end to an amazing summer. The late, cold spring and early summer is now a bleak memory and hardly worth thinking of - everything after 16th July has more than made up for the cold period before. Tomorrow we are promised a whole day of rain and showers. Yippy! That will do my garden good. There is no rain on the forecast for the next 10 days after tomorrow so I hope it rains buckets.

The Woodland Bed in late afternoon sun.

One of my inherited roses – and I have a possible name for it now, it might be Rosa ‘Gaujard’, at least it looks very much like it on all the photos I have seen online – and it has very distinctive colours from bud to fully open flower so I think perhaps I will call it ‘Gaujard’ from now on. It’s the best suggestion I have had so far :-)

Rosa ‘Ingrid Bergman’ is happy again after the hot summer, she doesn’t like too much sun like many dark red roses and is now making a comeback in the garden.

And look what I found the other day! My new wisteria has produced its first few flowers! I didn’t really expect any until next year as this is a very young plant, but here they are, the first ones. You might perhaps remember I was asking fellow bloggers for the scent of this American type wisteria in my previous post – I am none the wiser as despite sticking my nose completely into the flowers I can’t detect any scent at all. Perhaps it will be more detectable when the whole plant is covered in flowers. Next year perhaps?

The garden is still lush and green and only a faint yellow tint on the large cherry tree next door is hinting that autumn is approaching.

Oh, and my plumtree is looking very autumnal but that’s more down to lots of broken branches from very heavy fruiting. I have decided to remove the plumtree so I am not so bothered about the damage. I haven’t decided whether to remove the whole thing or keep the tree trunk for a climber. Still thinking about that. One of the sunflowers behind the plumtree has grown so tall I am worried it will break every time we have a bit of wind.

I can no longer deadhead the sunflowers as I need help of someone up a ladder to reach. The squirrels have broken off two of the shorter sunflowers making unsightly gaps in my nicely made row. The squirrels sit in the cherry tree and jump onto my sunflowers before making their way down into my garden. The smallest sunflowers buckled and broke from this repeated trapeze artistry. Grrrr!

The sunflowers I could rescue are now on the table in my garden so at least I get to enjoy them for a while.

The cosmos I sowed from seed are amazingly tall too, much taller than the shed. In the foreground you can see I still have tomatoes.

The remaining green tomatoes would possibly have ripened, but to be sure I won’t lose them I cut off all of them this afternoon.

Today’s ready to eat harvest in the small box - all the green ones in the big box are now safely tucked up in my airing cupboard and will ripen over the next couple of weeks. It is amazing that green tomatoes like this can ripen in the dark off the plants without any water, soil or fertiliser – but they do, they taste just as good. I need to check them now and then just to make sure none of them go rotten, but apart from that all I need to do is pick them out when they are ready. I picked the first tomatoes in the second half of July and I will have my own tomatoes till end of October. I eat tomatoes every day and I have frozen absolutely loads and given away lots too. Not bad harvest, it will be strange having to buy tomatoes again!

The Japanese inspired bed is getting difficult to photograph, I simply can’t get properly on a distance to show you everything in one photo. I try to keep the path clear so I can walk here and all the plants are still in containers.

Fuchsia boliviana is still flowering beautifully, it has now got two side branches also with flowers – a bit difficult to see here as it is tucked up against the plumtree.

And the fruit is ready to eat, I have been munching it all week! My fuchsia is flowering for the first time so my harvest isn’t that big yet, but I get a handful like this every day.

The fruit tastes a bit like kiwis, just not as sweet – just like I read online. This is what it looks like inside. Those seeds are quite soft and you don’t really feel them when eating the fruit – or technically they are berries. Next year I hope to have lots more, I think they will be delicious together with some raspberries and strawberries with some yoghurt. Yum!

Just across the fuchsia is my beautyberries and I wondered in the spring if I would get any berries since I only have one bush.

Look how lovely they are! They are not fully ripe yet, the berries will be a bit darker, and just a shade lighter than the plum coloured fence in the background.

My little desert corner is doing well, the plants have had optimal conditions the last 3 months. Soon I will be tucking them away along the wall of the house so they don’t get too much autumn rain – well, when we finally get it.

Salvia x jamensis 'Nachtvlinder' is still flowering, the leaves of this salvia smells like blackberries when you bruise them and I can’t pass it without having a sniff. Absolutely amazing!

Salvia greggii 'Icing Sugar' is also still flowering, but very difficult to get a good photo of, this is my umpteen attempt and the flowers still look very washed out. I hope both plants will come back next year.

Here is a newcomer to my garden, I got it last year but this is the first year it is flowering. It is Mahonia nitens 'Cabaret' and normally mahonias flower in the winter or early spring. This variety flowers in the autumn and it is a very small variety, perfect for a container.

I bought some fountain grass last month on a sale – even though they are not fully hardy, but I will try to overwinter them in my shed if necessary. I have lined the containers with bubble wrap and I will move them to the shed if the temperature gets down towards freezing. This is Pennisetum setaceum 'Fireworks' and if they survive and come again next year they could be 4-5 ft tall, although possibly not that tall growing in containers. The grass tails are so soft it is like stroking a cat's tail :-)

And finally, just as a reminder that summer definitely is over – the cyclamens are here, and the first flowers have started to peek above the foliage. It’s been a good summer. It feels easier meeting the winter after a summer like we have just had.

I have made a movie for today’s End of Month View, I hope I have managed to capture the feeling of serene calm and summery overall look, despite a bit autumnal windy weather when I was filming.

The music was Johann Sebastian Bach - Cantata No. 208 - Sheep May Safely Graze.

That was it for today, next post will be on the 15th October for the Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. I am linking today’s post to Helen at The Patient Gardener’s Weblog for End of Month View.

Until next time, take care.