Off Again

There is a small irony to the fact that I have finished my horticultural studies with a view to spending more time in my own garden, only to find that I seem to have even less time to be out there enjoying the fruits of my labours!

At the moment, my house and my family life seem to be all-consuming. Much has been happening, all of which has had to be dealt with by the person who is always there....me. And so I find that the last post I wrote was about the wrench of leaving the garden in full swing of summer, and now here we are well into autumn and I've barely set foot in it these last couple of months - and now I'm going away again!

Things have been pottering along with a great deal of help from Ian who has kept on top of the lawn mowing and the border mulching and tidying. The most exciting thing to happen has been the fact that he has put to good use, after 10 years of it broadly just sitting there, the amazingly dark, rich, crumbly, loamy, sweet-smelling soil that has emerged from my generously sized cold compost heap. It is being dug out and sifted and spread on the borders - something I have not done in a decade of living here, and is well overdue, however broadly fertile the soil. Even good soil needs a regular feed and facelift.

Apart from that, I have been buying more plants from our local hardy plant market in Chapel-en-le-Frith on a Thursday - shrub fuschias, asters, rudbeckias, wallflowers, kaffir lilies and daffodil bulbs amongst my purchases - and Ian has supplied me with hydrangea paniculata, lavendars and agapanthus amongst other delights. We have removed a border of yellow loosestrife to plant box balls and cones for a more structured, all-season look (which also involved cutting through the oil pipe from the tank by mistake just minutes after Ian had diligently asked me if there were any electrical wires in the ground outside...chaos ensued, but I won't go into that now!).

We have enjoyed some lovely soft autumnal days as well as some miserably cold wet and windy ones; I have had the joy of picking blackberries in my own garden and have thrown many a ball and Frisbee for Lily. One late September morn, which dawned gloriously golden, I took my camera outside in the first rays and took pictures of the flowers that I found still blooming; but I shall have to show you those when I get back from my latest travels as it is late and I still have jobs to do before our early morning departure. And in ten days time the mood of the garden will no doubt have moved on once again....