Gardener's Diary - Nature's Trinkets

78 days of meteorological summer

I’ve been feeling tired this week. So tired that my partner had to get me out of bed, I’d snoozed my alarm for the forth time. I went for a jog but my legs were heavy like lead. I put this down to weather and seasonal change.

The balmy evenings are shortening, leaves have began to fall and the roses are putting out their final flushes. I always find Autumn arrives quite suddenly, one day from the next. The transition between the seasons is always hard, especially summer to autumn.

I’m going bulb shopping this weekend for all of my clients and will be updating one of my summer flowering displays to an autumn / winter display.

I ask each client which bulbs they’d like, making suggestions on what I think might work best in the garden - leaning towards Leucojum, Fritillaria, Scillia, Narcissus and tulips (including the naturalised variety). I ask what colours they favour, and oddly I get a lot of ‘I don’t like yellow’ messages and a few requests for hyacinths.

I will be purchasing a lot of tulips. They are lovely and make a real statement except don’t repeat well, the same applies to hyacinths.

Also, I’m on TikTok now did you know. I wasn’t sure what people would think of my educational, horticultural videos however I’ve received lovely feedback. I want to encourage people to go outdoors, expand their gardening knowledge and learn to grow vegetables. 

Goodbye to a garden

I will be losing one of my favourite gardens in a week’s time. Thursday was the penultimate session, I took some time to walk around and soak in the garden before I return the key and say farewell forever.

I looked carefully at the trained roses, the clematis’s sprinkled around the garden, the penstemon’s, hydrangea and alstomeria’s. I admired each each of the herbaceous perennials - I feel grateful to each plant, they’ve worked hard for me over the past few years.

Nature’s trinkets

I have always been inspired by nature’s trinkets, especially those provided in Autumn. As a young girl, I would carry around conkers and acorns in my pockets and even now, I will find forgotten crushed leaves or acorns in my jeans pocket.

All of the below are collected from one garden. I scurried around, resting the pods and seeds on the garden wall until I had finished my session and they were stowed safely on the car seat.

From left to right: Magnolia tree seed head, passiflora seed head, acorn, camelia seed head, bell clematis seed head and sycamore seed head.

This collection is very much inspired by a naturalist / author, Jonas Frei which I found on instagram this week. His collection is awe inspiring!

Images taken from J.D.Frei's instagram - https://www.instagram.com/j.d.frei/

Plant highlights

I was quite struck by this Clematis ‘Princess Diana’. The bright pink leaves have a delicate paler pink outline. It’s refreshing to see a clematis flowering at the end of the season and certainly helps the transition to Autumn

Thaliqtrum dalavayi always stops me in my tracks - beautifully delicate. I’m unable to believe sometimes what nature can produce.

Allotment

The cabbage white fly have made their homes on our kale. Not much I can do so i’ve been soaking the leaves in salty water and always cooking the cabbage, never eating raw.

The tomatoes are ripening and we will soon roast a majority of them and make sauce for the cooler season - i’ll keep you updated on this. Currently looking at this recipe.

We’ve been harvesting incredible Japanese mustard greens - mizuna and lambs lettuce. The vibrant green and purple tones brighten up any salad. I’ve been tearing up spinach and nasturtium leaves, adding this to the salad too - it’s one of the most flavoursome salad I’ve eaten.

I am waiting patiently for the sweetcorn to ripen. I haven’t done anything to deter rats and birds so hoping they arrive on our plates in tact .

Damson Jam

One of the garden’s I work in has a friendly neighbour. There are a collection of roses on the balcony which I tend to and when up there, I wave hello to him, working at his garden table.

He’s a lovely man, he feeds the robins, pigeons and even a fox. We discuss the weather, our work weeks and sometimes, good food.

When he isn’t there, I see the pigeon waiting patiently for his arrival. Soon I will post a newsletter on the pigeon (also known as the rock dove) as I feel they’ve been given an unnecessarily hard time and quite under represented.

This week, however, he said he had a gift for me. I met him at the front gate and he handed me a jar of damson jam. It was so thoughtful, it brought a tear to my eye. It’s the idea that he looked out the window and thought - wouldn’t it be nice to give some jam to the gardener, I’m sure she’d like that.

I love community and care for one another and small gestures like this really warm my heart and bring me delight. It’s stored safely in my cupboard, ready to be spread on my partner’s home-made bread. It contains the ancient grain, einkorn and also rye flour - I will elaborate in the future and discuss sustainable farming soon.

Nature’s confusion

I observed some early crocus bulbs appearing in one of my clients gardens.

They should flower in late winter or early spring. First, we had the early Cyclamen coum then the extended season for Dicentra (usually dying down after flowering in Spring but remaining in place until late summer, some have even produced a second flush) and finally the crocus bulbs.

The climate must feel right for the bulbs to germinate and that’s quite scary. Nature is reacting to the shift in seasons - it’s clear it is coping the best it can.

*****

To end on a cheerful note, enjoy this wonderful sunflower which was growing a few plots down my dear sister’s allotment.