by Janis on 29th September 2023 / 0 comments
Enjoying the last of the summer
Well, I’m going to be honest, we haven’t been in our garden much, as we have been enjoying the delights of Spain for three weeks.
Autumn will have kicked in upon our return, and the russet shades of ‘fall’ will soon be upon us.
I embrace this time of year as it always means that we will enjoy heartier dishes that we wouldn’t necessarily have in warmer months.
Our beds and borders are losing a bit of their vibrancy, although we can always rely on our Salvia ‘Hot Lips’. We have a few more ‘Hot Lips’ now, as I took some softwood cuttings last year, and they were incredibly successful; I was so pleased.
This year, we also purchased a Salvia ‘Cherry Lips’; however, it is still in its infancy, so we need to wait a few years for it to truly flourish.
Pinterest?
Why not Pin it for later?
What we’ve been up to in September
In the garden and on the websiteAs I mentioned, we have been away for a few weeks; however, we tried to squeeze in as much as we could prior to heading off.
One important task I managed to do was prune back our six Lavender Munstead plants in our little Provence Border. I was pleased with how they turned out last year and want to continue to keep them as compact as possible.
Last year, I pruned back two of our patio lavenders too much and cut into the dead wood, and yes, as you guessed it, I killed them.
Our pruned lavender
It’s also the time of year to purchase your spring flowering bulbs; I’m definitely buying some more alliums, as the few we planted last autumn looked fantastic for months in the garden.
Spring flowering bulbs
We purchase our bulbs from J. Parker’s, which has a vast choice of bulbs and regularly has special offers. It’s the perfect time to buy your spring bulbs and allow you enough time to plant them all through October and November
Softwood cuttings
Very early in September I also managed to take some more softwood cuttings of our fuchsias and Salvia ‘Cherry Lips’ and are ready to pot on. I took some cuttings of fuchsias, Ribes and Erysimum around late July, and they did really well.
Achievements for September
Let’s keep ticking those boxesJust before we went away to Spain, we decided that we would like another rose, so we popped into one of our local nurseries, Rumwood Nursery,which specialises in roses.
When we arrived, all their roses were 50% off, so, needless to say, we bought two. Well, one week later, we returned and purchased another three roses. Yes, I know we are mad.
We bought five in 10-litre pots and were incredible specimens at just £15 each. We immediately planted them in our garden, and as they are full of blooms and luscious leaves, they look like they have been in our garden for months.
Our new rose -
So, let’s see what we’ve managed to tick off for September.
Tidied the courtyard patio.
Took softwood cuttings of our patio fuchsias and Salvia ‘Cherry Lips’
Given our lavenders their annual haircut.
Collected the last of our seeds.
Remove our Allium Sphaerocephalon’s from the patio pots and dry.
Weeding our main cottage garden bed.
Continued pruning the Secret Garden.
Lessons learnt & mistakes made
You live and learnWe’ve had lots of Aquilegias in our garden for years, and suddenly, this season, hardly any reappeared. Luckily, I collected some seeds from our Aquilegias last year, so hopefully, when I propagate them next year, I’ll see them all again.
Purple Aquilegias
Although on a positive note, our Japanese Anemones have returned, and we hadn’t seen them for a couple of years.
Our plans for the coming month
What’s on your to-do list?Continue to maintain the weeds in the Cottage Garden bed.
Manage our overgrown shrubs in the Secret Garden.
Continue to monitor our garden tasks on the RHS Planner; this online tool is so handy.
Clear the old tool store and replace it with a new one.
Continue clearing the four raised beds and plan a new rock garden.
Clear patio pots where required.
Plant spring bulbs.
Cut back old perennials when finished flowering.
Pot on my softwood cuttings.
Move our Peony.
Our Peony
Please let us know what you have planned in your garden this month; we’d love to know.
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