Wheel barrow Snippets

Autumn at " The Shambles"
It has been rather nice to have two sunny days in a row after such a wet summer. The garden is still very damp under foot which has led me to consider creating some more substantial path ways in certain areas of the garden. Plants in the garden are very resilent. They have bounced back after the dry times of 2009 that was followed by the torrential rain of early 2010. It is now time to top up the gardens with mulch and compost to help replace some of the lost nutrients that have leached away in the wet.
Yesterday I turned my compost turkey nest and there is a lovely lot of composted material that is ready to go. I like the turkey nest arrangement because I can have several composts on the go at varying stages . I can spend a whole day chipping and chopping garden clippings or if I don't have time I will just make a pile of bigger trimmings . Amazingly enough nature breaks everything down in the end.
The garden is looking very colourful at the moment. There are flowers on just about everthing.
It was very interesting to see flowers on Camellia crapnelliana, C. nitidissima chrysora and the beautiful bulb Acidanthera bicolor. Camellias in flower include Red Willow,Beatrice Emily,Hiryu,Plantation Pink, Vanity Fair and Dazzler. There are fat buds on all the different Japonicas.
Double Hibiscus mutabilis, Abutilon megapotamicum,A.x hybridum of all colours are brightening our Autumn garden.
Salvias including Salvia leucantha (3 var) , S.madrense, S.involucrata(3 var) ,S. coccinea
(3 var) and S. iodantha ,S.confertiflora are in full colourful display.
The crowning glory of blooms is the Gordonia axillaris. There are many other colorful shrubs,perennials and vines including Clitoria ternata with it's electric blue flowers.
All the roses have been in flower as well.
In the next few days I will be planting out a large collection of cuttings grown plants that will fill in some spots and I have a new area to plant out as we have recently had a Bauhinia tree removed. This is now a relatively sunny spot in our shady garden so it is very exciting.
Plans are under way for the open garden in June and it will be interesting to see the difference that 6 weeks makes.
Our Autumn doesn't seem to have started because our Red Cedars are still in leaf and the birds are collecting nesting material including shed hair from our sheep dog. When we had Basset hounds we actually found a perfectly made nest of tri colour dog hair so I'm on the look out for a black and white nest.
Kyleigh