Shine on...

...September Sunshine...

Still and sunny this afternoon.

This week has been saturated with sunshine.   So far September has outdone August in spades when it comes to warmth and sunshine.  The days are shorter.   Nights can be cooler, but certainly, the sun has shone much of the time.  Red Admirals are enjoying the late blooms on the buddleia and the rudbekia.   In fact there has been so much sunshine that some of the butternut I thought I'd be lucky to see swell and ripen have done just that.

The salad leaves I planted last week have germinated in record time because of the warmth.

Salad has germinated.

The net over the top is to stop next-door cat using the salad box as a litter tray.

This afternoon I gave the meadow another trim.   In the non-growing months (autumn and winter) I want to treat it as I would a lawn. The reason being I need it short for dogs and children.   As far as I know there is no extra benefit to gain by not trimming it occasionally during these months.

This time of year is ideal for planning some of those construction jobs that should be done over autumn and winter ideally.  I think I'd like to put in a path entirely round the meadow to delineate it from the rest of the garden.   This would add structure and rhythm, I think.   Do you, or anyone you know, have any old bricks?   They would be ideal as path edging ...I know, I'm scrounging again.

The other areas I want to work on are at the far end of the garden...

Here by The Mound and the Sheds

This area needs quite a lot doing to it.  The 'artistic' pile of rubble and rocks is less artistic than it was. However, it is very much enjoyed by the children who spend hours unearthing the bugs and beetles it conceals.   L tells me that the snails are all girls, all princesses in beautiful dresses going to parties.  I fail to appreciate her view of snails...even princess snails have healthy appetites.

Aside from the 'look' of this corner, it also needs something to shelter the greenhouse from the winter gales that whistle down that fence in the background.  Something tough.   Maybe another buddleia or two, they are tough and easy to grow.   I wonder if they would act sufficiently as a wind break?

Opposite this area is another area on the other side of the sheds.

A dumping ground and working area for potting, compost and so on.

Both these areas are quite sheltered, except when we have a storm, then nothing is sheltered.  They are certainly more sheltered and more pleasant, at certain times, for relaxed seating than my patio, which continues to catch the wind and too much sun some days.  So this is the area I need to develop as somewhere pleasant to sit with a cup of tea....watch the children with their princess snails....

My front garden continues to need work on it too.   I have plans to re-pot some hostas that came with me from Dorset.   They are decimated by snails (princess, and the common variety) as well as slugs.  I will re-pot them into compost soaked with nematodes I think.   Then move them to the front garden where it is very shady...and where it is easier to control the slimy-army.

Talking of snails...and slugs...

This morning Pippa Greenwood of Gardeners Questions on Radio 4 was discussing how best to control them.   She uses nematodes, also copper tape and the old beer trick.  The copper tape is only effective if you keep the pots or whatever containers you are using, scrupulously free of bits of compost and so on.  The beer is the cheapest.  Sink some containers into your garden, old plastic beakers are ideal with a couple of centimetres lip protruding above ground.   Slosh a bit of beer in, about half fill.  Don't cheat...they don't like non-alcoholic beer, they like a nice dark ale...the slugs and snails all go to your bar and literally drown in it.  I like to think it is a kind way to kill them.

The worst slug we have is the Spanish Slug.   The cold winters here do kill them but last winter was not cold in spite of it being one of the worst, I can remember, for rain and wind.  These slugs eat anything and everything.   They breed so fast, much faster than our native species, that they are a real pest.

The sunshine has brought out late roses too.  My Geraldine Rose just goes on giving.

Been in bloom since June.

This one is a very fragrant, robust climber.   I do have to cut it back regularly it is so rampant.   It repays the brutal treatment by blooming even longer and harder.

The smaller climber, Generous Gardener, I planted last autumn, as a bare-root plant, is also blooming again.   Although not as rampant as The Geraldine it is still a good long flowering and fragrant rose.   It looks lovely as a cut rose.

Generous Gardener.

The apricot yellow climber I planted in summer against the arch has not stopped blooming.   It, too, is fragrant.  There is no point having a rose that doesn't have fragrance.   Margaret Merrill is a white rose on my patio, she has done just as well this summer, repeat blossoms and still has buds to open if the sunshine holds.  The roses I grow for hips, Rosa Rugosa and the Dog Roses all have wonderful red hips this year.  Rosa Rugosa is still flowering.   The secret is to feed them.   Roses are very greedy.  That is my opinion based on my experience.   They are tough but they do like regular food!  Don't we all?

Talking of food...let's not forget the vegetables.  They have been good.  I found another cucumber this week, one I hadn't noticed before.   The tomatoes have supplied me all week for salads.  The butternuts, as I mentioned, have surpassed all expectations.   The sweetcorn is almost ready to harvest.  Oh, and I discovered some very late red currants this week...or rather Jonah spotted them with his eagle foraging eyes.

Reds and golds are the colours of the month so far.

Some of my poppies have another flush of blooms

Quite a few of  the poppies are having a second flush of blooms.   I think this is because I cut back the seed pods.   Dead heading your flowers definitely encourages many of them to keep on producing colour and blooms late into the year if the weather is good.  I have learnt that by cutting back spent Marguerites they will re-sprout and continue to give more new blossoms.   I had not realised that they responded well to being dead-headed (cut back).   I wish I had known before I would have prolonged their flowering time in the meadow.  Next year I will do this.

Dahlias have been good this year.

A cerise pink simple dahlia

This dahlia is blooming among the lime green zinnias which add a wonderful zing of colour to the pink.

I thinks that is about all the news from Molokoloko Garden this week.   I will leave you with this apt quote from an anonymous source.   I think, at this time of year, it sums up how it is in September.

Summer is kind of like the ultimate one-night stand: hot as hell, totally thrilling, and gone before you know it.