The trees that decided to put on a magnificent golden show are dropping their leaves with abandon. The nasty foggy weather of the last few days meant the drop went straight to the ground around, now a wind is mixing the leaves up and sending them scurrying into piles and lining the edges of the pavements. The lime trees must be glad to shed their black sooty burden – the legacy of summer aphids.
The summer bedding in the park has gone, the cushion beds are plumped up with rich brown earth waiting for the spring plants to go in.
I also went into a temporary frenzy of cutting back at the weekend to let more light in from the ever lowering sun. The prunings are now lying in soggy heaps waiting for me to purchase some council green refuse sacks – let the snails feast I say!
Last week a frost took the dahlias in the garden, that’s the end of that show. D coccinea didn’t open one flower this year, not one, The Bishop of Llandaff did his usual show. A species Dahlia, possibly D spectabilis sputtered through our moody summer. Unfortunately having moved PCs I can’t remember what the other one’s were. Apart from a large pale yellow, I probably wouldn’t bother again with this year’s random selection.
Saxifraga fortunei is putting on this late late show in the town garden whilst all around it sulks into the ground slowly.