Julie is a free-lance gardener living near York, England. After training in Horticulture, she has spent the last 25 years combining life as mum of 4 and farmer’s wife with practical gardening, designing and construction. Her work ranges from creating new gardens (or parts of gardens) to routine maintenance and advice.
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As Summer ends..
September 22, 2009
Well, it’s official! The much publicised BBQ Summer that was forecast earlier in the year, turned out to be rather more of a traditional summer here in the UK…bringing a mixture of sunshine and showers which didn’t always come along at the correct intervals! Baking sunshine or drying winds one moment followed by prolonged and heavy showers resulting in waterlogged lawns and drooping foliage the next!
As today is officially the first day of Autumn, this seems to be a good opportunity to reflect on the last few weeks of Summer before finally embracing John Keats’ Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.
For many years now, as a farmer’s wife and mum, September has been a breathing space between those last precious but hectic days of the school holidays and the inevitable new term routine which seems to gradually build until reaching frenzy pitch by mid December. The long summer holiday never drags on a farm, family outings are squeezed in as often as possible between leading hay and straw along with all of the usual jobs on a livestock farm. In the summer garden, (as I have mentioned before,) keeping on top of the weeds, lawn and harvesting of fruit and vegetables is a challenge in itself.
Then a brief September lull, before the days seem too short to get everything done, even without the added pressure of Christmas preparations! On a good day in September, there seems to be something special about the light quality. The warmth from the sun on a hot day is now something to appreciate rather than to endure! The speed of growth in the garden is slowing down again and flowers, fruit and hips tend to remain for longer than a blink of an eye!
This September has been a personal milestone for me as our youngest daughter has just started University. Although John and I have now driven to four separate universities, with four different children squashed in the back of various vehicles, packed with assorted boxes and bags, it is not something that ever becomes routine or boring! Of Course Annie is already making new friends and settling into her new routine, whilst I am also gradually adjusting to mine!
Apart from only a couple of days of rain, (one of which I spent clipping topiary until I was completely covered in tiny green spots of Box leaves!) we seem to have had a good share of sunshine this September, with the promise of High pressure building over the next few days too. Butterflies and bees have been making the most of the late summer sunshine and I haven’t had the heart to cut back some of the later flowering lavender yet.
Please click on the link to see the photos to illustrate this blog http://www.flickr.com/photos/julieparishruralgardener
Whilst working at Stillingfleet Lodge http://www.stillingfleetlodgenurseries.co.uk recently on a day when no other staff were there, rather than eat in an empty staff hut I took my lunch down to the pond and wild flower meadow. Though the grass pathways through the meadow are kept short, the long grass and wild flower areas are only cut once a year in late summer, allowing flowers and grasses to seed and die down. Even though this annual operation had only recently been carried out in some areas, the newly cut grass was studded with several species of Colchicum. The first tinges of autumn colour were just showing on shrubs such as Viburnum plicatum ‘Mariesii’, Stewartia and Parrotia persica and many of the species roses were still giving a fine display of hips. Whilst sitting by the pond, I watched dragonflies and butterflies and returned to work in the stock beds feeling fully recharged!
There is still so much flowering in September, it’s difficult to pick favourites. Roses are still producing flowers and if you are looking for a good red rose with a good scent, William Shakespeare is hard to beat! The rose shown on the flickr link is taken at Stillingfleet where a row of William Shakespeare are trained along a metal framework at the far end of the Avenue. Anybody who walks along the Avenue and sits on the bench at the bottom to look back towards the house and the long borders, cannot fail to notice the wonderful scent. I have included a picture of the pot stand which greets visitors as they enter the Courtyard, bedding in pots always looks so cheerful at this time of year!
Whilst on this subject, I visited my daughter Claire in Ludlow a couple of weekends ago, where we were most impressed by the number of containers and hanging baskets sited around the town. Although some were supplied by the local council, a large number were planted and looked after by local residents. I would just like to say a big thank you to people like David Knapp and others like him, who take the time and effort to create such pretty container gardens that we can all enjoy. Even the smallest of gardens, or houses with no gardens at all, can provide all year round colour with imagination and a little care and attention!
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I miss you, Mummy!