I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard people bemoaning the end of summer over the last 12 days – almost as if the start of Autumn equates to a period of mourning! Alright, I agree that not every day is ideal for the gardening enthusiast in Winter (although there’s always something to do), but Autumn – surely not! We’re just into September, we’re still warm and it’s such a wonderful month for the garden – for so many reasons!

Firstly, the garden continues to flourish, there’s stunning colour and form in our gorgeous roses, dahlias, asters, heleniums, cannas and more – these fabulous stalwarts of the late Summer/ Autumn garden will be giving me, the birds, bees and butterflies pleasure for weeks to come.

Secondly, September is harvest time! We haven’t grown many edibles this year, but the chillis and tomatoes in the greenhouse are almost ready for harvesting and the cooking apples on a very old tree in our garden in Wales are going to give us a few apple crumbles over the next few weeks – delicious!

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Next, there’s the anticipatory promise of new beginnings – which surely start right now with bulb, shrub and perennial planting alongside seed selection, re-shaping and developing? This time of year means planning and have I got plans – watch this space!

I love a misty, dewy morning and a crisp walk through woodland in Autumn. The plethora of leaf colour as the season moves on is a joy, the rustling of leaves as we kick our way through them brings a familiarity that is comforting. I’m so looking forward to the delights our trees continue to give us and I’m already reminiscing about the joys of Four Seasons Garden and Westonbirt Arboretum last Autumn, so stunning – what’s not to love!

Finally, life shouldn’t be linear – I’d like to think I make the most of every day, whatever the weather, so when it’s pouring down I’m happy to use the rain as an excuse to steer off line, put my feet up and catch up on TV programmes I’ve missed whilst out gardening, read a book or write my blog. So long as I’ve enjoyed whatever I’ve done, the day is not wasted.

To Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, 
   Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; 
Conspiring with him how to load and bless 
   With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; 
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, 
   And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; 
      To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells 
   With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, 
And still more, later flowers for the bees, 
Until they think warm days will never cease, 
      For summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells. 

John Keats