The conkers dropped particularly early this year and as for summer, ehhh… wasn’t that the 3-week hot spell we had back in July?
Due to Mr Sunshine’s reluctance to show his face from behind those big fluffy white clouds, the Mediterranean herbs were puny and my usual bountiful crop of tomatoes wasn’t impressive either, some even caught blight, brought on by the repetitive weather pattern, warm, wet, repeat.
However, what I couldn’t fail to notice in the garden was the prefusion of leafy green foliage. I’ve a few clients who love the lush large-leaved, tropical look in their gardens, so for them, it was ideal conditions. As for my other ‘English country garden’ clients, I first had to cut back masses of the verdant stuff before starting on anything else, as it was crowding out the flowers.
Things were very different last year, an Indian summer that was still warm through to the end of October, the evenings were still pleasant enough to sit out in the garden in shorts.
One will usually have started planting out spring bulbs by now, but I’m holding off till November and will stagger it through to December, thus giving me a later flowering season, as l already have so many bulbs in the ground from previous years.
I love how flowers now have a habit of popping up unexpectedly here and there throughout the garden. Sometimes I can be a bit like a squirrel, forgetting where I’ve planted things and then ‘Oh hello,’ but what a lovely surprise.
