“Happily we bask in this warm September sun, Which illuminates all creatures…”— Henry David Thoreau September, the greatest month, certainly been a beauty this year. How imperious this month can be! Summer months of June, July and August are supposed to be the times of light, of heat and of needing shade. September tries to mimic and often goes does well for ten days or so. But not 2021 here on the Sussex coast with those summer months. September served up 20 plus days of temperatures in the low 20s and oodles of sun. Imperious The growth and splendour of the Home Garden! Rampant Canna lilies, tower like gladioli, Salvias a haze of bees, luscious roses and the Dahlias and Cosmos. Until three years ago I had never grown either. But, as you already know I did not garden at all in this thoughtful way until three years ago Cosmos is a superb tall growing plant that is very easy to grow from seed. Large flowers in so, so lovely colours. A mass planting produces a sensational effect. Whilst I adore that effect I grow the white Cosmos 'Psyche White' https://www.thompson-morgan.com/.../cosmos.../4580TM as a "dot plant " in one of the borders, it is a fine sight. I sow Cosmos seeds in late April and by late May they are hardening off in individual 3" pots. They are contemporary in my gardening diary to squashes and marrows. They go on and on right to the damp and cold of late Autumn. Grow them. Cosmos as defined by Pythagoras two and a half thousand years ago, is an " orderly or harmonious universe ". Contemplate that as you peer at the mass planting In my first year of growing Dahlias, 2018, I did so only in 10" pots using 50% home made compost and 50% bought peat free compost. The results were good and collected together it was a splendid corner. The same the next year but not so good. This year I put them into a border and the resulting growth has been exception even in this strange weather year. The flowers, and there are masses tower over four feet. They are well mulched with home made compost and are tough plants that have not needed staking. I now have perhaps another month to enjoy those flowers and to ponder whether to lift them and store them dried out indoors or cut hem back, mulch again and leave them in situ. Your thoughts and ideas on that welcomed Next Wednesday is Saint Michaelmas Day, the end of the Harvest period that began on 1st August. As I look down the Home Garden past these ranks of Cosmos and Dahlia flowers I can see at about forty foot distance the instantly recognisable form of the Michaelmas Daisies. A sort of gateway leading from this marvellous September into the more vague and unknown places of late Autumn ....
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" I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house." Nathaniel Hawthorne
My my, Sussex gardeners, have you noticed the effects of our recent sunshine? Exciting and brilliant, literally. After so many weeks without it how the Home Garden adores the rays of warmth. And are responding. Growth, flowering and colouring up are combining in a superb resurgence of pure energy and beauty. Plants that have been waiting for it are enthusiastically plunging in. The Brimstone, Blue, White, Red Admiral, Peacock and Painted Lady butterflies promenade in the great heat Conversly, the slugs, snails, slow worms, beetles and some other creatures keep to the damp, to the shade to their comfort zones. The creatures I do not see but know are around, the voles, the mice, the frogs welcome the camouflage and sanctuary. The twilight flight of the bats seems longer and they are more numerous. And then there are the late birds home to roost. How their number decline in the Home Garden! Already I am writing about the end of the day but I have the anticipation of the new one. And that is everything to do with my favourite month, September. In September the sun is retreating southwards, becoming lower in the sky, you will have noticed this. No longer directly above with its brilliant light but now at an increased angle that creates an aura, softening the light and hence the colours in the flowers. And how they shine those colours! And how that sun warms in a different way... " Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence"
Ovid I have been told that the average tenancy at Manor Allotments is three years; if it is, then it would not be a surprise to me Farmers and growers have a reputation for calling out the weather. Too dry. To hot. Too windy. Too wet. They might be forgiven for what Mother Nature has provided so far this year in a ( not so) Sunny Sussex. A very wet turn of the Year became from mid February until April a drought against a set of generally much colder than average temperature days and the high winds and named storms of April and May. A four day " heatwave", actually about 23 Celsius here, against a very sunless, moist and generally cheerless summer! You will have noted that I am indeed calling out the weather! So the ideal circumstances for bumper numbers of slugs, snails, damping off and blight. Which were delivered! Plot 106 has not been as productive as last year. I am delighted to have had potato, broad bean, runner bean, sweetcorn, courgettes and marrow crops plus the settling in of grape vines, raspberries, strawberries and blackberry. There will be winter crops of sprouts, leeks, cabbage and broccoli to enjoy. The top fruit trees have put on growth too, some with a very light crop Compared to last year I have done much smaller amounts of writing down on 106 and that is the bigger loss to me. I had more work than was anticipated and I am full on with the Home Garden. That said it is now September, my favourite month of the year so I will top up with the wellbeing. My autumn work schedule is going to be rammed and there are signs of an exciting 2022 on the horizon. More reason then to sit back to look at the Red Admirals , the swelling fennel plants and the now very apparent chip chip of Robin redbreast. Much to savour....e to edit. |
AuthorI launched this website on 16th August 2020 to bring together my thoughts on gardening,, its importance for health and wellbeing and two projects running concurrently, a renovation of my own garden on the West Sussex coast at Lancing and a nearby allotment. But also to learn from other gardeners about the inspirations for their plots, about their gardening projects and enjoyment of beautiful plants and gardens Archives
February 2024
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