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Garden Diary – Say goodbye to the lighter nights!
This is the week that really feels like Autumn is tipping towards winter, as the clocks fall back and we say goodbye to the lighter nights! Despite this we’ve had some gloriously sunny days with fabulous blue skies showing off the still dominating pink flowers in the garden, especially the extra late cosmos dazzler which was backlit on a few occasions. The pink shrub salvia is still covered, the dark pink dahlias are still sending up small blooms and a few Nerine bulbs have finally opened up like pink fireworks. I really thought they must have rotted as they were so late. The sun and skies have also been setting…
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The Geese are back in town! – Autumn is around the corner!
I am now awakened regularly by loud honking first thing in the morning. Not from a car, but because the geese are back in town! I’m not at all annoyed, I love hearing them and lie there smiling. They fly over the house three or four times each morning; I never know if it’s the same flock going round and around or if it’s three or four different flocks. The Canada geese return to us each year in late August, and it starts with just a handful. You’re suddenly aware of that distinctive honking sound, and sure enough there’s a small ‘V’ formation in the sky. By mid-September though, there…
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Late Autumn in the Garden – The big tidy-up
Late autumn is a strange season of conflicting emotions for me. To be honest it’s my least favourite time of the year. I know we have the spectacular colourful displays from the trees, as their leaves blaze with fiery reds, golds and coppers. And when they first drop to the ground, dry and crispy, I can’t resist the temptation to run through them kicking them up in the air. But once on the ground they become soggy and slimy! I find it rather depressing as the garden starts dying back and everywhere looks a mess! But it’s necessary! We all need a rest, even the garden. I’m much happier once…
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Early Autumn in the garden – Harvests, flowers & sunshine
Still feeling like summer These days, early autumn is indistinguishable from summer. In fact we regularly have better weather in early autumn than we do in mid-summer. The only real clue to the season is the shortening day length. Initially, hardly noticeable until we head into late autumn and the time change. It was so warm in September that our al fresco eating carried on well into mid-autumn – including some breakfasts! September is the month of bounty. Back in the days when we used to go on holiday, we’d come home to courgettes transformed into giant marrows. Which resulted in stuffed marrow and marrow chutney – we do hate…
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Dorothy Clive Garden
Creation of the Garden The origin of the Dorothy Clive Garden has a heart-warming story behind it. About a husbands love for his ailing wife. Colonel Harry Clive’s wife Dorothy, had failing health due to Parkinson’s disease. As a result she couldn’t venture far from the house, but did like to have a regular walk. To make her walks more interesting than just a stroll around the lawn, he decided to develop the overgrown gravel pit, into woodland walks. Sadly Dorothy died just a couple of years after the work started, but apparently she was involved in some of the planting and did get pleasure from the newly created woodland…
