Autumn Colour ~ 2 ~ Red Berries

Red Autumn Berries

Hawthorn Berries

Ripe red Hawthorn berries

Flowering Nutmeg
Lycesteria Formosa
The Blackbirds love these berries and will jump up to snatch them one by one

Cotoneaster berries

Honeysuckle berries

This year we have heard that there is a great crop of berries everywhere
This may be a result of the hard, cold and snowy winter
Others suggest it is a warning of a hard, cold and snowy winter to come!

Chimonanthus Bush, Pod, Seed and Seedling

Chimonanthus Bush

Chimonanthus Bush about 8 years old

Chimonanthus Seed and Pod


Chimonanthus seed pod on plant

I have added the coin for scale as the seeds are quite large
The pod holds about 10 and they really need to suffer a hard winter
or a domestic freezer!

The pod is very dark brown and quite woody:
they hang down and the seeds fall out of the bottom

Chimonanthus Seedling

The dicotyledon (seed leaves) of our Chimonanthus

This rather manky looking seedling has grown from a Chimonanthus seed harvested last autumn
I have previously had a small seedling but I left it in the garden in its pot and one night it got eaten so this one has come into the conservatory
I really hope it sprouts a new shoot soon so I can see the true leaves rather than these cotyledons
The leaves are very tough but look shiny whereas the true leaves are tough but rough

Autumn Colour ~ 1 ~ Blueberry Bush

Autumn Colour

Our Blueberry Bush seems to be the first to show autumn colour and it appeared as soon as the last fruits had ripened.
The leaves are the most beautiful red and remind us of Canadian Maples.

September ~ New Mower

New Lawn Mower

Our new mower, bought this weekend, to replace a very old, noisy one which had started to produce a poor result.
We went shopping for a new one and had been prepared to pay about £100+ to get a good one with strong design.
We'd almost made up our minds when we saw this one on 'Special' and decided to give it a go; at £40 it probably won't last as long as our last one but it will do a turn.
I assembled it this morning and cut the back lawn

Nice neat design; we don't need big and chunky for our modest sized garden

Mower used and green bag filled

Finished cut; our lawn is not very even so we're never going to get a bowling green look but it's a good colour and nice play area.

August 2010 ~ Guest Garden Two

Yesterday we helped Will & the girls to collect their three ex-battery chickens from a collection point near Denmead. Although not strictly gardening, in the horticultural sense, it does seem a very good use of a garden to give these chickens a happy, but still productive, retirement. Their life to this point has been an indoors existence regulated by timed lighting and egg collections.
Hopefully they will settle in and be contended in their new environment.

This was the collection point; a stable unit the rehousing group used for the day.

They had a pedicure before being put in the box we'd provided.

Will & Esmé with their chickens

Back home and Esmé & Maggie check them out

A series of photos showing them being taken carefully out of the box and introduced to their new home.

Next morning they had produced two eggs; quite a surprise after only one day.

All three wandering about the garden; I hope Will has clipped their flight wings!

August ~ Filberts & Thieves

Filbert Nuts

Nuts on the Filbert Tree ~ ripening nicely

Next day!! A Thief is about

I see you!

Grey Squirrel thief tucking in to rock hard filbert nuts
We need another month before we could eat them

Orchid ~ August and Flowers & Buds

My Orchid ~ Late August 2010

Just a selection of photos here
I don't think they need words