The third and final part of my series of a Garden Review for 2014 looks at late summer and autumn. (If you missed the previous posts, here’s a link to Spring, and to Summer). Before I begin, many thanks to those who have been joining me in showing a review of their garden year. It has been very enjoyable looking at all your lovely photos of flowers and insects. I’m adding links of your reviews at the bottom of today’s post.
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This post is for my Mum today…
Happy Birthday Mum!
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Mid-August: Autumn came early this year, and there were very visible signs of it in August already. The normal heat stayed at bay and it was very cool and damp for the second half of the month. Look at the acer changing colour already!
However, the rockery continued to look fabulous with the Perovskia taking centre stage, and the bees kept coming, despite the cool weather…
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September came, calm and still most of the time, but thankfully we did not get a belated heatwave. This did my garden good and everything went on blooming for much longer than usual.
A newly acquired Caryopteris gave me and the bees a lot of pleasure all through this month, the sedums brought the butterflies back, and the Elder was laden with berries which the birds were gobbling up greedily. I decided to leave them all to the birds and do without my elderberry cordial this year!
The leaves were changing colour, but autumn slowed down considerably. We had been about 2 or 3 weeks ahead of normal almost all year, so now it seemed nature was correcting itself, and the season was trying to get in harmony with the calendar again. The asters flowered and flowered and flowered, and the Rudbeckia was beautiful, even after the petals had dropped too…
(Click on any picture to see it closer up)
Euonymous berries were abundant in the hedgerows nearby and a morning of foraging produced this vase full of autumn colour, which lasted for several weeks on the patio…
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October really was golden – full of all shades of yellow, lighting up the garden – yes, it was the light in October that made the garden special…
And the colour of course!
THE rose went on to flower profusely again
And the star of the rockery all summer was still looking good: Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Firetail’
To end my review, here is a vase put together in early November which summed up much of the last days of October…
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What a fabulous gardening year it was!
That winds up my series, and once again, if anyone wishes to join me and review their garden year, please do and I’ll add you to the list below!
Other garden reviews from blogging friends wh0 have linked in so far:
Gillian at Country Garden UK (Summer 2014 Revisited)
Susie at pbm Garden (A Garden Review of 2014: Spring)
Susie at pbm Garden (A Garden Review of 2014: Summer)
Susie at pbm Garden (A Garden Review of 2014: Late Summer and Autumn)
John at A Walk in the Garden (A Garden Review of 2014: April-June)
John at A Walk in the Garden (A Garden Review of 2014: July-September)
John at A Walk in the Garden (A Garden Review of 2014: October-December)
Words and Herbs 