End of season

It’s been a warm and pleasant week with lots of sunshine- such a change from August. The contractors have completed their work on our chimney and roof and yesterday the scaffold came down so it begins to look like normal again.

The garden has been given a wonderful present of 3 ‘Gansu modan’, wonderful peonies from Will McLewin who has spent the past 30 or more years studying the origins of these in China. I am now busy preparing a bed that luckily we had already cleared this spring with well rotted manure and our own compost and intend to plant them next month. Look out for them in the spring!

The ivy is flowering on the round tower and bees of all sizes are enjoying it- because of the sunshine, the insignificant flowers are more noticeable.

The greenhouse is still colourful, Primula capitata is amazingly still in flower, and I’m busy potting on lots of smaller plants that need new compost while it’s still warm. I find potting on in November when there’s plenty of time and poor weather doesn’t suit lots of things, particularly magnolias.