Head Gardener's Diary - September
What a completely different month September has been. Apart from a few showers at the beginning of the month it has been very dry. We haven’t mowed for two weeks now and before then only to tidy up the odd area of longer grass, and to define the grass paths. The majority of the Garden is now looking very parched and dry. Some of the shrubs and trees are beginning to suffer too, but it is difficult to tell which are colouring for Autumn and which are yellowing from drought. Today is beautiful and sunny following a crisp dewy start – very Autumnal.
We have been working on the Botanic bed, behind the Iris bed. It has been neglected for a while, one of the areas I keep meaning to get around to. My student helpers have all had a good dig at the large and spreading patch of dwarf bamboo in the middle of the bed. We have discovered the true extent of it – presently marked by canes, and have taken out a huge clump of it at the front of the border. I shan’t say what I intend doing to the rest of it when it shows its little heads again – but it won’t be pretty!
Other work at the moment has included the long grass flailing and the (seemingly) never ending hedge-trimming. We’ve been chipping the trimmings as we go along. The formal garden was completed for the last Open Day and hopefully most of the rest will be done in time for the next one on 11th October in aid of the Duchess of Kent Hospice. We’ve also been generally weeding and tidying, and watering the occasional wilting plant.
One place there is water, and where it shouldn’t be, is in my wellington boot. I was wading round the bottom pond of the stream cutting off the seed heads on the flag Iris as they are starting to spread everywhere. I noticed my foot getting wetter and wetter but by this time there was nothing to be done except finish the job. I have inspected them closely and can’t see a single hole, so I am going to fill it with water and see where it comes out of! I must go and put a new pair on my shopping list before I forget.
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