The check list

It may feel like the end of the gardening year but in so many respects it is the beginning of the next one.  This is a time of year for a check list and we have been slowing working our way through ours each weekend.

Hedges all around the garden trimmed - check.  Shrubs including all roses cut and shaped - check.  Garden furniture cleaned and stored - check.  Cuttings taken (the Penstemons are doing great) - check.  Central round bed cut back and many more Alliums added to enhance the display - check.  Tender plants in pots placed undercover - check.  Last month all box balls and lavender trimmed and shaped - check.  Compost bins turned and processed compost laid - check.  All lawns edged - check.

The main herbaceous bed is next on the check list for many plants need cutting back and dividing.  Plants will be moved or potted on to sell at garden openings next year.  Then comes the planting of hundreds of bulbs which sit awaiting planting at present in their netted sacks.

The clocks go backwards next weekend making our time in the garden all too short now each weekend.  Less time means fewer items can be ticked on the check list.  But at least the hard work done now will mean that we will reap the rewards next Spring and that in itself will get me through Winter.

Time flies

This garden is young.  It has matured suprisingly quickly and it does look much older than it is.  I know that this rate of growth has also suprised many people who have visited the garden during both last year and this. We are just 3 years in and are where we were in our old garden at Linden Barn after 5 or 6. This accelerated evolution has meant that the garden became photogenic much sooner too. We have already had some professional garden
photographers visit and take some beautiful pictures which have appeared in the gardening press both in the UK and abroad.

But I confess that once a series of pictures are taken it is all too easy to lose track. In most cases we know roughly when and where a series of pictures might appear and it is always a joy to see them on the printed page. But sometimes an article appears which we knew nothing about and that is the case with the German title 'Garden Style' this Summer. We had no idea that we had been featured in the magazine let alone on the cover and this came as a suprise, be it a nice one of course.

Looking back through the pages of a magazine at your own garden on sun filled days of stunning colour and contrast is surreal. For one thing I find it hard to rationalise that the garden laid out on the pages is our own. Such is the skills of garden photographers for they capture a vista and view that seems strangely unfamilier.

At this time of year, with the ballance of day and night time hours juddering on a pivot, these snapshots of a sunnier time have a particular allure. I suspect that as this pivot tilts now toward the dark of Winter I may find myself delving into gardening magazines even more than usual. I expect that I shall paw through the pages of many beautiful gardens, taking thoughts and ideas which I can use and incorporate within our own space. That is the beauty of a magazine.