The slightly nervous gardener...

[mrph]

This is the time of year when I get a bit worried about my plants, especially the new ones.

Pots get moved into the house and I start wondering about watering and light levels. Plants in the garden shed their leaves or simply wither away.

There will be some casualties. There always are - the welsh onions have rotted away in a waterlogged bed. Some of the thyme's gone much the same way. And the Szechuan pepper in the kitchen has gone from healthy to desiccated in about a day (or at least it feels that way...).

New perennials are always a particular concern. An autumn olive bush was planted out a couple of months back and I had a brief panic this week when leaves turned yellow and fell off. Surely it was an evergreen? Thankfully not. But I had to double check.

And then, on the other hand, there's the medlar tree... it looks spectacular. The dying leaves are splendidly autumnal, a fiery red / orange / yellow mix. It was planted this year and I won't get any fruit for a year or two.

But right now, I don't much care about that bit. I'm just happy to have something quite so striking in the garden at an otherwise bleak time.

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Comments

[inulro.livejournal.com]

We planted Virginia Creeper for that very reason (and to cover up our hideous garden walls). It's quite spectacular at the moment.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Ooh, interesting, can we see a photo of the medlar tree? I really like medlars, but I've never seen them growing.

Which reminds me, I must remember to look up whether basil is meant to die back in the winter. I suspect it is not, and that mine is extremely... ill.

[mrph.livejournal.com]

Basil's mostly an annual, isn't it? There are some perennial versions, but they're pretty unusual.

And I think it is an actual annual annual, not one of those plants like sweet marjoram that everyone grows as an annual because winter unfailingly kills it, indoors or out...

There would have been a photo of the medlar here, but this week's storms have not been kind. There were only two leaves left when I finally got the clear skies and daylight I needed for a photo. :-(

Next year, however...

garden vicissitudes

[auroramama]

The Rose family has such wonderfully ripe, fruity colors up its leafy sleeve. I love the way a young Bradford pear keeps the fire going deep into November. Cherry leaves can turn pale yellow, melon, peach, and rose-red, but they're done earlier than the pears.

Autumn olive does tend to keep some leaves into winter, but it doesn't need to.

Next spring I find out which perennials and shrubs didn't mind being undersea for a day or three.