Autumnal Thrifting
The atmosphere has changed over the last few weeks with moisture lingering in the air for a lot longer. The sun dawdles before it rises high enough to envelop, making today feel like the warmth of a spring afternoon. Bringing much needed vitality to get to work on the rose bed. Snipping dead stems and overgrown ones to bring the roses back into line for their long winter sleep. Bread crumb soil makes light work of removing weeds and then left to rest before one last clear up once the weather does really turn and the leaves descend. The bed will be mulched in cardboard with a moist layer of manure spread across the top. I can’t tell you how much joy and delight this new bed has brought me this year, more than I anticipated and it crept right beneath my skin.
As well as the new rose bed this year saw the beginnings of more new flower beds that remain to be finished but before this reconvenes there are many seeds to be collected. I decant sweetpea seeds from parched unfurling cases and these will be left out to ensure they are completely dry on HQ’s desk, aka the dining room table. In a week or so I’ll sow these for early blooms at the end of spring next year and this little bowl of delights will give me new Piggy Sue plants galore.
Pretty ethereal pin cushion flowers sit aloft long and slender stems that make up the frangible looking Scabious. From just a few homegrown plants they have flowered in an abundance where the seeds have naturally dried and all I need are a handful of stems. These flowers are so delicately gorgeous when in bloom and produce plentiful seeds in their final cycle of life. Fata Morgana and Summer Fruits have been carefully split from the dried heads and in just a few days they will also be sown with 2 more sowing in spring.
One last thrift of the day…
But not the last of the season, hydrangea paniculata are cut just as they are on the cusp of turning a beautiful pink blush. Cutting whilst they have a mixture of colours mixes together with an array of dried flowers, dahlia’s such as Josudi and Preference go together like peas and carrots with these little pretties.
Happy Autumn, love Jane x
