Darkening November

My two last strawberries of the season

It's time for the last of things. I ate the last two raspberries from the garden this morning from my autumn raspberry bushes. I will cut them down in the spring for them to spring up again for next year. 

The scaffolding at the front of the house is slightly redeemed by the plants growing there. If you avoid the scaffolding and the portaloo you will see bugle, bacopa and ophiopogon in the raised front bed. 

Cheerful things in the front garden

There are quite a lot of things still flowering still in the main garden. The osteospermum, for instance is still going strong. It's a very pretty white with a purple edging. 

Osteospermum still going strong.

Luckily the scaffolding at the back of the house does not cover the door to the garden.  The scaffolding is going to be there for some weeks so I'm really glad to have an open view of the garden. 

The new Aster Monch is doing very well, full of flowers still,  and so is the bright red Salvia 'Jezebel' and its cutting which I planted last week and the Geranium 'Rozanne'. 

Salvia 'Jezebel' - a cutting taken from the street

My cooking apples were simply full of codling moth this year. Luckily I was able to cut out the bad bits and cook the rest -  plenty in the freezer for the year! but I didn't want that to happen again so I covered the bottom of the tree with cardboard, keeping it in place with sticky tape. When I took it off five weeks later, the last apples on the tree were the only ones without being eaten., so I shall do it again early next year. 

Don't forget, if you want to visit the St Paul's Woodland Garden, mentioned last week from 12.30 to 1.30 on 13 November to let them know on catherine@greencityprojects.co.uk.