Gardening

Today, we continued to tidy up the garden before winter sets in. It now has an autumnal look with leaves falling and summer plants pulled up. The last sweet peas were taken up Nov 4th.  These, along with the cosmos, were a great success and we'll try these again next summer.

Yesterday we planted an evergreen holly.  This should look good all year around.

Last sweet peas

Yesterday (Nov 4th) we cut our last bunch of sweet peas from the garden. They have been flowering since June. We have put a fresh vase of sweet peas on the kitchen table every few days since June. This is a picture of Lis with this last bunch.  We'll grow more next year.

Also, our cosmos flowers have been good.  We took them out a week ago to make way for daffodil bulbs. Every day Lis dead-headed these at a rate of about 100 dead heads a day!

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Autumn (at the moment) seems to have arrived early this year. We have had a lovely sunny summer but all the fruits and berries are early by 1-2 months. Our tomato plants are ripening and next doors' fruit trees are laden with apples and plums. Our sweet peas are being cut every day. In the house they smell wonderful, but these are ephemeral and last only a few days.

Sweet peas with the orchard next door behind.

This afternoon I managed to cut the front lawn in less than 30 minutes, which is a "post stroke" record, and without breaks. The previous time was 35 minutes and before that 45 minutes and several stops for rests.

John Keats was right in his famous poem, To Autumn.

Sweet peas

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/Advice/ACEImages//RHS_WSYD0003866_590944.jpg

For the first time in many years, my wife decided to grow some sweet peas. These smell beautifully and make excellent, if short-lived, cut flowers. This year, because of my poor health, most of the flower beds have been done and maintained by my wife Lis. She has done a great job.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Cosmos_na_Mostra_de_Flor_de_Hong_Kong.JPG/220px-Cosmos_na_Mostra_de_Flor_de_Hong_Kong.JPG

Her cosmos have also been excellent. We probably have the most colourful garden in the street.

Both images above are located on other sites. The links to them are shown below each image. If this is a problem (copyright etc) please let me know. 

Our sweet peas