Cooler Climes

"Gardens are a form of autobiography"

- Sydney Eddison

So, I wonder what the above picture tells you about the gardeners who live here...?  At least one of them is a sun-worshipper with some flair for design... Christina, on both counts!  You might also deduce that there's a desire for conservation and a love of antiquity in the way those stones are preserved alongside the terracotta pots.

Beyond that you could even hazard a guess that the people in question are drawn to a Mediterranean ambience, but no longer enjoy the fierce heat generated around its shores...

Yes, from our point of view, the weather here is a near-perfect mix of British seasonality, with its winter frosts and occasional snowfall, and sunny southerly optimism which means you can risk growing a few unusual things from the tender side of the spectrum.  In short, we relish the sun but not the sweat, which is mainly kept at bay by strong Atlantic breezes!

A couple of kind friends recently gave us a young aloe vera plant which we hope to keep in a smallish pot so that we can easily move it indoors during the coldest months of January and February. I would hate to see its succulent leaves browned or scarred by frost damage.

For the moment it looks great against our dark terracotta wall, bringing back happy memories of a trip to Arizona when we fell in love with spiky desert plants and got used to seeing them dramatically displayed against sun-baked adobe.

If we ever end up with a sheltered courtyard in town, it would be tempting to recreate something as theatrical and exotic as Frida Kahlo's garden at her home in Mexico!

Hummingbird Hawk Moth
feeding in late afternoon

At this time of year, we even have several 'hummingbirds' regularly darting around the heads of Verbena bonariensis, catching the sun on their beating wings and angled proboscis - an irresistible photo challenge.

If you're not used to them, it can be quite startling to hear a loud 'thrum' and feel the movement of air as they whizz past your ear.

A Japanese secret weapon -
and one of the best tools to have
in your gardening armory

When not disporting ourselves on sun-loungers or photographing wildlife, we can find any number of useful jobs in the garden. These include taking cuttings of plants like dianthus and salvia, or collecting seeds for sowing next year, just in case we ever need to replace our favourites.

You need to wait until the seed capsule is dry and brown before shaking its contents into a paper bag, or in the case of smaller seeds depositing them on a sheet of white paper with a crease down the middle. This makes it easier to feed them into an envelope; but don't try it outdoors on a windy day - that way madness lies!

This photo also illustrates one of our most favourite tools, given to us by a dear friend who appreciated the fact that we did so much chopping down in her garden and thus were in danger of getting repetitive strain injuries.  In fact, she gave us each a pair of these Okatsune pruning scissors which are scalpel sharp and slice through all kinds of tough stems with a crisp action requiring very little pressure. 

The fine blade is also suitable for taking softwood cuttings and I even employ these 'scissors' for occasional edge-trimming where damp grass can be difficult to cut with other tools. It seems logical (if scary) that a nation which invented harakiri should make the sharpest blades ever... 

Echinacea purpurea and Cosmos sulphureus

Meanwhile, on the subject of seeds, most of our echinaceas and cosmos have come from seed we collected in the past year or two. 

Whilst echinacea is generally hardy in this climate, it tends to disappear below ground in winter and then get eaten by slugs or snails before you have a chance to protect the emerging leaves.

Hyssop, salvia and pennisetum

Hyssops and salvias produce vast amounts of seed and it's worth keeping an envelope-full of each type just in case your plants are hit by frost.

We're also taking cuttings from them now which can root quickly in the warm soil, providing new plants which may even come to flower in just over a month - perfect for the impatient gardener!

Some seeds, like wallflowers, have to be sown around this time so their seedlings will be bushy enough to plant out in autumn, bulking up further by early spring to ensure a good flowering in April.

Pennisetum alopecuriodes
'National Arboretum'

Most grasses seem to be hardy here and the challenge is to stop them taking over your entire garden! Stipa tenuissima is prone to flagrantly seeding itself and I suspect this Pennisetum may be equally free and easy.

But the amazing light-catching quality of grasses is to be admired and, as they seem to enhance whatever plant is grown alongsidethem, I'll be happy to pot-up a few babies as gifts.

Hydrangea paniculata 'Grandiflora'
(with salvia cutting)

That hydrangea I wrote about over a month ago is still ravishing in its full maturity and I was amused to come across a review by Vita Sackville-West who also highlighted it as a shrub of distinction in late summer. 

She describes exactly how it starts by flowering white, then pink and "then it turns greenish, a sort of sea-green, so you never know where you are with it, as you never know where you are with some human personalities, but that makes them all the more interesting. Candidly white one moment; prettily pink the next; and virulently green in the last resort."

(Vita had colourful friends, for sure ...!)

Galega officinalis var. alba
(Goat's-rue)

Plainer and less interesting perhaps, but equally useful for an area in part-shade, is this little pea-like plant from southern Europe called Galega which we've used to underplant a rose. The foliage does tend to flop rather, but it's light and airy, helping to distract the eye from those naked rose stems. If it gets killed by frost, I hope it will leave a few seeds to come up in its wake.

Recently the north wind has returned and temperatures have dipped at night making one reach for a blanket. It seems early for autumn's footsteps to be approaching but our potted acer has responded by suddenly putting on a show of red and gold leaves, making me wonder if they'll soon be ready to flutter off.

Acer palmatum - another ostentatious show-stopper

Time Out

"Deep Summer is when laziness finds respectability"

- Sam Keen

Fishing on the Gironde

Now it's August and many crops have been harvested: bales and stooks and rolls of hay laid out prettily across the fields; heavy heads of sunflowers turning to seed and dense stretches of maize obscuring our coastal views - annoyingly!

Sunflower graffiti artist

Walks tend to be taken first thing or late in the afternoon when the breeze has got up. Ripening crops mean the landscape is constantly changing and paths which were familiar in winter have become narrow and over-shadowed, robbed of their usual perspective.

So, too, does the garden feel more enclosed and private.

Shrub of the month...?

Bamboo filtering evening light

A previous neighbour had put in a window overlooking our garden  (without permission) so early on we planted bamboo in a plastic trough to grow up alongside our dividing wall. It's done a great job of obscuring their view of us -    and, just as importantly, our view of their rather boring window!

I'm not entirely sure which bamboo we used but think it was probably a type of Phyllostachys which, after some three years, reached about four meters in height and spread itself across the length of the trough. We watered it profusely to begin with and still keep an eye out to make sure it doesn't get too dry.

Old canes can be cut down
and used as stakes in the garden

The stems start out green and turn yellow on maturity, staying slim and elegant with leaves that are not too broad either. Our plant has now been shooting happily for at least seven years.

Grown in a shady corner, it doesn't get much direct sun except in the evening when it positively dances with light, and the rustling foliage helps to give an impression of coolness. 

In the absence of a water-feature, it's certainly a good idea to have plants or trees which 'rustle'... one of the best for this purpose is a poplar, but our garden is just too small for one of these giants.

Crocosmia in a shady corner

Gardening with a partner can lead to the odd disagreement over what to plant where... actually, you're doing well if this is the only source of horticultural friction!

Christina obtained some hybrid crocosmia corms from her cousin in England and planted them next to a dark-leaved Cimicifuga, Actaea simplex, which is in the shade of a high barn wall.

Crocosmia (Emily McKenzie?)

There's no doubt that it looks dramatic alongside those purple leaves, especially when the evening sun illuminates its orange petals, but I wonder whether this crocosmia wouldn't be better off in a sunnier position. Time will tell..!

It's sometimes the case that a plant which likes semi-shade in England will tolerate what we might think of as a 'dark corner' in this climate.  A couple of hours of very bright sun in early morning or evening is probably the equivalent of four hours of comparatively weak light in parts of the UK.

Similarly this Nicotiana alata appears to have thrived where I stuck it, desperate to find a space, in the dry soil underneath a spreading viburnum. 

You'd hardly notice it during the day but in late afternoon the white flowers are backlit by sun and really leap out of the shade. 

Nicotiana is extremely useful for dark areas and this one was a rogue seedling out of the batch of 'Lime Green' which I grew in spring. All those plants have been flowering for several weeks now, some in shade and a couple in a sunny container together with purple petunias.

Echinacea purpurea 'Green Jewel'
 with heleniums and cosmos

And green flowers are a perfect foil for all those red, orange and bronze hues of late summer!

This aptly-named 'Green Jewel' was one of the earliest echinaceas to bloom and it's a joy to behold as the spiky central cone gradually increases in size, showcasing its golden yellow stamens.

This effect is echoed by the other daisy-like flowers of Helenium (Sahin's Early) and Cosmos sulphureus.

Our damp summer has continued to water the garden with occasional thunderstorms and overnight rain, which inevitably bring out a host of snails to feast on anything young and inviting. 

The tiny ones in this picture remind me of how a group of environmentalists in Newbury managed to divert work on the bypass because a rare but miniscule snail happened to be breeding in its path. Such a protest would surely be unheard of in France where people descend on our road verges with buckets to collect the cagouilles that have congregated after rain!

Guarding forbidden fruits

Summer fruits are also ripening fast and all that dampness has helped to swell the blackberries. 

In a single week, we've already managed to pick about ten bags of berries for the freezer and there are still many more to come - if others don't get there first.

At one of our favourite spots on the edge of a vineyard, Christina came across this snake lurking in the hedge, watching her with its beady eye and not at all inclined to move away! 

Newly-trimmed lavender helps restore structure

So many plants have reached a state of ebullience now that they run the risk of merging into one another. That's part of the charm of an English cottage garden for sure, but where herbs like lavender and helichrysum have produced flower spikes which tend to flop, it's probably best to chop them right back and round-off the bushes to give them a neat shape. 

Maintenance may be never-ending in the garden, but for many of us adults it really can be just an extended form of play...!