It’s officially autumn here in the UK and it certainly feels autumnal up here in Yorkshire. It’s time to start slowly tidying the garden up for the winter. I try not to tidy too much as it’s better for wildlife if it’s left over winter, but some things need cutting back a bit.

The deep border by the fence had got very overgrown – this is how it looked for my last garden post…

Well I got in there on my hands and knees, weeding and sorting out what’s what. I dug up lots of bindweed roots which is satisfying but frustrating too, they’re big and very white so they show up once I start ferreting round, it’s just frustrating that I still have such a bindweed problem after all these years. I’ve still some work to do at the very back. I cut a few perennials back, pruned some shrubs and accidently dug up a clematis!

I still have some work to do at the back but this is what it looks like now…

The blue pot hasn’t moved, it’s just that you can see it now!

Next I think I will tackle the pond area, I’ll give it a couple more weeks though and then the hosta leaves will just fall off. I’m thinking of digging up the crocosmia as it’s just got too big and spread too much, that’s the tall strappy leaves behind Hubert the heron. I’m also wanting to halve the patch of Solomon’s Seal as it hiding the pond … or I could move it to where the crocosmia is now!!

There’s still a few flowers around in the garden, the roses are still producing a few blooms, though the weather gets to them pretty quickly. This little patch of flowers is by the top lawn but looking through from the steps as you go up. It’s a pink geranium with a shrubby clematis. Not all clematis are climbers, there is also a shrub, it’s pretty nondescript for most of the year but late summer early autumn it has spikes of blue flowers.

One plant that rarely gets a mention but just quietly flowers for months on end is this penstemon, I think it’s called apple blossom. It’s coming to the end of flowering now but it’s still got several pink spikes.

From the upstairs window the garden is still looking fairly green, just a few trees and shrubs are starting to show their autumn colours. Hopefully over the next few weeks I’ll manage to get out there and tidy things up a bit.