September 2021 - Week 1

 Cats in the Garden

But first this...

BIG NEWS Bishop of Llandaff has finally made it out.  The hummingbirds seem to really like it so I hope it survives the winter in the cold room.  Also, I've only put this in first to make the thumbnail for this post look good, there must be a way on blogger to choose which photo is highlighted in the preview but I've not bothered to look it up yet so this has been moved from WPinG lol.

Dahlia Bishop of Llandaff with Cosmos Purity behind

Okay. now I've fixed that... Recently there has been a big, fluffy, evil-looking grey cat hanging about in the neighbourhood.  It has started using the wilderness area under the bird feeder tree as a hunting ground so last week I chopped all the long grass down and cut back a whole swathe of hostas, its not pretty but its much safer for the birds and our resident shrew.

Newly chopped hostas

So this has made me rethink my plans for this area.  I was going to go for a gorgeous garden full of large lush perennials: coral bells, ferns, goat's beard and the like and maybe a small, well behaved shrub or two.  As this would provide the cat with perfect cover for it's stalking and hunting activities I'm thinking of going for something a little different.

My new plan is to get rid of the grass over the winter either by smothering it with cardboard and earth or removing the turf and turning it upside down, like I did with the minefield (but a little neater for a flatter surface).  Then next spring I'll cover it with wood chips and plant low growing native plants in clumps/artful swathe through them.  My intent is for it to look a bit like a gravel garden but with wood chips as the mulch.

These are some of the plants I might put in:

• Nodding wild onion
• Spiderwort
• Wild geranium
• Silver sage
• Wild columbine
• Well behaved ferns

What's poppin' in the garden

Bishop of Llandaff - see above

Panicum 'Heavy Metal' from last year and this spring is doing really well, it makes quite an ethereal swathe.

Panicum 'Heavy Metal' with purple coneflowers and self sown goldenrod

Sticking with grasses, this Little Bluestem was a tiny seed in Spring 2020

Little Bluestem with purple coneflowers, Echinacea 'Feeling White' and Cosmos Sulphur 'Bright Lights' and a blanket flower

Annuals in the back of the berry patch

Cosmos 'Purity', Cosmos Sulphur, Delphiniums, Tithonia

Jobs for this week

Pot on foxgloves  August 31.  Totally cheated and already did this.

Maybe a bit of lawn maintenance

Keep dead heading