The Garden Still Thinks It's Spring

It has been so warm and dry in the UK in September and October that a load of plants think it is Spring rather than Autumn. In September the temperatures were regularly hovering at or above 20 degrees celsius. Things have cooled down in October but we are still getting 18 degrees during the day, on occasion, although the nights are considerably cooler. We almost had a frost out at Ealing but only on the parked cars ;-)

The hollyhocks in our garden are all sprouting as if it's Spring. The picture above shows the new growth. Also the hedging plant in the front of the house is also starting to flower again, as seen below. They are in for a rude shock I think as summer time ends this weekend!



Not only has it been warm it has also been super dry in London. The only serious rain I can remember was last Wednesday early morning where we had 14mm of rain. Apart from that almost nothing. My water tanks are empty now. The fact I have to water at all seems very odd at this stage of the year. My pot plants would have been long gone dead and bloated if I hadn't kept up the watering regime. As it stands last years Christmas tree is still going strong ;-)

Due to the lack of rain the ground is simply too hard to complete the Autumn lawn care. No chance for me to aerate the lawn as it is almost impossible to get a pitch fork in the ground! It's a hard job when the ground is moist so forget it when it's dry!

Still a manic Saturday morning of gardening saw various shrubs cut back and the Chilean Potato Tree and the Climbing Roses on the back fence cut back. Not sure this is an Autumn task. It should probably have been done earlier in autumn at least, but again the Spring like weather has them growing manically. The results below.



The results for the council are four bags of garden cuttings to take away when the garbage is picked up ;-)



Maybe if it rains in the next week or so I will get to finish aerating the lawn but if I don't get it done soon I won't be using any Autumn fertiliser. Deadline for this is apparently mid November! Ah well can always aerate in the new year ;-)

Cheers

M