Can it really be November?

 Apart from the odd day here and there, this 'autumn' has been surprisingly mild and dry. Here we are, starting November on a day when it was warm enough to potter round the garden in just short-sleeves!









 Although a windy day this last week brought leaves swirling from the trees, there are still odd summery flowers around ... sweet peas, nasturtiums (small ones in tubs and long spidery ones climbing up the old pea supports), welsh poppies, perennial fuchsias and even a carnation

but then ..... really strangely .... the winter jasmine is in full flower.

Autumn flowers

kaffir lily

 We've passed the equinox so there's no denying that it's now autumn but for the past few days the sun has been out and the days almost as warm as in summer, so, along with 'proper' autumnal flowers - michaelmas daisies and kaffir lilies, some summer ones are having an extended flowering season

michaelmas daisies + verbena

hardy fuchsia

 hollyhock

one last rose

sweetpea buds

welsh poppy

nasturtiums

another hardy fuchsia

montbretia

nasturtium

lavender

winterjasmine

but along with all these, the winter jasmine is starting to flower! Almost four seasons at once.

Sweet pea or just 'pea'?

 I've two sorts of pea-style flowers in the garden right now - some tall peas plants and some sweet peas. Confusingly though, the white flowers are the scented sweetpeas, while the purple ones are the flowers of blauwschokker purple podded peas and have no scent at all.

Spring is on the way!

 They may not be as fantastic as the snowdrops we found last weekend at Dimminsdale Nature Reserve but at least I can see these in my garden any day.

 It's not just snowdrops brightening up the garden - polyanthus,which have tried to flower on and off all winter, are now getting properly intot heir stride.

 and crocus are starting to bloom

 the greenhouse is starting to fill up - with spring onions and brassicas which have over-wintered there

 sweet peas and tiny salad leaves

 and trays planted with broad beans and peas (the holly should deter mice)

 Out in the veg patch, the spinach is looking better for a few warm days




and I even found some lambs' lettuce growing weed-like among the strawberries.

These daffodils are what will really herald Spring in though - doesn't look like it will be all that long to wait...

Waiting.....

There's not a lot going on with either garden or allotment at the moment. Some repairs have been needed on the shed and poly-greenhouse. At home I've been clearing up last year's dead stalks and leaves to give a clearer view of the snowdrops pushing through.

Mainly though it's a time for sowing seeds and waiting.....  The sweet peas set just after Christmas are showing their first shoots now, and the first of the propagators is full with trays and pots of onions and tomatoes. Soon there'll be windowsills filled with seedlings...but not quite yet..

Picked this week - 2nd November 2014

You could easily be forgiven for thinking this was a post from back in summer - a bowl of raspberries, radishes, tomatoes, a courgette, spinach and baby lettuce leaves!

and rubeckias and sweetpeas to pick.

 

Ok the leeks and savoy cabbage look more autumnal.

...as do these massive carrots - about 3 inches across. Sadly these aren't ours but the un-wanted crops from another allotmenteer.

November in the garden

This is how half of my November garden  looks - covered in leaves and the main colour coming from berries, maybe with some early spring flowers peeping through - normal for this time of year.

But a lot of the garden doesn't seem to know that summer is over - the recent warm weather has totally confused things.



 Marigolds, sweet peas, rudbeckias, welsh poppies, kaffir lilies, fuchsias, antirrhinums.... these and more still flowering. I even have alpine strawberries ripening and buds on hollyhocks and oriental poppies.

This week the temperature is set to drop.... so it could be the end of summer.