Coolness in the air, rain at night and that special scent in the garden, all these things remind me that it is Autumn time. Many folk think that when the Fall arrives, it is the close of the gardening year. I look out the window and think it is almost the beginning. This is the busy time in our garden. It is a great time to welcome new members to our garden family; the soil is warm so the newbie settles in with comfort, rain hangs around to give sustenance and the sun is benign so no fear of burning of their leaves or roots. All the special needs for the new babies arrival into your life.
We have our own particular chores to attend to. Our large collection of Himalayan Primulas will take up a lot of our time. Every year they should be dug out of the warm soil, their roots gently pulled apart, the white roots trimmed, then washed in a bucket of water and try not to smile with pleasure at all the new plants! We have such an enormous family now that we can only manage to separate each group of Primulas every two years and I am fast running out of areas to place all the new plants. Come and visit me at this time and you could go home with arms filled with hundreds of plants of these cheerful perennials. Once settled safely in their new bed, they are the easiest of children to look after. The apples are nearly ripe in the old orchards and this last weekend the first parrots arrived to gorge themselves. Little silver eyes and blue wrens have been flittering between the cursed blackberry bushes, strangling much of our natural bush and the ornamental gardens, waiting for their turn to peck at the rosy apples. The bees are still busy gathering the honey from the last roses still blooming in the garden beds. Unfortunately, wasps are also present, their busiest time of the year. The Queen hatches in early Spring and their colonies build up to maximum numbers in Autumn. Adult wasps feed themselves with sugar at this time so the apples are very tempting to them. When the native birds visit the apples, they maybe stung by the wasp and killed. Next weekend we must find their nest and pour kerosene into it. Their sting is so much more painful than the welcome bees' sting.
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