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The Falling Days of Autumn

© Gay Klok

The sun is shining but there is a chill in the air and our Autumn or Fall has arrived. We are having a rather warm Autumn time, indeed, over the last years our weather patterns have changed and this phenomena are also being observed world wide.

Will we have snow this Winter? When I was young [so many years ago] I had to walk up a very long private lane to get to my school. I remember many times jumping on iced over pot holes to shatter the thin ice covering into many pieces. My own children have never experienced this fun, have never attended assembly with wet, sodden shoes. Will I ever see again the astonishing sight of blood red Camellia flowers glistening with beautiful snow flakes? It never seemed to harm the plants and may have helped get rid of a few nasty bugs! We do still get frosty mornings which can harm any semitropical plants. Luckily where our gardens are situated the frost has vanished by mid morning.

Also, it is the one redeeming feature that yours truly, the world's greediest gardener, is that I am not punished too severely by over planting. I am sure close planting helps to shelter the more sensitive plants. But a word of warning, do not plant your treasures so close to a water hungry tree or so close that their roots embrace one another and therefore strangle the weaker plant. Rather like a bad marriage!

I do so love the joyous colours that gleam and lift our hearts in the country garden at fall time. This year, I have to write, the show has not been the best I have experienced. Garden philosophers muse about what seasonal conditions one needs to have the best of Autumn display. The most popular theory is that it takes a sudden drop in temperature that will end the flowing of the sap in the tree and thus give the waiting gardener a big thrill some weeks later.

This year, throughout Summer, we have experienced cold nights followed by warm days and it has happened nearly every week. So, I imagine that the trees have said to one another "My! It is cold tonight, Winter must be coming, time for our rest period" And the next few days with temperatures high, they have become muddled and shrugged their leaves and waited to see what happens next!