This month bears witness to the after effects of everything being parched for a good few weeks. Trees are shedding leaves to cope with stress which makes it look like we have just shifted forward a season directly into autumn. While we have not had to bear the sight of sun scorched grass there are other places and consequences of a long period of drought. The effects are most noticeable on our spring water supply. The streams dry to a trickle, the levels in the ponds drop. While water is low it is a chance to clean out around the Virgil spring font and also lower down in Parkland by the Bark & Leaf posts. Overhanging growth is cut back by the Bottom pond and Arch bridge. All we can do is wait now for the water levels to correct themselves.

 

These problems though are superseded by the loss of water supply to the house. After quite a bit of investigation and intervention it seems that this system had formed both a stubborn airlock and physical obstruction when the spring level had dropped and then remained blocked once the supply topped itself up again. Thankfully a forceful clearing out of the pipes and the return of some rain means that all is running again.

 

Branches overhanging the roof of the Temple of Baucis and Philomen are thinned out so that the metamorphic golden slates can be clearly seen again. The large cherry by Temple of Apollo is also brought back into shape so that it does not scrape along the roof or obstruct the pathway.

 

Grass cutting continues as it seems to grow here in spite of everything. Huff Lane is trimmed into its desired more formal shape.

 

The Camouflaged Flowers brass ship silhouettes and anagram name plates are polished so that they remain gleaming on the hillside. There is a round of stone cleaning also, particularly of the smaller white Portland stone pieces, urns and milestones, to brighten them up.

 

In the Kailyard and Allotment clearing and cropping continues – courgettes, lettuce, peas, the first potatoes.

 

Sweet Cicely is cut back by the Siegfried Line area. The under-planting here has really filled out since the loss of tree cover from earlier storms, a genuine long term benefit. Giant hog weed umbel florescences are removed in the Woodland to stop it from becoming invasive.

 

Some assorted perennials which had been loitering ganged up in containers are planted out along the front of Temple of Apollo, ready for next year.

 

A number of juvenile trees put in earlier in the season have been nibbled – by rabbits, hares or possibly deer – for their sweet bark, but as a consequence they have in many cases died back. It is a frustrating loss. We choose not to use plastic guards so have to accept the course of nature. It is ultimately all about balance.

 

Flowering around the lochan at the moment we have yarrow, scabious and purple loosestrife, in the Front garden phlox, Veronica, silene alba and cosmos bringing pleasing form and colour. It feels very much like the end of summer now, showery grey and the temperatures noticeably dropped. A last flush and then the garden will close for another season.