Monday...collecting seeds

Although the garden has started to close down in preparation for Winter, it is also being incredibly productive with seeds...

So I've spent a little time harvesting...

Hollyhocks...

Love-in-a-Mist...

Sweet Peas...

( first time I've ever collected these...not many, but hopefully they'll produce more  plants next year...)

( not my washing! )

and Giant Echium...

It's funny how the most giant and tropical plant in the garden ( standing about 12ft high ) has the tiniest seeds...which are not easy to collect with it's almost invisible prickles everywhere...

...but it's these seeds which all my neighbours want...

...and it's these seeds I reckon I'll be bagging up until November!

Monday...

Whilst I was away the Hogweed had been bleached and dried in the sun, which really confirmed an Autumnal feel to the garden... 

The succulents had to be rescued on my return...

as the snails had completely eaten this one along with an Aloe Vera which is not even visible now...

Frogs seem to have taken over the garden too, which is odd as I don’t even have a pond...just an old metal dustbin which I have to rescue them from on an almost daily basis...

The Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ is doing its thing too...

I’d bought some roses last week for a project I’ve been working on, and I’ve discovered a very useful thing...if you spray them with water, put them in a tupperware tub with the lid on, and then in the fridge they stay really fresh, even if it’s just the heads

I’ve also been utilising pieces of oasis for the roses as I don’t like lopping their heads off...

This David Austin Rose however, was one that I spotted a gardener in the park pruning last Friday, so I just asked if I could have it and then she also gave to two ruse buds as well...I really didn’t mean to break it’s head off, but in the process of trying to angle it, it broke...I felt awful but at least the rose in the fridge trick has meant that it hasn’t died...

Wednesday...

Back in June I posted a piece about the amazing wild flower meadow near my local supermarket...

I’ve passed it a few times recently and from a distance it just looks like a piece of scorched scrubland, but I decided to have a closer look today...and put a few seed pods in my pocket too!

I came away feeling that it was as beautiful as it was in June but just in a completely different way...

  ...it’s so fantastic that it hasn’t been mowed down, and that it’s obviously being encouraged to self-seed for next year.