Sometimes, in the middle of summer, when heat and drought have reduced the grass to a yellowed crisp, I think about replacing the main garden pathway with something more durable. But by this time of year, the grass is gorgeous, an emerald ribbon inviting you for a stroll in the garden.
Most of the perennials are done for the year, but the garden is still pleasant on a sunny day, and there is still lots to see.
I usually plant a few annuals and they are stalwarts that help to carry the garden into winter. Above are colourful cosmos, below, zinnias.
The larch trees that form an arching tunnel will shed their needles soon, but for the moment, the tunnel is still green and inviting. It’s watched over by the garden gnome who stands to one side in a clump of hostas.
Visitors usually refer to him as the Travelocity gnome, but I think of him as Gnome Chomsky.
The berries on this native holly, Winterberry ‘Winter Red’ ( Ilex verticillata), brighten a shady corner and offer a bounty for birds.
This White Angel crabapple tree (Malus ‘White Angel’), is covered in beautiful white flowers in spring, and brilliant red apples in autumn.
Geranium ‘Rozanne’ is easily the most floriferous geranium in the garden, still blooming in October.
Coreopsis ‘Cosmic Eye’ has been a wonderful performer too. It is one of Darrell Probst’s Big Bang introductions.
The tall stems of autumn monkshood (Aconitum carmichaelii ‘Barker’s Variety’) are all topped with beautiful blue flowers now. This monkshood is often still blooming when the first snow flies.
Now that the Tiger Eye Sumacs have dropped their leaves, the red begonias that were overshadowed for the last months of summer have the stage to themselves and look brilliant with red bloodgrass (Imperata cylindrica ‘Red Baron’).
As ever, Joe Crow continues to watch over his patch of the garden.
Willow House Chronicles 