The season of murk and sallow sogginess

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The poet John Keats in his poem Ode To Autumn famously described Autumn as the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”, but if he were here today I think he would have chosen different words. My version is “season of murk and sallow sogginess”! At this time of year it is all too easy for a garden to look scruffy and unattractive, especially when it is raining (as it is today).

The Asparagus today is a soggy heap of yellowing fern:

However, in amongst the fern there are a few little red pearls…

Most of the shingle has now disappeared under a thick carpet of wet Maple leaves:

Isn’t it amazing how many leaves can come off one tree? The nets over my raised beds catch many of them.

I have to sweep off the leaves every day or two in order to stop them blocking out all the light for the plants underneath.

My two clipped Bay trees are also good at catching Maple leaves:

I wanted a photo of my sapling Bay tree (to keep track of its progress), and that too has ended up being mostly a photo of wet Maple leaves!

To be fair, it’s not just the Maple that has lost its leaves – the Dogwood shrubs have too. The colour of their stems will become darker and more vivid when cold weather comes along, but they are already looking promising.

I think I might need to get another compost-bin. I have three already, one of which is devoted to storing leaves, but they are all full, and leaves decompose very slowly.

Anyway, on the Plus side I finally got round to making a couple of trips to the Council tip yesterday, and I disposed of all that suspect compost that I had bagged up. Hard work, and very unpleasant, but I feel better now that its done.

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