greenbenchramblings

We have now reached the ninth look at my garden journal in 2026, which seems to have arrived far too early. Recent months have been hard work with droughts and extremely high temperatures. Surely September can only get better!

I began my September journal by writing, “September is a confusing month because it doesn’t know which season it belongs to. It could be summer if we go on what we observe or autumn if we believe the Met Office. I would give it a season all of its own or perhaps with October. Perhaps we should follow the Japanese system of seasons which directly reflect what is going on in nature. That gives 72 seasons each year!”

Moonlit skies become silvery with hints of purple. Some plants have carried on as if we have normal weather for the time of year with a few ferns regaining bright green foliage, persicarias bursting back into flower and regaining fresher colours. In a shady patch impatiens and a begonia enjoy putting on new growth giving them such a fresh healthy look. Cercis siliquastrum branches are dripping with seed pods.

Over the page I concentrated on colourful flowers that have defied the long dry period. I wrote that, “After such along hot dry period it is amazing to still see bright flowers in all colours of the rainbow. Skies have been so cheerful!”

Working in the garden is always a joy except of course in heavy rain but nothing much else stops us once we get started. I noted that, “There is so much to do in the garden trying to repair damage and keep plenty of interest throughout.”

The photos show us weeding, edging the lawns, taking succulent cuttings, and cutting down damaged grasses.

Weeding in the borders.

Planting succulents out into containers.

Taking succulent cuttings.

Over the page and garden jobs remain the subject, two jobs caused by other people. I wrote, “We had to completely renovate two patches of our garden damaged by others and not the weather this time.”

“The long front edge garden was destroyed bypeople with heavy machinery digging a long channel through the village. One day they dumped their materials all over the plants in our front border, flattening them.”

“This small long and thin border needed a revamp because visitors to our neighbouring house tend to drive over it.”

For the last page in my entries for September I turned to the wildlife in our garden, where I noted that, “Wildlife seems busy this month in the garden. We are acutely aware of all the sorts of creatures above ground, on the ground and even below the ground. Below ground we find so many worms in every spadeful of soil and this is a good sign as they are so important. Actually on the ground is where we discover beetles, woodlice and mammals such as woodmice, voles, weasels and shrews. Above ground birds birds are the key elements plus of course bats, moths, butterflies and masses of insects.”

The block of four photos shows just a few of our many wildlife visitors or residents.

Ichneumon Wasp Young Wood Pigeon – squab

Caterpillar of Knot Grass Moth. Queen Common Wasp

We will take another look at my journal when October comes to an end.

Fellow members of the Shropshire Group of the Hardy Plant Society recommended this garden to us so we thought we would visit and find out what it was like.

The garden sign included a map of the gardens and was a welcoming sight as we entered the garden. It was such a good idea to include a map for visitors to study before entering the garden itself.

When we entered the garden we were delighted to see so much colour and structure in the form of mixed planting in island beds and long borders alongside the boundaries. We realised we were actually inside a walled garden.

Holehird Gardens is a 10 acre site in the Lake District fells and is home to the Lake District Horticultural Society and it is their volunteers who made and now maintain the garden. This makes this garden even more remarkable. As we explored this area of raised beds and herbaceous borders we knew there was so much more to see in other parts of the garden. These borders were created using interesting plants and plant combinations. Plant pairing worked so well using the various colours of flowers and the textures and shapes of foliage.

On the far side of the walled garden we found a seat to rest on and had a good look around and back over the borders towards the society’s home.

We then made our way down the gentle slope towards the wooden building, home to the society and luckily a self serve coffee shop. We enjoyed a coffee and next looked along the borders alongside the building and continued where the brick-built wall turned a ninety degree corner. Here the planting was different with some alpines and acers.

After spending a good amount of time on the garden in front of the society’s home we decided it was a good time to move to the other side to see what was on offer there. Here it was much more open with larger sweeping areas of lawn.

Once we had slowly walked up the slope and reached the end of the lawned areas we met a beautiful dry stone wall decorated beautifully by mother nature using mosses and lichens. Here we took the gravelled path meandering across the borders keeping quite close to the wall.

Along the way we found plenty of places to sit, rest and enjoy the view.

We met several interesting trees long the way but particularly enjoyed this group of beautiful, colourful Betulas.

From here we made our way down the sloping lawns back towards the wooden buildings from where we started our wanderings. We took a path around the building to a wildflower meadow with meandering pathways through and around it.

As we crossed the drive along which we walked from the carpark to the gardens we discovered another section of the garden which looked to have been recently brought back to life.

What a beautiful way to end our day!