The Mitcheldean Garden 2023
Sic Transit Gloria

This page is part of a series of garden blogs from 2023. Click here for the index.

As usually seems to happen, our summer guest plants have conspired to try to thwart my plans to do my final clean up before leaving for Penang. However, bed by bed I have managed to find the odd dry day which has seen the dahlias dug up and made ready for their winter retreat in the garage. 

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I use a combinations of different coloured strings to identify each kind of dahlia. Not surprisingly at my age it doesn't always work and it's no bad thing to have the odd bloom left as a check up as they come out in the event I missed some when I added the ties.

You can play 'spot the difference' in front of the bungalow. Got it? Yes, the hanging baskets have disappeared but the other temporary residents are still there for a few more days.

At the back, these baby begonias are unusually enjoying their second year. They'll go in the greenhouse for the winter, they are high quality and came from a nursery unlike the ones in the bed which came from Lidl. In theory the Busy Lizzie could go into the bungalow but there's no one to water them. Never mind, they had a very good year. 

Yuehong tells me these are pinks, but in any case they are really too old now. The African marigolds are not long for the world, I just have to take some seeds before they go.

The large begonias start late but keep going through the autumn. They rarely last more than 3 or 4 seasons and need topping up. Even if the corms are stored in the garage over the winter a fair number go rotten. However, they are not expensive, their display is attractive and they don't need daily watering.

They are ungainly plants, the stalks growing from the corm are easily snapped off so they need to be kept in a sheltered spot. This year we had white, yellow, pink and red varieties. They have shown no sign of dying back so this time I'm putting them in the greenhouse instead of the garage. With all the rain this year, their compost is very damp and they are at serious risk of all going rotten. 

It's been a good year for fuchsias, we inherited this one next to the patio. It's been very good this year as usual, it has a long season and is getting bigger and bigger now that today's winters do not kill off the branches. 

In general the ones with more complex flowers are tender but these basically purple ones are about as hardy as they come, this plant is down near the road where it is naturally warmer. 

As the dahlia plants came out, we extended the life of the blooms indoors. That's breakfast behind but only I am allowed to enjoy the products of Yuehong's bread maker.

Our acer has been enjoying its annual period of glory, it's always touch and go whether we will get a sunny morning at the right time. We weren't here for the 2022 display, but in 2020 it was unusually early on 11th October and 2021 20th October, the same as this year. Looking back it's hardly varied in all the years we've been here, almost always the third week of October. Fortunately there was no wind or heavy rain during the four days which separated the two pictures, 

The patio looked splendid up till the last week of October. Then the fuchsia next to the kitchen got too heavy and collapsed meaning we had to crawl through it.

By now only the begonias were safe outside, but they were heading for the greenhouse.

I hopped over the fence for the last dahlia picture of the year, now they too are decorating the bungalow.

The greenhouse was emptied and this was how it looked before the geraniums were moved in. The hanging baskets should have been emptied but I (foolishly) insisted the displays be watered to give them an extra week. Now they have to dry out (again), 31's greenhouse has some 20 rectangular tubs full of wet used compost. By the time we come home, most should be merely damp. The second picture shows what will be next year's patio tulips. The upper ones are new, the lower ones have been recycled.

We find that fancy tulips grow better in compost than in our high clay soil. These are classic red and yellow ones waiting for planting, fortunately Yuehong volunteered to plant half of them as well as the patio tulips.

The snapdragons are gone and groups of tulips are going in. The baby begonias and lobelia will soon be gone too, replaced by hyacinths. On the bank at the back is this single red rose flower, a sad reminder of former glory.

It's been a long hard season and as I type this, I have only to arrange the dahlia boxes, which are already in the garage, so that there is space for BB to join them. Although I don't think we bought any new dahlias this year, there seem to be more cardboard boxes full of them than ever as many tubers have naturally divided.

2nd November was one of our significant days and much of southern England was taking a battering from Storm Ciarán but here in the Forest of Dean it was simply dank and drear. With a view like this from the bedroom window (left) it would have been easy to sneak back under the duvet especially as there was no more autumnal gardening to do. No one in their right mind would ever get married in England in November but next day (right) was again different, perfect for drying out BB and the dahlias.

That was Thursday and Friday, all spent Saturday 'under cover' while it rained but Sunday and Monday saw them outside again while I kept my eyes skinned every time a cloud came over...

By the time we get back it will look very different. The snowdrops will already be finished but the daffodils, hyacinths and camellias should be there to greet us, maybe a few crocuses still. Best of all, we can expect hints of joys soon to come from our magnolias. A huge amount of work has been put in to get to this point, a garden like ours is a cruel taskmaster but, as always, the results will be spectacular. 

Click here for the 2023 index.