Moors Meadow Open Gardens and Nursery - Bromyard

This Month

This Month September 2025 - Sunday, 31 Aug 2025

I keep having to remind myself that it is only the end of summer, however the scarlet colours of the leaves on the Nyssa in the upper garden is saying mid autumn and so are some of the other plants.
The garden is parched and I know some plants will not revive when it rains as the prolonged dry spell was too much stress on them. It was a waiting game, waiting for the rains to return. The bit we had at the end of August was great but not nearly enough, it will take months of steady rain to bring back a good supply, even then the water table will remain low. As much as I like warm weather it is very difficult being without water. I hope to get on with building a water collection system as soon as I am feeling fit enough and my brain isn’t so woolly.
I strimmed all the long grass but was then on light duties for a few days so only achieved a little gentle pruning. I decided to trim the clouds, sorry I mean do some cloud pruning on the dwarf Elm Frosty. While I was in that area and wondering what to do next I thought I would also prune another dwarf Elm but even as I was doing it I couldn’t quite work out how it should be so the result looked natural and aesthetically pleasing so I just kept snipping. As I wasn’t too happy with it I walked away to come back to it the next day. The problem which made it harder was due to it lurching to one side in strong wind a few years ago. I had reduced the size a lot after that as I didn’t want to lose it to another storm but it has never quite looked the same. These Dwarf Elms have superbly gnarled bark which is good to expose to view rather than have a wall of green leaves no matter how good those leaves look, the silver and green leaves of Frosty are very striking.
There are so many jobs which need doing but some of them are best done when the soil is moist, like weed the vegetable beds and cover them for winter. I also want to get on with some pruning to ease the winter workload. I noticed how the climbers up the wall of the house had grown so that is another job I must do now the birds have stopped nesting.
I came so close to not buying any new plants in August until in the last week I went to a very small nursery and came home with several perennials. I know where they can all be planted when the earth is moist enough, at least I think I know where to plant them. I bought three different Crocosmia and three different Hemerocallis, both great for summer colour and need minimal attention. Aconitum anthora has yellow flowers, I am tempted to put in in long grass amongst the Lilacs as there is a blue one in the same area which has formed a decent clump and gives good colour to the area after the shrubs have finished flowering.
Now the weather has become cooler I hope to be able to spend a lot more time working to ensure I keep up with the jobs and to help keep warm as I suddenly find I am having to start wearing more layers. Even the woolly hat has come out for early mornings and evenings.

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