Autumn in the garden

Things are changing in the garden. There are still plenty of flowers blooming, but lots have gone to seed already. The little yellow late flowering Clematis is still going strong, but the earlier flowering ones have gone over and grown their wild haircuts.

Late flowering Clematis

A Clematis flower that has gone to seed and grown wild hair

The Buddleia is covered in seeds, which the Goldfinches usually love. Later in the year we'll hopefully see a little flock of them in the bush most days. The Sunflower seeds are ready to collect. We'll keep a few for next year and give the rest to the birds.

The Buddleia is covered in seeds

The Sunflower seeds look ready

The Lupin seed heads have all ripened and exploded (this is called ballistic seed dispersal). The seed heads gradually dry out until eventually the structure gives way and they literally explode, flinging the seeds out of the pod. One of nature's ingenious ways of scattering seed.

#100DaysOfNature Day 48 - Exploded Lupin seed pods

Yesterday I noticed several Blue Tits in a big bush in the front garden. I had a look this morning to see if I could spot what they were all doing and noticed it was absolutely covered in seeds. I've walked past it every day and never noticed them before! The Blue Tits seemed to be enjoying them though.

 In the back garden, the Acer is putting on a lovely display. It has to be one of my favourite trees, with such delicate leaves and stunning colours. The Spindleberry is also very pretty, with it's odd shaped fruits and bright red leaves.

Acer

Spindleberry

Not everything has stopped flowering though. The Hardy Fuchsia is still going strong, as are the little pink flowers that bob around on long stems at the end of the summer (sorry, don't know it's name).

Fuchsia

The Evening Primrose is still managing to flower every day, but it's running out of steam now (and running out of flower buds).  It's kept going all summer and has been brilliant though.

The nettle patch has had a sudden growth spurt. After looking well chewed and a bit crispy and old, it has started growing fresh new leaves again. Not sure why, but it seems happy and I'm sure there must be plenty of bugs down there to enjoy it.

The apples are ripe and we enjoyed blackberry and apple crumble yesterday! We found this apple, which is actually two apples that have fused together. Bug Mad Girl thinks it looks like a bottom, whereas Little Brother thinks it looks like a cleavage. I guess that's the difference between boys and girls!!

There has been a lot of discussion about the shape of this apple