season of mists

It wasn't even mist, but full-blown fog, that greeted me as I wound the bathroom blind up to look out over the back garden.  I could see the outlines of the neighbour's oak tree, and the top of our not-a-swamp-cypress, but the next door farm's wind turbine had vanished into the murk.

The yellowing leaves of the birch trees stood out against the grey.  I hadn't noticed until this morning how far their leaves had turned.  Day by day, autumn trips along.  The collection of witch hazels in pots were putting on a good display, a medley of yellows, oranges, reds, purples, and browns, but they have mostly fallen by now.  The red leaves of the Japanese maples must be reaching a crescendo, and glowed in the soft, fog-filtered light with an almost luminous intensity.  A wild holly growing at the end of the wood is very obligingly providing them with a dark green background, which contrasts splendidly with the red.

I have begun chopping things down in the borders.  It's a nice question, how early to start, and whether to do it in phases or make a clean sweep, once started.  I felt mean cutting down the Baptisia australis, when its leaves haven't even started to die back by themselves, but due to my inadequate staking they had flopped out all over the bed, and other plants, and it is the second half of October, so the plants have had the use of them for a good long time.  Cutting off the seed heads of Acanthus spinosus before they can scatter seed everywhere makes sense, as I have more than enough Acanthus already.

The leaves of some of the peonies had turned rather beautiful shades of red, and I left them, for now, but others just looked brown and tatty, and they came off.  Clearing away some of the fading foliage from the beds allowed me to get at the ground to start weeding, though I won't start wholesale Strulching until the tops of all the herbaceous plants are cleared away.  It's another nice question which borders get mulched with mushroom compost, which obviously has to go on before the Strulch.  If some of last year's Strulch is left, it's tempting just to top it up.  A thick layer of both would be the ideal for every bed, but is more than time or finances will permit.