Pat Mason's Blog: September 2025

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

30th SEPTEMBER

We were woken early by the loud honking of low flying Greylag Geese going passed the bedroom window.

The morning was quite misty and damp. Dylan was eager to get inside for his breakfast and a bit of warmth. Things improved quite quickly though meaning Andy could cut the grass ... I can spend all day working away and make little difference then he mows the lawn and the place instantly looks great!

I returned to the pond area.

The earth has been dug over and a few plants and bulbs have been added:

Red cordyline which I hope is going to dominate that area in a few years.
Blue Veronica that will self seed everywhere!
A couple of wallflowers
Chives
A small cypress because I like the bright green
A couple of Verbascums at the back,
The very sad looking Rhododendron is not quite dead so I am hoping for a Lazarus miracle ... told you I'm an optimist!
A couple of tiny hostas
A dark heuchera

I have planted daffodils, hyacinths and irises .... I think there are snowdrops in there already ..... then I threw a few aquilegia seeds around.

All the dead leaves have been raked from the other side so that looks better for now ....!

We are surrounded by trees so in a few days time the leaves will fall in their billions.

Improvements have been made from what it looked like a few days ago ...

... but I will have to wait until spring before the full benefits appear!

The big job of clearing out the pond can wait a few days ...

Lots of Red Admiral butterflies (or Red Admirables as they used to be called) are enjoying the juice from the fallen damsons ... wonder if they suffer from hangovers?

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Monday, September 29, 2025

29th SEPTEMBER

I was determined not to get distracted from my planned task this morning so headed straight for the pond area.

I have five objectives for here (not all will be accomplished in one day!):

Create a path along the back fence
Dig out the nettles from any exposed soil
Plant daffodils and hyacinths
Remove at least half the irises from the pond
Dredge the dead leaves from the water.

We have a log pile at the back of the house from a couple of trees we had to have removed earlier in the year. I used some of those to form the edging for the path then covered the area in wood chippings.

It took a lot longer than I imagined as the logs were heavy and I had to make more trips than I thought. On the plus side it meant I hit my 5000 steps for the day!!

The nettles were dug out and most of the cobbled path cleared but the bulb planting has been saved for another day.

Still lots to do but pretty pleased with the progress so far!

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Sunday, September 28, 2025

28th SEPTEMBER

We have a special visitor hanging around near the house today. A roe deer turned up yesterday evening.

It was raining quite heavily during the night so I was surprised to see her still sitting in the corner of the field when I looked out this morning.

She saw us looking at her and wandered across to get a better view of us!

I like her as long as she remains that side of the garden fence!

I have enough trouble with rapacious rabbits!!

Andy (my husband) took the photo above ... here is my effort from the same window...

... and this is the reason I will be using Andy's photographs as much as possible in this blog!! 😅

My first job yesterday was to sort out that dangerous leaning urn:

Originally I set out to continue work on the pond area but I have this awful habit of getting distracted ... so I cleared the over grown perennial sweetpeas from a messy corner of the rose bed instead!

This ...

... and this ....

.... became ...

... and ....

The pot contains tulips for a bit of spring colour.

The sweetpeas went to the compost heap. I collected some of the seed pods because I am an eternal optimist .... Every year I attempt to propogate perennial sweetpeas from seed and every year I fail!

I then moved on to this section of the raised bed. It is filled with irises, hyacinths, tete-a-tetes and muscari so I placed ten red carnations on top to cheer it up over winter.

The begonias and geraniums will have to come inside before the frost but they look too good to disturb just yet!

I looked at the pond area for a moment but decided I needed a cup of tea instead!!

Hopeless I know! My dream garden will just have to wait ... !

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Saturday, September 27, 2025

27TH SEPTEMBER

You know Autumn has arrived on the East coast when you hear the happy sound of "Wink, wink" for a few minutes then and look up to find a squadron of Pink Footed Geese passing over head. Poor things have just flown over a thousand miles from their breeding grounds in Iceland or Greenland so they can spend winter here with us.

Over the coming weeks the sky and fields will be full of them ... wonderful!

Yesterday I picked the eating apples before they all fell to the ground!

It has been a bumper crop this year!

This may look like a complete waste but we don't pick up the windfalls to allow lots of happy blackbirds to share the bounty.

In a few weeks, the Redwings and Fieldfares will arrive and finish off any that are left over.

We have made cider in the past but crushing them for apple juice is much simpler.

We have a large old cooking apple tree that covers the lawn in windfalls ... some years ago a couple walking by commented on all the apples so I shouted to them to help themselves ... I offered them bags and told them they were welcome to come back to collect as many as they wanted ... they now return each year to exchange a jar of chutney for a fresh crop of apples and damsons ...

We make sure not all the fruit goes to the wildlife ... we have plenty of freezer space and ways to preserve it.

Here are links to a couple of apple related recipes from my old Woodlouse House blog:

APPLE CHUTNEY

PORK & APPLES IN CIDER

First thing this morning I watched a Treecreeper running up the side of the old tree like a little mouse. It is resident in the UK all year but few people notice them.

Later in the day one of our Great Spotted Woodpeckers poppped by.

The red patch at the back of the head tells you this is a male: juvenials have a full red crown while females have no red feathers on their heads at all.

A small group of blue tits were minding their own business in a bush near to me when a blackbird suddenly called very loudly and bashed into them sending them flying for cover ... seconds later a Sparrowhawk came through in search of dinner ... I thought the blackbird was attacking them but it turned out he was protecting them!

Yesterday afternoon I attended to a couple of planters in our village. I had to dig out the fuschias, begonias and dahlias before the frosts arrive so those plants are now settling into the greenhouse ... hopefully they will survive to see another outing next spring!

Obviously I was forced to buy more plants to fill the gaps! Such a chore!!

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Friday, September 26, 2025

26TH SEPTEMBER

STARTING OUT

In order to chart any progress we need to record the starting point ... so here are a few photos from this morning.

In the spring the front of the house is my favourite part of the garden. The previous owner filled it with spring bulbs so it is a thing of beauty. Then blue and purple geraniums take over for a while but this time of year, as you can see, it is far from inspiring. This is a task to be carefully planned for next year.

Going through the gate on the right we arrive in the south garden which is mainly lawn:

Just inside the gate is a small fountain donated by my sister ...

It is incredibly heavy and has started to tilt to one side. It is responsible for at least one bad back so I will need help to sort it out! Thankfully the wall is supporting it so it will not fall on anyone as they pass by.

A purple clematis (probably Jackmanii) is stuggling to survive at the right hand end of the wall and a heavenly smelling honeysuckle covers the wall on the left of the hebe. I have had to seriously hack it back this year as it was smothering everything on both sides.

The leaning urn of Fraisthorpe looks quite dangerous and will be sorted today!

Three David Austin roses thrive against the sunny side of the house ... one in front of the window grows particularly well and together with the rampant wisteria blocked the light in the sitting room this summer so it was the first to be pruned!

This long border is very gradually filling up as I repeat plant anything the rabbits don't eat! I was growing a wonderful Heuchera collection here until I realised I was merely feeding the enemy!

Bearded iris, peony roses, golden rod, aquilegia, red hot pockers and hollyhocks are survivors so far!

The large warren is situated across the lane from us and I constantly have to fill in their tunnels. I discovered they don't like digging through fresh wood chippings from fir trees so that ... and the cat! ... are keeping them at bay for the moment.

Work has started on the raised bed. Lots of bulb planting is planned for the next few weeks.

The messy flower bed also needs work ...

... and to one side is an ancient overgrown pergola that is all together too small. I am 5 feet 3 inches and have to duck to get under it so my 6 feet 3 husband has to stoop! The top beams are rotting so it will need replacing in the future.

There are two climbing roses on it and a wisteria that never flowers because the clematis has taken over!

The clematis originally grew up a fir tree but that was hiding the sunshine and lifting the paving slabs on the patio so it had to go. I thought the clematis had died when the tree went but it took its revenge by forming a full curtain to block even more sunlight!

Lots of work is needed here!!

This lovely monster was rescued from a tiny pot in 2018. Having found freedom it decided to take over the garden! Perhaps more cordylines would work in the shade near the fence.

The path behind it leads to a pond area that must have looked magnificent when it was installed in 2000 but ....

...the pump was disconnected and missing when we moved in and the pond lining needs replacing. Two fir trees had to be removed and the whole area was hidden under a thick layer of leaf mould and dead branches. It was like an archeological dig as I realised there was a cobbled path and a rockery buried underneath.

I have just spent two days clearing the area ready to plant some more bulbs but a few more days work will be needed to finiah the job and brighten it up. Quite a few flag irises need to be removed too.

I'm looking forward to improving the rockery area ... there are a few nettles to dig out then I will add some new soil and small spring bulbs . A quick visit to the nursery (who am I kidding!!?) for a selection of alpines should do the trick.

I tidied up in front of the summer house while working on the pond area.

Rather worryingly the pesky rabbits had dug huge holes under this side. The foundations are sound so it is not in danger of collapse but I filled in the gap and used the wood chip to create a barrier .... more will be added shortly!

We do have hedgehogs visiting the garden but none have ever decided to occupy the hedgehog house ... still I live in hope!