Not bad for October, but...

It's another gloriously sunny Autumn day, so why am I sitting here blogging instead of getting the garden sorted for the Winter?

Well, I got up early yesterday and worked very hard.... Let me start again; I got up early yesterday morning to make a cup of tea, saw what a beautiful day it was and went straight out to start work. I then got told off for forgetting to make the bed!

There's still a lot going on in the garden, Nasturtians, Begonias and Dahlias are still in flower and the rose on the trellis still produces the odd bloom.

My main job was to lift and divide the Stipa Gigantea because it was overwhelming everything else (except the Acanthus, whic was also getting too big). First, however, I decided to clear out the Sweet Peas which were almost over anyway. I got enough blooms to fill a jug and it looks very summery in the dining room.

This is a photo of the Stipa and the Acanthus (actually from 3 years ago, so they're even bigger now). The Acanthus didn't really flower much this year and the Stipa swamped the Sweet Peas which were on the steel obelisk on the right. Added to this, we had a self-seeded Stipa Tenuissima incorporated into the bed, so it really needed sorting out.

I managed to divide it into enough pieces to give a couple away, plant one elsewhere and still have a fairly large piece to put back. I also chopped the Acanthus in half and planted one half down the bottom of the garden where we have a fairly bare patch since we cleared a lot of Ivy and cut back the Laurel hedge.

With a few other jobs done, we took a break at noon, had some home-made soup and went off Christmas shopping. (Yes, I know, but we were buying from a wholesaler and they run out of Christmas things about 1st November when all the retailers have stocked up.)

I thought I would add a few pics of other things going on in the Autumn garden.

Comma butterfly on the old plum tree

Nigella (Love in a Mist)

Poppy, Patty's Plum; still producing blooms

So, what about the "but..."? Well, I was right about my neighbour's chestnut tree. It looks like there will be little or no nuts this year, and the tree itself doesn't look too well. I hope it's going to be OK and that there will be nuts next year.