October Cottage Garden Tour - Fall Flowering Perennials

So it's that time of the month again when we do a cottage garden tour and I have some really fun garden changes to share with you this time around. Now obviously most things have kind of stopped flowering, although there are some interesting developments that I do want to share. But overall it's been a productive time in the garden. I've been planting lots of bulbs, I've been making some other changes that I've just needed to do throughout the year that I finally got around to, and I'm just trying to enjoy the garden as it kind of goes to sleep. So this will be my little October look around the garden and let's do this. By the way if you like gardening content consider subscribing. I'm currently trying to hit 4,000 subscribers so if you want to help me reach my goal, which we're so so close to now, I'd really appreciate it and I'd love to have you here. So I want to show you one change I've made in the garden which is fairly significant. If we head on over here you might notice that my old table sort of picnic bench type thing has gone. I got rid of it. So I'm going to explain why I did that. First of all I just wanted to open this area up a bit so I could walk onto the patio rather than having to go around that side. Secondly it was starting to rot. It was here before I moved in so it'd been here for a long time and it was rotting away so not very good. And also it made it hard to get to the aviary and be able to see the birds which is of course a big part of my garden so I took it down. Now as you can see it's not a very good match at the moment. I'm kind of waiting for these to age a bit and wear in because I did actually get the closest match I could but unfortunately obviously these are a lot newer so they don't match perfectly right now. But you know I did this myself so I'm not a professional or anything. I did my best but it's great because it just means now I can walk through to the patio area of my garden and it's just a lot easier to get around. It makes these garden tours a lot easier that's for sure. So I mean I'm already at the sort of big flower bed at the back of my garden. Now whilst I'm over here the greenhouse I've completely cleared it out. I've still got some plants left in here but most things are kind of gone now. I'm gonna be honest because a lot of things died from neglect. I know I'm terrible but yeah the greenhouse is nice and tidy now so that's good. It's ready for us to start collecting and sowing some seeds. Great. Over on the patio you can see the wisteria is really becoming very autumnal. The leaves are starting to die off as you'd expect. Going this beautiful yellow colour. I mean it looks so so nice so I'm really happy about that. It's also starting to go really nicely over this pergola so next year I really hope it'll cover the pergola. Probably not completely but you know I'm sure it'll do something good. So yeah really really happy with how this wisteria is looking in the autumn. This plant I've actually had since my old house so I'm glad that it's still with me. I hope it continues to do well. Now in the garden, I just want to give you this quick view by the way just so you can see. It's a lot easier to see this side of the garden now which is an area that was kind of difficult to get to before so I'm really glad about that. Makes these videos certainly a lot easier to do. In terms of what's flowering, I did recently make a video on autumn flowering perennials if you want to check out some of the best but we've got tons of things still flowering in the garden. Our verbenas are all looking really good. The verbena bonariensis is looking amazing. I will say look at the rudbeckia herbster. Now I actually deadheaded this completely because it had just completely faded and look it's coming back beautifully with tons and tons of new flower heads. So I'm really really happy about that. I was kind of not sure if it was going to do that this late but we still haven't had a frost here so it's doing wonderfully. I mean it makes me so happy that I love it. It's such a beautiful plant. It brings such joy at this time of the year when a lot of things are looking very faded and dead. So you've got to love the rudbeckia herbster. It's really great. A lot of my perennial grasses are also becoming very autumnal. I mean look at them focus come on it wants to focus on the yarrow. You can see what I mean the stems are starting to go that beautiful golden colour. So yeah I mean lots of things looking really great in autumn which I love. I mean it is fantastic. Now sadly not quite yet but this tree as you can see my giant prunus kikushidara zakara. Is that the right one? No that's not the right one. I'll have the right one on screen. It's prunus amanogawa. I got it mixed up with another tree I've got but anyways as you can see it's starting to go very autumnal. The leaves are turning orange which is great. I know this tree is supposed to be great for autumn interest in your garden so I'm looking forward to that. A lot of other things in this flowerbed like the echinops have just died off as you'd expect this time of the year. They're ripe for the seed collecting. Something I need to do. Even my rudbeckias now are just they've given up but you can't blame them. You know they've been flowering for so long. They've been working so hard. It's time for them to go to sleep. However that being said I want to take you over here because something that quite surprised me is the echinops. So this plant has actually completely come back and I chopped it down and it's decided to come back with loads and loads of new heads. So yeah I really didn't expect that this late on in the year but it's doing a second flowering which is really great. So yeah I'm really pleased that this one has decided to come back. It does go to show that sometimes it's definitely worth deadheading your plants even if you're this late on in the year. Even with some of these other ones I can see new heads trying to come through so I don't know whether to chop them all down or just leave them up for interest. We'll have to see but I think it's great that they've actually decided to come back for a Once again just a look at this Rebecca Herbston close up. I mean I'm so so pleased with how it's looking. You know some really beautiful flowers on it still and it's just amazing that it has properly come back because I was worried that it was going to end really early this year and you know I wouldn't have as much interest in autumn but no it has decided to surprise me with tons and tons of new flowers so very very pleased with this plant at the moment. Same with this Rudbeckia. This one is Goldstern. I cut this one back ages ago and it's decided to come back. Now I did deadhead my other Rudbeckias, the ones I just showed you that were dying off but they haven't really decided to come back. I think they're just done at this point because they've been flowering for so long whereas this one here had kind of a sort of very short flowering season before it died off so I think that's why it's coming back again which is definitely good. I'm pleased that we're getting more flowers on it especially because they look so big this time they've come up really massively so yeah definitely pleased with Rudbeckia Goldstern. It's come up really nice. The Sambucus tree, the elder, has come up with really nice looking sort of red tones on it which is so lovely. I'm really glad I moved this one out to be a bit more visible it used to be sort of in the middle like hidden away from everything so I'm really glad that I moved this one and you know it's starting to become very autumnal. I know that's sort of the word of the day but it's an accurate description for how to describe these plants so yeah I mean I love it very much reminds me of a sort of Acer tree. It's kind of similar but it's not quite the same. I'm definitely looking forward to next year seeing how big it gets and it's not supposed to get huge but I really wanted more trees and shrubs and stuff in the garden to add more you know depth I suppose is the right word you know when you've just got perennials and that the softer type plants I'll call them it it feels like you're missing something so I think having trees and shrubs and bushes can be really great and this is definitely one I always wanted so I'm super happy with how it looks. Over in my shady border the hostas are also changing colour and starting to die off it's kind of sad to see but at the same time they do look really cool at this time of year and you can just see how little they've been affected by slugs I mean now that it started raining there is definitely some slug damage but it's very minimal considering how you know long they've been up early summer and just continued to look really great with no damage so very pleased with the hostas this year the slugs definitely did not have a good time which I'm grateful for because I love my hostas and I really want to see them thrive so definitely definitely loving that now they're getting to enjoy their autumn phase and they've not been completely chewed up also you can see some signs of bulb growth coming through the bulbs are starting to appear for next year I think these are muscari I did have a lot in this border so hopefully they've spread a lot because I really want it to feel more natural in this border I almost call this my woodland border because it's completely shady and it's right next to this giant shrub which kind of feels more like a tree really it's so big and vigorous that this definitely feels like a sort of woodland type border you know I've got lots of ferns and stuff so we'll see I really hope the bulbs spread more and do really great because I've got lots of interesting ones hidden in here like muscari and bluebells and snowdrops so we'll just have to see but I've got high hopes as you might have seen from one of my previous videos I also did fill this grass area up with bulbs I put in lots of crocuses and snowdrops so that we can kind of naturalize them into the lawn so I'm very much looking forward for them to make their first appearance next year I think they're going to look really really great and that's something I just cannot wait for I've also mulched my borders now so you can see they're filled with the farmyard manure which is good it was a pain to do very exhausting but when we get that first frost at least now I know they're mostly protected there's only so much it can do at the end of the but it is definitely worth doing in my opinion and if you want more details about that I recommend checking out that particular video also some other interesting things have started trying to flower again like this erigeron not erigeron eringium although I will say the erigeron still looking fantastic just a little aside since I got their names mixed up but yeah this eringium look it's come up with a new one I don't know why they're doing this so much this year really it's beyond me why they've decided to come up second flowering I think it's because the weather has been so weird I mean I know some of these plants do come up with second flowerings I get that but this late on in the year is very uncommon so I don't know I think it's because you know it's finally started raining and stuff here in the UK after a very very dry summer so some of the plants are just a bit confused but it does kind of make me think maybe next year if we kind of have similar conditions I should chop some of these back early and that might actually allow for a second flowering for them to look beautiful in autumn so you've got to adapt to these sort of changing conditions and kind of take it year by year and see what you should do same with this achillia cloth of gold look it's come back with a second flowering of course not nearly as vigorous or you know as tall as the last one but somehow it has the ones at the back of my garden in the big back border don't want to do that for some reason which is fine they look good as seed heads but this one did so I decided to chop back the rest of it and what do you know it came back with more flowers which really surprised me so I love it also this panicum buffalo green I love the colours that it has changed to sort of these beautiful yellow colours looks gorgeous this is just a great example of how perennial grasses can really add something incredible to your garden at this time of the year they're so so good I mean I can't recommend them enough so yeah panicum buffalo green a really fantastic one for you to get in your garden right next to it we have the aster harrington's pink which has finally decided to flower en masse you might have heard me talk about this in previous videos where I was disappointed that only sections of it were flowering but it has decided now to completely go crazy and just fill itself with flowers so really pleased that this thing has finally done what it's supposed to do I did give it a chelsea chop absolutely ages ago and it seemingly has rewarded me so I'm very glad about that it's definitely looking amazing also my little planter here still looking good the ivy's growing really well at this time of the year and the original one is still looking good as I mentioned yeah I think that pretty much does conclude this tour for the most part you know there are some other things I could show you but I've also done some other autumn videos recently which go into more specifics on plants I just kind of wanted to give you a rough idea of what's going on in my garden at this time of the year and sort of show you that even if it's really late in the year like this it doesn't mean that things are over in your garden things can continue looking great and things can still be flowering and there's lots to do in autumn time so I'm always of the mindset that gardening doesn't end with summer you know gardening continues on especially throughout autumn which is very important so let me know what's going on in your garden down in the comment section below what have you been up to I would love to hear and if you made it to the end consider subscribing I would love to have you here