A deep clean

Tuesday 16th
Weather: Windy but sunny & warm - one of those days that Christopher Lloyd says are for lingering. The wind has been giving Dixter a bit of a battering though, blowing off seedheads that otherwise would add interest to this time of year.

I did a deeper clean in the Exotic Garden today - there have been things we have been hesitant to cut out, especially ripped/ yellowed Tetrapanax papyrifer leaves, so that we don't expose too much bare space. But it has come to the point where it looks better that it's sparser than seeing a raggedy old plant/ old leaf clutching onto the last vestige of life. The result was I got slimed on by Dahlias especially from the volume of Emory Pauls and covered in hair by the Tetrapanax, which also sent me sneezing and wheezing. But it was very satisfying process & felt like a good thing to do. There are also more and more leaves to sweep up as Autumn moves on. I managed to finish everything though before visitors started coming in.

We've started to give the Orchard, High and Peacock gardens a bit of a clear out also including cutting down geraniums to the ground and removing symphytums (comfrey).

The Peacock Garden (The skeletons of Verbascum olympicum on either side, the grass inbetween is Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster')

The bed (on the right) that I was working on in the High Garden

You can smell the sweetness of the compost from afar. Up close it is a contrast of this and a sharp pungency.