Diary Of A Wild Country Garden

We have several trees that shed their leaves in late Autumn.  We get a beautiful carpet of glorious golds, bronzes, reds and bronze on the grass and gravel. It's gorgeous... It is so lovely it is tempting to leave it there but for some at least we have a good use for it.  We used to just rake them all up and put in the bin for the council to take away. However, we have since discovered a few better uses in our own garden to help us and the wildlife.    We take some of the leaves and use them to cover our little wild mammal shelter. It is really just a collection of logs and sticks leftover from pruning in a corner of the garden but I like to think it gives some shelter from the wind and cold and rain for the little mammals and the hedgehogs if we are lucky. So the leaves go on top for some added warmth. We add a few more sticks on top of that to keep them somewhat in place. OK, some of the leaves we put in the borders. There they provide a little shelter for ...

So we have now in mid-October reached Autumn or Fall.  I cannot believe how fast this year has progressed. I do love the month of October though as we lose the occasionally fierce heat of summer and cooler weather gently or not so gently sometimes takes over.   We have had a beautiful warm and sunny summer and a fairly mild September and just now we feel the hint of autumn's influence upon the garden. I can look out now and see the once-green trees turning into the reds and golds and bronze colours so typical of this time of year. I love these autumnal colours, they are the most wonderful, rich and interesting for the year and so beautiful. All the more so as we know they will not be here very long before winter takes a hold of the landscape.  The winds are starting to grow stronger now and the trees bow majestically to their great force. The ones that are flexible and gracefully moving with the wind, the survivors in this. Sadly the rigid that brace against the...