In mid-November temperatures have been warmish 6-12 deg C, and not much rain this year (unlike the deluge of 2023). I guess the new normal just isn’t normal, or the same, it’s just different, so far. Whatever it is, there’s plenty to be looking at in the garden. This week I’ll be showing off some still-green stuff and a couple of pops of colour for my #SixOnSaturday.
I’ll start with some green. I’ve decided to keep the window boxes simple for winter this year, letting these hardy succulents look lush and green through the harsh weather. They have recently taken up residence on the windowsills, where non-hardy geraniums spend their summers.
An unusual pop of colour, or is it colourlessness? Honesty seed heads are just beginning to pop and lose their ghostly glow.
Some colour next. No serious frost yet, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen nasturtiums up to 1m tall and flowering their way well into November.
Most trees have shed their leaves for the year. There has been so little wind that each tree has a puddle of leaves below it. Here’s a hazel, hanging onto it’s last few green leaves, with a golden carpet below it.
These plants just go on and on, overall my garden favourite. It has to be the hardy geranium, glowing purple in the middle of November!
I’ll finish today with a final green edible. These are oca, a member of the oxalis family (as is easily noticed from the petal shape), sometimes called New Zealand yam (though they are not a yam, and don’t originate in NZ!). Their leaves make a tasty lemony addition to salads, but what’s hiding underneath are colourful roots, a bit like a Jerusalem artichoke, but with lesser gustatory consequences. BUT, those roots keep growing until the leaves are frosted, and as you can see, we’re nowhere near there yet…..the coming week looks promising.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s surprisingly green #SixOnSaturday. They have given me something to be cheerful about. And thanks to those leaving comments on the blog – sorry if I don’t always get back to you on time! The blog is going well, but it would be great if more folk on Mastodon, or other parts of the Fediverse got into tooting a Six! Go on, it’s a much kinder form of social media, not controlled by crazy billionaires. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot