We passed the equinox this week. A time I always find a little sad as we dip away into the darkness now. For my Six this week, I’ve found some bright pinks and reds that are dotting the garden, to cheer us all up. So here they are, a cheerful #SixOnSaturday

First up, just a few sweetpea are still in flower. This is much later than most years. I did keep up with watering in the summer. I’m fairly sure they are still going strong because the nights have been warmer than usual, and still are — we’ve only had 2 night with sub-10 degC temperatures so far. This one provides a stunning pop of colour, the last one on this plant.

Into the greenhouse, it has been a good year for peppers and chillies. This one is jalapeño , tasty and hot, reliably hot this year.

Another plant that is having a go at a second flowering are my snap-dragons. This one is a wonderful bright pink, I like it at this time of year.

More seasonally, cotoneaster is now fruiting, blackbirds are sneaking into the courtyard where this one lives to feast. I’m disturbing them every time I exit the front door. This is a different variety than the one you saw here last week.

Back into the greenhouse, I suspect the dry weather slowed down the grapes. There are more than usual this year, but they are smaller and less sweet. I’m going to try turning more of them into raisins (using an air-dryer) that will offer pops of summer sweetness on winter breakfasts.

Again and again, dahlia are delivering. It is almost time to move some of them into the greenhouse for some final flowering. For now, they are still feeding the bees as they struggle to keep warm enough in the cooler more blustery days. There seems to be a tiny shield bug (I think) enjoying this flower.

Collecting this week’s Six has cheering me up, I hope you have enjoyed viewing them too.

Do join in with your own 6 things from a garden. Thanks to those leaving comments on the blog. I do read them all, keep them coming. And do join in with #SixOnSaturday. 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

Things are getting more autumnal out there, leaves are changing colour and the local woods are full of mushrooms, like this little beauty. Can’t be part of my six, as not from the garden, but I had to show this cep off.

There are still warmish nights, so lots of veg to harvest from the garden, even courgettes, don’t remember them ever making it to mid-Sept before. Yet the seeds are setting, and the harvest is in. Here are some of mazing forms of fruit and seed in my garden this week for #SixOnSaturday.

A harvest I need to make soon are seed fennel, if I remember to get to these before they fully turn brown and fall off, they can be put into jars and last all year as a seasoning.

Hypericum have flowered and fruited, here are the ripe black berries.

Nigella are a cute little flower, but the seeds they deliver are really wonderful, smooth, yet spiky, they look engineered, not evolved.

Cotoneaster add wonderful colour to the autumn, at least for a while. Blackbirds are feasting on them when they can dash into the courtyard when I’m not looking.

Wild carrot also provides an interesting seed head. Lots of tiny seeds, all clustering up into a cup shape, where the flower once floated.

Last this week is a close-up of the seeds from a simple marigold, what wonderful detail and form, like jaws closing around a tiny mouth. These will soon be harvested to save towards a new crop of colour for the next season.

I hope you enjoyed my foray into seeds, the flowers will probably come back next week.

Do join in with your own 6 things from a garden. Thanks to those leaving comments on the blog. I do read them all, keep them coming. And do join in with #SixOnSaturday. 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

We are now into meteorological autumn, and it certainly feels like it. Again there are coolish days (16-20 deg), stiff breeze, some rain days now, and yet my end-of-season blooms are bold and full of colour. And insects are still around on sunny days, feasting on their nectar. Here are some more of my beautiful colourful blooms for this week’s #SixOnSaturday.

I will start, again, with one of my late summer favourites. A perfect rick pink dahlia. This is a lovely little plant, about 30cm high, flowering again and again with wonderful blooms.

Next, I planted some small and straggly sweetie plants very late this year, and remembered to keep them well watered. Even into September, they are delivering beautiful scented blooms. It must be time to pick another little vase full.

This year, I have a rather odd new variety of dahlia. It has grown on me over the months. It produces unique flowers every time, with seemingly random variations in the number of pink and white flowers. I like the surprise. here’s the latest bloom.

I have grown to love colchicum over the years. I manage to clear away a lot of dried out and dying foliage from several borders in the last few weeks, and look what popped up! Beautiful.

Sturdy and reliable, I’m hoping that we don’t get frosts any time soon, so that cosmos will keep going well into autumn. The rich colour of this one fills me with pleasure.

And last, a final dahlia, although one can barely see it. Yesterday there were 5 butterflies competing for the 4 blooms on this plant. Flowers are red around the edges, yellow towards the centre. The more colourful butterfly species have come very late here this year, I suspect a 2nd or 3rd generation are what we are seeing now. I managed to catch a painted lady showing off her gorgeous patterning, she is top condition still.

As the night draw in, I will continue to be looking for colour and joy around my garden, and hope you will enjoy seeing what I can find.

Do join in with your own 6 things from a garden. Thanks to those leaving comments on the blog. I do read them all, keep them coming. And do join in with #SixOnSaturday. 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