You can’t really tell from the pictures but it has been raining for almost every day in August. We have not spent as much time as we would have liked in the garden and it is now quite overgrown with shrubs and perennial plants spilling out across the paths in many places.
The land has not suffered one bit though and perhaps even the opposite is true. The wilder the garden gets the more wildlife it seems to attract and we were happy to spot the caterpillar of the intriguing Elephant Hawkmoth making its way leisurely across the grass in the middle of the month.
Today we saw a lovely Speckled Wood Butterfly and it was happy to pose for a close up shot.
Every year we are bowled over by the generosity of nature and this year is no exception. Our red filberts are closely related to the common hazelnut tree and this year we have a lovely crop of nuts maturing. They should be all ripe by the end of September.
The annual patch of vegetables is full of courgettes, beans, kale and cabbage and in the poly-tunnel in the community garden we are harvesting tomatoes and tomatillos.
The blueberries are quite blue but for a real visual feast we like to look upon the sea holly, slightly metallic in appearance and with great spikes it looks almost as if from another world.
Around our main circle, growth has been great this year and many of our trees are now well above head height. We are particularly happy with the Carolina Allspice tree that we planted in the spring and that now has beautiful red flowers. When it is mature the bark can be used as a spice in a similar way to Cinnamon.
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The nights are drawing in and we look forward to keep harvesting food for another while and after that to the stillness that comes to the land as the growing season winds down. We appreciate every season but our favorite time is perhaps when leaves fall and flowers disintegrate. There can be no rebirth in spring without plants withering and fading in the autumn.
thegreenerdream 
Your garden looks beautiful, so full of growth and life – the rain obviously hasn’t done it any harm. The vegetable patch is exactly how I love to see them, crammed with good things and a bountiful harvest. Those red filberts are gorgeous, do you not have a problem with squirrels? We struggled to crop any in Wales because of the greys, but there are only very pretty little reds here who leave the hazels to us. I know exactly what you mean about this time of year, people can get quite maudlin but it’s just a natural turn of the wheel which I feel to be reassuring and even uplifting. I generally have a huge burst of creative energy (pre-hibernation!). Enjoy that lovely garden. 🙂
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Sadly I have not seen any squirrels here at all. We have harvested the common hazelnuts for years but this is the first time we have a crop of red filberts and also Cosford cob nuts that are massive! 😊 I get the same huge burst of creative energy as you this time of year. It is like you say a very uplifting time. I just love the crispness of the air and the smell in the garden. Enjoy your garden as well. I imagine you are harvesting things every day!
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The thing that I notice most about your garden is the greenness. It’s so restful to the eye, so lush and healthy. I am quite envious of your sea holly as I’ve tried for ages to grow it myself and thought I was overwatering it! Obviously water isn’t a problem, as you’ve had so much. It’s certainly a stunning shade of blue.
Filberts are something I’m not familiar with… what an interesting flower.
The weather here has been awful after an early spring burst…cold, dry and very windy with morning temps below zero. We are on water restrictions having had a very small amount of rain over winter, so gardening is a challenge just now.
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Hello Jane. I do feel blessed despite all the rain as it makes the garden very lush and green. Drought is so much more problematic. The sea holly is planted in a raised bed with lots of well rotted manure and an annual top up of mulch. It seems to love water but would probably not like to be waterlogged. The filbert are just hazelnuts that are a different colour and slightly larger. The thing that looks like a flower are the casings around each nut. I love it when the light shines through them. Sorry to hear about your difficulties in relation to drought. Hopefully you will get some more spring rain soon and the frosts will come to an end. I really enjoyed your post about parrots earlier. They are so exotic looking to my eyes! 💗
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That must be rad to get filberts. Our native filbert makes only a few tiny nuts that are not worth shelling. I got some seedlings from the East to see how they do. (They are seedlings, not cultivars.)
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Yes they are great. We are very lucky. Good luck with your seedlings. I could send you some fresh filberts and cob nuts in the post if you like if you would like to have a go at planting them. Not sure what customs would think of that though. Is it OK to send nuts do you think?
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It would probably be acceptable, but I prefer to work with the seed grown filberts that I have now rather than add a different set of seedlings to the mix. I could get cobnuts (which we know as hazelnuts) but would prefer to pass on the cultivars that are developed for production. I sort of want to grow what grows wild in other parts of North America. Thank you.
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I understand. It is always good to grow what is local to the area and country. Good luck with your seedlings. 🙂
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Oh, they are not native here (although there are natives too). They are native to Eastern North America. I want to grow them because I have heard about them growing wild elsewhere. Cultivars would be more productive, but I want the real thing from the wild.
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