Autumnal sunshine.

I cannot work out where this year has gone.  It wasn't so very long ago when we were mithering about the hot, dry summer and only seems a few weeks ago that we were enjoying alliums, daffodils and tulips after the Beast from the East delayed spring and the whole garden came to life at once.

2018 has been a pretty bizarre year in our South Yorkshire patch.

The hardy geraniums are having a last flourish. 

Pretty pink fuchsias join a final blast of colour from the astrantias in pink

...and white

The bergenia foliage is turning red at the front of the pond while the white Japanese anemone with their metallic pink hints on the reverse of the petals shine out from the gloom at the back.

Bold magenta osteospermums keep flowering in the Terrace seat containers above. 

A double Japanese anemone thrusts it's bright white blooms above a fading hydrangea in the Patio Border.

Down in the Yen Garden, this vivid hardy geranium is also happy to provide another display.  

The hardy geraniums and astrantias were all cut back after their summer show, which I tend to do each year to get a second flush of both foliage and flowers to help prevent gaps and stretch the display in late summer into autumn.  Who says this time of year has to be a time of subdued colours or stick to a pallet of reds, oranges and yellows?

Not that I mind the zing of an autumn glow of course!

The Man That Can had a bit of a repair job to carry out today on the terrace as a few of the most often used steps came loose.  Today was warm and dry which will hopefully allow the cement to set before any frosts arrive.

Our first new tree has arrived. It's a liquidamber styraciflua Lane Roberts, as mentioned in a previous post.  We're not quite ready to plant it so it has been placed in the Terrace Border, still in its container, and attached with a rubber tree tie to the washing post for now so it's supported against the autumn storms in a spot we can enjoy its firey autumn colour.  It won't be planted just yet but the maple shaped foliage will probably have been shed by the time the revamp at the bottom of the garden is complete. 

Finally, I've lifted the last few plants in the Yen Garden border while TMTC potted them up.

The planters have been moved aside to make way for the workmen, and the gravel has been scraped away to reveal the weed suppressing membrane in the spot where the last tree is to be planted when it arrives.