We have been enjoying the last few days of this peculiar summer here by the sea. It is the autumn equinox tomorrow (22^nd) and the days will become shorter and colder from now on but today, it is so warm and bright walking along the beach in the late afternoon. The baby seagulls have lost their grey fluffy coats and become brown speckled freshers giving off a trill call to their mums who are waiting to pinch your ice-cream.

• 

• 

• 

The seaside garden is having a last great flourish with its rich red sedums, pink roses and bronze cannas, all trying hard to keep going before everything starts to die back.

• 

• 

• 

But the best of the month are the bright red Rosa Ragusa and honeysuckle hips, and the orange of the last of the red-hot pokers.

• 

• 

• 

The old standbys are doing fine, and they will see us through the bare winter. My favourites are the rosemary waterfalls and shrubs that smell so fragrant as you pass them on the steps, and campanula and fern corner where, whatever you do to them, they just spring back.

• 

• 

• 

There is much work to do to get the garden ready for the winter, but the jobs can wait. To celebrate this last day of summer, while we have the sun, sitting out in the secret garden still has its pleasures, even though the agapanthuses have gone over to seed.

Come back next time to catch up on the garden as we go into winter.