Garden Views-010-October 2026

October began with the garden and land still waiting to restore groundwater levels after the exceptional summer and a drier-than-average September.

There was a mix of sunshine, some partly dry days, and murky damp periods, but by the middle of the month, we had enjoyed only 2 dry days, with a maximum of 10 mm, being the only double-digit rainfall event. Temperatures were also often mild.

This meant that grass in all the fields and garden bounced back.

However, the oaks all continue to look very sick, with no acorns, crown thinning and terminal twig drop, and the jays have had to switch to collecting and burying hazelnuts for winter food caches.

Waxcap mushrooms, usually a delight at this time of the year, were very slow to appear, and in reduced numbers.

Even the spreading ring of honey fungus on the croquet lawn seemed to have petered out this year.

Honey bees continued to be active in the mild weather with all hives looking in fine form, except the Swedish butterchurn which I removed after it had fallen over again, and anyway had produced two swarms earlier this year.

Molehill numbers slowly increased, but my impression is that there may now only be single moles in 4 of the fields, none in one, and 3 or 4 in the upper hay meadow.

At last we felt we were catching up with garden and land maintenance tasks, with hedge cutting continuing, after a close call after falling off the tripod ladder trimming the Yew viaduct. We’ve only had to remove a few surplus shrubs which had suffered from the drought, so my efforts with hours of watering weren’t in vain.

In addition, we’ve opted to cut back many of the Hydrangeas, rather than just thin the stems out, to mitigate summer water stress.

The underground wasp nest beneath a rhododendron in the lower copse continues to be incredibly active from very early dawn until dusk, with a count of 84 wasps per minute implying a colony size of around 2700 (multiply the minute count by 32.24).

I was caught out after delaying putting pee out around the fields (not wanting to deter the hares!) by a much later-than-usual turf-ripping incident overnight in the upper hay meadow on October 12th. It’s amazing just how much damage can be caused by a badger in a very short period.

But autumn leaf colours are developing nicely as we move into the middle of the month, and with more generally benign weather forecast, there’s much to look forward to.