It's The Big Sleep

There’s some very good reasons why you shouldn’t put the whole garden to bed says Val

- Val Bourne

ONE OF life’s little luxuries is an early morning cuppa in bed from where I can see the autumn border whilst I’m sipping tea. It’s now full of late-season grasses and tall perennials that produce statuesque seed heads. As I gaze out, wrens swing in out of the border like trapeze artists, catching small insects in the nooks and crannies of the plants. Occasionally they will dive down to the ground, drink from the guttering on the greenhouses, or poke about in the mite-rich lichens on the walls. There may be a pair or more of these jaunty little birds, who are in my garden because they can find food.