I decided it would be good to walk
through the garden once a month to share the highlights with you,
Often weeding, moving, lifting and
sweeping..… you lose the wood for the trees. So this is my monthly exercise -
finding the woodland.
I am starting near the bottom of our
steep drive. We have a row of beech trees near the road, planted when we came
here 28 years ago, they are now magnificent specimens. Each autumn they take
their time, slowly, yellow, gold, a flash of red and then in October the
colours deepen to a wonderful glowing copper bronze. They have been wonderful.
The wind is now taking them away, but
there is still pleasure as they swirl and gather in groups at the edge of the
tarmac.
Walking up the hill you pass the
magnificent Acer Bloodgood. Can an Acer be too big? I see that it’s winning the battle with the
white lilac next to it. It is being squeezed out.
Up the steps and into the woodland and
the first splendour that you meet is the Witch hazel. Our shrub is Hamamellis
pallida, which has lovely pale lemon spidery flowers each winter, on the bare
stems. The leaves are large and a clean acidic yellow, very noticeable this
autumn. As the leaves fall off I can see myriad swollen flower buds. It will be
a great show.
 |
| Hamamelis mollis |
 |
| Rodgersia aesulifolia |
 |
| Collapsed Hosta |
The Rodgersia are colouring and
collapsing, the Hostas are suddenly collapsing and they all flare with colour
before they go down. As always the grasses are at their best before winter sets
in. The most satisfying this year has been Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster', its bolt upright stems
standing wonderfully well and mixing with Rudbeckia.
They look
wonderful together in vase.
As you wander
up the steps you can’t but see the evergreens. They take on a glossy glow that
lasts through the winter. Holly and Ivy both gaining prominence as the colour
show fades.
Finally up to
the big oak at the top of the garden.
The most magnificent plants we have and a gorgeous deep bronze
colour. Just now it is full of Jays, who
have decided to turn up on Loch Ness and eat their way through the acorn crop.
They are
noisy. Screeching and airborne when you or the dog appear. They remind me of
scaled down Cockatoos. Squawk.
M
We are lucky in the amount of birds that visit our garden, I would love to see the Jay, don't think they visit the north east. The buds are also developing well on our Hamamellis, pity the branches were so straggly, doesn't seem to be any way of improving the habit of this one though. Enjoyed the monthly walk with you.
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