Autumn Update from the Gardens 2025
By Andrew Humphris, Head Gardener
It has been a difficult year in the garden with a very long dry spell, from March until August and then very heavy rain and extremely windy through the first half of September. The weather has fortunately settled again but this did lead to our first frost.
Using the correct plants to tolerate all weather conditions is more vital than ever. The majority of our planting has been resilient to the conditions but we have identified a few plants that have struggled which we will be removing and replacing over the winter.
The garden still has a lot to offer at this time of year. As the summer plants fade the grasses, Asters, Sedums and Salvias come into their own. Add to this the Dahlias and other tender perennials which give us a wide variety of colour combinations.
A number of trees and shrubs are coming into autumn colour and the long process of cutting all the hedges has begun.
The sharp lines of the hedges accentuate the red colours of Euonymous alatus.
We have some exciting projects coming up this autumn too. Our last bed of white rugosa roses is being taken out to control the bindweed which is riddled through the bed. This bed is however going to be utilised to grow all of our cut flower tulips for next spring. We also have many other bulbs coming to enhance our areas under the trees in the pleasure ground. This will be a wonderful addition to the existing bulbs.
Apples and pears have been abundant this year and seem to be ready early due to the dry weather. We are busy picking and storing them but also picking for juicing which will then go on to be sold in the shop.
Apples unsuitable for juicing are fed to our resident deer and butterflies such as Red Admirals feed on the windfalls.
The garden team look forward to seeing and talking to our visitors and hope to see many more before we close to enjoy the garden in the lovely soft autumn light.
