Autumn 2023
Hello Everyone
It has been a while since I have written as life has taken over as it sometimes can. I realise as I write this newsletter in an outdated format now, that this is the eleventh year that I have been writing from the garden.
We are having such a beautiful autumn in Christchurch. Our visitors have enjoyed the autumn scenes.
Photo 1: A tour group that visited in late April.
The reason that I have selected this photo is so that I can show you what we have been doing over the last three or so years. We did have a willow shelter belt on the northern boundary which would be behind where the group is standing. There has been an extensive project going on next door, and when I knew for certain that the neighbouring property was going to be replanted in grass, and that there wasn't going to be a sub-division there, I had the shelter belt removed.
This has given us almost double the space for our woodland area and what has really enhanced this area is the backdrop of neighbouring hills and pasture. Our more established trees show up more clearly, and behind them, I have planted a random pattern of trees and shrubs. Perhaps this isn't explained well, but I hope that the photo tells the story.
Photo 2: Taken in May by Rosie Belton. Looking further along the woodland garden the neighbouring view is much enjoyed by us, where the old willow shelter belt used to block a lot of this view. The plants in the foreground are Cornus pumila, a most attractive low-growing deciduous plant.
Photo 3 by Rosie Belton. Camellia setsugekka, one of the autumn-flowering camellias looking graceful at the front edge of the woodland. You can see how we have pruned this camellia as it has grown, to enhance its bark and branches, This pruning also allows for good conditions for other plants to grow around and underneath it.
Photo 4 by Rosie Belton. Viburnum carlesii ‘Aurora’ is a shrub that I talk about a lot in the spring when it has the most exquisitely perfumed white flowers. Just look at it now in the autumn with its rich wine foliage.
Photo again by Rosie Belton. So many people have enjoyed this view across the pond to the Myrtus luma which has had its ‘judicious’ prune. Also known as the Chilean myrtle, this is described as a shrub in most books, but in fact we have pruned it over the years so that now we can enjoy the delightful colour and shape of its branches. The branches took about ten years to turn to this rich cinnamon colour.
On the left are the inedible fruits of Cornus kousa and in the foreground the leaves of the gunnera are starting to die down. The last four photos were all taken in the second week in May.
A big decision and event in the garden recently was the removal of a camellia hedge. It was the same camellia, C. setsugekka, as shown in Photo 3. I’ll talk more about this when I can show you some before and after shots, as we are still transplanting and re-arranging where the camellia hedge was.
I have always been intrigued by the way in which trillium snouts push through the ground in late April. Whilst they look so promising, I do wish they wouldn’t as it is so easy to crunch on them with your foot, especially when they are covered by fallen autumn leaves.
Very best wishes to you all,
Margaret
