This Week In The Garden

Autumn has most definitely begun here at The Japanese Garden. Leaves are falling with every gust of wind and the very beginning of the colour change has started. It will be a while yet until we see the stunning autumn colours – usually peaking at the end of October (just before we close for the season 😉), however the autumn feeling is now present 💗 🍂 

Today I took a stroll around the garden in the morning and I was amazed to see how different it looked compared to my last visit! It must have only been a couple of weeks since I visited but it looked so changed! Autumn is my favourite time of year and I think this is because of the constant leaves falling (which is not the gardeners favourite thing 😂) which gives a certain feeling to the garden that no other time of year has. There is a sense of motion with the breeze carrying leaves from the trees and bringing them back to earth. It makes me feel like ‘letting go’ of any stress as the trees are doing the same. Every leaf on every Japanese Maple will be changing colour and dropping for winter over the next couple of months and seeing the development of this dramatic change is incredible. Autumn is definitely the ‘messy’ time for the garden; with such huge volumes of leaves coming down but for me (and many of our visitors) its a magical time; and somehow the most emotional time to visit.

We see so much change in this season and aside from the plants giving us such a vibrant range of colour, the light also becomes increasingly golden as we move towards the winter months. Today walking around the garden I noticed how warm the sunlight was; shining through leaves, illuminating shapes and sculptures and the water rippled with beams of light reflecting up. 

The response we have had from visitors has been wonderful and even if people are not very green-fingered; almost everyone feels the peaceful energy of the place.

I always tell people that our garden is a place to ‘feel’ rather than just to see and this time of year I think that is especially true.

Last day open for this season is 31st October; until this date we are open everyday (7 days a week) 10am until 6pm (last entry to the garden at 5pm)

Please enjoy the pictures I captured today – pictured below –