Well autumn is now well and truly here and with it the first storms of the season. I came in on Monday morning to find the woodland walk looked like this:

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An oak tree had dropped a branch which had also taken down branches on a sweet chestnut. After a short time with the aid of a hardy volunteer we were able to remove the branches and re-open the woodland walk.

Wednesday was a different kettle of fish entirely starting as follows:

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and finishing with torrential downpours and hours of thunderstorms!

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Still our Gardener’s cottage is now much tidier! We have made some progress despite stormy weather this week re-doing a bed next to the fig tree. The bed originally contained Acanthus spinosus, or Bears breeches to give it it’s common name, which although a lovely plant had a habit of flopping it spiny leaves over the path. Not fun for the occupants of wheelchairs or pushchairs! We have thinned out the Acanthus and moved some to the back of the border and also removed the Rosa mundi which had reverted to their wild rose rootstock. This has been replaced with 2 Rosa ‘Ispahan’ a long flowering, mid – pink, old fashioned rose with an extraordinary scent. We have filled the rest of the bed with a pretty dwarf pink Thalictrum, Aquilegia (Columbine) hybrids for spring interest, Geranium ‘Rozanne’ a very pretty blue and white bi-coloured cranesbill and a pretty pink phlox to add colour in late summer. Some sections of the Cape Fuschia or Phygelius have also been transplanted next to the Fig tree from it’s previous position at the top of the terrace where it was shy to flower. We hope it will prosper in it’s new home.

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Our first bottles of Apple juice from the garden are in and it is delicious! We are selling it at £2.50 a bottle and it is going quickly, please get in touch if you wish to purchase it. I do not have an undercover sales area to keep it in so sales are by arrangement with the gardener for collection from the garden (usually on a Monday, Wednesday or Saturday). We hope to produce more when the next batch of apples are ready, the variety will be different so we will have a whole new juice to try then. The juice is pasteurised and will keep for upto 6 months.