reflections in an autumn garden
Time spent in gardens during the late autumn can be great for tuning into the details and very subtle changes that this time of the year delivers.
When the foliage of most trees is gone, as well the colourful flowers, and when our gardens start to expose their skeletal form, we might want to look to experience our gardens in more meditative and reflective way.
This will allow us to direct our focus on what we can smell, hear and feel in our gardens.
Our approach to garden design is to include plants that will greatly enhance these experiences. Like for example adding late flowering shrubs that will perfume the autumn air.
Mahonia japonica is a shrub that for centuries was adored for its scented yellow flowers, that usually appear in November. The fragrance is similar to lily-of-the-valley.
These late flowering garden shrubs are also appreciated for their glossy dramatic foliage, which adds good evergreen structural form to the overall garden design. Mahonias can also grow in deep shade conditions.
Viburnum x bodnantense is another example of late autumn flowering shrub that will add a very uplifting sensory experience to your garden.
The tiny pink flowers appear in clusters on purple-bronze leafless branches and are sweetly scented.
Looking closely at this Viburnum, admiring the architecture of its brunches, the clusters of its tiny pale-pink blooms and smelling their heavy scent, will make the experience of late autumn much more joyful.
Late autumn in a garden should encourage us to do a bit of gardening and plant trees and shrubs. To plant these additions, we will need to dig holes in the ground to accommodate these new plants.
This activity will add to the sensory experience in a garden, as braking the layers of the soil will expose us to the smell of earth.
Experiencing the smell of fresh soil has multiple beneficial effects on our health, it makes us feel calmer, more relaxed and it triggers the feeling of being connected to nature.
Paying more attention to the quality of light in a garden at this time of the year will also add to the overall feeling in a garden.
It is worth noting how the atmosphere in a garden changes, when it is illuminated by the low autumn light.
This experience is especially pronounced, when the garden contains perennials and dried ornamental grasses, where the plants’ skeletal appearance is enhanced by the changing mood of the light.
Let’s not forget about wildlife, which always makes the experience in a garden more enjoyable.
We can notice little robins following us as we work along a garden border, hearing their pleasant gentle sounds.
The late autumn garden can provide a range of rich and abundant experiences that are just as interesting and rewarding as at any other time of the year.
It only requires us to tune our attention to these different forms of excitement, as they are becoming less visual and more relaying on the sense of smell, sound and touch.
A late autumn garden teaches us to be more present and appreciative of the subtle and less pronounced experiences that we can enjoy at this time in our gardens.