Norfolk School of Gardening on autumn in the garden

“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,” of conkers, apples, grapes, hips, and haws.

But also of bright, warm sunshine, of soft then torrential rain, of dahlias, sunflowers, salvias, asters, of evenings drawing in.

This year the fruitfulness is overflowing: I don’t remember a year of such plentiful fruits, berries, nuts.

It is being called a “Mast Year”, which apparently occurs every five or so years and is when lots of trees produce a bumper harvest of fruit, nuts, acorns, beech masts.

Holme Hale Hall garden design student visit (Image: Norfolk School of Gardening)

It seems that the amazing fruit harvest is down to the lack of late frost in the spring, and I can’t help wondering if many trees will be so exhausted by producing such a quantity of fruit that they will take a rest next year.

Only time will tell.

The days may be shorter, but the mild temperatures make it easier to be outside and we find we are agreeing more and more with the RHS who recently declared October to be the new April in gardening terms.

They meant that this is the perfect time to get new plants into the ground, to divide existing plants or move them to a better spot.

This gives plants a chance to get their roots established in the still warm soil before they go into winter dormancy, giving them a better chance than if planted in the spring when the ground will be cold and may be sodden or very dry, and when they are likely to need a lot more watering to get them going.

Certificate in Practical Horticulture propagation (Image: Norfolk School of Gardening)

Many perennials in nurseries and garden centres are not looking their best right now, but that’s fine: what you want most is a healthy root system, and you may even find some “end of season” bargains if you are lucky!

With all this in mind, we have some really useful courses coming up.

There is the perfectly timed Sustainable Cutting Garden course when you can plan next year’s beds and a couple of pruning courses, the seasonal Pruning Shrubs and Roses day and Renovation Pruning which aims to help those with overgrown shrubs and small trees which have been neglected and need rescuing.

For more experienced gardeners, we are continuing our monthly Advanced Practical Gardening series this month and next.

We will be covering all of the seasonal jobs including pruning, tree and hedge planting, creating leaf mould, overwintering plants, hardwood cuttings, while also looking at which plants are looking good at this time of year.

Holme Hale Hall’s quince harvest (Image: Norfolk School of Gardening)

These are some of the other courses in the next few weeks which have spaces available.

· Advanced Practical Gardening – 29th October

· Basic Bricklaying – 31st October

· Sustainable Cutting Garden – 5th November

· Renovation Pruning – 13th November

· Pruning Shrubs & Roses – 19th November

· Fruit Tree Care – 20th November

Stipa gigantea (Image: Norfolk School of Gardening)

Plant of the Week

Stipa gigantea is a striking evergreen grass, forming a spiky clump of arching deep green foliage from which a huge sheaf of long-stemmed, oat-like flower-heads erupts in mid-summer.

When mature, these splay apart to make a wide fountain shape that almost hides the plant.

The seedheads dry out naturally on the plant and persist into early winter, where they make a good architectural feature, especially when outlined in frost.

To quote Beth Chatto: “One of the loveliest verticals, especially when caught in early morning or evening sunlight…

“From dense, basal, evergreen tuffets of finely rolled leaves spring many tall stems, up to 1.75m/6ft tall, with loose panicles of oat-like flowers, metallic in texture.

“Long golden anthers increase the shimmering effect, since all quiver in the lightest movement of air.”