A couple of
years ago I was travelling in northern Norway at the peak of autumn. I
vividly remember the long coach journey from Alta to Kautokeino through valleys
with trees bathed in stunning colour. Yet within a few days of arriving
in Kautokeino, all the leaves had dropped from the trees. I commented to a
local woman what a shame it was that all the leaves had fallen. She looked at
me and said, ‘I really love this time of year, though, because you get to see
the contours of the landscape.’ And it was true. Without the leaves to obscure
the view, you could see the true shape of the mountains and valleys as they
stretched into the distance.
I was
reflecting on that special moment the other day as I pondered our newly denuded
garden. Having lots of amazing fruit trees is great in spring and summer, but
it also means the fall of Autumn leaves is very dramatic and rather sad, not to
mention hard work to clear up. It also suddenly reveals the houses that
overlook our garden at the back, whose windows are obscured by the
huge leaves of our towering fig tree during the summer months.
And yet … now
we can see the beautiful fatsia in all its glory. At this time of year the
fatsia is just coming into its own, and now, rather than being one of several
leafy shrubs at the bottom of the garden, it is really standing out sharply,
with its shiny dark leaves and extraordinary cream-coloured exotic flowers.
I can see
that this notion of ‘seasonal reveal’ could work well in garden design. I could
plant colourful winter flowers (such as cyclamen) behind shrubs that are
striking and full-leaved in summer but fade to nothing in winter. We have a dwarf
lilac in a large pot near the bottom of the garden. Rather than seeing an
awkward twiggy thing in its pot, I could look through it instead and marvel at the colour behind it.
It is also
much easier to see the garden wildlife when there are fewer leaves. The
squirrels have been chasing each other up and down the long boughs of the fig
tree and through the spaces between cherry and plum tree branches. It’s a lot
of fun to watch.
In general,
since taking on this garden after we moved in two years ago, I have been trying
to introduce a lot more evergreen planting, including lots of climbers to cover
the fences (such as ivy, honeysuckle, clematis, etc.). But focusing only on
evergreens sometimes means missing out on a whole range of possible flowers, or
a beautiful show of autumn leaves and – now I understand – the opportunity to
change the very contours of the garden on a seasonal basis. The garden
definitely looks barer now, but it’s also looking bigger and more open.
I could
work with that …
