Friday 18 November 2016

In praise of fallen leaves



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 …