Autumn: in the Peak Districtx

For a slightly different twist on my Autumn series, I thought I'd show a few photos from a trip into the Peak District yesterday. For those that don't know, whilst most people think the Peak District is in Derbyshire, quite a decent amount is also in South, and West Yorkshire, Cheshire, and Staffordshire.

This is a view towards the Jodrell Bank Observatory from near Merryton Low in Staffordshire. I love the gentle countryside, then how some peaks have just roughly push their way up above it. There is a lot of this in the Peak District, hence it's name.

In this picture, you should be able to see a moon-like white patch above the rocky outcrop (Hen Cloud). This in fact is the Lovell radio telescope of Jodrell Bank Observatory. Built in 1957, it remains one biggest and most powerful radio telescopes in the world. It's moon-like appearance from a distance, seems fitting.

From a viewpoint further down the road, you could see Hen Cloud, and The Roaches behind it, quite clearly.

Back into Derbyshire, the late afternoon winter sun was lighting the peak above Hathersage in glowing autumn colours. This, and the rest of the photos, were taken from inside the car, so they are a little blurry, but hopefully they will give you a feel for autumn light and colours you find in the Peak landscape.

Further on above Hathersage, this is Over Owler Tor.

An artistic(!) view of the Birch wood at Surprise View.

Burbage Rocks South

 Stony Ridge Road to Black Hill. Can you spot the cyclist?

And... Traffic jam, Peak District style.

Moo.


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Other posts in the series:
  Autumn: Acer palmatum 'Sango-kaku'
  Autumn: Prunus mume 'Beni-chidori'

  Autumn: Salvia 'Amistad'
  Autumn: Cornus 'Norman Hadden' 
  Autumn: Fagus sylvatica

Autumn: Salvia 'Amistad'

I thought it was time to show some flowering plants in my Autumn series. This is Salvia 'Amistad', which yes, does start flowering in late Spring, but continues on through Summer and into Autumn. I'm enjoying it so much in the front garden now, that I felt it was worth including. Also, it's purple, and I love purple.

It's clustered flower stems rise up above the foliage, adding height to your border. You need to come in close to enjoy the detail of individual flower.

Even in late October it still sending up plenty of new flower stems. With luck these will flower, offering some late blooms for bees. Yep, bees like to crawl up into the flower for the pollen.

In my garden it doesn't mind the light shade that comes from the beech hedge.

The young flower heads are a dark purple, but the flowers come out lighter colour. Two-toned purple - ba dum tish!

S. Amistad is a fuss-free hardy perennial that gives me flowers over a long period of time. And in case you didn't notice, it's purple. Purple!

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Other posts in the series:
  Autumn: Acer palmatum 'Sango-kaku'
  Autumn: Prunus mume 'Beni-chidori'
  Autumn: in the Peak District
  Autumn: Cornus 'Norman Hadden'
  Autumn: Fagus sylvatica

Autumn: Prunus mume 'Beni-chidori'

The second in my Autumn series, is Prunus mume 'Beni-chidori'. This is a small (up to 2.5m) upright tree which I've planted in a pot. Whilst it's only about 3 years old now, the idea is that, along with the other plants in pots next to it, it will filter out the messier storage part of the garden from view. Because every garden has a messy storage area.

The autumn leaves change from darker green to orange-red.

To fully red. Though maybe there is a pink tinge to that red.

It looks good hiding the messy corner, and looks magnificent against the blue Autumn sky.

Filtering through the sun brings up the intricate detail of the veins of the leaves.

And in Spring... Yes, that flower is simply stunning. It also has a beautiful fragrance. It's also a great plant for pollinators in late Winter.

I've admired this tree for a few years in other gardens and finally obtained my own earlier this year. I feel it's a most worthy and beautiful addition to the garden. Plus, who cares about a bit of mess with those colours?!

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Other posts in the series:
  Autumn: Acer palmatum 'Sango-kaku'
  Autumn: in the Peak District
  Autumn: Salvia 'Amistad'
  Autumn: Cornus 'Norman Hadden'
  Autumn: Fagus sylvatica 

Autumn: Acer palmatum 'Sango-kaku'

As Autumn is now in full swing, I thought I'd do a short series on some of the plants that I think really shine at this time of the year. First up, Acer palmatum 'Sango-kaku', and it most certainly shines!

It's young branches really show off the reason for it's common name, the coral-barked maple.

And I'm very pleased with how under-planting it with Heuchera 'Paris' has worked.

The leaves are now changing from a softer orange-yellow, to rich and buttery.

It glows in the autumn light.

It's a slow growing tree. This one is about 10 years old and has been moved twice. It's really taken off in this garden, so I think I've found it's happy place.

* * * * *
Other posts in the series:
  Autumn: Prunus mume 'Beni-chidori'

  Autumn: in the Peak District
  Autumn: Salvia 'Amistad'
  Autumn: Cornus 'Norman Hadden' 
  Autumn: Fagus sylvatica

Apple trees for the Forest Garden Border

Back in March I wrote about the design for my Forest Garden Border, and mentioned that I would purchase these in the Autumn. I've previously purchased fruit trees from R.V. Roger Nurseries in North Yorkshire and have always been very happy with their quality, so it was the obvious place to return to for my Apples. They held an apple day this weekend, so we decided to make the trip up there. Not the least because they had quite a number you could taste, and this was the final piece to the puzzle, after much research, to help me choose the right apple trees for my garden.

But before I tell you what I chose, let's take a quick look at the nursery's apple day displays. The below is a photo capturing just a fraction of the apple cultivars they grow and sell at the nursery.

There was a table for the Yorkshire varieties. Many include wonderful names such as Flower of the Town and Sharleston Pippon.

Elsewhere could be found the massive fruit of Peasgood Nonsuch, which would require two hands to hold one apple.

As well as the delightfully small Pitmaston Pineapple, that really does have the fragrance of pineapple.

The displays were wonderful, and the fragrance in the greenhouse was heavenly.

But what did I choose?! In each case, the choices were based on what Kevin and I both liked the most and how we would use them.

Egremont Russet

This a small dessert (eating) apple. The 'russet' part relates to the skin of the apple, which is rough, well, rough in apple terms; a majority of apples have smoother skins. The flavour was fabulous, sweet and juicy, and was our top choice. It had been on my shortlist because it was suitable for the North of England and a wetter climate. The flowers are tolerant of late frosts, and it has some disease resistance. You can pick it from October and it stores until the end of the year.

Lord Lambourne

This is another dessert apple, with larger apples than Egremont Russet. Again, it was sweet and juicy, and this time has the smoother skin, and is suited to the North of England. It stores until the end of the year. It was a very close second with Egremont Russet.

I had been tossing up between choosing just one dessert apple and growing it as an espalier, or choosing two and growing them as cordons. As you can see, I went for growing two as cordons. Like all edibles, apples and their cultivars can have some better years than others, and by growing more varieties, I increase the chances of at least one of them preforming well in any given year.

Newton Wonder

This is a dual purpose apple, meaning it has both dessert and culinary (cooking) qualities. It starts out as a cooking apple, then over time mellows to a lovely eating apple (we've tried it before). And because of it's long use period (you can store it between November and the following May), we can use it as a culinary apple first, then an eating apple in the new year. It's also another apple hardy for the North, with it's blossoms being tolerant of late frosts.

In this case, I've chosen to grow this as a double cordon. To the right you can see a photo of a 'Double U Cordon', with two sides each in a U shape. I'll be growing the Newton Wonder just as a double cordon, in effect, just one of the U's in the picture.


I'll be receiving my choices that have already been trained into cordon and double cordon shapes. They will be sent out  as bare root trees; trees that are dug up by the nursery in late Autumn when they are dormant. They'll be posted (well, couriered) to me as is, so they won't be in pots. I'll need to either plant them straight away, or if I cannot do this, I could just 'heel them in'. This is a process where you either just lightly plant them in a pot or bare soil, and then water them. You don't go to great efforts, you are just ensuring the roots don't dry out before you finally plant them. I'll aim to get them properly planted in December.

Thanks to the R.V. Roger staff member (I sadly didn't get their name) who answered all my questions. It was lovely chatting to them and it really helped me make my final decision.

So, I have my apple trees on order, and I'll finally be able to complete the planting for my Forest Garden Border.

The author at Apple day

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See also:
Tips to help you choose the right apple tree(s)
Creating a mini forest garden border