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24/4/2020

Autumn in a bubble

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When I went out this morning to tidy up my messy garden, I looked hard and thought - it's actually not messy at all!   It's simply what happens in May, so instead of cutting back and tidying as I had planned, I grabbed my camera and started taking photos.    You can see the results below. 
​T
his change of heart was in part, inspired after I had watched the film - 

'Five Seasons: the Gardens of Piet Oudolf'. ​

Piet Oudolf is an influential Dutch garden designer, plant nursery man and author. He is a leading figure of the "New Perennial" movement and designs plant compositions using bold drifts of herbaceous perennials and grasses which are chosen at least as much for their structure as for their flower colour.​  He designed the planting for the famous High Line Garden in New York  as well as many other well known gardens in North America, Northern Europe and Britain.  One of his most  acclaimed gardens in Britain is the Hauser and Wirth garden in Somerset called Oudolf Fields.  He believes in appreciating the long lived beauty of a plant, lasting well beyond its flowering period into its reproductive seedhead phase and beyond into decay.  
Picture
I have left the seedheads of Queen Annes Lace, Michelmas Daisies, Orach, and Lychnis still with the occasional spot of magenta, also some Echinacea seed-heads to better appreciate the beauty of Autumn decay
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I must have been mad to even think of tidying away this glorious tangle of seedheads, as it is beautiful. It's just a matter of attuning our eyes to seeing this as beauty and not mess! Besides if I cut it all away, what would there be left - nothing!
  
We so often think of colour in autumn, and it's true - the fiery crimsons, golds and oranges of autumn foliage are a sight to behold.  But so are the browns and bleached out beige's of dried seedheads and decay.  It is in these understated dried plant skeletons that we can now easily see the structures and shape, and as Piet Oudolf says that, too, is to be appreciated. 

But we can't have a story about autumn without colour so here goes!
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One of the loveliest things about autumn is the light - the long slanting shadows and the iridescence of pinks and golds in autumn leaves as sunlight filters through. The few leaves left hanging on the Cercis 'Forest Pansy' and small Tree Peony have turned into jewels as sunlight filters through them, and the Ornamental Grape. Even the the distinctive leaves (see right) of the Oak Leafed Hydrangea - Hydrangea quercifolia are burnished bronze
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The above colour is in my face, a footstep away in my own small garden, well within my bubble!   But beyond is the wider bubble!  I can walk to the city if I choose, and what autumn treats there are to discover on the way.  And all within my bubble!
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Picture
From Manchester Street, just across the Avon is the Margaret Mahey Playground which looked very bare after beautiful mature trees were removed from the site to build this playground. Margaret Mahey would have turned in her grave had she known the site was to be stripped bare of it's natural habitat in order to build such a contrived plastic playground in her name.
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The Poplar Walk bordering the Avon River between Madras and Manchester Streets finishing alongside the Margaret Mahey Playground. But the playground looks sadly bare after the natural habitat and mature trees were removed from the site to build it. Margaret Mahey loved wild and natural places and wrote about these places for children so they could use their own imaginations in making up their own games. I can't imagine that brightly coloured plastic would have been part of her intention.

Also within my bubble is the Red Zone and the wide open spaces this offers alongside the Avon river and environs.  So yesterday for my daily walk, I turned east instead of west into more beautiful tree lined river landscapes flaunting their autumn colours and the further east I went, the more the vistas opened out into ever widening empty landscapes. 
Yet within these open landscapes, there are rectangular lines of shrubs and trees delineating the gardens which had once been there and the sadly bare central spaces within these boundaries where peoples homes had  been before they were demolished. 
It's  an eerie sight and an eerie feeling as you can almost hear the ghostly sounds of absent people - the voices of children playing, lawns being mown, cars pulling into driveways and neighbours calling to each other as they went about their daily business. 
​Where there had been active and thriving communities, there is now nothing except ghostly rectangular outlines of shrubs which once enclosed someones home. 
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The further east I walked the more the old earthquaked road narrowed and became more rutted, and the wide open spaces of before began to close in again with more mature trees. I realised I was coming to something special and sure enough planter boxes appeared along the track and pots with flowers spilling out of them, and there were signs and steps up to a sheltered garden raised slightly above the road.  It was the entrance to the Richmond Community Garden.
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The Richmond Community Garden still looking good, even though no volunteers have been allowed to work in the garden for almost six weeks due to the lockdown. This has been difficult for community gardens as March and April is the time that seeds are sown and seedlings planted for winter crops. We just hope some activity can happen soon, so they can bring their gardens back into production again
I'm fortunate in my bubble, as there are many places within  walking distance, and those pictured above are just some of them. 

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10 Comments
Henrietta
8/5/2020 05:10:32 pm

I love any excuse not to tidy up. Your garden looks fabulous Robyn

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Robyn Kilty link
9/5/2020 10:06:15 am

It's good to see the beauty in these seedheads but they will eventually have to be tidied!

Reply
Jill
8/5/2020 10:14:48 pm

Lovely photos Robyn. Enjoyed reading about your forays into your surroundings. Lovely to think we may be able to move about more freely soon. I’m missing the Botanic Gardens.
I totally agree with leaving seed heads through winter. The birds love them.

Reply
Robyn Kilty link
9/5/2020 11:39:06 am

Thankyou Jill, I can imagine the lovely great swathes of seedheads in your garden too as you have the space to really go to town!!

Reply
Penny Zino link
8/5/2020 11:22:06 pm

Great article Robyn,
I loved Piet Oudolf's comment "There is beauty in decay" which is something that will resonate for a long time.
Your walks take you to some wonderful spaces.

Reply
Robyn Kilty link
9/5/2020 11:42:58 am

Thankyou Penny
I know you are loving the wonderful autumn colour in your garden just now too! And your seedheads too will be looking great in that great swathe of Piet garden you have made. Weren't we lucky to meet him!

Reply
Marion Morris
9/5/2020 04:31:32 pm

loved the article Robyn how things change!May used to be such a scramble to cut back and now i enjoy the softness and colour of Autumn. Marion

Reply
Robyn Kilty link
11/5/2020 12:44:58 pm

So true Marion - but didn't we miss a lot of beauty by wanting to be tidy!!

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Irene Blair
13/5/2020 05:56:41 pm

So lovely to hear how you and your garden are going in these strange times.I love the photos. How would we manage without our gardens. The best therapy ever.

Reply
Robyn Kilty link
13/5/2020 07:34:37 pm

So true Irene! Lovely to hear from you.

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    I AM A GARDENER, GARDEN WRITER AND ARTIST.   AFTER SEVERAL YEARS WRITING REGULARLY AS A COLUMNIST I HAVE MISSED WRITING ABOUT MY GARDEN, OTHER GARDENS AND GARDENS IN GENERAL FOR THE GARDEN PAGES OF THE PRESS SO HAVE RESOLVED TO SET UP MY OWN BLOG AND WEBSITE.
    ​
     IN THIS WAY  I CAN DISCUSS WHAT IS HAPPENING IN MY GARDEN AND IN OTHERS AS THE SEASONS TURN.  I STILL DO GO RUSHING INTO THE GARDEN TO TAKE PHOTOS OF SOMETHING  WHEN THE LIGHT IS RIGHT OR SOMETHING LOOKS PARTICULARLY DELECTABLE, BUT ITS NOT THE SAME WHEN THE PHOTOS DO NOT GET 'OUT THERE'.  HOWEVER WITH MY OWN BLOG, THE PHOTOS AND ACCOMPANYING STORY CAN AGAIN BE SEEN BY THOSE WHO ARE INTERESTED.  

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