November in the Ednovean Farm Gardens

November garden bench and fig leaves — November in the garden and the season changes

November in the Ednovean farm garden and the wind of change blows through the garden towards winter as I’ve come to conclusion that it could now well be winter – in fact I checked the date on Google, yesterday, just to make sure. Sadly they confirmed the inevitable information but as with all things on Google there is a choice. Winter starts on December the 1st. That’s if you’re a meteorological time keeper of course but this version joyously finishes on the 29th of February – for Astronomical followers the start is the 21st December with the Winter Solstice and doesn’t finish not until a tawdry 20th of March. I looked at the dates and decided upon balance, to adopt the 1st of December and found a woolly hat to st out into the garden – just for the time being of course.

This month I’ve looked at the sheltered courtyard gardens where the more formal layout gives structure to our autumn garden and also looked again at the evergreen Italian gardens where the statues defy the elements in their spare architectural enclosures. Finally there’s another chance to see my little garden video, of the wind bringing the whole garden to life in restless motion, if you missed it last week.

Ednovean Farm's garden in November — The autumn light can be lovely – here it illuminates the serpentine terrace above the south walk

I must admit that we spend less time on the garden at this time of year but still spend afternoons loading those handy spent ton builders merchant bags with the fallen palm leaves and debris brought down by the wind, before standing back briefly to admire our efforts………….. Before the next wind scorches across the bay from the sea towards us, ah well!

November in the courtyard Gardens

Looking down across the parterre through the date palms

Trachycarpus fortunei – originally from China and a very hardy Palm

Look our for Wilbur curled up under the far bench in the autumn sunshine

Wilbur enjoying his chosen domain

We have an alkaline clay soil and so unusually for Cornwall this Rhododendron has to live in a pot

Wilbur has made a home in the sheltered courtyard enclosures

The tall pampas seeds still add drama to the garden

Always popular with the birds this hand carved bird bath sits in a little herb garden

Autumn days in one of the little side courtyards

The courtyard garden in November with the low sunlight of autumn

The formal outlines of the garden come to the fore now

A bird’s eye view down over the two little courtyards to the side of the farmhouse

Looking closer

The end of autumn – I’ve slowly watched the leaves slip from the Fig trees until only the bare branches are in stark relief in the autumn sunshine

Chamaerops humilis or European Fan palm the second most hardy palm that can be grown in the UK

After the rain and the sun breaks through above our gravel terrace

And it is the wind that our garden is designed for with borders full of the strappy glossy leafed foliage that shakes off the scorching winds of autumn interspersed by soft blue grey plants as I showed in my little video of the first of the winter’s gales – the gardens brought to restless life in the winds of autumn.Message

[youtube https://youtu.be/Igmp4jG7EMQ?rel=0]

I must admit I stood in the middle of the Italian garden and felt awe for the first time by the sheer power and drama of the strong structural hedges and at our temerity in taking on such a project. It just goes to prove that anything is possible in a garden – I always describe our gardening efforts as a little at a time and rather like walking down a very long road you suddenly look back and realise how far you have come!