Dazzling September.

September has drawn to a close but the glorious warm autumn sunshine is still present. We are looking back at a month full of colour in our forest garden..

We had a surprisingly large apple harvest, considering the trees were only planted less than four year ago. It is clear to us the espalier method is working very well, as all the trees along the drive had lots of fruit on them. Our larger free growing specimens, planted at the same time, had very little fruit in comparison. After we harvested our apples we gave the trees a late summer pruning as you can see in these pictures.

Before

After

Before

After

For the last couple of years we have applied the JAS-pruning method on our trees with great success. It basically means that you prune your threes in the months of July, August or September. It is a method increasingly practised in Sweden. Research and trials have shown that many woody trees and shrubs can be pruned during these months as the state of active growth makes the cut wounds heal up quickly. Traditional pruning during late winter and spring can sometimes cause the sap to bleed out of the cuts and harm the shrubs and trees.

We have been harvesting a lot of nice food this month.

The colours are changing all around the garden as some late flowers have come into bloom and some early ones have died back. Many of our trees are now big enough to make a lasting impact with their beautiful autumn leaves. Around our circle we have added a few new plants and are particularly happy with the pagoda dogwood, which we put in front of the dark purple smoke bush. We are visualising a beautiful contrast in years to come.

As always we are posting pictures of the garden seen from the circle in four directions. You can see how the garden changes throughout the months and years in the category, elemental circle.

East

South

West

North

All in all it has been a lovely month in the garden and a very rewarding experience to harvest so many delicious things. Now we are looking forward to mulching, weeding and maybe planting a few new things in the months to come.