Stunning autumn days at Arundel Castle

AUTUMN is a wonderful time of year within the gardens and grounds at Arundel Castle, the trees are beginning to turn with stunning shades of golden browns, reds, oranges and especially noticeable against the striking backdrop of the castle walls.

For some people autumn is when time slows down for them, but not the castle garden team who are about to embark on preparing areas for the planting up of the 30,000 bulbs, ready for our spring extravaganza.

This is only one of many autumn and winter tasks that go towards the changes we are making in the gardens to continue to excite our local visitors and those from around the globe.

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Like any garden there are always certain plants and trees that stand out as being exceptional and one of these is our Cork Oak, Quercus suber, which is found on the raised bank above the drive (known as the American Ground) situated just before the Collectors Earl’s Garden.

These trees have the most incredible bark and with ours its shape and age is a sculpture in itself and well worth a look.

The Cork Oaks are only harvested every 9-12 years on any commercially grown forest, mostly found in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy and this is done carefully, so as not to damage the tree. We do not harvest ours, as it is quite a rare tree in this country.

Look out for our Strawberry Trees, Arbutus unedo! The strawberry tree has very attractive white, urn-shaped flowers which have started turning into rounded, red fruits looking like strawberries, although in appearance only.

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They are not eaten raw but can be made into jams and jellies, or even better still, liqueurs such as grappa.

Isobel McKinley, our organic kitchen garden horticulturalist, has just harvested our Strawberry Popcorn, one of our unusual decorative red cobs of organically grown corn.

These will be picked and dried in a cool place, then placed in a freezer for two days after which they are stored in an airtight container until ready to be eaten. Cook the whole cob in the in a microwave.

Here are some other plants to look out for in the Collectors Earl’s garden:

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Late flowering salvias, Echuim pininana with their large lance-shaped, green hairy leaves and the crimson dahlias, Bishop of Llandaff, with its dark red cousin Bishop of Auckland, and the tall, majestic Canna iridiflora, and the cascading orange and yellow flowers of the Tropaeolum majus.

In the background there is the stunning exotic deep bronze foliage of the Castor Oil plant, Ricinus communis.

In the organic Kitchen garden you will find Cape Gooseberries, Physalis peruviana, these are encased in a lantern with the yellow fruits contained within, they can be eaten raw or stewed like plums and from my African childhood, they make a wonderful fruit pie.

We also have grown some Custard Squash (Patty Pan) which looks like a white cloud and are very tasty when roasted!

A few tips from the castle garden team:

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Ensure you lift your main crop of potatoes before the frosts set in, we have done ours!

Problems with earwigs, especially with Dahlias and Chrysanthemum flowers - try catching your earwigs by placing an upturned flower pot stuffed with shredded newspaper or straw on a stick or cane and push in between the flowers - Good Luck.

Deadhead your Dahlia’s to ensure late autumn colour continues.

If you haven’t by now, trim back your lavender to encourage it to develop a new flush of foliage for winter, but do not trim too hard.

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Volunteers: if you have some time to spare and are interested in joining our garden volunteer team, I promise not to put you in with the goats and horses then do get in touch by writing to me at the castle, our details can be found on www.arundelcastle.org or via email [email protected]

Happy Gardening!