That favourite time of the year is here! At Wynyard Hall, we’ve been thinking about all of the reasons we love the Autumn season!

Colder mornings and the occasional cold or chill caught on days when you left home thinking there wouldn’t be a biting wind!

We recently caught up with our Head Gardener, Mark, to revel in this season for many reasons:

• Crisper air with less pollution and allergens.
• The promise of future growth in the Kitchen Garden.
• The swishy sound of leaves as you walk over them.
• Ideal conditions for colourful photography as you head into woodland trails.

We asked Mark what it is about Autumn he loves most at Wynyard and the change to the Autumn season. Autumn is bittersweet as there’s nothing more wonderful than seeing the beautiful David Austen Rose Garden in full bloom throughout Spring and into Summer, but if we had to give you a list of what makes Autumn on the estate so wonderful, this is where we’d start:

There’s lots of berries that are ripened at this time of year, perfect for our Chefs in The Glass House and for guests to enjoy the plot to plate dining offering there. Over in the Kitchen Garden harvesting of seasonal crops will continue until the first frost arrives and then, Winter vegetables will be in season. Our Kitchen Gardener Bethany, has recently harvested the last of the apples and pears which will be stored until they are needed in the kitchen for menu’s in the Glass House.

On the estate, we’re also seeing a lot of wild hawthorn carrying a lot of berries which is excellent food for birds so it’s great to see wildlife on the estate that we might not usually see during the warmer months of the year.

Speaking of wildlife, branches in the gardens and woodland areas are laden loved by squirrels, jays and wood pigeons while out on the lake, Winter visitors are starting to appear such as Gooseanders, Graylag Geese and hundreds of Canada Geese arrive for the change in season and many will remain until next Spring. Since the warmer weather has departed us and we’ve seen much more rainfall in recent days, mushrooms and toadstools have appeared overnight with some being edible but the majority are not.

We think one of the BEST things about Autumn is mother natures colour palette and the first trees to turn in the arboretum are Horse Chestnuts, which comes this year with a good crop of conkers, the perfect décor for Autumn!

It’s great to see families visiting the estate at this time of year, leaf kicking and enjoying the estate in all its glory, it’s a wonderful experience to see it through their eyes.

The change of seasons to Autumn at Wynyard is one of our favourite to witness and rightly so with lots of reasons to love it while its here.

To see what’s on at Wynyard over the Autumn period, click here.