AUTUMN RAMBLINGS

…..”Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,       

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;   

Conspiring with him how to load and bless       

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;   

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,       

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;         

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells       

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,   

And still more, later flowers for the bees, 

Until they think warm days will never cease,         

For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.”…..

The delightful first stanza of the poem, ‘To Autumn’ by John Keats so aptly describes the glorious exuberance of these recent autumnal weeks from end of September to here now, so nearly at the end of November. We have been blessed in the Vineyard and Gardens with warmth and golden autumnal sunshine which has seen so many plants continuing to bloom, not least cheery Dahlia ‘Copper Boy’ ever gorgeous with its deep bronze, red and mauve tones even on display at our recent "Spooktacular" and only now being prepared for its winter storage bed of hessian and vermiculite in readiness for next season.

But of course, this Autumn has been a first here at Kenton with the latest weekly brunchtime sessions (Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays) and the Horti Team enthusiastic to complement the season, by decking the Winery and surrounding outside spaces with a flourish of pumpkins in all shapes and sizes, as well as the muted tones of heather and rich red apples from our orchard.

The unusually dry days these past few weeks enhanced with the wonderful russet hues of late Autumn, have seen so many of you enjoying warming drinks and tasty sustenance on the Terrace after a brisk stroll in the Vineyard and the welcoming glow of our openair log fires and relishing in the last few warming rays of autumn sunshine.  

Keen to demonstrate other skills as well as those of a more horticultural nature, the team enjoyed rolling up our sleeves and getting to grips with a display of more than 50 traditionally as well as slightly ‘off-piste‘ pumpkin carvings for our Spooktacular party evening. The ‘trick’ is to get the date in your diary early for next year to make sure you too enjoy a ‘treat’ of an evening of spooky fun.  

The season has been kind to the Team for our annual cycle of horticultural Autumn maintenance and planting, allowing us to push on with much pruning including Lavender, Rosemary and Lemon Balm all of which are dried for Tisane preparation which we use in the sustainable treatment of the Vines to ensure against pests and diseases.

To look out for in Spring ’25, over 5,000 tulips and other bulbs have and are being planted including but not exclusively; Princess Household along Solaris Avenue, Jinkhe along Bacchus Avenue, Havran along Pinotin Avenue, Diana along Chardonnay Avenue and Mistress Mystic along the Kitchen Garden border to name but a few. So do please make a note in your diaries to come and tiptoe with us through the blooms from March onward.

Anna has been working hard in the Kitchen Garden where you will see a fine array of Winter vegetable seedlings well on the way for a bountiful crop of kale, cauliflower, cabbage, kohl rabi and beetroot and for cropping next spring, broad beans, elephant garlic and more.

Please do continue to enjoy a brisk walk around the Estate as we head toward our Winter season. Simon and Bailey have been busy sprucing up key feature zones such as Chardonnay Triangle, Solaris Firepit and the Kitchen Garden archways with a smart mulching of golden gravel in keeping with the Estate’s Mediterranean theme.

And so onward to the colder winter months and likely, the horticultural challenges and hopefully triumphs ahead. Our team continues to work on the many projects already underway such as Parkland Drive with its brand new amphitheatre chill-out zone well on the way to completion, the revamp of the Orchard, an ever-expanding Kitchen Garden as well as exciting new projects on the horizon for 2025 when we look forward to welcoming first timers to the Gardens and Vineyard as well as old friends.  

But of course, we can’t conclude this post without returning to Keats and his personification of Autumn and here the harvest.

….‘Steady thy laden head across a brook;  

Or by a cider-press, with patient look,    

Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours’…

We were so pleased to join Chief Viticulturalist Ben and all the Team at Kenton, together with our brilliant volunteers for the annual Grape Harvest. So, in closing, here’s to a sumptuous 2024 vintage as we kiss goodbye to the last few vibrant leaves of this year’s bountiful Autumn.

Barbara Calderwood, Horti Team