The beginnings of Autumn

Green holly berries, soon to turn red

Leaves turning yellow.  They have already begun to drop

Pink tinges on the ivy.  In a few weeks, this will be the most astonishing colour

Much spider activity!

The signs of autumn

Autumn is most certainly here!  We are fortunate to live on the top of a hill with views over the top of Arnos Vale park and out towards Bath and Lansdowne.  The sun rises have been spectacular over the past week, very pink skies creeping across the horizon.  The last few mornings we have woken to fog and no view whatsoever.  But the sunlight through the haze has been very beautiful. 

Our walk through the Arnos Vale cemetery to our local primary school provides us with all the signs of autumn too.  The leaves are already changing colour with some piles already on the floor.  Crab apples have fallen.  Berries are turning red, ready for to feed the lovely birdlife over winter.  And the spiders have been incredibly busy.  You most certainly need to take care when walking between shrubs or trees!

The apple harvest

We have started to harvest our apples from our espaliered trees.  Although we only have a small city garden, we have maximised the space by espaliering 6 apple trees (on M27 root stock) along two sections of our garden.  Not only do they create lovely spaces, they are gorgeous and interesting to look at. 

The blossom has been beautiful this year and the good spring and summer has resulted in a far higher yield of fruit (certainly much better than last year).  I look forward to picking the rest and preserving so that we have stocks over the winter.

Beach cleanup!

Last year, we were involved in a river-side clean up in Bath.  It is delightful when children already have an awareness of the dangers of rubbish on our beaches and are willing to get filthy and dirty in order to make our seashores a safer place for wildlife ... and more enjoyable for us too.  Four bags of rubbish, plastics and rope were cleared from a small section of our beach whilst on holiday in the Highlands. 

Recent awards

Green Flag awards (given on an annual basis) recognise and reward the best parks and green spaces in England and Wales.

To find out more about our parks and open space projects that have recently won this award, visit:  http://www.afla.co.uk/awards.html

One of our community garden projects has also been awarded the prestigious Gordon Ford Trophy which focuses on community involvement and environmental responsibility.  To find out more, visit:
http://www.afla.co.uk/PA/chocolate.html

Dementia Design Course

Alex Fraser has just completed a 3-day Dementia Design course at Stirling University.  Not only has this consolidated the wealth of experience and knowledge that Alex has with designing landscapes particularly for the elderly and those with dementia, but it will help with all future projects. 

For an overview of some of our recent elderly care/dementia projects, visit:  http://www.afla.co.uk/EL/cheltenham.html

AFLA Project updates

Our website has just been updated.  To find out more about recently completed projects and other new exciting projects that we have started to work on, please visit www.afla.co.uk. 

Keep an eye out over the coming days as lots more projects will be included, providing a far wider overview of the breadth and scope of our landscape design service.