Nestled in the heart of Northumberland and surrounded by 300 acres of private parkland, at Matfen Hall we are privileged to be immersed in natural beauty all year round.
And autumn in our border region is spectacular, a season of gentle mist, golden light and rich, abundant colour. It’s also the perfect time to get ready for winter.
Our gardening team has been hard at work clearing and preparing our historic gardens and grounds, ready to weather the frosts and snow of winter.
Here, the estate’s Head Gardener, Michael looks back on the month just gone and the season to come in his October Notes From the Garden.
Autumn Gold
By the end of October, autumn is here in full measure. The temperatures have dropped and the days are notably shorter. The butter yellow leaves of the ginkgo biloba, crimson red of the acers and golden yellow of the maple trees lead the charge of autumn colour across the estate and golf course.
It’s beautiful, but it keeps the Gardening Team hard at work, to keep everything tidy by clearing the roads and preventing blankets of fallen leaves from suffocating the grass.
A Mast Year
Clearing leaves is quite the task in itself, but notably 2025 has been a Mast Year. A natural phenomenon in which nut and seed trees, namely oak trees, produce a bumper crop. Shovelling rather than raking acorns and horse chestnuts was quite a novel experience!
We do our best to run an ecologically-conscious garden so, in addition to staying tidy, we keep as as many bags of leaves as possible to turn into leaf mould. This time next year they’ll have rotted down into a rich, crumbly and organic matter, ready to mix back into the flower beds, adding vital nutrients and minerals while improving the soil texture.
First Frost
As we await the first, serious frosts of the season, we’ve continued to lift and divide thriving plants. This year the Iris sibirica ‘Siberian Iris’ has been bursting out the ground and ready to be divided. Forever faithful are the Nepeta racemosa ‘Catmint’ and the Geranium x oxonianum, ‘Oxford cranesbill’ which we also lifted and potted up, ready for re-planting in the new year.
I was also very pleased to harvest multiple Erigeron karvinskianus ‘Mexican fleabane’ seedlings. Their innumerable pink and white daisy flowers bring bright colour anywhere they go. And, the most fuss-free of flowers, they’re as happy blooming out of walls and paving slabs as they are in a flower bed.
Winter Prep
Further preparation for next year’s flowering season has seen us feeding our rhododendrons and camellias. By recycling coffee grounds from the hotel’s restaurants and pine needles from the estate’s mature woodland, we were able to mulch these acid-loving plants. Over the winter this mulch will break down and encourage a plentiful spring display for 2026.
The knowledge that our the effort will positively impact next year’s flower displays and the overall health of the gardens makes this autumn work worthwhile and satisfying.
Michael, Head Gardener
Experience the beauty of our 300-acre grounds with a Fall Into Winter retreat to Northumberland. Stay 3 nights for the price of 2 to replace the bustle of town and city for the peaceful hush of our country estate.
*Main image courtesy of @northumberland_adventures