We spent a few days down in Cornwall recently and the garden is laden with fruit. There is an abundance of apples and pears this season - the puppies were delighted to find all these new interesting “balls” under the trees.

The orchard in Cornwall has been planted with individual rows of fruit trees: Crab Apple Alley, Cherry Tree Grove, the Apple Walk and a Pear Path. All the trees planted are old heritage varieties and it is interesting to compare the different colours and shapes and sizes, particularly for the apples. They are a real autumn boon. We pick them to eat on our regular walks around the garden.

Crab apple alley has tiny fruit that are suitable for making jellies. All the eating and cooking apples are along Apple Walk, everything from shiny red fruit to russets. There are some new (3 year old) fan trained apple trees planted along the fence by the swimming pool and even they fruited this year. It truly is a bountiful autumn harvest.

Another favourite thing in the Cornwall garden is the silver birch hedging along the boundary. They have been in for 6 years now, and are filling out beautifully. When Burncoose Nurseries first planted them they added some very sturdy supports and these have kept the single stemmed trees very upright in spite of the strong coastal winds. Even when they lose their leaves in the winter those parallel silver stems are spectacular.

My last little treasure in Cornwall is the succulent pot I planted up last year. I collected all the baby plants from the different varieties of house leeks to create a patchwork pot of them. The pot is in full sun and rarely gets watered but it is doing well and the plants are filling out now. The pot is below the bedroom window and is the first thing I see every morning when I open the blinds to let the light in. Those little plants always make me smile.