Month: June 2019

Garden Walls and Steps – No 5 in a very occasional series

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 25, 2019

This is only the fifth post in my very occasional series all about the garden walls and steps we spot on our garden visits, so here is my latest selection.

This selection of walls consists almost entirely of stone built specimens looking good in informal, modest settings. The first photo shows a natural looking wall that backs a garden pond and looks good in its coat of lichen and mosses. Its companion to the right is again a natural looking wall holding back a raised bed of mixed planting.

This next wall is the home to a collection of insect homes, the residents of which will act as predators and pollinators. The dry stone wall provides homes for wildlife within its structure.

Below are two very different walls, one constructed of stone and surrounds a natural looking water feature, whereas the tall red-brick built wall acts as a retaining wall to formal gardens on the terrace behind.

Ferns love walls and often find homes on them, growing from spores that settled into cracks where they found sufficient moisture and soil to become established.

From photos of walls I shall now move on to share my photos of garden steps, beginning with a variety from Whitlenge Garden and Nursery in Worcestershire.

The first steps are constructed of stones and stone slabs but beautifully decorated by Mother Nature who donated a lovely Primrose. The rest are from recent garden visits we have made this spring. I hope you enjoy the variety of designs and materials that people choose to use.

I hope you have enjoyed this selection of garden walls and steps. I shall start collecting photos for no. 6 in this very occasional series.

Tags garden design, garden photography, garden steps, garden walls, gardening

garden arches garden design gardening

Entrances and Archways – No 7 in a very occasional series

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 22, 2019
1 Comment on Entrances and Archways – No 7 in a very occasional series

So here is my my 7th post in this very occasional series all about the garden entrances and archways that we discover on our garden visits. The first two are from a friend’s garden and the set after are those entrances and archways we found at the show garden of a designer in the West Midlands.

I shall finish with a mixture of entrances ans archways we have discovered this year on visit to NGS, Yellow Book, gardens.

I will now start seeking our entrances and archways on all our garden visits for No 8 in this very occasional series.

Tags garden archways, garden gates, gardens, pergolas

climbing plants garden design garden fun garden photography garden ponds garden pools garden seat garden seating gardening gardens Hardy Plant Society ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture sculpture Shropshire spring spring gardening village gardens water in the garden

Julie’s Garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 12, 2019

Jude and I enjoy our monthly summer visits to gardens with fellow members of the Hardy Plant Society Shropshire Group but in addition we visit other gardens with our mini-group colleagues. The mini-groups are sub-groups of the main county group of the HPS. This year we are visiting each others’ gardens in turn, one a month from Spring to Autumn.

At the end of March we journeyed out to the village of Fitz to visit the garden of mini-group member Julie. An open area of lawn invited us to wander and soon our eyes were drawn towards a old shrub pruned into a piece of sculpture.

The wood was close to a beautiful pond beneath a Silver Birch, with softly coloured perennials beneath, including some beautiful Epimediums.

Throughout th egarden we kept discovering interesting trees and shrubs.

But Julie’s garden had more to enjoy than plants and plant combinations, with sculptural pieces and touches of humour and signs of inventive minds at work.

This beautiful piece of sculpture features four simply constructed seats which look exactly right where they are. It was created by their son as a set piece for exams – beautiful!

Many of us were fascinated by this crescent trellis built to support climbers so we spent time working out how it was made.

The pool edge held a mixture of pieces, some there just to amuse.

So there we have it – a visit to an interesting village garden in spring.

Tags epimedium, garden pond, garden ponds, garden sculpture, garden structures, outdoor sculpture

flowering bulbs garden design garden furniture garden paths garden photography garden pools garden seat garden seating gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials Land Art light light quality ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture pathways shrubs spring spring gardening village gardens Yellow Book Gardens

Moors Meadow – a romantic garden full of magic

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 9, 2019
3 Comments on Moors Meadow – a romantic garden full of magic

We had not visited the magical garden at Moors Meadow for several years so we were really looking forward to exploring it with my brother Graham and sister-in-law Vicky.

The garden here was pronounced Britain’s most romantic garden by a national gardening monthly. We were so looking forward to finding out if it lived up to this and if it still felt as magical as we remembered.

It didn’t take long for us to discover that it was indeed a garden full of surprises, artifacts, unusual plants, amazing seats and wandering pathways through changing moods of garden.

I shall now share a gallery of photos showing our walk around the gardens.

So there is my gallery of photos of our journey around the magical and romantic gardens at Moors Meadow. I hope you enjoyed sharing our journey and our enjoyment.

Tags garden furniture, garden sculpture, garden seating, garden seats, gardens of Herefordshire, Herefordshire gardens, Moors Meadow, outdoor sculpture, trees and shrubs

fruit and veg garden furniture garden paths garden photography garden ponds garden pools gardening gardens grow your own hardy perennials kitchen gardens National Garden Scheme NGS ornamental trees and shrubs Shropshire shrubs spring gardening woodland woodlands Yellow Book Gardens

A new NGS Yellow Book garden, Longden Manor

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 4, 2019
1 Comment on A new NGS Yellow Book garden, Longden Manor

It is always exciting finding a new NGS garden to visit and when we find one that is just a few fields away as the crow flies it is extra interesting. Longden Manor with its organic farm still had to be driven to though and we seemed to drive in a big loop before we got to its field parking. As we drove up the drive to the field we were amused by several topiary pieces as well as a beautiful bright patch of Azaleas.

The Manor House itself sits in such a dominant place with wide sweeping views out across the Shropshire countryside. A huge lawn sits in front of the house ensuring a clear view, a view framed by large specimen trees.

New areas are being discovered all the time, old parts of forgotten gardens which are now being unearthed. It was a privilege to look at a pool and bog garden area just cleared and being prepared for planting. The pool has been reinstated already but it looks as if there will be exciting waterfalls and streams to follow.

From the newly discovered old pool we wandered through established woodland into a small orchard, an unusual holly orchard and kitchen garden.

I shall finish off my report of our visit to this new National Garden Scheme garden with another piece of topiary created to make you smile. A rather happy caterpillar!