Month: May 2025

Three Great Garden Visits in November – Part 2 – “John’s Garden” at Ashwood Nurseries

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 23, 2025

A look back to the autumn reminds me of our wander around “John’s Garden” at Ashwood Nurseries.

We have visited John’s Garden plenty of times at different times of year, and loved it every time. It is so full of atmosphere and John is such a great character and plantsman. He loves greeting his visitors and enjoys opening his garden and sharing it. He also raises so much money for local charities.

The garden is bordered on one side by a beautiful and sometimes busy canal and not many gardens can claim that. John has the skill of grouping plants together for the greatest effect and has created beautiful long vistas as well as small cameos that deserve closer attention.

The garden is entered through a wooden farm-style gate which takes you through “Adam’s Garden” dedicated to his former young head gardener who died suddenly at the age of 27.

A wooden gate guarded by a sculpture of an owl leads you into the main garden. We soon stopped for a close look at a surprising sight, beneath some carex foliage were autumn flowering snowdrops, Galanthus “Autumn Beauty”. The pale stripes of the carex foliage boosted the whiteness of the blooms of the snowdrops.

In John’s Garden trees are pruned and shaped to look at their best and then paired with the best possible partners, as shown in the photos below.

Sometimes here the views are long and often at the same time tall. Just use the white bench below to help give a sense of scale to the scene.

Foliage itself can be enough to attract the garden visitor.

John has an eye for garden sculpture and where best to position it within his garden.

One of the most interesting forms of garden sculpture is cloud pruning where the gardener trims shrubs to the desired design. John is so good at this technique.

As I write this post on a cold December day, it seems apt to finish by visiting the Winter Border.

Tags flowers, garden, gardening, nature, plants

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Wildgoose Garden and Nursery in Summer

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 20, 2025

Wildgoose Garden and Nursery is one of our favourite gardens and very convenient for us as it is situated in South Shropshire as we are too. We have been at least once a year since it opened. The planting is a variation on the prairie style and thus is good throughout the summer, autumn and winter. Planting consists of tall perennials coupled with unusual annuals and grasses.

The garden is explored by following the gravel paths that meander throughout. There is no real lawn except for a few grass patches because the garden is owned and run by two true plants people, Jack and Laura.There is a wonderful cafe selling beverages and home made cakes, alongside a selection of quality gardening books and some Niwaki tools. A collection of pots all beautifully planted up welcome visitors to the cafe.

Leaving the refreshments behind we took off on our journey of discovery, following paths that lead us to patches of colour.

Wildgoose has a special atmosphere that relaxes you and gives a feeling of peace and calmness. This is best illustrated by sharing some general shots of the garden.

Sometimes as you wander you will come across wonderful pairings of perennials.

Jack and Laura were trialling single flowered dahlias for their colour and their attractiveness to pollinators. The ones we saw were beautiful and the insects were there in abundance.

Once you have taken a few steps into Wildgoose you feel like you are in a different world, a world of peace and quiet except for the sounds of insects and birds.

I have just read an article about new nurseries in the January edition of Gardens Illustrated and Wildgoose was included. Jack and Laura said that they wanted their garden to be a ‘……. genuinely restorative place.’ I believe they have succeeded!

Tags flowers, garden, gardening, gardens, nature

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Calke Abbey in the Mist

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 14, 2025

On a misty day this month we walked a couple of miles around one of the marked trails at Calke Abbey to take photos of tree silhouettes now that their leaves had long fallen to the ground. It was a cold day and misty which made walking a little uncomfortable but the strange light certainly enhanced views of the trees.

Coppiced trees give a different look to their silhouette as they tend to be in copses close to their neighbours.

The walk took us downhill for a while meaning the horizon was above us so we looked up through the trees against a sky of grey mist. Some of the park’s deer wandered along the sloping horizon line.

Walking around the Deer Park keeping to the fenceline we could look into the area spotting different tree shapes and silhouettes with occasional sightings of the deer including odd white and black ones.

Sometimes trees closer to the perimeter fence allowed us to see through their filigree of smaller branches. The two photos below show the big lake behind the trees along one bank.

Distant views highlight long lines of trees often along the horizon.

The National Trust once used to tidy away any fallen trees of large boughs but now these are left for the good of wildlife. This fallen tree trunk is now carpeted in bright green moss which will be home to so many insects and invertebrates. These little creatures will then attract birds.

So what we thought might be an unpleasant day due to the cold and the mist, turned out to be a most enjoyable experience.

Tags deer, nature, poetry, trees, writing

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My Garden Journal April

What strange weather we are having yet again, this being the third year with unseasonal weather making gardening such an unpredictable pastime. Butterflies appear every time we have a warm sunny day while bees, hoverfly and wasp numbers are increasing day by day. Ladybirds come out from their winter hiding places as he sun warms them up.

By mid-month we are regularly visited by three species of warbler who entertain us with their songs – Garden Warbler, Blackcap and Chiffchaff.

I began by writing a few words, “April means tulips, tulips ……” and at the end of the two pages, “……. and yet more tulips.”

I continued with the theme of bulbs and even included two more shots of tulips. The other photos were to show different bulb flowers and wrote, “Tulips are not the only bulbs to be giving colours this month, although some tulips come later than others like T. Purple Parrot.”

On the opposite page I considered some of our gardening tasks we managed to tackle in this month, and I wrote, “This month presents us with so much to do in the garden because everything is growing away so quickly – especially the weeds.”

“Potting up our dahlias and brushing up birch catkins blown down by strong winds.”

Weed burning gravel areas and taking bubblewrap down in greenhouse. Edging the grass paths after mowing.

Preparing the summerhouse for the new seasons to come. Tidying up a new plant before planting.

“Tidying up the Prairie Garden and planting a new shrub in a pot.

In the next two pages I will look at clematis already blooming and on the opposite page fruit blossom.

On the top of my page concerning flowering clematis I noted that, “Early flowering clematis are usually blue with a few pinks and every shade in between.”

On the page opposite I shared photos of the blossom on our apple trees. I wrote, “Fruit trees are full of blossom, but sadly a few seem to be blind this ear.”

Crab apples are so good at multi-tasking. The blossom is beautiful and attracts pollinators and predators. They help in pollinating culinary apples.

We grow a dozen heritage varieties of apple. They taste so different to each other.

We have reached the final page for April where I wrote, “We always plant violas in our pots to accompany shrubs and perennials because they come in such a vast range of colours and they flower for several months. This winter they performed better than ever.”