Author: greenbenchramblings

A retired primary school head teacher, I now spend much of my time gardening in our quarter acre plot in rural Shropshire south of Shrewsbury. I share my garden with Jude my wife a newly retired teacher , eight assorted chickens and a plethora of wildlife. Jude does all the heavy work as I have a damaged spine and right leg. We also garden on an allotment nearby. We are interested in all things related to gardens, green issues and wildlife.

The Architectural Heritage of Shrewsbury Part 2

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date February 7, 2013
11 Comments on The Architectural Heritage of Shrewsbury Part 2

This is the second post about the architecture of our county town. the photos for the posts were taken in late autumn.

Continuing our journey through the streets, alleys and pathways of Shrewsbury we move away from the station towards the river.

Firstly we go down a narrow steep road where these blue features against the beautiful red stonework of the old town walls caught my eye.

Just to show that Shrewsbury’s architecture isn’t all about the past we next visit some 20th and 21st century buildings. The first picture shows the dreadful 70’s concrete monstrosity that is the town’s only multi-storey car park with a new building attached to its right. At its base is a row of bus-stops.

When we have a close look at this new building we see that it is a hotel which is still to open. I prefer it to the 70’s building next to it, but we shall have to see how well it weathers.

The reason that there are so few example of good modern architecture in our county town, is that so many residents are stuck in the past. Any proposals for modern architecture are strongly objected to by many. Below is a sad reflection of this where architects have tried to reflect the town’s medieval heritage. We just ended up with this mock half-timbered shopping centre.

And now off to the riverside! The old centre of Shrewsbury is totally enclosed within a loop of the River Severn.

Below is our wonderful new theatre and the new sculpture created to commemorate Charles Darwin.

My favourite structure in this part of the town is this pedestrian suspension bridge. It is such a simple but elegant design and certainly invites you to walk over its gentle arching span. It sways as you walk across and the sway gets stronger the more people are crossing over.

Tags architecture, River Severn, riverside, Shrewsbury

allotments birds community gardening garden photography garden wildlife gardening grow your own ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs photography shrubs trees wildlife winter gardens

Allotments under Snow

Today we braved the snow and floods up at our allotment site and went for a walk around to look at what turned out to be a very different world to the one we usually see. The pictures illustrate just how long it may be before we can get any gardening done up there. We still have root crops in the ground – in December it was too wet to get on the soil and now it is all under the white stuff.

Here is the actual green bench that inspires the name of my blog.

The scarecrows remain on duty whatever the weather and shrug off the snow and ice.

Wheelbarrows wait patiently.

The plots have a forlorn look but beneath the ice and snow the soil is waiting – waiting for a little more light, more heat from the sun and plenty of evaporation to lessen the moisture content.

The Winter Garden is full of interest.

The contractors preparing our site extension in the adjoining field were toiling away in the snow, ice and waterlogged soil. They are putting in drainage and clearing out an old pond to create a wildlife pond for us all to enjoy. The ground they overturn presented birds with a rich feeding ground. Blackbirds, Redwings, Fieldfares, Jays, and Thrushes both Song and Thrush revelled in a fresh supply of worms and ground creatures.

Tags allotments, birds, community gardening, dogwoods, fruit and vegetable growing, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, grasses, grown your own, scarecrows, shrubs, snow, snowmen, trees, winter, winter gardens

garden photography gardening gardens open to the public photography RHS

The Gardens of the RHS Part Six – Orchids at Wisley

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date February 3, 2013
9 Comments on The Gardens of the RHS Part Six – Orchids at Wisley

The new Centenary Glasshouse at Wisley is one of our favourite, regular places for visiting and enjoying.

In our September wander we made several detours through its big sliding doors and into its warm, dry interiors as thunder storms threatened to periodically drown us. We always enjoy the glasshouse plants but Jude the Undergardeners favourites have to be the orchids, although here she is admiring a Passionflower.

If we visit any garden with orchids hardy or greenhouse varieties she is drawn to them. But I don’t complain – they are unbelievably beautiful, the blooms richly coloured and eccentrically shaped. Here under the protection of Wisley’s glass roof they flourish.

With such a stunning, varied and comprehensive collection of orchids what glasshouse could wish for more?

Tags garden photography, gardening, greenhouse gardening, greenhouses, orchids, RHS Wisley, The Centenary Glasshouse", Wisley

colours garden photography gardening gardens open to the public photography

Wisley Part Five – The Centenary Glasshouse

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date February 1, 2013
6 Comments on Wisley Part Five – The Centenary Glasshouse

I promised you a sample of the delights of the RHS’s Centenary Glasshouse, and here they are.

Usually in glasshouses the flowers are the stars of the show so just for a change let us begin by bringing foliage to the fore and letting leaves revel in the lime-light.

Foliage in all shapes, sizes, textures, markings and colours are to be found around every corner.

Now for the flowers!

Tags foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, gardening, glasshouses, greenhouse gardening, greenhouses, orchids, RHS Wisley, The Centenary Glasshouse", Wisley

garden design garden photography gardening gardens open to the public grasses hardy perennials meadows ornamental grasses photography RHS

Wisley Part 4 – the Steppe-Prairie Meadows

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 31, 2013
3 Comments on Wisley Part 4 – the Steppe-Prairie Meadows

Alongside the Centenary Glasshouse at RHS’s Wisley is an area of meadow planting that has to be one of the best in England. We walked around it in the rain and our enthusiasm was not dampened one iota. The design and plant choice is the creation of Professor James Hitchmough, best known as the right hand man of Nigel Dunnet from Sheffield University.

His garden at Wisley features naturalistic, flowing plantings of hardy perennials and grasses which look and feel remarkably natural even though carefully and thoughtfully designed.

The word that springs to mind for this planting style is “gentle”. When walking through the gardens along its meandering narrow gravel paths we felt the atmosphere – peaceful, calm and relaxing.

Tags garden photography, gardening, grasses, James Hitchmough, meadows, prairie planting, prairie-steppe, RHS Wisley, Wisley

garden design garden photography gardening gardens open to the public grasses hardy perennials meadows ornamental grasses photography RHS

The Gardens of the RHS Part 3 – Prairies and Meadows at Wisley.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 30, 2013
6 Comments on The Gardens of the RHS Part 3 – Prairies and Meadows at Wisley.

When we first visited Wisley a few decades ago the grass was cut short and neatly edged. There certainly were no wildflowers allowed to grow amongst the neat blades of grass, and there certainly were no meadows.

But now differential grass cutting is favoured with some areas cut short, others allowed to grow longer and wildflowers are establishing as they enjoy this new habitat of longer grasses. The trend towards planted meadows and prairie-style plantings are well represented, which is good for us because these styles are a real favourite with us both.

Piet Oudolf has designed and planted magnificent double borders – very different to traditional English double herbaceous borders such as those at Arley House.

Carefully chosen herbaceous plants are planted in large groups to create swathes of colour and texture. In early autumn, when we looked at Piet Oudolf’s borders, grasses featured strongly alongside drying stalks and seed heads of herbaceous perennials. There were still flowers to be seen and they were enhanced by the background of stems.

To enjoy a look at the plants of Piet Oudolf’s Wisley Borders click a photo in the gallery below and follow the arrow.

But Oudolf is not the only garden designer to create meadows at Wisley, as a newer and equally beautiful planting area has been created by Professor James Hitchmough. It is described as a steppe-prairie meadow. See the next post ………..

Tags garden photography, gardening, grasses, meadows, Piet Oudolf, prairies, RHS Wisley, Wisley

garden design garden photography gardening gardens open to the public Land Art outdoor sculpture photography RHS the South

The Gardens of the RHS Part 2 – Sculpture at Wisley

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 29, 2013
4 Comments on The Gardens of the RHS Part 2 – Sculpture at Wisley

We were in luck when we visited Wisley – a sculpture exhibition was taking place throughout the gardens, with sculptures of all styles positioned with great sensitivity. We didn’t like them all but that is what art is all about. If we all liked the same pieces it would be a boring art world.

Here is a selection of those we enjoyed.

First figures ……………….

Then couples ……………..

The simple and amazingly beautiful!

And last but far from least the downright cute!

Tags garden photography, garden sculpture, gardening, outdoor sculpture, RHS, RHS Wisley, sculpture, Surrey, Wisley

garden design garden photography gardening gardens open to the public hardy perennials ornamental trees and shrubs photography RHS

The Gardens of the RHS Part 1 – A Tour of Wisley

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 28, 2013
8 Comments on The Gardens of the RHS Part 1 – A Tour of Wisley

The Royal Horticultural Society is probably the most important, most well known and most influential gardening society in the world. We are lucky to live in the UK where we have access to their own gardens and to their recommended list of gardens open to the public.

Last Year we enjoyed visits to three of their four gardens, Rosemoor in Devon, Harlow Carr in Yorkshire and their main garden Wisley in Surrey. The one we didn’t get around to seeing was Hyde Hall in Essex – maybe later this year.

In this series of posts I shall share our visits with you. We naturally begin with their main garden, Wisley. There is so much of interest to gardeners that I shall post a blog each day this week based on different aspects of Wisley. Hopefully these will provide a little respite from the cold and wet. So please enjoy my Wisley Week.

Perhaps we had better start with one of the classic Wisley views. Then I shall share a few views to give a feeling for this special place.

These huge sloping double borders were designed by the great Piet Oudolf. We saw them first just as they were planted when it was mostly soil dotted with little young plants all raring to go. Every visit we make to Wisley we head for these borders to see how they have developed. Over time they have been altered with some plants replaced with more effective, more appropriate ones. They are now at their peak. See more of Piet Oudolf’s borders in a future post “Meadows and Prairies at Wisley”.

The recently built Centenary Glasshouse is a work of art in itself, one of the finest examples of garden architecture to be seen anywhere at anytime. Look out for the future posts, “Orchids at Wisley” and “The Centenary Glasshouse at Wisley”, to see what is going on under all that glass. What would a visit to Wisley be without a gallery of plants?

In my next Wisley blog I invite you to share a selection of sculpture which was displayed around the grounds at the time of our visit.

Tags garden photography, garden sculpture, gardening, greenhouse gardening, greenhouses, ornamental trees, outdoor sculpture, RHS, sculpture, Wisley

garden photography gardening photography roses winter gardens

Melting

Snow is a bit of a novelty when it arrives and I always enjoy watching it change the atmosphere, character and look of the garden. But after five days I have had enough of it so got excited when the sun came out for an hour or two this afternoon and the snow and ice started a steady drip, drip, drip – melting gently.

A new challenge for me and my camera! See what you think.

Poor old Matilda has melting snow running down her forehead and she does not look pleased!

As the sun gives a rare January appearance, the snow begins to melt and for a while takes on a transparent look and glows.

The greenhouse begins to lose its duvet of snow.

The tallest stems away from shadows melt first. This pair of rosebuds is clear of snow and ice but their yellow petals, exposed where the bud has tried to open, have suffered from this attack of January weather.

Tags garden photography, gardening, greenhouses, January, roses, snow, winter, winter gardens

bird watching birds garden wildlife wildlife

Garden Birds in the Snow

Today the snow came! We had hoped for a snow-free winter but the weather defied us. We woke at 7:00 expecting a covering but we were gladdened to see not an iota of white stuff. Half an hour later it started and by mid-morning we were under a 3 inch layer.

The birds arrived in force queueing up at each feeding post. A flock of Fieldfare and Redwing dropped in as did the first Siskins of the winter.

The garden was alive with Titmice, Blue, Great, Coal and Long Tailed and mixed flocks of finches, Green, Gold and Chaffinch. The Great Spotted Woodpeckers made regular forays from the old oak in the paddock onto our peanut feeders.

The picture below was the best of a bad bunch – I have decided that trying to take a photo of a Blue Tit within the fine filigree of Birch branches is not easy!

Blackbirds were far more amenable as they sat for longer and seemed to ignore this very amateur cameraman.

The only time the garden was quiet today was just after the flypast of a Sparrowhawk, but hunger soon overcame fear. Back they all came.

It is essential that we all feed the birds throughout the year but even more so in the winter and provide fresh water. The birds benefit but so do our gardens as we help maintain the balance of nature. Some of the birds who use our feeding stations are also part of our balanced organic pest control.