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.

garden photography gardening

The year of the clematis?

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 14, 2011

Should 2011 have been “The Year of the Clematis”? All ours have flowered so well and for so long, be they the usual climbers or the less-often grown and less well known herbaceous varieties. Just look at the photos! The first is a climber and the second an herbaceous type.

Tags clematis, gardening

conservation

Conservation – habitat or species?

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 14, 2011

This is a controversial issue with strong feelings on both sides I suspect, but should we really be expending energy, resources and finance on reintroducing creatures such as the beaver when we could be concentrating on improving and increasing scarce habitats? My feeling is that if we concentrate on habitat conservation and improvement first then an increase in all species indigenous to that habitat would increase in numbers and indeed some species that have disappeared could reappear – plants, insects, birds and mammals.

The landscape in the photo is part of the RSPB reserve on Anglesay which consists of cliffside habitat and cliff top heathland. The habitat here is well maintained and as well as looking colouful with its heathers, lings and gorse, and dramatic with its steep cliffs and huge splashing waves, it is home to so much wildlife. On a recent visit we watched choughs along the clifftop crying out their “chee-ew” calls. And perching atop stems and stalks stonechat and pippets. On other visits we have watched hunting displays of peregrines and sparrowhawks.

The cliffs themselves are home to nesting seabird colonies of razorbills, guillemots and puffins while out at sea lucky watchers may spot porpoises and dolphins. The heathland is home to adders.

While there I decided that by conserving rich habitats such as this we are best serving wildlife. Surely value for money and value for effort wildlife conservation is best served in this way. Reintroducing beavers to a remote loch in Scotland surely comes a poor second!

Tags birds, conservation, habitats, wildlife

garden photography gardening hardy perennials

Bud Burst Part 2

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 9, 2011

The buds on the agapanthus are still opening. They look wonderful at every stage.

Tags agapanthus, gardening

gardening

Meet the under-gardener.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 6, 2011

: Jude, the under-gardener hard at work.

Most of the hard work in the Avocet garden is done by Jude the under-gardener. She does the digging, weeding and humping around while I have the ideas and do the glamorous jobs like planting new acquisitions.

Tags gardening

gardening hardy perennials

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 6, 2011

: Red hot plants!

The hot border in our front garden at our home plot is looking good! Hot! Hot! Hot!

The rich colours of fire dominate – yellows, oranges and reds with splashes of warm blues and the occasional white highlight. But without plenty of green to act as a foil and enrich the colours it would look less effective.

But we still need more red at one end as we have a predominance of yellows.

In the foreground in the first photo the deepest red of Crocosmia “Lucifer” dominates while spires of verbascum send their yellow flames into the air, while in the second photo it is the trumpets of a daylilly that blast through the red.

Tags gardening, hot borders

garden photography gardening hardy perennials

Bud Burst

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 30, 2011

Tags agapanthus, gardening

garden wildlife

Striped Intruder

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 30, 2011

This must be the year of the hoverfly, with the garden alive with them every hour of daylight every day, their intensity increasing as the sun comes out. They seem particularly attracted to fennel, echinops and alliums.

There are so many different hoverflies around us, with Britain alone host to 276 species, and many so cleverly copying other insects that we are not aware that we are looking at hoverflies at all. The most obvious one is the yellow striped one, the Marmalade Hoverfly, seen in the photo which mimics a wasp. This is a clever move as wasps are rarely preyed upon by larger creatures, their yellow and black striped colour scheme acting as a warning.

The hoverfly sadly however did not reckon on human beings who kill them falling for their deceit and believing them to be wasps. They do however possess and deploy a “pretend” sting which gives a slight prick but no chemical to sting us.

The hoverflies we see most of in our gardens, the Marmalade Hoverfly, are attracted to plants that can give them both pollen and nectar as they are one of the few insects that are equipped to digest pollen. Apart from copying wasps some take the form of look-a-like bees, flies and some tiny ones have developed to look like gnats.

For organic gardeners hoverflies are true friends as their larvae eat aphids with as much relish as the larvae of Ladybirds, so we should be planting for them and providing shelter for them. On our lottie we plant Phaecelia and Sedums specially for them. We never see aphids on our plot. and similarly at home we select plants for insects in general but keep hoverflies, ladybirds and bees especially in mind.

Two contributions that hovers gift to the garden that are rarely attributed to them are that of champion pollinator and a brilliant indicator of biodiversity. Their presence is a sign of a garden with biodiversity in a healthy state. We should be pleased to have them in so many ways.

Tags garden wildlife, insects

gardening hardy perennials

Sunshine in the borders

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 28, 2011

Sometimes the simplest and most common of plants are the stars of the garden. This yellow Welsh Poppy, Meconopsis cambrica, comes to life in the low-angled rays of sunshine at the beginning and end of the day. Considered by many gardeners to be a weed because it happily and freely self-seeds wherever it is happy, this diminutive gem has the knack of placing itself brilliantly. We wouldn’t be without it.

Tags gardening, poppies

climbing plants gardening ornamental trees and shrubs shrubs

A Garden of Roses

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 27, 2011

: The Renaissance Garden

Today we visited the display gardens at David Austin Roses for an assault on our senses. The mixed scent of hundreds of roses hits you as you enter the garden from the nursery and shop. To begin with we lift each bloom to be smelt, each one delicious in its own way – some fruity, citrus in particular, some myrrh, some hinting at vanilla. Before long too much olfactory sensation means numbness of the nose!

But we just carry on letting our eyes take in the hugely varied colours and shapes of the blooms and foliage.

The display gardens feature a Renaissance Garden, a Victorian Garden and the Lion Garden all leading off from the Long Garden.

As we wander we notice most visitors have catalogues and are making lists of their desires, just as we did when we first moved to Avocet. Next step for them will be a tea break when they can get the list to manageable proportions. Today was a perfect day for choosing roses as there was a level of warmth and humidity under overcast skies that enhance the aromas and enrich colours.

When we were rose buying for our newly acquired garden at Plealey we bought mostly climbing versions of the New English Roses such as Falstaff, Shropshire Lad and Wenlock as we were trying to add the dimension of height to our back garden.

: Lady of Shalott

Today we went with a different agenda and a David Austin Voucher to spend. We were seeking a bright zingy rose to plant in the Hot Garden which currently seems too yellow. We decided on the rose, the Lady of Shalott, having been tempted by her orange-red buds which when open reveal a golden orange flower and a scent described as a blend of cloves and spiced apple.

All told a wonderful afternoon out – a good cup of coffee and a good rose to accompany us home.

Tags David Austin, rose garden, roses

garden photography gardening half-hardy perennials hardy perennials

Umbels

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 25, 2011

We know botanists love to play around with plant names and recently there seem so many cases of this happening. Sometimes it seems to make sense, but why oh why did they change the plant family name of the umbels from “Umbellifer” to “Apiacea”? The original name reflected the character of these plants so well. They simply do look like umbrellas don’t they? Their inflorescences are usually scented and most definitely umbrella-shaped.

So many of this family we know as aids to our cookery – carrot, parsley, cumin, coriander, parsnip – a varied lot of vegetables and herbs. Just let some go to seed and watch them perform!

At Chelsea this year a flowering parsnip starred in Cleve West’s Gold Medal winning garden which was also rightly awarded “Best in Show”. He had dug it up from his allotment.

Today the brightest flowers in the back garden here are the fennel, its myriad minute acid yellow inflorescences held in umbrellas above the finest green lace of its foliage. Perhaps known best for its culinary value, it is also a brilliant border plant with its mouth-watering scent reminiscent of aniseed balls and its flocks of hoverflies in attendance. The magnetic attraction it holds for these insects make it a valuable garden companion – a living pesticide, for hoverflies and their larvae are predators of the highest calibre. Our fennel has self-seeded alongside the central path and is so large it looks down on its neighbour, a Mahonia japonica.

Another self-seeding umbel in our patch is the Cow Parsley. In the wild it appears as a thug growing in masses along roadsides where its sweetest of scents permeates our cars. However in the mixed garden border it certainly doesn’t deserve being served up with an asbo as one might imagine for it becomes a small delicate plant easily threatened by its neighbours. It seems to be that its smaller stature is due to this dislike of being crowded by neighbouring plants. It was interesting to see Monty Don showing Cow Parsley growing in his borders on Gardeners World a few weeks back.

The purple-black foliage cultivar “Ravenswing” is a real asset to any garden and its delicacy of stature and colour live comfortably alongside many neighbours. Ours look particularly good early on in the summer with another “apiacea” family members Astrantia “Hadspens Blood” and “Ruby Wedding”.

Now I must go and find out why the family of umbrella-like plants are now called “apiacea”.