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.

Llandudno Sea Front and Back

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date April 4, 2014
1 Comment on Llandudno Sea Front and Back

We decided a visit to see the sea was a good idea. It would blow away the cobwebs of winter and give us a healthy dose of sea air. So off to North Wales we went, stopping off at Pensarn for a wander along the beach and then further along the coast to Llandudno where we wanted to visit a photography exhibition at the gallery, Oriel Mostyn.

Our beach wanderings featured in the post “Textures on the Beach”, but in this post we visit Llandudno. The photos were taken on my Galaxy phone’s camera, an excellent little machine. We started by visiting the gallery but after indulging in an excellent coffee brew the exhibition of photographs disappointed. We decided a walk along the town’s main street and along promenade would make up for the disappointment. We enjoyed the walk but we were oh so cold.

Enjoy a walk with me and my little camera starting in the coffee shop at the gallery, along the street and the promenade. You will have to imagine the biting wind making your eyes run and burning your cheeks. The late afternoon light created a blue haze over the seafront giving the photos an unusual feel to them.

From the gallery coffee shop window we could look down and over the town.

Off into the cold walking against the wind along the main street.

A side street took us back to the promenade with its strange palm trees opposite a street of tall hotels.

2014 03 07_6939 2014 03 07_6945

2014 03 07_6946

The blue hue over all the buildings reflected the colour of the sea and sky.

One last photo. This lady reminded me of the Anthony Gormley steel sculptures of his work, “Another Place” on the beach at Crosby. She looks as if she is deep in thought looking out to sea.

2014 03 07_6934

Tags Llandudno, North Wales, sea side, seascapes, the seaside, townscapes

photography the sea the seaside the shore Wales

Beach Textures

Off to the North Wales coast to blow away the cobwebs and breathe in some healthy sea air, we stopped off on our way to Llandudno at Pensarn to explore its pebbled shore and collect driftwood to make some mobiles with for our seaside garden at home. Spot the sloping horizons! A side effect of having one leg shorter than the other!

2014 03 06_6891

The textures of the pebbles and objects discarded by the tides attracted us and we wandered the length of the beach with heads bowed down. I hope you enjoy this series of pictures I took with great difficulty as my eyes were running so much I couldn’t always see clearly.

We went home with a good collection of small pieces of driftwood so we can get busy making things for our seaside garden.

2014 03 06_6896

Tags North Wales, pebbles, sea, seascapes, seashore, seaside, textures

landscapes light quality log piles logs

Take Two

Recently I published a post about one tree, today I follow up with a post about two logs. Of course they are from Silver Birch trees, my favourite trees. When we have our log supply for the winter delivered the birch logs always look so colourful and full of textures. These two started getting more colourful and as the bark dried and peeled the textures got more interesting.

So I popped them down on the back lawn and took these shots. Please enjoy! You just have to like the curly bits! Look closely and you will find landscapes in miniature brought out by the bright sunlight.

Tags landscapes, logs, photography, textures

Italian style gardens outdoor sculpture Uncategorized

A Garden in March – Trentham

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 28, 2014
2 Comments on A Garden in March – Trentham

This post sees us visiting one of our favourite gardens to visit, Trentham, for the third time this year.

panorama trentham

We were hoping for slightly better weather for our March wander but it was cold and mostly overcast. The breeze was icy enough to make our eyes and noses run!

Passing over the bridge over the River Trent we get our first glimpse of the gardens and at first sight little has changed in Piet Oudolf’s River of Grasses. There remains a lot of straw coloured stems mostly now cut low to the ground but within them we found one lonely daffodil blooming away cheerfully. A joke by a gardener perhaps? A rogue that came in a wheelbarrow from the compost heap? Beneath the trees in the sweep of River Birches the chatreuse bracts of the euphorbias glow like swarms of glow Worm.

2014 03 27_7489 2014 03 27_7492

Moving into the Piet Oudolf prairie borders there are signs of strong growth on many perennials especially the Thalictrum, Papavers and Monardas. Beneath the old Yew trees the circles of Cyclamen continue to bloom for the third month running.

The only change with the Hornbeam arbour is that the leaf buds are on the verge of bursting and the gardeners have painted the bench. Nearby we found seagull shaped areas of crocus in the lawns just as last month we had found them created from snowdrops.

Moving through the Hornbeam tunnel we discovered that the Helebores we enjoyed so much in February were still going strong. When we reached the Italian Garden with their formal beds we found much more colour than on previous visits with daffodils, pansies and primulas flowering within the box hedging. A splash of yellow from a Forsythia matched the golden blooms of the daffodils growing in the urns along the stone balustrades. They were lovely daffs with clear yellow colour throughout and long trumpets with slightly reflex petals (flying backwards!).

2014 03 27_7508

The distant view over the Tom Stuart-Smith Italinate Garden looked much the same until we peered over the ballustrades and we immediately noticed a sea of blue mist. On closer inspection we discovered the colour was from masses of Scillas. It is a good year for Scillas – such common little bulbs but such a brilliant blue that enhances everything that is alongside it. We found them with the fresh bronze-purple filigree foliage of fennel, with narcissi and with another small bulb which I think may have been Chionodoxa.

2014 03 27_7507 2014 03 27_7506

These huge, strongly bursting bulbs we believe may be Cardiocrinum gigantium. We shall find out on future visits.

2014 03 27_7513 2014 03 27_7517

Moving from Tom Stuart-Smith’s garden towards the old parkland we came across a new addition to the collection of fairy sculpture dotted around the gardens. This new one is by far the best, a fairy blowing the seed parachutes from a dandelion seedhead. So delicate! My photos do not do it justice.

We were enjoying the sight of thousands of daffodils growing in the lawns when a sudden shower of icy rain and hail forced us to take an early coffee break but we were soon wandering again through the “display gardens”. You can see that the first picture of the daffs was taken through a haze of rain.

2014 03 27_7534 2014 03 27_7524

2014 03 27_7528

Watch this space! One area of the display gardens was being re-developed so we shall have something new to discover on our April visit. There were some exiting metal structures going up but apart from that we couldn’t even guess what the gardeners and landscapers were up to.

2014 03 27_7533

We took a detour into a part of the gardens that we did not even know existed – a short woodland trail. We couldn’t access it all as work was being done to the fire pit area but we liked what we saw. Sadly the visit to the bird hide was a waste as the multitude of bird feeders hanging there were empty! The woodland is alongside the lake and on the lakeside we found batches of this mysterious looking plant with yellow-green flowers in a tight umbrella shaped head. Does anyone recognise it?

Den building was an activity provided for the children and it looked as if they had been enjoying being creative.

Making our way back to the car we passed the rose border where perennials were coming into growth strongly. The view through to Piet Oudolf’s River of Grasses looked just as it did last month. The roses were making new growth especially the climbers. We found a colourful planting of hellebores and Brunnera “Jack Frost” as we left the garden which was a real bonus.

I shall close with my one successful photo of the fairy sculptures – at least one worked! So we are now looking forward to out April visit when there should be a lot of change. The growth rate will be accelerating nicely by then.

Tags garden sculpture, outdoor sculpture, Piet Oudolf, spring bulbs, spring flowers, spring garden, Staffordshire, Tom Stuart-Smith, Trentham Garden, Trentham Gardens

architecture buildings canals light light quality photography reflections

A Canalside Walk in the City Centre

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 26, 2014

A canalside walk in the city centre! It just has to be Birmingham. You may remember a recent post about the new library in the great city of Birmingham. To those of us who live in the centre of the UK and not in the South and who know the city well, then it is obvious that Birmingham should be the Capital of England and not London. Being in the middle of the country it could represent the whole nation properly without the dreadful North-south divide that having the capital in the south has created.

The first photo is a self portrait and also sets the scene. The following batch illustrates the quality of light available for me to use that day. All the photos were taken on my Galaxy Phone’s camera – great little camera to use on the streets when you don’t want to be noticed. People remain at ease if you have a phone in your hand rather than a camera.

2014 03 09_7028

The new library proved what a vibrant, forward thinking city Birmingham is. This post will feature a part of the city’s past that has been brought back to life. Its canals. Here small business thrive, cafes and bars are full of life and people just wander looking contented.

2014 03 09_7034

We soon discovered that there is such an array of buildings of all shapes, sizes, functions and ages to be viewed from the canal towpath.

2014 03 09_7033

2014 03 09_7035 2014 03 09_7050

2014 03 09_7036 2014 03 09_7071

2014 03 09_7053

It was hard to imagine as we walked the towpaths that this thin strip of water was a hub of transport a few centuries ago, the equivalent of the clogged M6 motorway we had traveled on to get to it. This little tug barge was one of the few signs of the canal’s previous importance.

Our usual coffee break was taken within the comfort of one the National Convention Centre cafes. One of our favourite concert venues, the Symphony Hall is integrated with this building. There are some wonderful features here both inside and out.

As we progressed around our canal-side ramble we got occasional glimpses of the New Library. Can you spot it in the picture below?

2014 03 09_7073

No canal wandering can be complete though without a few reflections to enjoy, and not forgetting a nice old curvy bridge!

2014 03 09_7072 2014 03 09_7032

2014 03 09_7018 2014 03 09_7069

I keep trying to get a good picture of shadows created by benches and am never very pleased with the results. The one below I was actually quite pleased with. I then finish off with a pic of patterns found beneath our feet and my favourite photo of the day, the glass globe against a filigree of delicate branches.

2014 03 09_7021

2014 03 09_7049

Tags architecture, Birmingham, canals, cities, cityscapes, modern architecture. townscapes, towpaths, water

allotments diy fruit and veg gardening grow your own natural pest control recycling

Revamping our Strawberry Bed

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 24, 2014
1 Comment on Revamping our Strawberry Bed

We have now had our allotment for 5 years and this means our strawberries and raspberries are getting weaker and producing poorer crops. After this period of time the threat of virus hangs over them.

We renewed our raspberry canes last autumn and so it is time to renew our strawberry plants. A bright warm early spring day found us digging up and composting our old plants which had become woody. We got rid of the old weed suppressing membrane and dug over the flattened soil below. We then added lots of organic matter in the form of old growbags, our own chicken manure and composted chicken bedding. A quick rotovate and the soil looked good, full of organic matter and a great texture.

We made the wooden surround from recycled scaffold boards which fits our 3-Rs policy which we follow on our plot. Reduce – Reuse – Recycle.

To protect our strawberry plants from pests and to help effective pollination we have sown a wildflower strip close by.

Soon we had new membrane down and we spread out our new little plants spaced out to give the best yields.

We planted the little plantlets very carefully as they felt so delicate. When we had finished they looked tiny in their new raised bed. We now have 12 Honeoye and 12 Cambridge Scarlet which will hopefully keep us in strawberries for the next five years.

The little plants looked so vulnerable when we had finished but just a week later we checked on them and they were showing signs of strong bright green growth.

Tags allotments, fruit and veg, fruit and veg growing, fruit and vegetable growing, gardening, grow your own, home produce, organic gardening, organic pest control, strawberries, weed suppressing membrane

climbing plants colours flowering bulbs garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening gardens grasses hardy perennials ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs Shropshire spring bulbs trees Uncategorized Winter Gardening winter gardens

Aiming for a year round garden. Part One – The Winter

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 22, 2014
5 Comments on Aiming for a year round garden. Part One – The Winter

Over the last few years we have worked hard planning to make our garden look and feel good all year round. So today I took a wander with camera in hand to see how well we had done so far. See what you think. Are we getting there?

Of course flowering bulbs come into their own at this time of year and we now have a wide selection of crocus, muscari, miniature narcissi and Iris reticulata throughout the garden. Grasses are of equal importance but only recently have they been accepted as an essential element of the winter garden. The first photo shows how well our Pony Tails Grasses contrast with the foliage of Hebes. In the second crocus team up with grasses to create a great combination of colours and textures.

A have a soft spot for celandines, enjoying the glossy yellow native plant that lights up our hedgerow bases as well as the cultivated bronze leaved Brazen Hussey and the “Giant Celandine” in the photograph below.

Euphorbias are another of those families of plants that are all year round essentials in our gardens but at this time of year their new bracts glow on overcast days. Foliage is perhaps more important than flowers in the winter garden as it provides variations of colour, pattern and texture. Phormiums, Heucheras and grasses are most effective.

Scent can play its part as it pervades the calm air and delights us as we wander with the thought of brighter warmer days. Daphnes, Sarcoccocas, Cornus, Mahonias and Viburnums all perform well in our garden.

Textured bark on our trees in our Spring Border looks especially good in winter light. The peeling orange bark of the Prunus serrula and the birch is like slithers of brittle toffee.

Hellebores star in most gardens in winters since so many wonderful easily grown specimens have become available in most garden centres and nurseries.

Here some of our many hellebores are twinned with coloured stemmed cornus and salix.

Any flower brave enough to appear in the winter is worthy of mention be they primulas, witch hazels, pulmonarias or bergenia. They would perhaps seem quite ordinary if they flowered among the stars of the summer garden but in the winter they are extraordinarily good garden plants.

A recent discovery is the shrub Drimys with its red stems, glossy green foliage and buds looking fit to burst into life.

Structures such as our cloud pruned box hedge that lines our central path become much more important and noticeable in the emptier garden of winter. But we hope our garden is now richer in this the coldest and darkest of our seasons.

We must not forget the role our feathered friends play in adding colour, sound and movement to our garden in winter.

Part Two of our search for the all year round garden will consider our garden in Spring. Signs of that season are already giving hints of what is to come such as in the buds of the quince fruit tree.

Tags dogwoods, foliage, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, grasses, greenhouse gardening, organic gardening, ornamental trees, shrubs, winter, winter garden, winter gardening, winter gardens

indoor plants

The Blooming of a Big Bulb

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 19, 2014
4 Comments on The Blooming of a Big Bulb

We had a lovely present from my brother, Derrick and his partner Lyn at Christmas, a big fat Amaryllis. We potted it up and waited. It seemed a long wait but suddenly there were signs of growth, buds started opening looking like little green tongues sticking out. Once they reached about 4 inches in height a flowering stem burst upwards growing at a great rate. It was noticeably taller each day and the bud at its topmost point plumped up until it reached about 18 inches. It then stopped adding any growth to the stem length and instead the bud expanded. Until.

The deepest red petals started to appear, almost black.

After a few days the flowers were huge, as wide as a saucer and each petal developed the texture of the softest most luxurious velvet.

We positioned them near some of my paintings as the petals matched colours in the paintings. these abstracts were based on a special rock structure on a beach in North Wales, where the darkest grey rock had extrusions of red forced into them.

At their peak the four flowers that topped the stem looked far too heavy. It seemed as if the stem would bend or snap at any moment. The contrast between the yellow and red became intense.

And now for one final set of photos – the bloom at its best.

Tags amaryllis, bulbs, flowering bulbs, indoor bulbs

garden design garden photography gardening outdoor sculpture

Garden Art

When we work in the garden we like looking at the bits of broken pottery, metal and glass that we unearth. I presume most of us gardeners do the same. Ever since we first moved to our garden here at Plealey ten years ago we have been collecting together the more interesting pieces without a thought of what we might do with them. Our bucket filled up until recently I thought I would select out interesting pieces that would go together to make a few pictures with.

We chose square white frames to give simple plain backgrounds and I managed to create these three pictures.

Here they are in more detail. I hope you enjoy looking at them – I certainly enjoyed making them. I like their simplicity and crispness. I photographed them outside on the lawn when the sun would add shadow but they have a place waiting for them. We intend to hang them on a wall outside which is painted a pale cream colour.

Tags artwork, collected objects, garden decoration, gardening, gardens, outdoor art

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

The Trees in Two Gardens

When we visit gardens I tend to concentrate on taking photographs of borders and flowering plants, and often ignore the wonderful silhouette of the trees.

So when we went to Dunham Massey and Trentham in February I concentrated on their trees so just sit back and enjoy my photos. A tribute to trees.

Firstly enjoy the trees of Dunham Massey.

And now to Trentham and its trees. The first photos show trees planted during the recent renovation of the garden and the latter photos the mature trees from the original parkland.