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.
I couldn’t resist taking a few pics of this little cameo!
So many questions!
Are the bucket and spade not wanted any more? Were they left by an unhappy little toddler? Sad!
Did a family sit down for a rest and put the bucket and spade down by their side and then walk off leaving them behind? Sadder!
Did a family sit down to rest and a big wave took the family out to sea? Even sadder!
Why do piles of logs neatly stacked always look so good in a garden? They are somehow welcoming indicating perhaps that inside there awaits the comfort of an open log fire or roaring log burner. We have always stored our logs under the overhang alongside our front door, which smells lovely as you approach or as you open the door in the morning. That lovely smell of cut wood.
However this summer we have had a wood burner fitted in our conservatory so we need more wood storage. We had logs piled in any vacant space we could find around the house and garden. In the picture below these logs are piled up leaning against my fishing storage shed on the edge of the path between the shed and our garage. It was all getting a bit annoying.
The answer was another wood shed and in a rash moment I decided I could make one! I decided I would design and construct one that would store a whole load of logs and at the same time hide the refuse wheelie bins.
Well I did manage but will admit it did take a few weeks to achieve.
But I have to say I am rather pleased with the end result. Now I must telephone Ben the woodsman for a trailer load of logs. I feel sure the logs will be well-seasoned as I have allowed for plenty of air movement and it should get plenty of sun.
Six weeks or so ago our flocks of martins suddenly departed southward and the swallows gathered on the telephone wires above the road passing the front of our house. They chattered and fidgeted, stretched their wings and tails and preened busily ensuring that they were in the best of trim for their long migratory adventure.
Then one day the skies were silent and the wires empty.
But a week later as we were working away in the garden borders we heard excited calls overhead and dozens of swallows were swirling around just above shrub height. They were so close to us as they enjoyed a feeding frenzy. They must have been en route south from further up North, Scotland or the Lake District perhaps, when the big old oak tree in the paddock behind us and the gardens of our little group of houses called them down. This place meant insects to gorge on to refill and prepare themselves by stocking up for the next leg of their long migration. As we watched stunned by their excitement, their noise and flying acrobatics, they were joined by an equal number of house martins.
They periodically stopped in mixed groups on our roof ridge to chatter and catch up on the latest migration news. For us of course there was the added bonus of all those garden pests being hoovered up by gaped beaks. Great pest control!
Now that is entertainment!
Now in early October they have definitely all gone. We miss their constant chattering in the sky above the garden and await their return in the Spring.
You may remember in an earlier posting on my Greenbenchramblings blog that we enjoyed a walk up a local hill to find the stone circle called Mitchell’s Fold. Recently when my brother and his wife, Graham and Vicky, came to stay with us in lovely Shropshire they fancied a walk somewhere with a feeling of openness, calm and peace. So, we returned to “The Fold”.
For the first set of photos I stood in the middle of the stone circle and took a series of six pics as I moved around in a circle taking in the 360 degree view.
And then I took a series of shots of the stones themselves, the stones that give this special place a unique feeling and atmosphere. Calm. Peace. Contentment. When we stood within the circle of stones we realised why it has been for thousands of years a place of worship and magic.
Mother nature has been at work here growing beautiful grasses, sedges, fungi and flowers specially suited to the difficult terrain.
Graham and Vicky who live down in a town in the South of England, were blown away by the massive views and the 360 degrees through which eyes and mind can wander.
This place is where we expect to see unusual birds but not very many of them. Today was no exception as we enjoyed the sight of small pipits and finches being buffeted in the winds and birds of prey such as Hen Harrier, Red Kite, Kestrel and Buzzard hunting in their own special ways taking advantage of the slopes and thermals. We met a special creature on our way up the track from the stone circle to the cairns atop the hill. A dung beetle. Its name is a little off-putting as is its habit of moving dung around by rolling it into balls. But they are fascinating little critters who are one of nature’s great recyclers. This little glossy black spherical beetle had iridescent kingfisher blue legs that flashed as it moved and when turned over it revealed similar brightness
As we turned at the end of the outward leg of our trek we made our way up to the top of the ridge where we stop for refreshment at the cairn. We searched for a stone as we moved uphill as we like to follow the tradition of putting our own stone on the cairn to mark our presence. The views from the cairn wre stunning and simply huge!
Our little stone sat happily among its much larger cousins who will protect it from the extremes of our weather.
The coffee and fruit stop was most welcome and came at the right time as Vicky and Graham’s looks of anticipation illustrate.
Suitably refreshed and impressed with the hill top cafe facilities we made our way along the ridge and slowly back down to the car.
On the way back down we came across an area where the bracken was glossy and shone in the afternoon sunshine, a phenomena we have not experienced before.
Trench composting is an underused way to improve your soil texture and add fertility to your soil. And it has the added bonus of getting rid of those tough old stems of spent sunflowers, sweetcorn and brassicas. We spent a day trench composting the quarter of our allotment in which we shall be growing our roots next year. Many books tell us not to add manure or humus to the patch where you are planning to grow your root crops but we have found by experience that if the trenching is carried out in early autumn it works just fine. As the depth of soil on our plot is less than a border fork deep we need to keep adding to it in an attempt to build up some depth.
The job gets started as Jude, aka Mrs Greenbench or The Undergardener, takes out a 2 foot wide trench down to the hard layer of boulder clay. I then follow on with the rotovator breaking up this hard packed layer of clay and large pebbles. It makes the rotovator work hard and it jumps and lurches around at the bottom of the trench. By doing this we hope to gain depth and let worms and other creatures of the soil work in the humus we will be adding. While the rotovator turns up the stones and pebbles we collect them up to use as a stonepile, a beetle shelter. The beetles are useful predators who will help in our pest control.
Green waste from the spent crops on the plot are then placed all along the bottom of the trench, with the tougher material needing chopping with a sharp stainless steel spade. Even the toughest of green waste such as brassica stalks, sunflower stems and sweetcorn stalks will break down in the depths of the trench. We also add shredded paper (only non-glossy), torn card board and lawn mowings.
To further improve soil texture and add more nutrient value we mix in a barrow load of quality farmyard manure.We find this encourages the soil critters to get going.
To finish Jude replaces the soil over the top of the material in the trench and as a final touch we add a thick mulch of farmyard manure.
We then hand the trench with its added ingredients over to the creatures of the soil. When we trench again in a few years time all that material will have totally broken down.
We carry on by digging out another trench alongside the first and keep moving over the area until it has all been trenched. We have our plot divided into four sections to allow for crop rotation so we trench one or two sections each year. This method of composting is a very efficient way of recycling green waste including the tough materials often thrown in refuse bins. Plants grown in the richly textured and nutrient rich soil will grow strongly and therefore be healthier so will be better able to cope with attacks from pests and diseases.
September is the month when the first signs of autumn creep in and there is something special happening to the light. Misty mornings give the garden a fresh atmosphere. Darkness comes too early each day. Fruit picking is the order of the day and we get out our pruning kit, secateurs, pruning saws and loppers large and small to tackle the trees and shrubs.
Grasses begin to change colour, some flowers and seed heads are turning redder and more purple others towards the pale tints of biscuit.
The Blackberry vine is so heavy with fruit that it blocks the pathway and apples hang in thick bunches but seem slow to ripen. At last colour is creeping into the greenness of the grapes. Fingers crossed that the weather is kind to them and therefore kind to us.
This Buddleja is a special one with purple flowers at the tip of each arching branch. The out side of each individual flower is dusty purple-grey but the rich bright purple inside provides a beautiful contrast. Buddleys lindleyana is a very special shrub. A real favourite! And it looks even better alongside a bright orange neighbour in the guise of a Crocosmia. While we are on the subject of bright flowered Crocosmia the yellow one nearby is gentler but still a true bright beauty.
Shrubs and trees are thinking ahead to the winter and painting their leaves in reds, oranges and yellows. The first two photos are of a special Ribes which will give us yellow flowers in the winter. These are followed by deciduous varieties of Euonymus and Cercis “Forest Pansy”.
On the gravel garden, our Beth Chatto Garden, grasses are starring alongside the autumn stars, Michaelmas Daisies.
Bulbs usually mean late winter or early spring but these cyclamen and tulbaghia are showstoppers right now.
So off we go into autumn!
Another journey into Herefordshire saw us in search of a National Garden Scheme (The Yellow Book) village garden. This garden surrounded a former rectory of the village and it had been renovated over the last seven years. It was a garden of many parts, an arboretum, herbaceous borders, shrub borders, a kitchen garden and a rose garden.
Join us as we take a wander in pictures.
We went to Waddeston by default! We were planning to visit another garden in Oxfordshire, but as we got close we decided to check the details of the garden, especially how to find it. The trouble was the garden details also showed that we were visiting on a day when it was closed. Oops!!
Plan B quick! Luckily we found another garden literally a mile from where we had parked up to get directions to our original destination. From the description in our book, the garden at Waddeston did not sound my style of gardening but the architecture of the house itself sounded interesting. So we decided to go and have a look.
We arrived to discover Waddestonto be an architecturally fussy building in the style of a French chateau. I admired it but didn’t like it. Jude, the Undergardener liked it a lot.
There were lots of fussy little details in the building, such as this ornate gate post.
The gardens close to the house were very formal similar to the bedding schemes found in our town parks. Too bright and again too fussy for my liking.
But this one bed was interesting as the colours were far more subtle. It turned out that this border was based on ancient lace work from the house.
Walking a few minutes from the house into the more informal areas of the garden we came across a real surprise, a very ornate terrace of aviaries housing rare birds. These birds were being bred with the intention of building up species numbers and reintroducing them back into their natural habitats.
Further from the house away from the formal gardens there were small cameos which interested me more.
So, although I was unsure when we arrived at Waddeston, I will now admit that I did enjoy the visit. Even though I found the rigidity of the formal bedding schemes with their gaudy colours unpleasant, I can see that they were well executed here.
Our Rill Garden was beginning to look a little jaded, mostly due to the edging paving sinking and coming loose. In places the level of the edging was uneven and sloping randomly. We decided it needed a revamp. The first job was to take the old edging paving up and clean off the old concrete. It took no time to get up the edging but it took a long time to chip off all the old concrete and chip off each bit until the back of the slabs were clean enough to re-lay.
“Matilda”, our sculptured figure admires our handiwork. She looks satisfied with how we have cleaned up the slabs.
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We had to get the plants up so we lifted them pots and all into some of our plastic garden trugs. They need dividing so this proved to be a good opportunity.
After a few days we had relaid the slabs, all perfectly level and even looking, but we did discover a problem for when we put the pump back in which provides a gentle movement to the surface of the water in the rill, it failed to work so this will need replacing.
So, let us have a look at our Rill Garden now it has been re-vitalised.
Back to Boughton as promised and this time we are off to the more intimate gardens closer to the house. These contrast strongly with the large scale landscaping with the huge land forms.
Refreshed with a good coffee and a slice of lemon drizzle cake from the restaurant in the stableyard we wandered off to the walled garden.
On the way we passed through a couple of old gates, presenting an odd juxtaposition with one so grand and one rather normal. Finding an old orchard was an unexpected pleasure. The old apple trees are being sensitively renewed through careful and very skillful pruning.
The gateway that led to the walled garden was most welcoming and we accepted readily its generous invitation to enter.
And what a sight met our eyes! The area enclosed by the old honey-coloured stone walls was far larger than we expected and contained a sensory garden, a wildlife garden, herbaceous borders and old greenhouses surrounded by interesting plantings in a selection of eclectic containers.
The garden designed to attract wildlife contained some interesting insect shelters and great plants for beneficial “critters”. We were most impressed by the insect home called “Creepy Crawly Cottage and the impressive bird bath.
The old gardeners’ bothy was full of character. I loved the bell!
At the far end of the walled garden the sensory garden satisfied our noses with sweet herby scents.
I shall finish this report on Boughton with a couple of interesting features that caught my eye throughout the garden.
A Vegetarian | Nature Lifestyle Blog
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The www.gardeningwithchildren.co.uk Blog
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