Category: garden photography

A Wander around our Garden in August

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 25, 2012
5 Comments on A Wander around our Garden in August

Our garden in August is a bright, colourful place full of lush growth, rich scent and so much wildlife to enjoy. Our wild birds are mostly quiet at present as August is the time when they hide away as they go through their annual moult. They have gone to ground and gone silent.

Above our heads however avian activity is busy and exciting. The Swallows and House Martins are feeding up in anticipation of their migration south. The sky is full of them, but the screaching of Swifts is absent as they began their own long journey a few weeks ago. For a few days there is a gap in the sounds – we miss them for their excited calls and aerial displays.

The calls of the young Buzzards can be heard above the Swallows and Martins, as they excitedly search out thermals and discover the joy of riding them. The Peregrines have reappeared now that their breeding season is over so we can watch the adult pairs rising in ever-higher circles until they disappear from view. Our eyes become incapable of seeing them as they become smaller, become dots and are then gone. They have the luxury of far better long distance vision than us – they will see the movement of their prey from hundreds of feet up in the air. A real treat is to spot them as they stoop, travelling down at speeds of over 200 miles per hour with a pigeon in their sights.

Yesterday when deadheading in one of our borders we were surprised by a low-flying, high speed Green Woodpecker who zoomed close to us, just a few feet away. A real treat!

Insect life is flourishing. On any warm bright day a variety of insects can be seen hunting out nectar and pollen. Butterflies, bees and hoverflies are attracted to Buddleias, Alliums, Salvias, Nepetas, Lavenders and Echinops. There are so many Peacock Butterflies around at the moment but you can’t have too many of them. The Holly Blues are much scarcer and flit continuously rarely seeming to settle.

Bees and hoverflies are attracted to our Lavender hedge which borders the lane which passes in front of our garden.

The ponds are full of life with shoals of young fish basking in the shallows, diving Beetles and Boatmen moving up to the surface and back to the bottom regularly. On the surface Pondskaters pace out the length and breadth of the pond surface. Young newts regularly appear at the surface take a gulp of air and drop back down. When Jude the Undergardener nets the duckweed and blanket weed from the pond she catches newts every time. She is delighted with every newt that graces her net. I am convinced that removing the weed is an excuse for her newt catching exploits. In August the majority of newts Jude catches are youngsters.

The front garden is looking good! So much colour! The Hot Border is HOT!

The “Beth Chatto Garden”, our gravel garden, is full of interest with Agapanthus taking centre stage. These Agapanthus were actually bought from the Beth Chattos Gardens nursery.

Early in August the front garden was dominated by yellow – even Jude the Undergardener was wearing yellow – but after a few weeks all the other colours caught up.

In the back garden the growth in our Secret Garden is exuberant to say the least. The foxgloves are going over but the achilleas, lychnis and alliums are still giving us a full performance.

Elsewhere in the borders of the back garden the seedheads of our Snakebark Acer add rich reds, Crocosmias give every shade of yellow, orange and red, Achilleas add subtlety and the spiky Erigeron flowers provide silver.

In the greenhouse tomatoes, cucumbers and capsicums are adding sweetness and freshness to the cut-and-come-again mixed leaves of ours summer salads.

The world beyond our garden is changing this month as in our borrowed landscape the hay in the paddock has been cut and baled and the wheat fields turn gold and are being harvested one by one. By the time my September garden wander comes around the skys will seem empty as the Swallows and Martins will be on their way to warmer climes, but the garden will be getting busier with mixed feeding flocks of titmice and Goldcrests, and others of mixed finches.

garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening hardy perennials photography Shropshire wildlife

Plant Portraits – August

This post is dedicated to portraits of the blooms that are starring in our garden in August. The individual stars which shine out of the borders.

Tags agapanthus, agastache, alliums, daisies, day lilies, digitalis, echinops, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, hardy geraniums, insects, knautia, lychnis, monarda, poppies

garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening July photography shrubs

Mr Buddles Shrubs

Buddleja can be seen as a common and very ordinary shrub especially when we observe how readily it seeds into gutters, between tiles, along railway embankments, river banks and canal sides. These commonest of buddlejas are quite stunning with their long conical panicles of pale mauve flowers which attract bees, hoverflies and are a firm favourite of butterflies and moths. Move in close and enjoy their delicate scent.

I usually spell it “Buddleja” but I am not sure where that spelling came from. I turned to my garden plant bible, the Royal Horticultural Society’s “A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants”, and they refer to it as Buddleja but add syn Buddleia.

I continued to research and have now discovered that it was Linnaeus who named it Buddleja with a “j” and he named it to commemorate Adam Buddle. So I still cannot find out where the “j” comes from. Adam Buddle was an English vicar who worked in Essex and like many of his contemporaries turned to botany to fill his time. He compiled an English flora which was never published but little else seems to be known about him.

In our gardens we can grow buddlejas with flowers from the purest of white to the deepest purple, from pale to deep pinks and even shades of orange. I decided a few days ago to have a wander around our garden to see which ones we had in flower. Most are varieties of Buddleia davidii. Many have rich yellow or orange centres to each of the tiny individual flowers.

This first set of photographs are of the Buddlejas in flower in our garden this August.

On a day in mid-August our Buddleja davidii were attracting butterflies, as we had experienced a few warm, bright, calm days after weeks of cold, wet and wind.

In the communal borders on our allotment site we grow many Buddleja davidiis in their full colour range, but we also grow the orange-flowered Buddleja weyeriana.

On a recent visit to a garden with the Shropshire branch of the Hardy Plant Society we came across this beautiful Buddleja davidii with soft grey leaves and blue flowers.

In another border we discovered a much more unusual variety called Buddleja lindleyana. It’s leaves were much brighter green than the davidiis and the individual florets were further apart from each other. The inside of each floret was a rich bright violet while the outsides were a greyish violet.

Tags August, buddleias, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, shrubs

garden design garden photography gardening

It’s Lily Time

We particularly enjoy walking around our garden at the moment as the scents are so strong and the colours so vivid. One flower that satisfies both these senses is the not so humble lily. Bright, hot, fiery and warm – the colours of the sky as the sun sets in the west each evening and re-awakens in the east as the day dawns afresh.

Tags garden photography, gardening, lilies

garden design garden photography gardening July photography

Lilies for a Day

Day Lilies are so beautiful in form and colour, and to add to that they are fresh each day. We never see one two days in a row – enjoy one today but it won’t be there tomorrow. Another will be flowering in its place.

So here are the day lilies in flower in our garden one day in early August.

Tags day lilies, garden photography, gardening, hemerocallis

flower show garden design garden photography gardening hardy perennials July ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture photography poppies RHS town gardens

Third Visit to the Tatton Park Show

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 12, 2012
4 Comments on Third Visit to the Tatton Park Show

The third and final post about this summer’s RHS Tatton Park Flower Show begins by visiting the Back-to-Back Gardens, the small show gardens with masses of interest and appeals. These gardens are full of ideas for gardeners whatever the size of their gardens with inspiration for planting combinations, furniture and features.

There was a group of small show gardens designed around the theme of “The Orchestra” and these turned out to be our favourites. The garden designers had risen to the challenge and seemed to have really enjoyed creating such imaginative gardens. Each one evoked harmony and rhythm and the rise and fall of a musical piece.

But this garden of rhythmic grass was a true delight to the eye. It was very difficult to fully capture its effect with a camera, but not as difficult as it would be to cut the grass!

In complete contrast to the Orchestra Gardens were the Conceptual Gardens, a set of three designs intended to present ideas, sometimes controversial, and make the viewers think. We do not always appreciate such designs but the trio this year were full of meaning and original design ideas.

We always enjoy a wander around the nursery stands at these shows and Tatton always attracts a good variety. We only bought one little plants this time though, an Aeonium that sports leaves of deepest, shiny purple almost black, called Logan’s Rock.

But this nursery stand all based on pink was empty. The discerning gardener this year definitely dislikes pink!

Tags foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, gardening, grasses, RHS Tatton Park Flower Show, Tatton Park

community gardening flower show fruit and veg garden design garden photography gardening grow your own half-hardy perennials hardy perennials July ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture photography RHS town gardens

More from the Tatton Park Flower Show

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 6, 2012
2 Comments on More from the Tatton Park Flower Show

We always enjoy visiting the Floral Marquee at any RHS Show and try to sneak a good look around before they get too crowded. At Tatton Show we just made it as the crowds began to build. It was worth it as there were some wonderful plants to look at some of which were beautifully displayed. As usual our favourites were the grasses.

Within the plants on display there were some effective little details that drew out attention to have a closer look.

Throughout the showground were unusual containers used as planters from old boots to oil cans.

But as always the stars of the show were the plants. the trend in this show was for combining grasses with Achilleas particularly those with cream, russet and orange flowers.

As with all RHS shows in recent years fruit and veggies starred alongside the flowers.

And we mustn’t forget the herbs.

We were interested to see a garden devoted to the importance of community gardens and in particular the RHS “Its Your Neighbourhood” scheme as our allotment site is part of it. The before and after garden was designed by Chris Beardshaw one of the UK’s best garden designers as well as a writer and TV gardener. His garden showed how groups of volunteer gardeners can improve an urban derelict wasteland.

The before ……….

……….. and the after!

In the final report about Tatton Park RHS Show my post will be about the Conceptual Gardens, the Back-to-Back Gardens and the plant sale area.

Tags community gardening, foliage, foliage plants, fruit and veg, fruit and vegetable growing, fruit., garden photography, gardening, grasses, greenhouse gardening, grown your own, show gardens, Tatton Park. RHS Tatton Park Show

conservation flower show garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening hardy perennials July meadows ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs photography RHS The National Trust wildlife

A Day at the RHS Flower Show Tatton Park

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 4, 2012
4 Comments on A Day at the RHS Flower Show Tatton Park

We have been to the Chelsea Flower Show, Harrogate Flower Shows and The Autumn and spring Malvern Flower Shows but the one we enjoy the most is always the one set in the grounds of Tatton Park. Luckily this is the RHS show closest to home. Although Chelsea is often called the greatest flower show, having visited once we have no desire to go again. But we frequently go to Tatton.

Tatton Park Show is described as “the North’s greatest garden party”. We enjoy its large show gardens, its “Back to Back” gardens and children’s gardens but most of all those designed by young garden designers. This is where the UK’s garden designs of the future lie and the standards are always so high. The designers have to be under 28 and this year their brief was to design a garden based on the theme of “colour”. We were so pleased when we learnt that the designer of our favourite one of these gardens had won the accolade of “RHS National Young Designer of the Year”. Tristen Knight designed this garden using recycled materials and it was full of interesting and original ideas and design feature. The colour of his planting of perennials and grasses was beautiful, all orange and biscuit. He studied for a BA in Industrial Design and Technology before training in garden design at Writtle College. He spoke with great enthusiasm and excitement about his garden and he told us about the materials he had chosen and how they were all items from building sites. For example the rill was formed from a an “H” beam and the flexible screening was created from scaffolding boards. I found it hard to take photographs that did justice to this brilliant young designer’s work. We enjoyed his garden and talking to him about it.

We moved on to the main large garden show gardens, some of which we liked whereas others we did not like at all. But that I suppose is what design is all about. If we all liked the same plants and designs wouldn’t gardens be boring?

I begin looking at this set of gardens by featuring our favourite, a garden based on circles achieving a wonderful peaceful atmosphere through the planting which was light and wispy. It relied heavily on grasses to do so, with one planting area consisting of just grasses and one variety of allium.

It received the Best in Show award!

This show garden featured decking curves and colourful planting choice.

The next sequence of photos illustrates the wide variety of show gardens at Tatton. Enjoy the tour.

Once we had enjoyed the large show gardens we made a bee line for the garden designed by students and staff of Reaseheath College, partly because their garden is always so interesting with elements of attracting wildlife but also because this is the college where I followed some of my horticulture training several decades ago. This year their garden excelled, with such vibrancy in the planting and in its features. Again the design integrated beautiful features created to attract wildlife.

To finish my first post about the RHS Tatton Park Flower Show I want to share a couple of photos of children’s gardens celebrating the Queen’s Jubilee. In the next post we shall visit the Floral Marquee and the smaller show gardens.

Tags community gardening, foliage plants, garden design, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, grasses, harvest, meadows, organic gardening, RHS Tatton Park Flower Show, Tatton Park

garden design garden photography gardening hardy perennials photography roses Shropshire

Yellow in the Garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 3, 2012

Recently I opened the window blinds to let in the early morning light and was struck by how many shades of yellow were glowing in the borders. I immediately rummaged in the camera bag and took out my trusty Nikon DSLR.

Tags clematis, garden photography, gardening, yellow.

allotments fruit and veg garden photography gardening grow your own hardy perennials July ornamental grasses photography

A July Harvest

Today we visited the lottie to harvest veggies to use fresh and to store in the freezer for use in the less productive days of the winter and early spring, together with bunches of Sweet Peas and Dianthus.

This year we have grown four different Courgettes including this round one, and little saucer-shaped patty pan squashes.

These sweet green peas are eaten in their pods and are wonderfully crunchy and juicy to eat raw or cooked. The dark purple roots of Beetroot are great boiled and used in salads or pickled to use in the winter. They are also ingredients for the sweetest of cakes and relishes. The Broad Beans are a variety called Green Windsor which gives green succulent beans to eat now or freeze for later.

Purple Sprouting Brocolli is one of our favourite crops on the lottie but this year they are ready so early. We usually harvest them from December to April but have already been picking them for a month or so. Strange season!

The last harvest this year off our Rhubarb. The plants have served us well this year and we have enjoyed rhubarb pies and crumbles, and have lots in the freezer to make jam. We tend to freeze lots of our fruit to use in jams, relishes and chutneys, which we make when the weather deteriorates and we can’t get in the garden.

A lovely big, crunchy, sweet white cabbage and a failure of a cauliflower – a bit small and not very white!

Once we returned home after a welcome refreshing cup of tea, and then took to the garden to pick a flowery harvest. Dramatic grasses and bright blooms of Calendula, Achillea and Anthemis mingle with purples of Alliums, Marjorams and Nepetas to give us a wonderful bouquet for our lounge fireplace.

Sweet Peas and Dianthus scent the house, their sweet and clove-like aromas permeating every nook and cranny.

This very natural soft display links the long leaves of grass, Arundo donax variegata, with Lavenders, Linarias, Verbascum, delicate smaller grasses and daisies.