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.
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.
July on our allotment site has been a month of rain resulting in regular flooding. Now as the rain has disappeared for a while things are drying out. Amazingly potatoes are being dug up out of flooded plots and have given reasonable crops but on others crops have rotted below ground. On our own plot we have been harvesting good crops of carrots, beetroot, garlic, cabbages, broccoli, broad beans, peas and salad leaves. We regularly pick tayberries, rhubarb and gooseberries. Strawberries however are rotting before we get to pick them and even the blackbirds are missing out.
We shall as usual start our lottie wander on our own plot to see what is going on and with our new sign, the old one having fallen apart.
Our crops are mostly looking well and the “Bug Borders” bursting with colourful flowers, alive with bees, hoverflies and lots of other useful insects.
But in between the colourful lush plantings of veg, fruit and flowers standing water sat getting stagnant.
And this is our poor grass path.
Things are getting easier though and we have managed to get on the soil without damaging the structure too badly, so we cleared any weeds, loosened up the soil surface and sowed more crops such as beetroot and radish and planted out our seedling leeks.
Now we can start our wander around the site looking at what is happening on other plots and in the communal areas.
The Spring Garden and Summer Garden have come through the terrible weather with flying colours.
Of course the Willow features have enjoyed the wet around their feet and look so green and fresh, but they need a lot of pruning to keep them in trim shape.
The meadows are flowering nicely now and flowers are giving colour on lots of the plots.
I shall finish this wander with a good idea. How about this for an idea for trying to foil the dreaded carrot rootfly – simply grow them up in the air hopefully above their maximum flight height.
For one day each year, in the middle of July, we open our allotment site, Bowbrook Allotment Community, for charity. We open under the auspices of the National Garden Scheme so are proud to be in the famous Yellow Book. The choice was made to join the NGS because they raise money for caring charities, such as the Macmillan Nurses and Marie Curie. This is our second year of opening – in the first year in gale force winds and rain we raised £415 and this year on a dry day in the middle of the wettest of summers we raised £815 – so we feel a little proud! This means we have now sent the NGS £1230.
We chose July as the month to open as it seemed to be a month when we would be most guaranteed to have a spell of good weather to encourage visitors to come along. Last year we opened in heavy rain and gale force winds.
This year however after weeks of rain, we had two dry days coinciding with the day when we planned to spruce up and prepare the site and the open day itself. Although the whole area was very wet underfoot, plots themselves too wet to get on, some paths unusable and standing water in places, we felt the site looked as good as it could.
The day of the opening dawned bright and dry. The sun was shining and it felt warm. As we arrived early in the morning the car park was full and the site crawled with members working away. Soon the signs were in place, the gazebos up, the tea shop readied and the quiz pictures in place. We felt ready!
We were so pleased to see so many plot holders helping out in so many ways – true community spirit! The tea shop was stocked with dozens of cakes baked by members and the table under the gazebos were made attractive and welcoming after one member, Shirlie, created beautiful table centre posies, magazines were placed on them for visitors to read and our photo albums made available for their enjoyment.
Tracy getting the tea shop sorted.Special “Allotment Cakes” carrot cakes decorated with petals of Calendula and Borage.Tea shop all ready for action and in plenty of time.Di and Jill prepare their “meet and greet” table.Warning signs in place.The volunteers from the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) take a break once their display is set up in readiness.Pete and Sherlie all ready and togged up in fluorescent safety to do car park control.
As soon as the clock showed 1:00 our visited started arriving – it is always a relief when the first one comes through the gate. Each visitor was handed a map and suggested route, competition details. Children were given a quiz sheet requesting they find pictures of some of our wildlife hidden around the site, matched to their favourite habitats.
We invited our visitors to judge two competitions for us during their amblings, The Best Scarecrow and The Favourite Plot. The two following pictures show the winning plot and the winning scarecrow.
The plots are all neat and ready for the perusal of our guests including Jill’s pink plot.Ken and Lesley’s very beautifully designed scarecrow.
As we pride ourselves in designing our site and interest trail to be accessible to all we were pleased to see so many young families with toddlers or youngsters in push-chairs and people with mobility problems some using sticks or crutches, others wheelchairs or mobility scooters. We were delighted how easily they accessed the site and we received many compliments.
Our visitors enjoyed lots of free advice and even free strawberries and fresh peas straight off the plots. I spent most of my day as a mobile “Gardeners Question Time”, answering queries about pests, diseases and how to grow certain crops and identifying plants. I was handed a cabbage leaf with pests attached and a drawing of a “nasty, looking insect which looked like a dragon and was mostly black with bits of red”. I managed to identify the dragon insect as the larvae of a ladybird and the cabbage dwelling ones as whitefly. I suggested that the ladybirds should be encouraged to stay and informed the gardeners that they were very lucky to have them, but had to tell the cabbage growers that they were not lucky and advised them to get rid of their pests quickly.
Some of our friends from the Shropshire Hardy Plant Society organised a plant sale and many guests left happy with their bags or boxes of unusual plants.
Most visitors who came spent several hours looking around with occasional breaks for a sit while enjoying a tea and cake, with some staying for the whole four hours we were open.
“The Undergardener”, Jude used her teaching experience to good purpose showing young visitors interesting artifacts found by plot holders such as an old Wren’s nest and an aborted Wasp nest.
Several plot holders worked on their plots so that our visitors could ask them questions, others sat on picnic benches around the site to greet visitors and make them welcome.
When we closed and the last of our guests had left members rallied around and returned the site back to its former state. The tea shop returned to its function as a community hut, the gazebos were taken down and returned to their boxes, signs along the local roads were pulled up and put back into store. The RSPB and HPS volunteers packed up their goods and gazebos and said their goodbyes, and said they looked forward to our open day in 2013.
The last visitors to leave were these two characters who had spent the day sat comfortably in their thrones under the trees and greeted their subjects.
It had been a great day! Our visitors book contained some complimentary comments. We enjoyed reading them as they help show that we are achieving our aims. Here are some to examples to share.
“Fantastic, so much to see, great kids trail, thank you.”
“Completely lost in the interesting ideas. What a wonderful time I’ve had!”
“A truly inspiring place, wonderful for wildlife and kids.”
“Beautiful plots and welcoming tea and cake.”
“Inspirational model for all allotments.”
“Friendly, knowledgable gardeners.”
“Inspiring and clever ideas to encourage wildlife whilst giving plenty of space for produce. So much done in three years.”
Here we are at the half way point of the year in the June allotment wanderings. As usual we shall start on our own plot to see what has been going on. Our little wildlife pond is beginning to look more established and the tadpoles are growing well. We hope the frogs stay on our plot and eat up all the slugs. As you can see we provided a little wooden ramp to help them get in and out of the water.
Heartsease self seed around the plot sometimes landing in suitable places arriving in a wide range of colours. This one seeded into the soil behind the green bench.
Our strip of wildflowers, a little piece of meadow, is beginning to flower. This Opium Poppy surprised us with its deep pink coloured petals.
Moon Daisies and Cornflowers.
Just as flowers feature strongly on our own plot so they do on other members’ plots and in the Green Space borders. In the Autumn Garden Achilleas are the stars.
Calendulas feature on many plots as they look so good, and work hard as part of companion planting helping to attract beneficial insects.
Our first “Buddleja Bed” planted to attract wildlife now looks colourful and full of life. After losing some of our Buddlejas in the dry last year when Shropshire experienced months of drought after two extremely cold winters, the name for these borders currently looks a little inappropriate.
Our wildflower bank sloping up towards one of our orchards is now looking more established as we have added plants that members have donated to add interest.
The Edible Hedge is now fruiting providing sustenance to birds and small mammals. Flowers in the borders at the base bring in bees, butterflies and beneficial insects. Beetles enjoy the long grass and we like them to be there as they feed on slugs.
The most colourful garden on site at the moment is the Spring Garden which still displays much interest as we move into the summer months. This garden is maintained by volunteers, Jill and Geoff who spend many an hour planting, dead heading and weeding.
Geoff and Jill’s plot is renown for its weed free neatness and precision planting.
The Summer Garden is not to be outdone though as the roses are coming into flower and beautiful scents greet us as we sit on the nearby picnic benches. The lavenders, geraniums and grasses planted between the roses add further interest and textures.
As June moves towards July our meadows really come into their own. Plot holders love to walk through them and a wide variety of birds, bees, butterflies, grass hoppers and every sort of mini-beast visit.
I shall finish with a shot of the plot we have nominated for this year’s Shrewsbury Town Allotment Competition and one of our grass spiral which currently looks most inviting.
Visiting allotments is always interesting and an excellent opportunity to glean ideas. Gardeners who cultivate allotments are imaginative and seem to have a penchant for experimenting and trying to find ways of using everyday objects in new ways. Recently we visited the allotment site where our daughter and son-in-law, Jo and Rob garden and finished the day with our usual wander around the site. Here are the oddities and ideas we found there.
One allotment boasted this wildlife pool surrounded by all sorts of herbs, soft fruits and fruit trees. The plot tenant proudly showed us around her plot, told us about her pond and introduced us to her chickens.
This supply of hoolahoops awaited their turn to be used to support netting that would protect crops from pests.
This wheelbarrow on a neglected plot had sprouted a lawn – a lawn in need of a trim.
Baths featured on many plots for water storage, this one even retained its tap. Memories of the seventies came flooding back when we spotted the style of the tap.
Mad Jac wasn’t on his plot. Pity that because I bet he would have been great fun to talk with.
Now just what could the plot holder have intended for a table without a top?
An upmarket bath on this plot. Two taps and chrome rather than plastic!
There must have been some very valuable crops on this plot. Or were they secret?
We have watched over the last few years how the walled garden at Clumber Park has been brought back to life. Although it is a few hours from home we visit at least once a year.
Now it is a peaceful place to wander around admiring the vegetable growing techniques, the orchards and the meadows beneath, the long flower borders, the trained fruit on the walls themselves and the national collection of rhubarb.
We were very lucky on this recent visit as we had our own personal guide who came around with us. He was grey haired and didn’t say a lot but he didn’t mind when I took his portrait.
We like to approach it along the dramatic avenue of cedars where the enticing view of the distant old gates within the warm red of the tall brick walls draws us in. The cedars themselves have such sculptural qualities and an air of mystery pervades the shadows under their glaucous sweeping branches some scooping down to touch the grass below.
The tall warm bricked walls are now protecting skilfully trained apples, pears, peaches, cherries and figs. In the open a collection local varieties of fruit are being established and in the borders below the walls herbaceous plants, herbs and the National Collection of Rhubarb varieties flourish.
The wide central gravel path that bisects the walled garden runs from the main gates to the greenhouse. It runs between a colourful double herbaceous border.
Old fruit trees remain to give a sense of continuity and sit comfortably amongst gently swaying meadows. We were delighted to see a Medlar in flower.
We enjoyed discovering ideas to take home with us as we moved within the vegetable growing areas, such these rustic supports for peas and sweetpeas made from birch prunings. Much of the productive planting was done in neat, long and impressively straight lines.
Being run along totally organic lines the walled garden was well-provided with bird nesting boxes and insect shelters to attract beneficial insects.
As we wandered around we noticed amongst the productive rows of veggies, this beautiful Victorian glass and metal cloche still in regular use. It performed as well now as it always has done just like the walled garden itself.
As we prepared for our journey back to Shropshire, our helpful little cheery guide waved a small wave and wandered off.
Greenbenchramblings is one year old today! Yes, I have been rambling away from my old green bench on my allotment for a year to the day. Each time I celebrate a birthday with a nought in it I give myself a challenge. When I was 30 I decided to get up before first light, taking a not so willing family with me, travel to a nearby area of deciduous woodland and await the dawn chorus. It was pure magic! The song of each bird as it awoke joined in the chorus until the wood reverberated with song celebrating the new day. The atmosphere was electric – an unforgettable experience.
When I reached 40 I decided to buy some new walking boots as a stimulus to get out into the beautiful Shropshire countryside more.
At 50 I began studying a garden design course.
A year ago I reached 60 and decided to start my Greenbenchramblings blog, to record my musings and photos related to our garden, our allotment, gardening and wildlife. So Happy Birthday Blog! I have been delighted with the response to it, enjoyed the comments and feel I have met new friends from almost every continent. I share all my gardening visiting, my lottie gardening, the development and maintenance of the garden at home and the walks in the countryside with Jude, also known as The Undergardener or Mrs Greenbenchrambler.
The surprise of the blogging year was when Willow Cottage Gardeners nominated my blog for a Versatile Blogger Award, hence the rather handsome green logo on the top right of my blogs. As a part of this award I have to write a list of 7 things about myself that readers of my blog might not know and suggest 15 blogs for nomination for the award.
So here goes with the 7 things you might not know about me;
1.Forty years ago I had an altercation with a lorry and the lorry came out best. I was put back together and I am now registered “Bionic”.
2,My favourite gardeners are Beth Chatto, Dan Hinckley, Carol Klein and Monty Don.
3.I have had allotments for over 20 years.
4.I have been a fisherman since I was 4 years old. When I retired my ambition was to catch a 30 pound carp. The biggest so far is 29 pound 15 ounces.
5.I talk to my chickens and they talk back.
6.My favourite garden designers are Dan Pearson, Piet Oudolf, Tom Stuart-Smith and Cleve West.
7.If I could choose anywhere in the world to live it would be in the South Shropshire Hills. I live in the South Shropshire Hills!
As followers of greenbenchramblings know I carry a camera around with me wherever we go and my favourite subjects are plants, especially plant portraits, allotment gardening, and the creatures who live in our gardens, on our allotment and on the plants. It seems apt to finish this One Year On posting with a few pics of these favourite subjects.
May is a busy month on the allotment, seeds need sowing, seedlings need thinning, weeds need hoeing and early crops reward us with early harvests. And of course our grass paths separating the four areas of the plot need regular mowing.
The Hawthorns in native hedges around the site are smelling good and looking good.
The wildlife all around is equally busy, seriously going about the business of breeding with all its inherited trials and tribulations. The weather, predators, prey availability and the search for food for both adults and nests full their young all contrive to make their lives difficult.
We shall begin our May lottie wander on our own plot to see what is going on. The soil is now easily worked so using the hoe to remove seedlings is easy so the plot is looking tidy.
Our brassicas are coming along well underneath their protective cover.The perennial bug borders are looking good.Multi-coloured radiccio.
Whenever we are working our plot or helping maintain the green spaces around the site, we are entertained by birds of prey, Buzzards and Kestrels soaring or hovering over our heads and around our feet Robins, Blackbirds, Blue and Great Tits, and Song Thrushes search for food for their young hoping we disturb grubs and bugs with our digging, raking and hoeing. More secretive in their search for fodder for young are the Black Caps, Woodpeckers and Nuthatches. Overhead the hirondelles, (Swallows, Swifts and House Martins), having recently returned from their winter haunts greedily scoop up insects on the wing.Although the weather has been warm and dry for a few days now the end of our plot where the clay comes nearest the surface and the topsoil is very thin, water still saturates the land, making working it impossible. But in this wetness in the ridged soil our Red Duke of York potatoes are pushing their purple tinted foliage out towards the sunshine.
Red Duke of York appearing above the algae tinted soil.Our cordon Red Currants are flowering heartily and starting to set fruit.
In the orchards and over the meadows wildflowers are blooming alongside naturalised ornamental bulbs, attracting butterflies, the crinkle winged Commas, the Orange Tips with orange tips to their wings and the wonderful ethereal Holly Blues.
Bulbs and Buttercups under the fruit trees in the orchard.We attract predator insects into the orchards with these insect homes. They are a wildlife friendly pesticide.
The Buddleia Borders are coming to life now and the Spring Garden remains very colourful.
Two plot holders, Phil and Doreen, have created a new bed in a shaded area near their plot and made it accessible for all to enjoy.
Most plots are ready for sowing and planting or partly planted up and sown.
Our May Working Party jobs were decided upon by where the shade was, as it was too hot to work in the full sunshine. We managed to get most of our tasks completed though.
Heads down for weeding the meadows.Kneeling down on the job attacking those pernicious weeds that creep into the meadows.
Our Willow Dome has had its doorway and windows woven and neatened up and the sides pruned and woven. It is a favourite feature with children as somewhere to listen to a story, or as a play den, and as adults for somewhere to escape to at coffee time from the heat of the day.
As we have recently launched our site’s Wise Watering Campaign it is heartening to see guttering and butts appearing on several sheds.
Here we are with the fifth garden wander post. And the garden is looking good! Take a wander with us and have your nose at the ready as the scents are strong.
Throughout the garden Bluebells and Wallflowers are sending out their rich sweet scent messages for all to enjoy, permeating every nook and cranny. Birdsong dominates the early hours of daylight and youngsters begging their parents for more food can be heard in every nest box. A family of fledgling Robins have taken to following us around the garden hopping and hoping our gardening activities disturb a bug or two.
We begin our wander in the front garden where we are entertained by a Spotted Flycatcher who perches on the topmost branch of the holly and sits waiting to ambush any passing insect at which he launches himself and then returns to exactly the same place to enjoy his prey and to begin all over again.
Here is our gravel garden which we call the Chatto Bed, after Beth Chatto, as after making a couple of visits to her garden we were determined to create a gravel patch which would never need watering and in true Beth Chatto style we chose plants to suit the conditions.
On the gravel our bearded irises are in healthy leaf with buds fit to burst, all but one which is already flowering, the dark, sultry Iris Cherry Garden.
Entering the shade garden we are struck by the lushness of the foliage dotted with special blooms. Apart from the Welsh Poppies and Bluebells all blooms here seem to be in unusual shades of pink at the moment.
Our Hot Border is not yet hot but gradually warming up – just on the verge of luke warm I’d say. Opposite this is Jude’s Garden which she claims is more tasteful than my Hot Border.
Moving to the side garden opposite our main house entrance is our Freda Garden, named after a lovely lady and impressive gardener who died too young a few years ago. We grow plants here that she loved.
Close by is our small collection of alpine troughs still looking good, especially the Sempervivum.
As we pass the garden shed on our way to the back garden the buzzing sounds of bees fills the air, for as the temperatures have risen in the last few days the solitary bees in our bee shelters have been hatching and emerging constantly, literally hundreds of them. They immediately head for the flowers of the Comfrey and Ceonothus we provide for them. I love this moment every spring!
And so into the back where the scent of Wallflowers and Bluebells afford us the luxury of rich sweet perfume. Rich colours burst from the vibrant fresh spring greens.
It has been a strange May so far, no flowers on any rose bushes but some narcissus still in bloom. The Cuckoo has been calling incessantly for weeks as have the Skylarks. We are bit fed up with the repetitive two note call of the Cuckoo but the beauty and complexity of the Skylark’s song means we still love listening to it.
We shall finish this wander in our Seaside Garden, part of our plot not yet featured much in my blog. Perhaps a separate post all about it will appear soon?
'The most important and informative publication on wildlife of our times' - The Independent. This blog is a member of The UK & Ireland Natural History Bloggers group: www.uknhb.blogspot.com
greenbenchramblings 