Category: gardening

My Garden Journal – December

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 1, 2016
5 Comments on My Garden Journal – December

To celebrate the moving from 2015 into 2016 I thought an appropriate post to publish would be my final monthly garden journal entries for 2015.

This is the final month of reporting on my garden journal where I have been keeping track of what has been happening in our Avocet garden. December should be a month of cold nights, frosts and wintry showers but this year it has been a month of strong winds and rain accompanying mild temperatures. We have still only had one frost in this last bit of the year. Our Dahlias remain outside as we move into the first week of December as we are waiting for frosts to blacken their foliage which would allow us to prepare them for their winter rest.

Opening up my garden journal onto the first pages for December reveals photos of berries which are such a strong feature of our winter garden.

My first entry for December reads, “The berries of our trees and shrubs give bright splashes of colour in the Winter Garden.”

My photos show berries of Hypericum, Sarcoccoca, various Hollies and one of our Sorbus.

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“We have many different Cotoneasters throughout the garden giving shiny berries in many red shades – ruby, scarlet, crimson – and one even has yellow berries. They are so easy to grow but add so much to the garden. Each variety has a different habit and foliage in different shades of green, different sizes, shapes and textures. But what is common to them all is that they are true favourites of our berry eating thrushes.”

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The greenhouse features next in my December Journal as it is during this month that it fills up with tender plants which we want to overwinter.

“The greenhouse is very full and busy in December. Our Fuschia thalia after flowering outdoors for months is still full of bloom now but in the sheltered environment of the greenhouse. Accompanying this special Fuschia, our succulents are also sitting out winter under shelter, after spending the summer and autumn in the Rill Garden.”

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I tried to show the uniqueness of the Fuschia and its incredibly bright colour with watercolours.

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My final quote for 2015 from the little book by Jenny Joseph, “Led by the Nose” appears as we turn the next page.

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“Fragrance outdoors in this season is not so much a twinkle in the eye as a sniff in the nosmic imagination. You will see the tips of bulbs and look forward to being overcome by spring.”

Below these words I share photos of a few of the flowers that are sharing their scent with us this month, roses and perennial wallflowers.

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“Roses and Perennial Wallflowers invite us to get our noses close to their blooms so that we can enjoy the sweetest of scents. Other plants need us to rub their leaves before they share the secrets of the scent with us.”

The accompanying pictures show two such plants, salvias and mints.

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The colour yellow can cheer up the garden in the deep dark days of December, so I moved on to see what plants were giving us these golden tints.

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“On gloomy days in December when there is no sign or chance of sunshine, we really are grateful to plants that give us cheerful yellow flower and foliage.”

Opposite my tour of our garden yellows I make mention of the members of the ?thrush family that share our garden with us in the winter.

“Let me introduce you to our Winter Thrushes, drawn in a stylised fashion.” I hope you enjoy them.

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We next turn from the colour yellow to bright pinks, Nerines.

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“Nerine bowdenii is the shocking pink of winter. It is difficult looking at these dry bulbs to think that such bright and wonderfully shaped flowers can burst from them.”

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Seed heads are the theme of the page opposite the Nerines.

“Seedheads on perennials and grasses play such an important part in our Winter garden. We have even bought ourselves a trio of seedhead sculptures made from stoneware.”

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So now we turn the page to the very last entry in my 2015 Garden Journal.

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“As December slowly comes to an end for 2015, we are already looking ahead. Jude’s little nursery is well-stocked with young plants which we will sell on our open days and to garden clubs who visit Avocet. The greenhouse keeps our tender plants warm and snug. They are patiently awaiting Spring 2016.”

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Young plants that we are growing on for sale at next year’s open days are sheltering in a plastic mini-greenhouse to encourage them to grow strong and healthy ready for next year. They look pretty sad through the winter though as most are herbaceous perennials.

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Tags berried shrubs, berried trees, berries, cotoneaster, garden journal, gardening, nerine, winter, winter garden, winter gardening

allotments community gardening fruit and veg garden furniture gardening recycling

Trug, trug, trug and trug!

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 29, 2015
2 Comments on Trug, trug, trug and trug!

It is strange how the word trug has come to mean slightly different things over the last decade or so. Until then the word trug referred to the wooden, hand-made garden carriers first made in Sussex and thus called the Sussex Trug.

This post is specially for one of my followers – she will know who she is – but I hope everyone likes it too.

The Sussex Trugs are still made from chestnut and willow, the sweet chestnut being used for the frame and willow for the body. The willow is a by-product of the cricket bat industry and the chestnut comes from coppiced wood.

We use our Sussex Trug in the garden when we harvest fruit from our trees, to hold bulbs ready to be planted and we find them convenient for lots of small jobs. We have been using Sussex Trugs for 20 years or so and we are only on our second one – they last for ages!

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We also have a trug which we use for collecting cut flowers from the garden. This one is made from willow wands. This one has a flat bottom rather than the boat shape of its Sussex cousins so is great for holding our cut flowers as we cut them from the garden. The photo shows it being used to hold Nerine bulbs ready for planting.

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The latest garden carrier to be given the name trug is made from recycled plastic and has proven itself to be one of the most useful pieces of garden equipment to hit the garden centres for years. These are available in lots of colours, sizes and dimensions so have a wide variety of uses around the garden.

We use ours when we are harvesting, pruning in the borders, watering and spreading compost as a mulch on our soil. On our allotment we even used a shallow but wide one to create a small wildlife pond. Every gardener has their own range of uses for the plastic trug.

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Trugs originated in Sussex, where they have been made for two centuries, because there was plenty of coppiced woods with Sweet Chestnut trees and plenty of willows found in marshy areas of the county. The word trug originated from the Anglo-Saxon word trog meaning a wooden vessel or boat-shaped article. They were used as measures or scoops for grain.

So just one more trug to show, the new veg trug. These big wooden raised beds for growing vegetables in are sold by several companies now but they are all virtually the same. The veg trug provides a growing space which is raised to a comfortable working height and allows anyone with the smallest space, even a patio, to grow vegetables and herbs. On our allotment site we have three which we use for our young gardeners to use. The first one we had was planted up by them as a pollinators garden. The other two are recent acquisitions so have yet to be planted by the youngsters of Bowbrook Allotment Community.

We spent a sunny spring day planting up the trug. The children worked with their parents, grandparents and committee members planting up herbaceous perennials and watering them in.

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The children have been looking after their pollinator garden ever since. They particularly enjoyed the watering!

Jude and friend Sherlie made up the two new trugs which arrived flat packed. In the spring the children will plant them up and will then have a trio of trugs to look after.

And here are our two new trugs built by Sherlie and Jude now filled with compost and planted with lots of different bulbs of every possible colour shape and size. Can’t wait until Spring wakes them up!

Tags plastic garden trug, Sussex Trugs, trug, trugs, veg trugs

autumn autumn colours climbing plants colours flowering bulbs garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials Herefordshire irises light light quality National Trust ornamental trees and shrubs poppies roses shrubs The National Trust walled gardens Winter Gardening winter gardens

Croft Castle – month by month – the final report

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 23, 2015
3 Comments on Croft Castle – month by month – the final report

Illness has prevented us making our monthly visit to Croft Castle where I would take photographs and report back about all that is going on in the gardens of this Herefordshire property run by the National Trust. Thus this final visit for the year took place in early December and will be a joint report for November and December together.

Tags apple trees, apples, berried shrubs, berries, flowering shrubs, Herefordshire, Herefordshire gardens, nerines, ornamental shrubs, perennial wallflowers, scent, scent in the garden, scented plants, scented shrubs, trees and shrubs, walled garden, walled gardens, winter shrubs

autumn autumn colours colours garden photography gardening hardy perennials ornamental trees and shrubs poppies roses Shropshire shrubs Winter Gardening

My Garden Journal – November

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 16, 2015
6 Comments on My Garden Journal – November

The penultimate visit to my garden journal for this year is here already, and I write this as November comes to a close. The strong winds of November howl around the house and roar down our chimneys. The rain has persisted for virtually every day of the month along with the strong winds.

My journal for the dreary month of November began “Our wonderful, heart warming Indian Summer lasts until the very last day of October, so we waited for the first day of November hoping for the continuation of warm, bright days. The eleventh month is usually a time of mists, fog and heavy dews.”

Jenny Joseph wrote of November, “Much of November belies the dread attached to its reputation, the shutting down, the gloom, the fog, the dark wet, the cold and the colds, autumn shrinking into winter.”

On November 1st we woke to a heavy dew, thick fog and the rest of the day was damp and dreary. The whole first week was the same. Oh dear!

Thank goodness for our garden which on the dreariest of days provided bright, colourful sparks. In every border there is a flower blooming its heart out to please us and of course any brave bees out on the wing in search of pollen and nectar.

All the photos below were taken on the same day in late November.

I next wrote about a real favourite plant of mine, a shrubby Buddleja rarely grown but oh so beautiful! Buddleja lindleyana.

“We grow an unusual Buddleja, which is still flowering this month. Buddleja lindleyana hails from china and boasts beautiful two-tone purple flowers. Racemes arch from the tip of every arching stem. Sadly it is rarely grown. I take cuttings every November to give to friends. They love it too!”

I enjoyed painting it too!

I took a couple of photos as well which you may like to see, as they illustrate the colour range found within the flowers.

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On the opposite page from my Buddleja lindleyana painting I have featured another special plant again rarely grown. This one though is a tree, an Acer.

“A young Acer tree is growing in our front garden. At this time of the year its leaves turn into the colours of fire. Its leaf petioles glow red. Acer pectinatum – a very special tree!”

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Turning the journal’s page over we have a mouth watering page about apples! and on the opposite page I look at our Viburnums.

“By this time of the year we have usually harvested our tree fruit and it is safely in store. This year we are still picking apples, some varieties should have been harvested by early September.”

I reveled in the chance to get out the watercolours and study two tasty and very colourful apples, Scrumptious and Red Falstaff which grow one either side of the green house door.

I moved on to consider the Viburnum shrubs putting on performances in our garden this month. “Various Viburnums give Winter interest and start their show now in mid-November. Their show is a profusion of gently coloured flowers, scent and shining red and black berries.”

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More shrubs graced the next few pages too, deciduous Euonymus and a Hydrangea.

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“Our deciduous Euonymus give us so many shades of pink as they metamorphose into their Autumn personas.”

At the bottom of this page beneath the Euonymus I just found room for a pic of the thistle-like Silybum maritimum.

“The teal-green and silver foliage rosette will give us these colours through the winter. In Spring flowering shoots will creep upwards full of promise.”

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Another all time great of the shrub world is featured on my next page in the journal, A Hydrangea that gives us flowers that change colour, foliage that changes colour and a most unusual shaped leaf for a Hydrangea. It is Hydrangea quercifolia.

I wrote of it, “Hydrangea quercifolia is giving its all in the garden with white flowers turning pink and then finally rust. Autumn turns its leaves from bright apple green through to ruby red.”

Its name gives a clue to its leaf shape as quercifolia means simply “oak leaved”. Our specimen has an extra attribute in that in Summer on humid days it emits a sweet honeyed scent. As far as I know they are not supposed to be graced with scent of any kind let alone one so special.

My last double page spread is all about Persicarias, a really useful perennial for any garden with hints of the new perennial movement or a nod towards the Prairie style planting. We love both these styles so we grow several different ones.

“A plant that gives us great pleasure in the Autumn is the Persicaria. We grow one type for its flowers and seed heads and another for its incredibly coloured and marked foliage. Persicaria amplexicaulis have poker-like flowers in various shades of red, pink and white followed by chocolate coloured seed heads.”

“Persicaria virginata gives us wonderfully coloured and unusual marked foliage with the addition of tiny white flowers.”

So that is the November visit to my journal. Next month will see me fill up my lovely little “Moleskine” note book as my December thoughts, photos and paintings bring the journal to an end for 2015.

Tags acers., apples, autumn, autumn colours, buddleias, buddlejas, deciduous euonymus, euonymus, Hydrangeas, November, ornamental shrubs, ornamental trees, Persicarias, shrubs, viburnum

autumn autumn colours community gardening garden furniture garden seating gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials light light quality ornamental trees and shrubs shrubs trees

Furzey Gardens – a wonderful gardening community – Part Two

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 13, 2015
3 Comments on Furzey Gardens – a wonderful gardening community – Part Two

Back at Furzey Gardens we continued to wander along its magical paths seeking out secret places and reveling in its beautiful plants. Beyond each corner more beauty was revealed and the depth of its calmness and peace increased. Furzey Gardens takes hold of its visitors and admirers. Throughout the garden volunteers and clients work together, laugh together and learn together. The trust here is set up to help adults with learning difficulties gain new skills, social and horticultural and develop a sense of self esteem and confidence. This results in everyone at Furzey having great pride in what they are doing and a deep level of satisfaction.

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A graceful stand of Birches with the white umbels of Cow Parsley scattered at their feet felt as full of calm and contentment as any place could possibly feel.

The rust colours of autumn trees matched the seeds of Primula close by.

The colours, tints and shades of Autumn can make ordinary places look special but it can also make special places look exceptionally beautiful. Just as we discovered here at Furzey.

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Homes for everything can be found at Furzey. As well as homes for fairies we found homes for hay bales and homes for birds.

The hedges along the edge of the gardens were full of fruit ready for the invasion of winter migrating thrushes and our resident Blackbirds and Thrushes.

Enjoy our wanderings back to the cafe where we refreshed ourselves before journeying back to out hotel.

Among shrubs and trees we discovered a building which hid a secret place for sky viewing.

I thought I would drop in a couple of pics of herbaceous flowers to show that there was a lot more to Furzey than shrubs and trees.

I promised to share with you more of those Fairy and Insect Doors secreted around Furzey.

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Our tour of the gardens at Furzey finished as we explored the 16th Century Forest Cottage, beautifully renovated and re-furnished in simple elegance. It sat in a garden of equal character and an accurate portrayal of its period.

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Tags communal gardens, community, community spirit, Furzey Gardens, garden furniture, Hampshire, ornamental shrubs, ornamental trees, shrubs, trees and shrubs

autumn autumn colours community gardening garden buildings garden design garden furniture garden photography garden ponds garden pools garden seating gardening gardens gardens open to the public light light quality memorials ornamental trees and shrubs trees

Furzey Gardens – a wonderful gardening community – Part One

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 11, 2015
1 Comment on Furzey Gardens – a wonderful gardening community – Part One

Jude, The Undergardener, and I always love visiting community gardens to see what is going on. As we are Chairman and Secretary of a community garden, Bowbrook Allotment Community, we always appreciate everything our fellow community gardeners are achieving.

When in Hampshire we discovered that we were close to Furzey Gardens, run as a charitable trust and a very special community garden indeed, described as “A haven of peace and tranquility in the heart of the New Forest.”

We discovered this 10 acre garden created within woodland around a 16th Century forest cottage. It is a partnership between Furzey Gardens and the Minstead Training Trust. To find out more check out their respective websites, http://www.furzey-gardens.org and http://www.minsteadtt.org .

We arrived at their car park where our progress into the car park was hindered by wandering pigs belonging to local commoners taking advantage of their “rights of pannage”. The signage looked promising. We soon came across a photograph of some of the garden’s volunteers and a shed where produce was sold.

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And once inside we discovered a lovely cafe and gallery run by some of the trust’s volunteers. This was to set the scene for the whole visit.

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The views from the table at which we enjoyed our coffee and cakes were certainly very encouraging. We set off with high expectations!

We noticed within the outside seating area this huge table carved by a local wood sculptor from the trunk of a tree. It was hard to see how this was possible. But possible it was! In the picnic area we found another!

We found more beautiful hand made furniture throughout the gardens.

We soon discovered that this was a garden sporting some beautiful specimen trees and shrubs which in early autumn were performing a colourful show. The volunteers maintained the gardens and individual specimens to a very high standard. Above all a sense of peace pervaded every space and the volunteers we saw working looked full of contentment and displayed a great pride in their work.

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We loved this sign which faced us as we followed our pathway through the garden.

“We love children but we also love plants!

Many of the plants at Furzey are old, rare and fragile.

So please don’t climb our trees or trample on the flowers.

Feel free to hop and skip along the paths

And follow the secret places map.”

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We moved on and the low autumn sunshine lit up the foliage all around like a massive stained glass window.

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We enjoyed having so much choice when it came to sitting resting and taking in the beauty of Furzey. Many benches were memorials of volunteers, clients and visitors who simply enjoyed the special nature of this place.

After a break for tea and yet more cake we set off through the shrubs and trees to find the lake, a lake whose surface was cluttered with water lily leaves and its moist margins decorated by big-leaved plants and umbel seed heads.

Throughout the walkways there were secret places for children to discover, “Fairy Houses” hidden low down and camouflaged.

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We shall find more of these little magic places in part two of our visit to Furzey, but I shall finish this first part by sharing with you one of the many thatched rustic garden buildings scattered throughout the gardens. The use of coloured glass leaves added magical light effects.

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Tags communal gardens, community, community gardening, community spirit, Furzey Gardens, garden sculpture, garden seating, Hampshire

autumn community gardening fruit and veg garden buildings garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public grow your own kitchen gardens National Trust renovation Shrewsbury Shropshire The National Trust walled gardens walled kitchen gardens Winter Gardening

The Walled Garden at Attingham Park

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 6, 2015
1 Comment on The Walled Garden at Attingham Park

Our local National Trust property, Attingham Park, is just a 20 minute drive away. We are so lucky as within the grounds are several different walks to choose from including woodland walks, but we also love visiting the renovated walled gardens. When we first visited Attingham Park years ago now there were very few walks accessible, the walled gardens were in a poor state of repair and the refreshment facilities were poor. Things have certainly changed for the better!

In late November we decided to go for a walk around the woodlands and explore the walled garden to see what was going on. The improvements become immediately obvious as there is now a new entrance building and a newly refurbished Carriage House Cafe in the stable yard. After sampling the delights in the cafe we wandered off towards the Walled Garden one of our favourite elements of the Attingham Estate. In the Stable Yard sits a little sales hut selling produce from the walled garden, freshly picked and delivered by bike.

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The Walled Garden was originally created way back in 1780 and its job was to provide the estate with fresh fruit and vegetables throughout the year. Looking at it now it is hard to believe that it fell into total disuse and dereliction. An amazing team of volunteers have recently brought it back to life. It no longer produces food for the “big house” but instead sends its organic produce up to the restaurant and cafe and for sale to the visitors.

One of the impressive features of the Walled Garden is the amount of information boards placed carefully to keep visitors fully informed. Before passing through the gateway into the garden itself we always love seeing the beautifully trained fruit on the outside wall.

Taking a step inside and the garden came to life before our eyes, volunteers busy harvesting, weeding the beds and clearing ground ready for winter digging.

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The volunteer gardeners enjoy getting creative with Birch and Hazel boughs and branches and their bean supports, tunnels and wigwams always look impressive.

It was good to see sound organic principles being used here, barriers, green manures and companion planting and herbaceous borders to attract beneficial insects, predators and pollinators.

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As we moved into the glasshouse area we were impressed by the renovation work being carried out on the glasshouse ranges. Information boards show visitors what the area looked like prior to its rescue.

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Cut flowers were also grown here and even in November the Dahlias were flowering well due to the protection of the walls and protection from Earwigs provided by the old fashioned method of putting a pot stuffed with straw on top of a cane.

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On a cold day a look inside the gardeners bothy proved to be a welcome time to warm up and enjoy the displays.

Exiting the Walled Garden via the orchard gave us a chance to look at the front of the old red brick buildings. The Walled Gardens here at Attingham are worth visiting throughout the year as there is always something interesting going on. We are so lucky having this national trust property so close to Shrewsbury.

From the walled gardens we wandered off into the woodlands following one of the marked trails. My next post will feature what we found there.

Tags Attingham Park, fruit and veg, fruit and veg growing, fruit and vegetable growing, fruit training, garden restoration, glasshouses, parkland, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, The National Trust, walled garden, walled gardens

allotments community gardening gardening hedgerows recycling

New Toys for our Allotment Site

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 4, 2015
1 Comment on New Toys for our Allotment Site

It is always exciting to get new equipment for our community allotments, Bowbrook Allotment Community (BAC), but when we get three close together, two of which are real boys’ (and girls’) toys then it really is extra exciting. You will notice as this post moves forward that the girls mix it with the boys at BAC however tough the tasks.

Our first new toy, or should I say piece of equipment, was an attachment for our Ryobi strimmers which allows us to prune thick branches, a bit like a mini-chainsaw. The second was a mighty petrol-driven chipper/shredder, and the third a pair of wooden raised vegetable trugs. Jude and I give talks to garden groups and together with other committee members provide “Walk and Talk” sessions for groups at the allotment. With the fees we charge we manage to buy extras for the site. Using some of this money together with a generous grant from our local town councillor we were able to acquire these helpful machines.

We were so excited when the huge box arrived with our big red toy inside. Michael soon got to work breaking the box open.

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We quickly set about deciphering the instructions and putting all the extra bits and pieces together.

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Once all put together and filled with fuel we wheeled the red chipper all the way up the big grass path to the mature trees around our picnic area, where a mighty big pile of prunings awaited chipping. We had produced the pile of prunings when we used our other toy, the Ryobi pruning attachment.

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We have a policy at Bowbrook Allotment Community of following the 3-Rs, reuse, reduce and recycle. A key element of this is keeping as much green waste as possible on site where we can use it again. Thus all the cut branches from tree work and shrub pruning are now going into our new shredder.

Jude the Undergardener piled the shreddings into a wheelbarrow and wheeled them off to the Winter Garden where they gave us a fresh soft pathway.

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Our 3-Rs policy also meant that we recycled the cardboard from the box that the big red chipper arrived in. Sherlie tore it all up into pieces and mixed it with grass cuttings and this will produce quality compost for using as a mulch on our communal borders.

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Earlier on while Mike, Pete and I were unpacking and putting the new chipper together Jude and Sherlie got out the tools and put together our two new wooden raised trugs.

Quite soon after the big red chipper was rolled out again as we began our hedge cutting season.We chose an extremely wet and windy day but everyone had lots of fun fortified throughout by soup and cake provided by the committee and served up by our tea committee, “The Tea Bags”.

To discover more about BAC please check out our website http://www.bowbrookallotments.co.uk

Tags Bowbrook Allotment Community, communal gardens, community gardening, community spirit

autumn autumn colours climbing plants colours flowering bulbs fruit and veg garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public grow your own hardy perennials Herefordshire irises kitchen gardens light light quality National Trust poppies roses The National Trust walled gardens walled kitchen gardens

Croft Castle Month by Month – October

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 16, 2015
1 Comment on Croft Castle Month by Month – October

October was a month made special by a bright, colourful Indian Summer. It made our tenth monthly visit to the gardens at Croft Castle special. Without realising it we had chosen the week when the property were putting on a Halloween trail for the children. The trail sheet encouraged the youngsters to search for clues, so naturally we had to do the same.

The first change we noticed on this visit was how autumn had taken over the garden, with most trees changing their green cloak to one of yellow.

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The first border we pass on our way to the walled garden is the long mixed border alongside the drive.

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We reached the walled garden which is the best part of the grounds, wondering what changes we would find there. Even though some borders were being cleared there was plenty left to attract my camera lens, whole borders of interest …………

………… and plenty of single plants still looking full of colour.

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We were amazed by the simple beauty of these Japanese Anemone flowers which had just dropped their petals.

Plants can find their own niche however inappropriate it may seem to us. This bright red poppy chose a spot close to equally blue fencing.

When we made our first of this year’s monthly visits to Croft Castle we found an unfinished insect hotel, bearing the label “unfinished project”. We looked forward to its completion each month but nothing changed, but on our October visit we noticed it was finished at last.

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We didn’t expect to see much colour in the Rose Garden but we were pleasantly surprised by delicately scented Rose blooms and the supporting cast of perennials.

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The veggie beds were still providing late season crops with leeks looking particularly tasty. On the old apple trees clumps of Mistletoe had found a home.

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We found this extra bright colour combination which lit up the whole walled garden.

Another Halloween activity for the children was to find big pumpkins hidden around the gardens. Naturally the children in us tempted us to find them too.

As the seasons move on towards the year’s end signs of plants closing down have appeared. Seed heads are so beautiful at this time of year. They look even better if touched by the hand of Jack Frost.

Our next visit will be the penultimate visit of the year. By then the effects of autumnal weather will cover the garden.

autumn autumn colours birds colours garden photography garden wildlife gardening gardens hardy perennials light light quality migration ornamental trees and shrubs Shropshire

My Garden Journal – October

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 1, 2015

So here we are with the tenth post in the “My Garden Journal” monthly series highlighting the changes that we see, hear and smell each month in our Shropshire garden at our home “Avocet”. Our garden open days have finished for the year and we have hosted our last visiting group for the year, so we have the garden to ourselves and our wildlife. From April to September we are open on set days and to visiting groups and although we love sharing our garden there is a feeling of letting go a bit once October arrives a sort of end of term feeling.

We will be busy taking hardwood cuttings and potting on those we struck last autumn. Our greenhouse becomes home to our more delicate plants, our Aeoniums, Salvias, and Echeverias. We put up bubble wrap as a cosy duvet for them and put the heating on gently.

My first page in my journal for October refers to the changing light the month brings.

“Autumn is most definitely with us, its special low light with its own intensity and identity gives the garden its coat of many colours. Sedum give us flowers of pink to purple rising from its succulent leaves.

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“October began by continuing September’s Indian Summer. We are enjoying blue skies and warm temperatures. Luxuries for the gardeners, who can use these special moments to sit in the sun, drink tea and drink in the colourful richness in every border.”

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My journal moved on to consider the changing colours which is symbolic of this season. The quote I have selected for October from Jenny Joseph also looks at October’s colours.

“The fire that October first brings to me is what has started in September. It is the woods flaming; not terrifying summer fires in some afforested countries, but the fire with no heat, no destruction. The torch that sets fire to our woods, hedges, trees in roads and gardens, blazing through cool damp darkening days is the sap withdrawing. It is a dying that can make us gasp at the intensity and great range of colour.”

In my journal I wrote “All those myriad shades of green that had been acting as foils for the colours of flowers are now coming to the fore. It is their turn to be the stars! As we move into autumn more deeply the green recedes to reveal yellows, oranges and reds. Our Euphorbia griffithii “Fireglow” glows yellow with thin red lines drawn on.”

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“We grow two different varieties of Hamamelis x intermedia, Jelena and Diana, mostly for their bright late winter/early spring flowers but in autumn they give us the same orange and red colours.”

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On the following pages I discuss the birds that visited our garden during October, the Merlin and the Little Owl. I hope you enjoy looking at my coloured pencil crayon drawing as much as I enjoyed creating them.

“Most of our Summer Migrant birds have left us. Firstly the Swifts and the Cuckoos left us in July and then the Warblers and the sky dancers, Swallows and House Martins.

We have been surprised to spot two birds which until recently would also have flown to warmer climes. Some of our summer visitors now stay with us. Early in October we spotted a male Merlin hunting along the lane from our house, moving and manoevring low to the ground in definite hunting mood.

Recently we heard the call of Little Owls, their piercing sounds were more those of a yapping Terrier than those of an owl.”

“In our “Secret Garden” we grow a miniature Chestnut, Aesculus mutabilis “Induta”. We forgive it for its ugly name as we love it all year. It gives salmon-pink new foliage in the spring which is followed by upright panicles of pinky-salmon flowers loved by the bees. Flowers are followed by little “conkers”, then in autumn the foliage turns the brightest yellow. When the foliage falls beautiful silvery-grey bark shines through the winter.”

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“I featured the seed heads of Phlomis and Acer rufinerve in my journal pages for September. As we move through October more plants produce seed heads worthy of starring roles. Echinops, Eremurus, Eryngium and Crocosmia.”

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