Category: gardening

Happy Birthday to My Blog

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 16, 2012
15 Comments on Happy Birthday to My Blog

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!

My 15 nominated blogs;

1. www.lensandpensbysally.wordpress.com

2. www.aerialediblegardening.wordpress.com

3. www.latebloomerbuds.wordpress.com

4. www.fennelandfern.co.uk/blog

5. www.soulsbyfarm.wordpress.com

6. www.gardeninginthelines.wordpress.com

7. www.mytinyplot.wordpress.com

8. www.gettingfreshblog.wordpress.com

9. www.gardeningcanuck.wordpress.com

10. www.100squaremetres.wordpress.com

11. www.pbmgarden.wordpress.com

12. www.arignagardener.wordpress.com

13. www.grandparentsplus2.wordpress.com

14. www.wanderingwoody.wordpress.com

15. www.indiansummerfarm.wordpress.com

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.

Tags foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, grasses, grown your own, insects, poppies, wildlife

climbing plants fruit and veg garden design garden photography gardening half-hardy perennials hardy perennials meadows ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs photography poppies roses Shropshire shrubs succulents trees

Another Wander around our Garden in June

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 13, 2012

We can start the second part of our wander by looking again at the front garden. Buds give us hints of blooms to come in midsummer, Phlomis, Oriental Poppies, Erygiums and Echinops. Promises of yellows, reds and steely blues.

Foliage colour and texture can be as striking as the most colourful of flowers.

Our collection of Clematis are beginning to flower and others are covered in robust buds.

Flower colours have been so important during the first few weeks of this month simply as an antidote to dull days and dark skies. It matters not whether it is a gaudy cerise beauty or a subtle green or white.

Blue on blue.

Another view of our Freda Border.

Our mini-meadows in their pots are developing well. We think we may be onto a winner.

The Shed Bed created on the site of an old shed which we demolished when we moved in, is really pleasing as below the shed we found just rubble, gravel, broken pots and sand. We added wheelbarrows of compost to improve it and now every little flower is a true gem.

A vine grows over one end of the greenhouse acting as a natural shading agent as well as feeding the gardeners. The startlingly red flowering currant has hitched a lift along it so the vine drips with red droplets.

We enjoy these irises as cut flowers but bees take advantage of them before we pick them. This clump is growing through our stepover apples. Double harvesting – cut flowers followed by apples.

The planting around the pool has closed in and made it an intimate area. Nearby the Prairie Garden is bursting with fresh blooms.

In the Secret Garden Aquilegias and Alliums look good alongside the purple foliage of Pentstemon Huskers Red.

These aeonium enjoy the hottest part of the garden, the Rill Garden.

To one side of the rill we grow a snake bark maple, with silver and green striped bark, cream and red seed capsules and in autumn it has amazing rich red foliage. A wonderful specimen tree to finish this garden wander underneath.

garden design garden photography gardening hardy perennials photography Shropshire spring gardening

Aquilegias – spurred beauties.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 10, 2012
4 Comments on Aquilegias – spurred beauties.

What would the early summer be like without the wonderful aquiligeas? We look forward to them as soon as the spring bulbs begin to go over, knowing they will be the next big feature in every part of the garden. We never know where they will appear as they self seed and cross-breed freely. We let them get on with it until we feel they need some new blood. We select interesting colours and shape and leave them to add their genes to our pool of aquiligeas.

They come in so many colours, shapes and sizes but they all have interestingly shaped foliage a little reminiscent of over-sized thalictrum.

Tags aquilegias, garden photography, gardening

garden photography gardening photography

Abstract Garden Views

When we enter gardens we explore them searching out plants and design features and it is these we take photos of. Most of my blogs show just this, but in one part of Trentham it was the detail that struck me. Enjoy sharing them with me.

Tags garden photography, gardening, Trentham Gardens

allotments community gardening garden photography gardening hardy perennials photography Shropshire

Incredible Iris

Early summer sunshine is the best time to see irises and appreciate their beauty. The brightness of colours illuminated by the sun gives them an ethereal quality that no other flowers possess.

A journey around our garden and our allotment site with camera in hand tells all there is to say. The first set shows the irises on our “Beth Chatto Garden”, the gravel bed, where they find the conditions ideal. They can sunbathe for hours!

The borders in the back garden are generally too densely planted for Bearded Iris to thrive, but we do grow Dutch iris as cut flowers and Iris sibirica, the bearded’s more subtle cousins. Our Dutch Iris are unusually coloured, one in a combination of blue and yellow and the other a combination of purple and brown with bright yellow centres. We grow them underneath our stepover apples.

Iris sibirica are tall, slim and delicate, and send up masses of flowers in various shades of blue. They develop large clumps in just a few years so need regularly dividing but friends enjoy receiving the offsets.

On our allotment site several plot holders grow Bearded Iris on their plots and we have planted groups of Iris sibirica in the community gardens.

Tags allotments, bearded iris, community gardening, dutch iris, garden photography, gardening, iris sibirica, irises

garden design garden photography gardening hardy perennials

Perfect Colour Combination

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 2, 2012
2 Comments on Perfect Colour Combination

Why is it that however much effort we put into planning colour combinations of flowering plants in our garden, Mother Nature comes along and shows us how to do it properly and to show she is the boss.

We bought a beautiful new Sea Thrift with deep cerise flowers and contrasting purple foliage a few days ago and without thinking placed it next to a Bergenia. Walking past today I noticed that the flowers matched perfectly. Just check this out!

Tags armeria, bergenias, foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, gardening, greenhouse gardening, thrift

allotments birds community gardening conservation fruit and veg garden photography garden wildlife gardening grow your own hardy perennials meadows natural pest control Shropshire wildlife

A Wander around the Allotments in May

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 31, 2012
4 Comments on A Wander around the Allotments in May

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.

IMG_4145-1 — The perennial bug borders are looking good.

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.

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.

Tags allotments, birds, community gardening, conservation, fruit and veg, fruit and vegetable growing, fruit., garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, greenhouse gardening, grown your own, harvest, insects, meadows, organic gardening, red currants, wildlife

garden design garden photography gardening hardy perennials photography spring gardening

Ferns – right plant right place

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 28, 2012
7 Comments on Ferns – right plant right place

When plants self-seed they often find perfect niches in which to set up home. In a garden recently we found young ferns which had found just such places, but I suppose they self-spore rather than self-seed. All around the edge of a curling path edged with silver birch trunks little ferns were establishing themselves.

After putting these photos into the blog I had to go out with the camera into our own garden to see what our ferns were getting up to.

Having started this post and saved it to finish later we went for a woodland walk and discovered two of our native ferns growing happily in the dappled shade.

Tags ferns, foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, gardening

garden photography gardening hardy perennials photography poppies

Meconopsis in Yellow and Blue

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 26, 2012
1 Comment on Meconopsis in Yellow and Blue

Blue meconopsis (Meconopsis grandis) are a challenge to grow and many gardeners are tempted to give it a go once they have seen them growing healthily. Their delicate almost see-through petals look too thin to survive the slightest whiff of wind or a drop of rain landing on them. Within their blue purity are slight hints and veins of red seen only when the light from the sun falls on them. In contrast to their blue petals golden centres and stigma grace the centre of each bloom.

To grow successfully the gardener must provide the exact conditions this poppy demands. Unfortunately our garden doesn’t have the right conditions at the moment, but we are working on it, so I took these pics at the RHS Malvern Spring Gardening Show.

Just as beautiful but very easy to grow are the yellow Welsh Poppies, Meconopsis cambrica. They self seed throughout our garden and we enjoy them appearing just where they choose to do so in May each year. Their yellow petals also display hints and veins of red when the sunlight falls on them. They too are almost transparent and look too delicate to survive everything the British weather subjects them to.

When they self seed they select their partners in the borders with care looking good wherever they land up. I wandered around our garden one sunny May day to see where they had chosen to appear this year. Although it is the most prolific self-seeder in our garden there is no way it can be called a weed, for if a weed is a plant in the wrong place, the Welsh Poppy always lands in the right place.

Where the blue poppy enjoys shade, its yellow Welsh relative opens out its flowers spreading the petals wide when the sun comes out but as evening falls they close back up to hide from the darkness. These delicately petalled poppies come in all shades of yellow from the palest lemon to almost orange, with one of the prettiest being the yellow with a slim fringe of orange.

While in the garden shooting pics for this post I couldn’t resist the temptation to include this exquisite double orange flowered beauty, which although a poppy is not a Meconopsis, but a papaver. Papaver rupifragum which I grew from seed eight years ago and they continue to appear each year.

And while photographing these I spied through the corner of my eye the first plant of our native red poppy to be flowering. It looks equally good in bud, flower or seedpod. This poppy is known botanically as Papaver rhoeas, but seems to collect common names including Field Poppy, Corn Poppy and Flanders Poppy.

The wonderful Welsh Poppy greets us each morning as we enter the garden through the stable door. What a cheerful way for the garden to say welcome us!

Tags garden photography, gardening, meconopsis, papaver, poppies

bird watching birds garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening hardy perennials ornamental trees and shrubs Shropshire spring gardening

A Wander around our Garden in May

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 24, 2012
8 Comments on A Wander around our Garden in May

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?