Category: gardens open to the public

A Wonderful Community Garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 14, 2014
2 Comments on A Wonderful Community Garden

Returning from a few days away down south we made a diversion from the direct route home to visit a community garden in the Wiltshire town of Swindon, a town renowned in its heyday for manufacturing everything to do with railways at their peak in the era of steam.

As Jude, aka The Undergardener or Mrs Greenbench, and I are involved in running an allotment community garden we were keen to see what was going on at TWIGS, another community garden which like us open under the auspices of the National Garden Scheme.

TWIGS stands for Therapeutic Work in Gardening in Swindon, which proved to be a perfect reflection of what goes on in what we discovered to be an amazing and caring enterprise.

It was hard to find even though the directions in the NGS’s Yellow Book made it look simple. We navigated our way around the bypass searching for the right exits and often failing, until we found the right district. We wriggled through industrial and business parks in search of a garden centre which shared its grounds with TWIGS.

When we successfully arrived were welcomed by this cheerful planter alongside the gateway in. Once inside we immediately spotted colourful borders and rows of busy polytunnels.

Come around with us now as we wander the paths of TWIGS discovering their wonderful work.

The staff and volunteers here help their clients who have problems of all sorts, to regain their pride and confidence through raising plants, looking after chickens, making bird boxes and insect homes, creating gardens and crafting sculptures and much more. The plants raised are used both in the gardens and for sale in the little nursery and the nestboxes and insect homes are found around the site to encourage wildlife as well as for sale to visitors.

The gardens themselves are peaceful places, calm and quiet and great places to relax in or retreat to. The gardens are managed using organic approaches and in partnership with nature. They must have such a strong effect on those who care for them or like us just visit them.

There were some original ideas here too created by the clients, such as this sedum planter.

We found wandering around TWIGS a most enjoyable, relaxing and enlightening experience. It shows what can be achieved by dedicated people who want to use gardening and working with nature to improve the lives of others. It was good to visit another community garden which proved to be very different to our own at Bowbrook Allotment Community.I shall finish with this set of pictures which illustrate what TWIGS is all about. A sunken retreat had been designed by an artist in residence and built by the TWIGS clients using all recycled materials. It is a peaceful place to sit and widlife has found homes within it.

Tags bird boxes, communal gardens, community gardening, community spirit, garden arches, insect homes, insect shelters, outdoor art, outdoor sculpture, Swindon, Wiltshire

colours garden buildings garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials NGS nurseries photography Shropshire South Shropshire walled gardens Yellow Book Gardens

Day Lilies in a Walled Garden – Mynd Hardy Plants

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 13, 2014
3 Comments on Day Lilies in a Walled Garden – Mynd Hardy Plants

After opening our allotment community gardens at the weekend we felt in need of a restful day out. So Jude and I with friends Pete and Sherlie decided to visit a little nursery and garden close by. We chose what we thought would be a peaceful place and we were right.

As soon as you enter Mynd Hardy Plants in the Corvedale in South Shropshire you feel yourself relax, as the sight of so many colourful perennials reaches your eyes and an intermingling of scents seduces your nose. The new owners give such a warm welcome and it was good to hear of their plans, while the aroma of coffee and freshly baked scones took over the assault on our noses. The soppy Labrador joined in the welcome nuzzling our legs and seeking attention.

Displays of plants in flower now and for sale in the nursery beds struck us with their rich colours. Achilleas always attract me and the display here was exceptional.

As you can imagine we didn’t get far before the aromas coming from the tea shop area drew us away from the plants. We sat wondering how we were going to resist buying enough plants to fill the car. The rains came as we started our wanderings but it did little to dampen our emthusiasm.

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There were signs of how much work was to be done if the garden was to be restored.

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An extra treat was to come after our second tea break. We met the wonderful Day Lily specialist Mark Zennick.

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What a character! He convinced us within minutes that we loved all Hemerocallis even the bicolours and doubles that we thought we disliked strongly. I had known about his work and now I can put the face to the name. Check out the photos of just a tiny selection of his plants below and you will just begin to appreciate the vastness of his collection.

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It is always good to find a plant previously unknown to you. This little beauty struck the four of us equally and we enjoyed racking our brains to work out what it was. We were all totally wrong. When we turned to Mark for the answer we were amazed to learn it was a Lysimachia.

Naturally we came away with a lovely specimen for our own garden. And we will be back within a week or so. As we get closer to our own NGS open day we are sure to need a few specimens to fill the odd gap. Mynd Hardy Plants is the place to satisfy these needs! And of course I may take enough shots of different Hemoraccalis to create another post. Mark agreed to come and talk to the Shropshire Group of the Hardy Plant Society in the future, on the subject of Day Lilies of course, and the new owners wished to make a reciprocal visit to our gardens.

We had chosen well. Our visit had relaxed us and we felt we had made new friends. If you love Day Lilies, or if you love walled gardens or if you like independent nurseries you must go and visit. The challenge is to leave without buying a plant!

Check out the website at http://www.myndhardyplants.co.uk.

Tags day lilies, hardy perennials, hemerocallis, independent nurseries, lysimachia, NGS, nurseries, South Shropshire, walled gardens, Yellow Book, Yellow Book Gardens

climbing plants garden buildings garden design garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials Hardy Plant Society Land Art National Garden Scheme NGS nurseries ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture Powis Powys trees Wales woodland

Three Welsh Gardens – Part One -Tan y Llyn – a little nursery in a woodland garden.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 4, 2014
3 Comments on Three Welsh Gardens – Part One -Tan y Llyn – a little nursery in a woodland garden.

We ventured along narrow winding lanes into the countryside of Powys our neighbouring county across the border into Wales. We were not the only ones out travelling these lanes on a mission on this sunny afternoon. Several members of the Shrewsbury Mini-Group, part of the Shropshire Group of the Hardy Plant Society, were meeting up at a woodland garden and nursery called Tan y Llyn.

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The weather was bright. There is no better day to visit a woodland garden than a sunny one as it enhances the contrast between shade and light so well. Even the most ordinary plants such as this Cotoneaster and Yew look so good.

Any flowers in a woodland garden shine out from the shadows.

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Dotted around Tan y Llyn are interesting objects and well-composed cameos.

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Callum Johnston the garden owner also ran a little nursery specialising in alpines and herbs and he featured many of the plants for sale within a garden around his front door where plants were grown in a selection of pots and containers. They invited close inspection as did the sales benches close by in the shade of deciduous trees.

We were particularly drawn to this dry river bed of pebbles winding through the gravel of the driveway near the cottage’s front door. We immediately began to plan where we could try something similar out at home.

Callum admitted to an obsession – training, twisting and pruning willow into interesting structures. He also obviously loved hedge trimming where on occasion he lets his imagination run riot.

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Callum had even trained willows to become bird feeding stations. The birds certainly liked them as did our Hardy Plant friends. Callum and his partner Brenda served us up with cream teas under the shade of trees alongside these feeders so as we reveled in our luxury teas we were entertained by the birds enjoying theirs.

Nearby herbs grew in a terraced border and added their scent and spice to the conducive atmosphere. As with many garden owners who like to share their garden, Callum and Brenda knew how to make us feel comfortable and relaxed.

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A classic colour combination of yellow and blue attracted us. Closer to we realised that the yellow was provided by this stunning Lily.

One effective design trick used here was the use of enticing paths and it was very well used.

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A final wander around these paths beneath and between the trees was called for after our tea and before we reluctantly left this special place in a wooded Welsh valley.

Callum accompanied us down the drive as he thanked us for visiting and for buying lots of plants. They were very good hosts. At the bottom of the drive we made one final discovery, another surprise conjured up by this truly unique garden. Another of Callum’s tricks with his pruners.

Tags nurseries, Powis, Powys, Welsh gardens, woodland garden

fruit and veg garden buildings garden design garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials kitchen gardens light light quality meadows ornamental trees and shrubs trees walled gardens walled kitchen gardens woodland

A Wonderful Walled Garden – Cerney House

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 1, 2014
4 Comments on A Wonderful Walled Garden – Cerney House

Both Jude and I love walled gardens whether they keep up the tradition of providing the ideal environment for fruit and veg growing or if they house decorative planting within their walls. On an uncharacteristically hot day in May we spent the afternoon in the walled garden at Cerney House on the edge of the Cotswolds between Cheltenham and Cirencester.

The place for parking the cars was on a freshly mown patch of grass within a huge uncut flowery meadow. This meadow provided a wonderful foreground to the mature trees. We were amused to see these two cars which had obviously been parked up for a few days as the grass had been cut around them. Long grass and flowers lapped at their tyres.

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The garden here is on a gentle slope which must have created near perfect conditions for the gardeners to produce fruit and veg. The little gateway into the garden gave a glimpse of what we could look forward to and there were little gems to increase our anticipation.

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Now long mixed decorative borders run along the slope and in the top corner soon after entering through the gateway we discovered a tea shop in the old gardeners’ bothy. A great place to start our exploration and refresh ourselves before setting off.

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There were some lovely old gnarled fruit trees remaining from the old productive garden days, and a lovely old Viburnum still flowering strongly.

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We took a diversion into the edge of the Woodland Garden where the air was scented with Wild Garlic and the ground beneath the trees clothed in a huge variety of Comfreys and Geraniums. The walls here were clothed in Clematis happily rambling along.

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The gardens within the walls were a lovely combination of formal and informal, short smartly cut hedges enclosing frothy perennials.

In the centre of a group of four formal beds we enjoyed looking at four old Quinces in flower.

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The last view of the garden from the car park as we arrived back after our walk was of groups of mature trees, many of which were Horse Chestnut. I was doubly glad to see them. Firstly because they are my favourite late spring tree with their huge spires of white or pink flowers and secondly because I had just started a post about them.

I shall finish with this Aquilegia leaf shadow sharply painted by the sun onto a boulder.

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Tags clematis, foliage, foliage plants, fruit and vegetable growing, garden photography, gardening, ornamental trees, trees, walled garden, walled gardens

community gardening garden buildings garden design garden ponds garden pools garden seating garden wildlife gardening gardens gardens open to the public Land Art log piles logs National Trust nature reserves outdoor sculpture The National Trust trees water in the garden wildlife woodland

An Interest Trail for Children – Dunham Massey

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 25, 2014
2 Comments on An Interest Trail for Children – Dunham Massey

We have created an “Interest Trail” around our allotment community garden, and we see it performing two roles, firstly it guides all our visitors around the site taking in as big a variety of features as possible and secondly it performs as an activity trail for children. It has proved very popular. Whenever we come across a similar trail in large gardens or parks we always have a look to see how the idea has been executed. We visited the National Trust garden, Dunham Abbey, primarily to enjoy the Winter Garden but we discovered that since our last visit a few years ago a couple of the gardeners have created a children’s trail so we could not resist trying it out.

It was wonderful! Come with us and enjoy! We found the sign and below it one of the decorated bikes and then enjoyed a woodland wander before discovering the first of many fun and educational features designed for children.

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Any child who is brought here is very lucky indeed! At our allotment we also have features and arrange activities for the children and grandchildren of our members and their friends so we left with many new ideas.

Tags Cambridge, children and gardens, gardening for children, log piles, nature trails, woodland

architecture birds gardens gardens open to the public grasses hardy perennials lakes landscapes meadows National Trust ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture renovation shrubs The National Trust trees water in the garden

A Walk in the Park – Croome

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 20, 2014
2 Comments on A Walk in the Park – Croome

A a rare warm day in May we met my sister, Penny and husband Tony, for a walk in the park near their home. But this is no ordinary park – it was Croome a National Trust property near the village of Pershore in Worcestershire. The park and house are undergoing a huge long-term restoration programme. We were pleased to get a chance to enjoy it part way through its rebirth.

The parkland was originally designed by Capability Brown and it is beginning to come back to life after decades of neglect. Sweeping wildflower meadows were punctuated with newly planted trees. From the slightly elevated parts of the park we enjoyed distant views of the Worcestershire countryside.

As we walked along the highest ridge in the park through newly planted shrubs and trees we were amazed to see that one section of the original underground water system had been exposed by a landslip. A glimpse into the genius of those water feature engineers. In places small areas of herbaceous planting had been established. It was refreshing to look at colour close to and in detail as the parkland here is mostly about large-scale views.

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A few old specimen trees have survived and their gnarled twisted trunks were a stark contrast to the newly planted shrubs and trees. Beyond them glimpses of the house and church were revealed.

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Flowering shrubs seemed particularly happy here with fine examples of sweetly scented Lilac and Hawthorn with their rather unpleasant aroma.

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As we left the shrubberies we moved back out into the open passing over an old stone-built bridge over the River Croome where it had been widened out to form a lake. This was typical of the way Capability Brown manipulated the landscape. The fence on the bridge was constructed from the wood of chestnut. This wood makes unusual looking fencing which lasts for centuries without maintenance. (see another post, coming soon, concerning Chestnut trees and fences constructed from their wood)

Overlooking the lake was a grotto which had been lovingly restored and on this extremely hot and humid day it provided some much appreciated shade and cool air. The fissures and cracks within it afforded the local small birds with safe, secret nesting sites. We spotted Wrens, Blue Tits and Coal Tits while we sat and rested a short while. A statue here was dedicated to Sabrina the Goddess of the River Severn. Sabrina is well known to us as our home town, Shrewsbury, huddles within a loop of the River Severn. The goddess lends her name to many a boat and building in the town.

In places the lake’s surface bubbled and frothed with a seething black mass of tadpoles. Amazing!

Our wanderings back to the car park took us along the banks of the River Croome where we were entertained by Sedge Warblers in full song atop waterside plants, through more flower rich meadows.

Tags Capability Brown, Croome Park, garden photography, gardening, meadows, National Trust, ornamental trees, outdoor sculpture, Sabrina, trees, Worcestershire

colours flowering bulbs garden design garden designers garden photography garden ponds garden pools gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials irises Italian style gardens lakes Piet Oudolf Staffordshire Tom Stuart-Smith

Irises at Trentham

When we made our monthly pilgrimage to the wonderful gardens at Trentham for my “garden for all seasons” posts, we were particularly taken with the variety of irises on show integrated into the borders designed by Tom Stuart-Smith.

Most were the large flowered exuberant bearded irises but the more delicate demure Iris sibirica were there to be admired too. My first set of pictures are of the blues and purples and all their variations.

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Blues and purples combine well with a variety of other colours within the flowers of some irises, with the uprights in a different colour to the falls.

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Brown and yellow flowered iris seem to add real depth to mixed plantings in the borders. Some of the browns are very unusual to see in flowers other than iris.

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The gardeners here had cleverly matched a clump of brown Irises with the china blue of Amsonias. What a great combination, but not one that springs to mind when designing borders but we shall most certainly remember it for future use.

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In one of the display gardens, one designed in a Japanese style, Iris sibirica grows in clumps around the edge of a pool. They contrast well with the yellow of the Trollius in the one shot but compliment the glaucous Hosta foliage in the other.

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We also found Iris sibirica growing within the Piet Oudolf designed borders working in a subtle combination with a Nepeta.

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As we were on our way out of the garden we walked along the banks of the lake and discovered this lovely bright stand of our native iris, Yellow Flag. These can stop you in your tracks as well as any produced by plant breeders. They are always good to see and flower for a lot longer than their cultivated cousins. They present a most suitable finale to my tribute to the Irises of Trentham.

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Tags bearded iris, garden photography, gardening, iris, iris sibirica, irises, Piet Oudolf, Tom Stuart-Smith, Trentham Gardens

garden design garden designers garden photography gardens gardens open to the public outdoor sculpture Piet Oudolf Staffordshire Tom Stuart-Smith

Happy 10th Birthday Trentham

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 12, 2014

On our May visit to the gardens in Trentham which we are following this year in order to check it out as a “garden of all seasons” we were in for a surprise. Not only had the gardens blossomed since our April visit but we also arrived to discover that Trentham was celebrating its 10th birthday. So the gardens were full of excited visitors and extra attractions. Balloons and banners soon revealed why there seemed so many more people there than usual. We then realised we had chosen a great day to visit and also a great year to look at the gardens through the months in Greenbenchramblings posts.

The photo above right shows the view across Piet Oudolf’s “River of Grasses” and in the background a stream of visitors passing through to reach the celebrations.

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We soon came across strange happenings whenever we turned a corner to enjoy the next section of the garden. The huge colourful butterfly and his friend the giant plant posed willingly for my camera.

Around another corner we discovered a horse and cart passing by and a huge choir preparing to perform the “Happy Birthday song”.

It wasn’t long before we glimpsed two giant gardeners and a strange statue.

The statue wasn’t behaving how statues should. She didn’t just stand elegantly and sublimely for people to admire. She gave an occasional wink, a little smile or smirk at passers by, who were surprised and a few scared out of their skin. Some youngsters just were not sure what to make of her.

Ten years ago the gardens were reborn and opened once again and two of Europe’s greatest garden designers, Tom Stuart-Smith and Piet Oudolf were brought in to redesign great swathes of the old garden creating modern herbaceous plantings within the old parkland and Italian gardens. This juxtaposition of old and new has worked well as anyone who follows this blog will know from my many posts about the garden at Trentham but they also know how to proudly celebrate their birthday.

After treating ourselves to a scone and a cup of tea we discovered a falconry display about to begin. We enjoyed a great display by owls, eagles and falcons.

Children were engaged in many unusual activities. We were particularly taken with this idea. Making faces on the trunk of an old tree out of clay and collected natural objects.

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The last treat of our day was to listen to a few songs performed by a local brass band, who had polished their brass instruments and brushed up their uniforms.

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So there we have it – the 10 year birthday celebrations of the gardens at Trentham. Here’s to ten more!

Tags celebrations, mime artists, Piet Oudolf, Staffordshire, Tom Stuart-Smith, Trentham Gardens

climbing plants colours flowering bulbs garden designers garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public grasses hardy perennials irises Italian style gardens meadows ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture Piet Oudolf roses sculpture Staffordshire Tom Stuart-Smith trees water in the garden

A Garden in May – Trentham

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 10, 2014
3 Comments on A Garden in May – Trentham

Here we are with post number 5 of this series looking at the gardens at Trentham where we are trying to discover if Trentham really is a “garden of all seasons”. For our May visit we were hoping for better weather as rain has greeted us on every other visit. It may seem a bit late to be posting this post but we have been so busy getting our garden ready for our summer visitors and the allotment community gardens ready for our NGS Open Day we are now behind with everything. We are getting behind at being late!

But the day dawned wet yet again.

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We were amazed by the number of people around and the queue of visitors waiting to get through the turn styles. The majority of these visitors were young families. Soon we saw clues about what was going on – balloons, bunting and banners. It all pointed to the day being a special one for Trentham Gardens – their 10th birthday since reopening.

The area called the River of Grasses designed by Piet Oudolf has gained a lot of patches of colour from perennials among the strongly growing grasses. Persicaria bistorta, Amsonia and Trollius were particularly in evidence.

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When we moved into the Piet Oudolf prairie borders we noticed that the growth of the herbaceous plants since out last visits was amazing.

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After enjoying the fresh colours in this area we wandered across neatly mown grass towards the Italianate Garden, and on the way we passed the Hornbeam Arbour and through a Hornbeam archway. We found evidence of the newly cut area where seagulls of crocus and snowdrops were earlier in the year (see earlier posts in this series). Now they appear as ghosts in the grass.

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In the Italianate Garden the gardeners were planting out large specimens of Cannas with huge incredibly marked and coloured leaves.

From the Italianate Garden we get our first views of the garden designed by Tom Stuart-Smith, where he imposed modern style herbaceous plantings onto the original Italian Garden. Since last month these borders are showing so much colour and to begin with it is hard to identify what plants are providing all the colour.

Closer up we found the colour was from Alliums, Euphorbias, Amsonias, Irises, Rogersias and Astrantias. Enjoy a tour of these borders.

Last time we were here the gardens above the Tom Stuart-Smith borders was yellow with daffodils naturalised in the grassed banks. On this visit the colour was purple and it was provided by hundreds of purple globes of Alliums. A young photographer was snapping away.

A new woven figure has appeared on the grassed banks.

More Alliums were naturalised in the grass beneath the mature trees from the otiginal parkland plantings. They added colour to our walk over to look at the Display Gardens.

Here the newly planted gardens were taking shape.

As always our wanderings around the gardens at Trentham finish with a walk along the Rose Walkway. Yet more Alliums grew here in between the roses.

Wisterias were flowering as they climbed over the metalwork and added colour and scent to our walk.

We came across this pink flowered shrub which although we had seen it before we could not remember what it was. It was a beautiful shrub. Any ideas?

I finish our May wander of this amazing garden with a few views from the rose walk looking over the River of Grasses.

Tags foliage, garden photography, gardening, grasses, meadows, ornamental trees, outdoor sculpture, Piet Oudolf, shrubs, Tom Stuart-Smith, trees, Trentham Gardens

Cheshire climbing plants colours garden design garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public half-hardy perennials hardy perennials light light quality ornamental trees and shrubs spring gardening trees water in the garden woodland

The Dorothy Clive Garden

I promised at the end of my post about the wild colours at Dorothy Clive to take a wander with my camera to show the milder coloured side of this lovely garden in late spring. We usually visit this garden in the late summer or early autumn when the mixed borders simply zing! The oranges of Leonotis and Leonorus and the reds of Crocosmia “Lucifer” work in wondefully to give a burst of fiery colours. Annuals mix with perennials and the odd shrub in long sweeping borders. When we had the invitaton to visit in early May we jumped at it, hoping to see a side to the gardens we had not seen before. We turned left by the cottage into the dell full of the outrageous colours of the Rhododendrons and Azaleas as featured in my previous post.

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But there was more here than just bright colours, and we soon discovered a rich selection of woodland plants.

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As in many gardens over the last few years the gardeners have realised the beauty that lies beneath the floral displays of the Rhododendrons – the sculptural form of their trunks and branches. Clever pruning techniques brings the beauty of their form to the fore.

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Leaving the dell we wandered the winding paths towards the Laburnum Walk which we were expecting to be in its most glamorous clothes. We found more woodland favourites and more flowering shrubs and small trees. We enjoyed the purity of the white flowered Magnolias.

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Lovely vistas opened up as we left the more densely planted areas under the mature trees. the mixed borders here had a very gentle feel to them.

The Laburnum Walk was not in flower as much as we had expected but the sun came out after a storm giving added freshness to the light and we enjoyed walking slowly through the tunnel of Laburnums.

Golden Hop climbed among the Laburnums and gentle coloured perennials sat at their feet.

The newest area at Dorothy Clive is the Edible Woodland and this has developed nicely since our last visit.

We managed to quickly walk part of the sloping gardens before the rain came in ferociously and drove us to an early finish to our visit. Hopefully the few photos I managed to take as the rain approached will give some idea of how delightfully planted this part of the garden is.

I am not a great conifer fan but the colours of these cones against the glaucous needles looked amazing. I am beginning to enjoy Pines now and appreciate them far more. I am sure we shall be visiting the Dorothy Clive Gardens again before long and then perhaps we can concentrate more on this gently sloping section.