Category: gardens

Gardening in lock down – acers

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 18, 2020

Slowly but surely over the years we have built up a good collection of Acers, mainly Acer palmatum but we do have a few others too. At this time of year they are coming out of their fresh new spring green foliage so it is a good time to share photos of them with you as we come towards half way through our lock down period.

So the photos below were taken in the final week of April and show a selection of our different cultivars. We do hope you enjoy them as we do!

Tags Acer palmatum, acers., gardening in spring, Japanese maples, small trees, spring, spring garden

garden design garden furniture garden photography garden seat garden seating gardening gardens gardens open to the public National Garden Scheme National Trust NGS nurseries Shropshire South Shropshire The National Trust village gardens Wales walled gardens Yellow Book Gardens

Are you sitting comfortably – no 21 in an occasional series

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 5, 2020
1 Comment on Are you sitting comfortably – no 21 in an occasional series

First set of seats in this installment about garden seating features those we found while on holiday near Pembroke followed by more we discovered at Bodnant Garden in north Wales. Then a set we found at Wildegoose Nursery and Garden and finally some we found at our friends, Nathalie and Tony’s Oswestry garden and Ruth and Mike’s village garden in North Shropshire.

Tags garden seating, garden seats, gardens of the National Trust, National Garden Scheme, village gardens

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Return to Waterperry – part 2

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date April 15, 2020
4 Comments on Return to Waterperry – part 2

As promised I am back sharing with you our summer time visit to the gardens at Waterperry.

Through this wooden gate we discovered a formal garden divided into four sections all featuring interesting and unusual alpines. The golden crocus lookalikes are Sternbergia lutea. Since seeing this beautiful patch we ordered a dozen for our own garden.

The orange flowers looking somewhat like Pentstemon pinifolia ‘Wisley Fire’ was in fact Zauschneria californica ‘Dublin’. Again, although we already grow P. ‘Wisley Fire’ we have bought the Zauschneria too and planted it in scree,

Occasionally when exploring gardens we come across seats that really surprise and impress and here at Waterperry we did just that. The first, the ‘Head Gardener’ seat seems to suit me! I want one! Jude obviously equally enjoyed the other.

As well as garden seats we discovered a spherical stone water feature which had the thinnest film of water seeping over its edge and down the sides. Completely different but again rather interesting was this thatched dovecote.

These metal and glass screens looked equally good close-up as they did from a distance. The light altered their colours as we moved around them.

I will finish this report on our return visit to Waterperry Gardens with photos of this beautiful figure sculpture sitting on top of the wall and a stunning piece of cloud pruning.

Tags alpine gardening, alpines, fun in the garden, garden humoir, garden sculpture, garden seating, garden seats, gardens of Oxfordshire, herbaceous borders, herbaceous plants, outdoor sculpture, Oxfordshire, Waterperry, Waterperry Gardens

fruit and veg garden buildings garden design garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public grow your own hardy perennials ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture sculpture

Return to Waterperry – part 1

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date April 8, 2020
2 Comments on Return to Waterperry – part 1

Waterperry in Oxfordshire is a garden we have visited a few times in the past and enjoyed it every time, so finding the opportunity to drop in while traveling down south we welcomed it.

Set up in 1932 the garden is the home of the School of Horticulture for Ladies run by the stern-looking Beatrix Havergal. Today it is a glorious garden which gave us several hours of enjoyable wandering.

We visited at a time when I was writing a new garden talk titled, “Fabulous Foliage, the unsung hero of our gardens”, so many of my photos focused on the way the gardeners put foliage colours and textures together. The pear orchard was a very peaceful place and looked to promise great crops before too long.

The garden is punctuated with pieces of sculptures varying widely in style, from the beautiful figure in the canal to the rather formal to the beautiful obelisk with words from the Koran on each face.

Probably our favourite part of the garden was the designated ‘quiet place’ which was an enclosed garden exuding calm and peace. The planting softened the formal layout and the beautiful sculptural figure with the lamp pulled us towards it. I was so impressed by the simple but effective plant combinations at her feet.

The most colourful areas in the garden were the trial beds and the long richly planted herbaceous border.

Waterperry Gardens have so much to offer and there is so much we haven’t shared with you in this post, so I will continue in part 2.

Tags alpines, garden sculpture, gardens of Oxfordshire, herb garden, herbaceous borders, herbs, outdoor sculpture, quiet places, Waterperry, Waterperry Gardens

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Simply Beautiful – no 32 in very occasional series

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date February 27, 2020
3 Comments on Simply Beautiful – no 32 in very occasional series

We reach number 32 in this very occasional series of simply beautiful things found in gardens. Today I am featuring an extremely unusual Berberis with the most rich orange flowers I have ever seen. Sadly I do not know its name and there was no label on the shrub. We found this lovely plant at Moors Meadow in Herefordshire.

So there it is the most amazing Berberis I have ever seen, and I don’t know what it is!

Tags berberis, flowering shrubs, orange, ornamental shrubs, shrubs

countryside garden design garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials landscapes ornamental trees and shrubs shrubs Wales

Pentre Uchaf – a high altitude garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date February 23, 2020
2 Comments on Pentre Uchaf – a high altitude garden

While holidaying in mid-Wales near Cardigan we enjoyed a visit to a garden high up in the hills, surrounding a cottage called Pentre Uchaf. It took quite a drive to get there following narrow lanes up and down steep hills and along narrow valleys. We were so relieved to get there and started as usual with refreshments.

The walk from the car up to the house treated us to great views looking through the planting of trees and perennials.

The theme of the visit was enjoyment of these views from every part of the garden.

These two little surprise elements added extra interest to our garden wanderings.

As with any garden it is the plants that are the stars! Pentre Uchaf was no exception!

It may have been a difficult drive to find this little garden but it was most definitely worth the effort.

Tags garden views, gardens of Wales, Pentre Uchaf

garden design garden photography gardens gardens open to the public outdoor sculpture sculpture Wales

Sculpture Heaven

The name for this garden was a bit off-putting but once through the gates we warmed to it immediately. This was a collection of outdoor sculpture of all sorts, a huge variety in fact but there was the important element of a garden wander to see all the pieces.

As soon as we entered through the rustic gateway we knew we were in for a treat, as sculpture was placed all around in trees, shrubs, in borders in grassed areas. We made our way across for refreshments and checked out the map to get an idea of a route we could follow and not miss any areas out.

Here is a selection of some of the weird and wonderful characters we met on our wanders.

We were delighted to discover sculptural pieces that were also musical instruments. They were so simple but very beautiful.

This was one of those gardens with a second string to its bow, the sculpture. It made for a good day out!

Tags garden sculpture, gardens of Wales, outdoor sculpture, sculpture, sculpture gardens

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Chatsworth – part two

Back at Chatsworth we now explore further through the gardens and stop to study the two famous water features, the water steps and the tall water spout.

Alongside the top path through the open woodland area, we discovered delicately planted areas, some designed by Dan Pearson and adapted from his Chelsea Best in Show garden dedicated to Chatsworth.

A special and unusual feature here is the Pulhamite rockery and ravine, Pulhamite being an artificial stone created for use in gardens. It all looks so realistic!

So that was our day at Chatsworth. Our next visit may be when the RHS Chatsworth Flower Show is on in the summer. Watch this space.

Tags chatsworth, water features, water in the garden

garden design garden photography garden seat garden seating gardens gardens open to the public grow your own hardy perennials ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture sculpture shrubs trees walled gardens

Chatsworth – part one

In 2019 we spent a warm and humid mid-July day at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire where we explored the gardens for the whole day, refreshed by the largest ice-cream cones we have ever enjoyed. It is one of the UK’s largest gardens and is full of interesting planting, unusual features and some wonderful glasshouses. These glasshouses are the work of a past head gardener Joseph Paxton. You need a whole day to really appreciate these gardens and you need to plan your day well.

The first set of photos shows the beauty of the glasshouses both old and new at Chatsworth and a beautiful mature specimen of Cedrus atlantica ‘Glauca’ and a subtly planted pot.

We made our way around the glasshouses towards the productive garden, which we knew had been developed since our previous visit and enjoyed some interesting plants and plant combinations along the way.

Sculpture is always in evidence at Chatsworth and there was plenty of interest on this visit, from classical to modern, wood and stone and hidden away throughout the gardens.

And then we came across this amazing seat which is a piece of sculpture in its own right.

Tags chatsworth, cut flowers, garden sculpture, garden seating, garden seats, outdoor sculpture, productive gardening, walled garden

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My Garden Journal 2020 – January

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date February 6, 2020
2 Comments on My Garden Journal 2020 – January

A new year starts here and along with it a new garden journal in a new book. This year I will restructure the format of my journal so that it includes fewer photos and written reports but more paintings. For my title page I wrote, “A year in the life of our garden in drawings, paintings, photos and maybe a few words.”

Each month I will include paintings and sketches, a flowering plant of the month, a foliage plant of the month and a ‘bark and stem’ plant of the month. So enjoy the January pages of my 2020 garden journal.

The first page of my January entries featured two watercolour paintings of our Witch Hazels, Hamamelis ‘Jelena’ and H ‘Diane’.

Page two sees me looking at the amazing winter flowering shrub, Cornus mas. Each month I will feature a “Flowering plant of the month” and this Cornus is my January choice.

“Scented flowers. Deep red berries. Deeply textured bark.”

I then created two more watercolours of flowering winter plants, one shrub and one climber, Daphne bhuloa ‘Jacqueline Postill’ and Jasminum nudiflorum.

I moved onto look at my ‘Foliage plant of the month” and my choice for January is our little collection of Arum italicum.

My final plant of the month is Cornus ‘Midwinter Fire’, January’s plant of the month for stems and bark, with its “Orange stems, orange ‘snake-bark’ trunks, small white flowers and primrose-yellow autumn colour.”

My January entries in my garden journal end with our “Garden tasks for the month”, so it was “Heads down to lay seep hose through borders, prune large branches of Mahonia and pruning Hypericums.”