Category: hardy perennials

A little woodland garden and nursery

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 2, 2013
6 Comments on A little woodland garden and nursery

The idea of visiting a small woodland garden with nursery and tea shop seemed a good choice for a visit on a hot, humid day. So an hour up the A49 into south Cheshire, one of our neighbouring counties, saw us pulling into the shaded grassed car park belonging to Stonyford Cottage Gardens on the edge of the Delamere Forest.

This is a garden created around a large pool surrounded by woodland through which winding paths find their way over wooden bridges and at times boardwalks. Areas of woodland plants and waterside or bog plants give places to rest and appreciate brighter colours amongst all the shades of green. Iris ensata were glowing in their waterside shaded spots, some the most intense purple possible.

The purple-leaved Forest Pansy at times took on a bronze hue. We found an unusual flowering shrub, the blooms of which perfectly matched the leaves of this shrub. Sadly neither of us could remember the name of this flowering beauty. We found it once a few years in a specialist tree/shrub nursery and almost bought it, but we were unsure of the conditions it desired. We have regretted not being tempted by it ever since, especially when we come across it in flower like this!

In the centre of the woodland a hide with seating affords us a longer stop and we took in the sounds of the stream and of birdsong.

One of the beautiful aspects of a woodland setting for a garden is the richness of the light where dappled light plays on any rich colour it finds.

And of course we finished our day relishing tea and Bakewell Tart sat out in the shade of the trees in the tea garden. Sheer luxury!! This is what we retired for!

Tags Cheshire, foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, nurseries, trees, woodland, woodland gardens

community gardening fruit and veg garden photography gardening gardens open to the public grow your own hardy perennials Hardy Plant Society herbs HPS kitchen gardens Land Art meadows National Garden Scheme NGS outdoor sculpture Shrewsbury Shropshire

Allotment Open Day 2013

Sunday July 14th was the day we opened our allotment community gardens for everyone to come and have a look at what we get up to, and to help raise money for charities under the auspices of the National Garden Scheme. We are proud to be part of this great scheme and we love seeing our lotties featured in their famous Yellow Book.

Visitors were greeted by committee members Di and Jill, who took the entry fees and gave out tickets, trail sheets, children’s quiz sheets and competition voting forms (more about that later).

The allotmenteers had been busy the week prior to our opening mowing the grass, edging and weeding the communal borders and ensuring their own plots were looking at their best. And it did look good! As chairman I felt proud of what was achieved that week.

Bunting was hung from sheds and a pair of galvanised watering cans planted up with diascias and blue fescue grasses decorated the entrance to the central grass pathway. We made sure all information signs were clear and visible.

Some members even provided extra little sitting areas alongside their plots with shade over comfy seats. Phil and Doreen created an outdoor lounge. It looked brilliant and drew many admirers and many visitors stopped off for a rest and a chat.

A popular part of our day is the tea shop which we create around our communal huts enhanced with gazebos and an assortment of tables and chairs all brought in for the day by lottie members. Sherlie, an allotmenteer and florist, added beautiful floral decorations to the centre of each table. Members bake all week prior to the event and the array of cakes is stunning and oh so tempting.

A feature of our open days is the involvement of our visitors in selecting the winners of our annual site competitions. Each year we hold a scarecrow competition and the theme this year was occupations and as always our members’ imaginations ran wild. We were treated to the sight of a scarecrow undertaker, a pilot, a school crossing lady, a farm labourer, a lumberjack, a nurse, a doctor a tractor driver

I had the rather over-ambitious idea that I could make a “Biggles the Pilot” scarecrow, which was quite a task and needed the help of gardening mate Pete to put it up on top of our central arbor. Pete is a good foot taller than me!

We persuaded one of our newer members to open her shed for all to see as it has such a beautiful interior. We call it the “Chic Shed”. It is painted all white inside with a storage bench with padded seat on top, a lovely dresser and even colouring books, pencils and crayons etc for her granddaughter.

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Another competition this year was a new one and again we asked our visitors to choose the winners. It was for land art/sculpture and it proved to be very popular with lots of pieces for our guests to consider.

Jude the Undergardener won this competition with her woven twisted willow.

2013 07 15_1959

For the children on our site we held a competition where we asked them to plant up an item of footwear, and we saw colourful flowers grown in slippers, boots and wellies. In the pictures below they are shown lined up in front of the two mini-allotments grown for display in the town square later.

As well as the tea shop we had a plants sale table where Jude, aka Mrs Greenbench or The Undergardener, sold plants she had raised from seeds and cuttings, both herbaceous perennials, herbs and vegetables. We had a display from Linton, one of Shropshire’s Master Composters who answered visitors’ queries concerning their composting.

So just how successful was the day? We had lots of visitors many of whom stayed all day and obviously enjoyed their walk around, helping us choose our competition winners and indulging in the offerings of the tea shop and the plant stall. We raised £1065 to send in to the National Garden Scheme, a figure of which we are most proud.

Tags allotments, community gardening, fruit and veg, gardening, land art, master composters, meadows, NGS, outdoor sculpture, scarecrows, Yellow Book

colours garden photography gardening hardy perennials photography

A Bouquet for July

This blog post could have the sub-title “One day in July” because all the featured pics were taken on the same day and in fact within an hour of each other. It was a photographer’s dream. The early morning mist burnt off and the light was suddenly magical. I rapidly grabbed the trusty Nikon and shot away, stopping only to change lens from standard 18-55 zoom to 70-300 zoom. I downloaded them into Photoshop and couldn’t wait to see if the results were as good as I hoped they were.

I was so pleased with this batch of pics, that I hardly binned any and didn’t visit the editing suite at all. I hope you agree that the light was indeed magical.

The rest I shall put in a gallery for you to peruse. Just click on a photo and click the arrow to look at the photos. And enjoy the early morning light in our garden.

Tags clematis, foliage, garden photography, gardening, roses

garden photography gardening gardens open to the public hardy perennials July Land Art meadows National Trust outdoor sculpture The National Trust

Charlecote Park – a wander in the heat.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 27, 2013
4 Comments on Charlecote Park – a wander in the heat.

We are in the middle of a very uncharacteristic period of weather, very hot and dry by day and night. Normally in our summer we are glad to see a temperature hovering around the 20 mark but this year we have had three weeks around the 30 mark and just one short shower in that time.

So when we visited Charlecote Park in Warwickshire we wandered around at a slow ambling speed, about tortoise speed. But we enjoyed it until the heat and humidity got the better of us and we succumbed to our third ice cream of the day and gave up. But I have a few pics to show you to give an idea of the beauty of the place.

Once we had walked up the main driveway of dusty gravel we passed under the gatehouse portal and the main house itself was revealed.

First task was to find the coffee shop for the usual coffee and cakes. The restaurant itself was housed in the Orangery but before reaching it we came across this eccentric aviary. After a refreshing break in the orangery we discovered another eccentric feature, which turned out to be a woven willow children’s play tunnel decorated brightly with ribbons.

We were fascinated by this ancient walnut tree with several branches which had rooted where they touched the ground having fallen down. Butterflies were revelling in the sunny warmth of the day.

We decided that the coolest place to be was alongside the river passing through the parkland. We were treated by the site of the bright electric blue flash of a kingfisher darting across close to the water surface.

As we made our way back to the car park through meadows of dry grasses and occasional splashes of colour from wildflowers we discovered this old split-chestnut fence and unusual gate.

We didn’t really get a chance to appreciate Charlecote Park fully as we were defeated by the heat, having spent the previous day at an outdoor festival but we saw enough to ensure our return in the near future.

Tags Charlecote Park, garden photography, gardening, meadows, National Trust, outdoor sculpture

climbing plants colours garden design garden photography gardening grow your own half-hardy perennials hardy perennials Hardy Plant Society HPS July ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture poppies roses Shropshire succulents village gardens

A min-group day out – part two.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 25, 2013
1 Comment on A min-group day out – part two.

So we are still in the little Shropshire village of Ruyton-XI-Towns and we are moving on from Jill’s lovely garden to a neighbour’s garden. We are told this garden has to be seen to be believed as a brilliant example of how to squeeze in lots of top quality plants into a long, twisting space sometimes narrowing to just a path width.

The narrow borders are full to the brim with interesting plants and any vertical surface covered in climbers especially clematis and roses, many of which are richly scented.

We were impressed with the colour of this little selection of poppies and their tissue paper petals that unfurled from loose buds.

Our third garden delight of the day was a different kettle of fish all together. It belonged to Chris, another “Hardy Planter” and was out of the village along a narrow country lane with verges rich with native flowers. As we neared our destination cultivated self seeded plants added an extra depth to the colours within the grasses of the verge beneath the hedge.

This garden had a delightful little nursery in the shade of mature trees close to the lawn where we sat to enjoy our tea and cakes. We could see what was awaiting us in the nursery and we were tempted by an unusual pink flowered Geranium phaeum and a Lysimachia “Firecracker”.

What struck us about the garden was the way shrubs and trees had been used to create frames, gateways and doorways to tempt your footsteps. The low afternoon sun created deep shadows and brightness that invited you onwards.

Closer to little interesting features and details caught our eye.

We wandered back down the lane after a good wander around, an enjoyable break for tea and cake and after making a few purchases in the little nursery and we were delighted to see that self-seeders from the garden were making their way down the hedgerow and verges.

Tags foliage plants, fruit and veg, garden photography, gardening, ornamental trees, outdoor sculpture, poppies, roses, sculpture

colours fruit and veg garden design garden photography gardening grow your own half-hardy perennials hardy perennials Hardy Plant Society HPS ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture roses Shropshire village gardens

A mini-group day out – part one Jill’s garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 19, 2013

“What is a mini-group?” I hear you asking. Well they are area groups within the Shropshire branch of the Hardy Plant Society. We live just south of Shrewsbury so fit into the Shrewsbury Mini-Group but we could equally belong to the South Shropshire group. Perhaps we ought to select the most interesting sounding visits planned by both groups and have extra gardens to visit.

Last month our little group visited two of our member’s gardens plus a garden of a neighbouring house. They were all in the little village of Ruyton-XI-Towns. It is a village we have driven through but never stopped in and once parked up we wandered down looking for Jill’s garden, our first stop for the day. In fact we were parked only a few metres from there. We passed through the front garden which was small but packed with plants with lots of colour and texture and then around the side of the house where again every possible place for a plant had plants in it. Pots and interesting containers were everywhere we looked.

As we reached the end of the house the view that met us stopped us in our tracks. This was going to be a real treat! The garden was full of colour and had strong design elements, with paths that invited exploration, arches and frames to encourage you to go through them and pieces of sculpture and interesting natural objects to stop the eye.

Jill is a gardener who can put plants together beautifully taking leaf texture and shape into consideration alongside flower colour. When we looked in more detail at the planting we discovered a few special plants, ones we couldn’t recognise and a few of those that you have to dig deep into the recesses of your memory to recall their names.

From Jill’s garden we all wandered down the village street to a neighbour who had a garden that was best described as long, thin and wriggling, never more than a couple of metres wide and often only wide enough for a plant fringed path. Despite of this the gardener had packed in dozens of fragrant roses and clematis clambering up any surface or tall plant. This will be the subject of my next post where we will also enjoy the third garden we visited that day, where we ended the day with tea on the lawn. How civilised is that?!

Tags foliage plants, fruit and veg, fruit and vegetable growing, garden photography, gardening, grasses, grown your own, Hardy Plant Society, outdoor sculpture, Shropshire Hardy Plant Society, shrubs

garden design gardening hardy perennials July succulents

A new border for Avocet

We recently revamped our original scree garden, replacing its wooden edge boards, topping up the slate slithers and adding a few new plants.

Whilst doing this, the idea was hatched of making a similar bed in the long thin bed alongside the path to the garden shed door where we previously grew mint.

I shall digress a little from telling you about our new slate garden to explain why we have removed our original mint patch from its home for the last ten years. It had become overcrowded and the mints themselves had become woody. We have instead just replaced it with a new mint garden on the opposite side of the path to the shed where we have planted up 9 different varieties of mint in deep plastic containers sunk into the ground. This will hopefully stop them spreading too much. Each mint has a different scent and taste, but some do look extremely similar.

Now to go back to my story of making the slate garden. We thought it would be effective to match our recently revamped scree bed with a slate border on the opposite side of the path to the shed, mirroring the new mint patch.

We mostly used alpine interspersed with a few choice bulbs and a compact thyme.

We have added a few very special little plants such as this Tulbaghia in the picture above right.

While in the mood for making mini gardens we planted up two old market garden crates which we found in an antique centre with a mixture of sempervivum with different coloured leaves. We used these mini-gardens to cover an unsightly manhole cover.

And we have a plan for another little garden – a ladder garden. When it happens I shall share it with you all.

Tags garden photography, garden projects, gardening

arboreta Banbury countryside garden design garden photography gardening gardens open to the public hardy perennials meadows National Garden Scheme NGS ornamental trees and shrubs Oxfordshire trees woodland

Broughton Grange – the outer edges.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 6, 2013
1 Comment on Broughton Grange – the outer edges.

Back to Broughton Grange and we can go through the piece of garden architecture, the stumpery arch and find that it becomes a whole garden growing around stumps on the other side. Old stumps were beautifully planted with varieties of Hostas, Ferns and Alchemilla.

Beautifully curved paths presented us with rich choices. Each path led to interesting specimen trees. Of course I had to start by following the route to the chestnuts, their deep salmon coloured towers of flowers covered even these young trees.

Cut through the arboretum were straight avenues each featuring a different variety of tree, such as chestnut and lime. This was a an effective contrast to the sinuous paths wriggling through the meadows growing under the young trees throughout the arboretum. These avenues gave long views to the Oxfordshire countryside beyond the boundaries of the garden and parkland.

So if you like good garden design, interesting plants, trees, meadows and of course the obligatory coffee and cakes and want a good relaxing day out keep an eye on the website for Broughton Grange and make sure you go along and see it for yourself.

Tags arboretum, avenues, chestnuts, garden photography, gardening, meadows, ornamental trees, Oxfordshire, trees, woodlands

arboreta Banbury climbing plants colours garden design garden photography gardening gardens open to the public half-hardy perennials hardy perennials meadows National Garden Scheme NGS ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture Oxfordshire photography poppies shrubs The National Gardening Scheme" trees walled gardens

Broughton Grange – a walled garden plus.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 4, 2013
4 Comments on Broughton Grange – a walled garden plus.

Back to Oxfordshire and this time we shall share a wander around a most wonderful and varied garden which we were privileged to visit recently. The gardens at Broughton Grange are only open a few days a year in support of charities and we visited on a weekend when it was open under the auspices of the National Garden Scheme, The Yellow Book.

We arrived not long after it opened and approached across a traditional wild flower meadow through which was cut a vehicle width track. Without thinking we drove slowly across the grass, the fact that we were taking a mechanical monster over something so delicate and special made us move as gently as possible.

Although there is plenty to see here we had to immediately make for the walled garden which had been designed by Tom Stuart-Smith. I was so keen to explore this garden that I even did without my pre-explore coffee! I was glad I did!

The design had a strong structure beneath it, both of hard landscaping and natural frameworks, which provided a network into which the plants could grow, softening the hard surfaces as they did so.

The planting scheme here had a wonderful coherence which allowed your eye to move slowly across a delicate colour palette but sometimes individual plants stood out from the crowd and demanded a closer second look. Luckily for us there were lots of access pathways so we could delve into the borders to enjoy a close look at specials that caught our eyes.

First a few shots of borders………….

………… and now for some of the glittering stars!

Foliage played an important role here too, with leaf texture, shape and colour adding further interest to the plantings.

We spotted this little cameo as we were leaving the walled garden to explore the outer grounds. A piece of accidental garden sculpture?

Outside the walled garden many acres awaited discovery by Mr and Mrs Greenbench. Woodland, a new arboretum, meadows and features such as this Laburnum arch – sunglasses were essential if you wished to pass through it!

Nearby a new patch of woodland featured many native trees plus a select few non-natives, such as lilacs with rich fruity scent that filled the air all through the neighbouring trees.

We wandered through an interesting garden in front of the house itself on our way to the arboretum. Here little meadows full of airy wild flowers and native grasses moving gently in the summer breeze bordered a parterre with bright blue obelisks as highlights.

As we left the old woodland to enter the newly planted arboretum we discovered a stumpery. We have a soft spot for stumperies and this was an interesting one as it was designed and laid out to form a welcoming funnel between the two sections of garden. From the woodland side the stumps build up to form a gateway.

So in my follow-up post about this wonderful garden I shall begin with the stumpery.

Tags stumpery

climbing plants colours garden design garden photography gardening hardy perennials ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture poppies roses Shropshire shrubs

A Bouquet for June

The stars of June h to be the alliums this year, which is rather odd because roses should be outshining them by now. Everything in our garden though is a good month behind this year after a strange start to the year where weather was concerned. Our roses usually begin to bloom in May and peak in June but they are just beginning their show now.

The front garden is almost over full this year with periods of warmth and wet weather creating ideal conditions for plant growth.

So the borders look lush and extra green. The gravel garden looks fuller than ever and we are pleased to see the return of our “purple flowered wild carrot” which we planted as a very small specimen last year. The first of the photos below shows this umbellifer in front of Euphorbia griffithii and the second a self-seeded achillea, another umbellifer growing through the same euphorbia. This promises to be an interesting colourful patch soon.

The stump garden is looking particularly pleasing just now and close up we can see tiny little sedums growing in the dimples of the old oak wood.

In the last few days we have given the Seaside Garden a tidy up.We painted the fence, removed old woody plants, added a few new ones and put up some cleaned netting which was some recycled fishing net originally used off the north coast of Scotland.

We also needed to revamp our little scree bed – it is odd how if one patch in the garden needs a re-vamp there always seem more. We had to replace all the wooden edging which had rotted and many of the plants had outgrown their spaces. We top-dressed the bed with fresh slate chips, a by-product of the slate mining industry and added a few new alpine plants.

Let us wander around now using a gallery – just follow by clicking on any photo and use the arrows to navigate. Enjoy the journey!