This year we are opening our garden five times, once each month from April to August so that visitors can see it develop as the year progresses. Our first opening was on 15th April, a sunny warm day so we were pretty busy. This blog is a wander around our Avocet garden with my camera just before our visitors arrived. Enjoy a wander with me.
Our next opening will be in May when the garden will look very different.
Back to my garden journal where we can see what was interesting me in our garden at Avocet during the month of April. My journal for April begins “As March gave way to April the weather responded with the sun making regular appearances and for the first time this year daytime temperatures made double figures. The garden celebrates!”
It celebrated with bright colours of spring flowers such as Celendines, Pulmonarias and early chartreuse flower s and bracts of Euphorbias.
My quote from Jenny Joseph’s book “Led by the Nose – A Garden of Smells” speaks of the delicate scents of the garden and in the countryside that are so important in spring.
“The flowers that had come out in the sheltered places on banks and in woods – violets and primroses kept fresh by the rain at the beginning of the month – had been too shy and careful to part with much of their scent. Now they opened to the sun, and woods and walks began to have a lighter sweeter air. The air began to be a mingling of fragrances.”
As the water in the wildlife pond warmed up we thought we would have our first dip with our net to see what wildlife was in evidence beneath the surface. In the journal I wrote “What fun as we reverted to childhood!”We were surprised by just how many different creatures had already stirred into life. I chose to paint the nymphs of Dragonflies and Dameslflies and a Backswimmer. The Damselfly Nymph will hatch out into an Azure Damsel and the two Dragonfly Nymphs into a Hawker Dragonfly and a Darter Dragonfly. They were quite a challenge to paint in their subtle earthy hues.
Continuing on the watery theme on the next page of my garden journal I wrote “Jude gets excited each time she catches a newt when she is on her regular pond maintenance forays. The first this year appeared in early April. Such excitement at Avocet!” We were so pleased to find so many newts out and about and so active this early in the year. As well as enjoying seeing them using our pond we are even more pleased to know that they are helping us with out pest control out in the borders. They spend much of their time out of water and are partial to slugs. Welcome visitors indeed!
Now these little critters were even more of a challenge to paint than the other pond creatures! Anyway here are the results.
On my next page I wrote, “During Easter Weekend, usually associated with cold and rain, the sky turned the deepest, clearest blue. Temperatures suddenly doubled and the garden buzzed and hummed with the arrival of bees and hoverflies. The most popular of all plants is the flowering currant, Ribes sanguineum.”
April is the busiest month of the year in the greenhouse. We raise vegetable plants for our allotment plot and annual plants for our garden, but a lot of space is taken up with Jude growing hardy perennials to sell on our open days.
Towards the middle of the month the ponds were getting livelier with Water Boatmen, Pond Skaters and Water Beetles in evidence whenever the sun shone on the water. We set up our live moth trap for the first time this year to see what was about when darkness fell on the garden. Moths have such wonderful names, mostly given to them by English country clerics with far too much time on their hands. We found Small Brindled Beauties, Muslin Moths, Common Quakers and Early Greys.
I next wrote “Goldfinches are searching the uppermost branches of our trees for the best nest site. We have at least one pair nest every year”. I then got out my watercolour paints and pens and attempted a painting of a Goldfinch.
My final page in my journal entries for April featured two colourful beetles which we found in our garden in that month. “A tiny and very welcome visitor, a 14-Spot Ladybird came to our garden on our first Open Day of the year. A tiny but very unwelcome visitor to our garden also appeared on our first Open Day, a Lily Beetle. We welcome the 14-Spot as he eats aphids but we hate the Lily Beetle as it devours our lily leaves.”
For our third Yellow Book Garden visit we found another garden set in our neighbouring county of Herefordshire, so we drove down through the beautiful countryside of South Shropshire and North Herefordshire. It was a sunny day with a sparkling blue sky. Brobury House Gardens are open for much of the year but on the day of our visit they were open for the NGS Yellow Book Scheme. Their website was enticing so we arrived with high expectations. The garden was situated alongside the River Wye so we were looking forward to views of the Wye, probably the most picturesque river in England.
We began as usual with coffee and cake which was served in a beautiful conservatory with seating in and out. The view we enjoyed as we sat enjoying our refreshments increased our expectations. We were given a beautiful plan of the garden with some details of the garden and from this we learned that the garden was being redesigned and a lot of replanting had taken place.
As we approached the conservatory we spotted this beautiful blue Clematis and a nice barrow of plants for sale. From the conservatory we admired this beautiful, gnarled Mulberry tree reputed to have been planted by the naturalist and diarist the Rev Francis Kilvert. Close by, yellow tulips lit up the borders.
Among the tulips we were pleased to see a Drimys showing its delicately scented yellow flowers. We have a couple of these evergreens in our Avocet garden but we have rarely seen them elsewhere.
From the pond, in the section of garden inspired by Lutyens, we got a wonderful view back to the house.
After the formality of the Lutyens styled garden we wandered down to the strongly contrasting stream and informal pools. Close by was a stand of mature white stemmed Birches, which glowed on this sunny afternoon.
As we followed the narrow stream of clear water we found a border of Hellebores under the shade of tall native deciduous trees. The stars of this border were the Hellebores with flowers the colour of Primroses.
The stream continued its short journey to the River Wye through beautifully planted bog gardens.
As we left the boggy areas we found a stand of Weeping Silver Pears covered in white blossom.
The stream beyond the boggy areas became narrower as it passed through sloping meadowland. Here our native Snakeshead Fritillaries graced its banks and among the purple flowers we discovered this white beauty with thin green lines on the outside of its petals.
Behind the coach house the walled kitchen garden has been renovated and redesigned. It still has peaches growing on the walls and the greenhouse range has been beautifully restored.
We were drawn by the varieties of Tulips in flower in this area, especially this stunning lily flowered orange bloom.
We had one border still to see, a long border against the wall below the house. Spring bulbs featured strongly here so it was a very colourful border.
And naturally we had a coffee before we made the journey home, this time we sat outside on the terrace as the weather had improved throughout our exploration of this interesting garden and the chill wind had lessened. We shall certainly recommend this garden to our friends.
We took a walk around our allotment site today to see what was going on and check that everything was okay. We had just watched the site on TV as we featured on a BBC2 series called the Great British Garden Revival. I filmed with Dermuid Gavin a feature on wildlife gardening. It was a strange experience seeing our allotment site on the screen but even stranger seeing our own plot being used as an example of a wildlife friendly garden.
For today’s wander we arrived during a period of sunshine with a clear blue sky over our heads, but by the time we were half way around the clouds had arrived and we were subjected to light but very cold rain. The pure white catkins of the Violet willow in the Spring Garden sit like droplets of rain water after a storm. They are bright enough to be visible from a long way away. They draw attention to themselves very well!
Probably the brightest of winter colours on any veg plot is provided by Swiss Chard especially the cultivar called Bright Lights. Light catches on the textured leaves emphasising their undulating surface. The other crops still in evidence are sprouts that have overwintered and the new fresh foliage of the Globe Artichoke. These leaves now just a few inches long will expand to a massive few feet in length and the plants will reach a good nine or ten feet in height. Their purple, teasel like flowers will delight our pollinators the butterflies, bees and hoverflies and the seed heads that follow will be a magnet to greedy Goldfinches and Linnets in the autumn. Perhaps the strongest pattern of all was found on Tom’s plot, where he has set out all the old clay drainage pipes that he dug up from his plot.
Both the male and female catkins glow purple on the Alders in the Autumn Garden where their neighbours the Buddlejas are showing fresh foliage with their texture like reptilian skin.
Last year’s plants in the meadows and borders are now skeletons of their former selves. There is a strong structure linked with subtle beauty in these spent seed heads.
The wildlife shelters sitting in the orchards and meadows hide so many hibernating creatures. They shelter creatures from the winter cold and house anything from the tiniest insects up to amphibians such as frogs, toads and newts, birds like Wrens and Dunnock and mammals including our confident Weasels. A lost glove adds a splash of colour! In our “Dedge” the bright colours of the various Lichen, yellows, chartreuse and greens, glow however dull the light is.
A few spring flowering bulbs are showing spears of green piercing the cold soil. Some are even flowering such as the diminutive Iris reticula and Snowdrops.
Variegated foliage always looks good in the winter when the silver or gold stripes, spots or squiggles shine against deep green backgrounds.
Perhaps it is only right that the most colourful and interesting garden of all at the moment is our Winter Garden. The coloured stems of different forms of Cornus and Salix give us reds, oranges, greens and yellows and even black. The white stemmed Birches are now over 20 feet tall and they dominate this garden. Euphorbias and Hellebores give colour at close to ground level, while the Viburnum bodnantense “Dawn” and Cornus mas provide pink and chartreuse at eye level. Both these shrubs are also powerfully scented.
Elsewhere the coloured stems of a Salix in our Withy Bed shines gold and the Cornus “Midwinter Fire” glow like flames.
Our tour finishes off with a look at this year’s major project, our wildlife pond. We inherited this large farm pond in the summer and are busy tidying up around it in readiness of the work that lies ahead.
This little character is hidden for most of the year under a patch of Chrysanthemums grown for cutting but in winter he appears to cheer us all up.
I shall finish this post with a couple of bright jewels.
At the weekend we opened our garden for the first time. Last February when we purchased the famous Yellow Book we were proud to see the name “Avocet” second on the list of gardens opening in Shropshire. Our August opening date seemed a long way off.
Suddenly it was upon us and we got more nervous the closer to Sunday 3rd August we got. We kept making sure nothing needed dead-heading, we checked the lawn to see how long the grass was and we wandered around every border to check there was enough interest especially colour.
The day before we opened our helpers arrived, my sister Penny and husband Tony came up from Bredons Norton a tiny Gloucestershire village and my brother Graham and wife Vicky from Farnham. Daughter Jo and her husband Rob dropped in from nearby Telford. We had a great evening working on preparations and then enjoying a meal with plenty of beer and wine consumed. Sadly I had to sick with Ginger Beer as alcohol and my morphine do not go well together!
So when the opening day dawned bright we were up with the lark checking that all signs were in place, the car park was ready, plant sales and tickets sales in place and the tea shop primed and ready for off.
The all important WC and teas signs were in place first followed by the balloons and signs at the bottom of the drive.
The ticket sales and plant sales tables were put in place and the tea shop set up ready and waiting for customers.
Vicky quietly put final finishing touches to her courgette and lime cake in the kitchen. Neither the tea shop or kitchen would be this quiet for a long time. Her cake became a real star!
We were to open from 11:00 until 5:00 to spread the load on our quarter acre garden. We thought we would have a quiet time until the early afternoon once everyone had indulged in their Sunday lunches. How wrong could we be as by quarter to eleven cars were already parked up and people were wandering down the lane. Our first customer, our friend Sherlie soon collected the first cup of tea and a slice of cake. This was to be the first of over 250 teas and cakes served up by by our trusty tea ladies. The drive soon filled up with visitors buying tickets, collecting our garden info sheets and looking at Jude’s plants for sale.
Tony and Rob had the car parking well sorted. This would prove to be the last time they found time to relax. As things busied up our neighbour living in the Old forge, who had lent us the field, supplied them regularly with drinks and food. Here we see the car park attendants waiting and ready for the first customers.
Things soon busied up and at the peak the field was almost full and we reached the stage of having only one car space left.
Every nook and cranny of the garden began to fill up with visitors keen to see every border, many making notes and taking photos. By the end of the day my voice was hoarse with answering so many questions, most visitors wanted to know the name of certain unusual plants but many were interested in the wildlife aspects of our patch and quite a few had queries about composting. It was heartening to see so many youngsters enjoying our garden and the little quiz sheets we had prepared for them.
As the last of the visitors wandered wearily down the lane to the car park we collapsed with tea and cakes of our own. The signs were soon down and our brilliant first opening was over.
We were tired and elated but pleased that 275 people came to see our little quarter acre patch. We were able to send a cheque for £1363.63 to the NGS to help support their charities.
We had just one day of rest before Jude and I spent an afternoon being interviewed for a magazine article about our garden. So many photos were taken and so many questions asked. We now look forward with anticipation to seeing our garden in print.
This was our 4th annual NGS Open Day at our allotments, Bowbrook Allotment Community. In the past we had been dogged by bad weather, heavy rain, high winds and once even excessively high temperatures. But today was to be different – the weather was perfect so we were set for a successful day. We open under the auspices of the National Garden Scheme and thus we are proud to appear in their famous Yellow Book.
Members of the public are invited to look around the individual plots and all our communal spaces. They can follow our Interest Trail, look at the wildlife areas and the communal gardens and the children have quiz sheets to enjoy and can use the features we have made for our members’ children such as the Willow Dome, Turf Spiral and Willow Tunnel. We turn our Communal Hut and the area around it into a Tea Shop for the day so that our visitors can indulge in tea, coffee and home made cakes and biscuits.
All the money raised goes to the NGS’s charities including Macmillan Nurses, Marie Curie and Help for Hospices.
Here are a few of the scarecrow creations members came up with. Little Miss Muffit, Peter Rabbit, Little Red Ridinghood, Dr Foster et al.
On one plot visitors were asked to help Little BoPeep find her lost sheep. I will admit it took me ages to find him for a photo shhoot
The Wildlife Trust brought all this equipment for bug hunting and the volunteer from the Shropshire Mammal Group stayed on all afternoon entertaining and informing.
Visitors took every chance to sit and enjoy our tea shop, where refreshments were on tap all afternoon.
A few of the younger members just relaxed in the sunshine!
Jude the Undergardener found a good spot to set her stall selling our herbaceous perennials she had grown from seed.
Members were on hand to talk to our visitors, give advice and answer questions. Some visitors found comfy seats all round the site.
A good day was had by all and we felt proud to have raised over £1000 for such good charities.
This year, 2014 will be the year we open our garden under the auspices of the National Garden Scheme, so we saw our garden details published in the famous Yellow Book. This is a landmark for any gardener in England and Wales, albeit a pleasing one and a worrying one. So many questions pour into your mind when you see the description of your garden in print.
I had to provide 9 photographs of our garden taken in previous years at the same time of year we are due to open. It was hard to choose shots that gave the right “feel”. We wanted to give a taste of what our plot is all about and these pictures give further ideas for the visitor after they have read the paragraph we presented to the NGS. Luckily I could look back into the archives of my blog. To check out the photos I selected go to the NGS website, http://www.ngs.org.uk, click on “find a garden” and type in Avocet where you are asked for a garden name.
We have also been asked by a couple of garden groups if they could visit. So the first of these we set for mid-June and we felt it would provide a practice run for the big day in August. The group were the Shrewsbury Mini-group of the Shropshire Hardy Plant Society, so we knew them already which made the day a bit less daunting. I took a series of photos in the morning of the day they were coming to give an idea of how they would see our little quarter acre of garden.
This post also serves as part of my series on “Aiming for a Year Round Garden” where I look around our garden to see if our aim to have interest throughout he year is working.
The first photos show how we welcome visitors as they find our gateway and look up the drive.
Next we take a quick wander around the front garden to view the gravel garden (The Beth Chatto Garden), the stump circle and the driftwood circle, as well as the mixed borders around the lawn.
We have worked hard this year to make the drive and the side of the house more welcoming using antique galvanised containers planted up with Dahlias and Calendulas and brightly coloured Pelargoniums are planted in the hanging baskets and other containers.
The next “port of call” is the Shade Garden followed by the “Fern Garden” and then into the “Seaside Garden”. I always seem to follow a set pathway around the garden when taking photos but I have to admit that I designed the garden to give visitors choices and so have created a situation where no two people wandering around need to follow the same route. I want each section of the garden to be viewed and approached from several directions. So although I am trying in this post to show our garden from our visitors’ viewpoint it is in reality just my own personal route.
And so to the back garden which has a different feel to it altogether as the individual garden compartments are all hidden in some way. It is a garden where you have to go looking – you cannot sit and look and take it all in in one go. Unlike the front, where from the seat under the arbor you can view most of the garden borders in one go, there are parts you can’t see so you are enticed to go to them for a close look.
In the back garden we find the water feature among Hostas and Toad Lilies on the end of the Shed Bed and from there you can look down the central path with arches draped with trained apple trees, roses and clematis. Another arch to the side of the main path affords glimpses of more borders.
From the central path we can peer over the cloud pruned box hedge into these borders, which hopefully will entice the visitors to explore further.
By turning right off the central path visitors find themselves between the Chicken Garden and the Secret Garden and after a mere half dozen steps must choose which one to look at first.
Within the Secret Garden alongside a comfortable cream coloured seat visitors can enjoy our latest creation, the Alpine Throne.
If however our visitors chose to go left at the central path they would find further choices, the Japanese Garden, the Wildlife Pond and Bog Garden to the right or the Long Border and Crescent Border to the left.
Back closer to the house we can find the “Pollinators’ Border” complete with insect hotel, the Shed Scree Bed and the new Tropical Border.
So there we have a quick tour of our garden in mid-June just as our first group of garden visitors saw us. We enjoyed the kind comments they left and felt it had been worthwhile, particularly when several said they would be back when we opened for the NGS in August.
The only downer was that the Bearded Iris had given us their best show ever, a true extravaganza for the three weeks or so prior to the visit. On the day just one bloom remained to show everyone what they had missed. Gardeners always say “You should have come last week.” and for us this may well have been true, at least where the Iris were concerned.
Our next big day is our NGS Open Day on the 3rd August so we are hoping we can maintain interest in the borders until then. A second mini-group of Shropshire Hardy Planters will be visitors a month after that so we will have to be “on our toes” for a while yet!
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.
There were signs of how much work was to be done if the garden was to be restored.
An extra treat was to come after our second tea break. We met the wonderful Day Lily specialist Mark Zennick.
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.
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.
We visited another garden in the countryside of Powis, our neighbouring county. It proved to be very much a garden of two halves. We approached “Cil y Wennol” on foot up a gently sloping curved driveway with trees on both sides dotted around in grass. Closer to the more formal front garden there were interesting land forms with a small meadow facing the sun on an embankment. Moon Daisies shone out almost glaring in the sunshine. As you have gathered from that statement we were experiencing bright sunshine.
This Betula with its beautifully coloured peeling bark had enticed us up the long drive where we were greeted by this bank of smiling daisies.
The front garden was a typical cottage style with interesting plants such as Astrantias, Lilies and Irises dotted throughout.
We had now realised that we had visited this garden years ago so we were not surprised by the sudden change in the garden design that greeted us as we entered the back garden. Here the design was much more modern. It was a garden to explore slowly taking advantage of the invitations presented through good design.
One path invited us into woodland, a relief for a while from the brightness and warmth of the sun. We were impressed by how a beautiful woodland can be created with the commonest of tree species. It proved you don’t have to have rarities to impress. Here the gardeners grew just native Birches, Rowans, Cherries and a few non-natives to add a touch of spice. A lovely atmosphere pervaded this space.
Leaving the woodland we were again presented with several options, different paths to take with different views and different plants.
Closer to the house a gravel area gave a completely different feel. Here were neatly trimmed conifers and Cotinus with their skirts lifted to expose twisted limbs. Soft planting among these features reflected the planting in the nearby borders.
Moving around the side of the property we found another path to take through gap in the hedge where we discovered a swimming pool overlooked by a summerhouse.
We walked from here along a narrow path below a wall with soft planting above, beautifully backlit by the sun.
This was most definitely a garden of many parts beautifully linked with winding paths found through enticing arches and gaps in hedging.
Leaving the garden along the central pathway of the front cottage garden we enjoyed the view behind this wonderful gate. A great garden – it was good to return.
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.
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.
Dotted around Tan y Llyn are interesting objects and well-composed cameos.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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