Category: NGS

A Modern Cottage Garden in Herefordshire

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 21, 2013
8 Comments on A Modern Cottage Garden in Herefordshire

Church Cottage was the place we were seeking as we trundled down a narrow rutted country lane not far from Ross -on-Wye. Look for a definition of an English Cottage Garden and the main elements will be lawns with borders full of randomly planted perennials put together with no thought given to colour. The gardens at Church Cottage were so different. The garden was the creation of a garden designer who described herself as a plantaholic.

We were soon absorbed in the soft planting and enjoyed the many calm places to sit and rest.

It seemed that the wildlife appreciated this garden as much as we did.

After a quiet sit with tea and cake listening to the birds in every bush, tree and overhead and watching clouds of butterflies exploring the borders we set off for a most enjoyable wander.

It soon became apparent that this garden was designed by a gardener with a great eye for combining colours beautifully.

There were archways, pathways and framed views to entice the visitors. Sometimes we were taken down a pathway as the design gave no choice but at other times choices were presented. Often equal choices. So visitors were sent and guided much of the time but on occasion the choice of route was totally up to the visitors themselves.

In just the same way as the powerful design of the garden took us on journeys, on occasion we were stopped in our tracks by interesting and enthralling objects or cameos.

But as in any garden the stars of the show were the plants and in this gardens some of the borders were exceptionally beautifully planted. There were outstanding plant groupings.

This was a garden that appealed to us when we read the info in the Yellow Book and although it was further away than our usual day trips we just had a feeling it would be worthwhile. It was hard to find – but it was so worth the effort. We loved it!

Tags garden designers gardens, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, Herefordshire, Herefordshire gardens, NGS

fruit and veg garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening gardens open to the public hardy perennials herbs kitchen gardens National Garden Scheme NGS ornamental trees and shrubs poppies roses Shropshire trees

Goldstone Hall – a hotel garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 19, 2013
4 Comments on Goldstone Hall – a hotel garden

Not many hotels open their gardens to the public but Goldstone Hall near Market Drayton north of Shrewsbury is an exception to the rule. When we visited the garden on one of its National Garden Scheme open days we were surprised by the sheer volume of the productive garden which sat neatly alongside the beautiful herbaceous borders and rose gardens.

We were here with our Hardy Planters hats on again considering the garden for a possible HPS Shropshire branch day out.

The double herbaceous borders are tiered and this gives them greater depth, gaining a dimension of height. The soil was so well looked after with masses of organic matter in evidence that every plant glowed with health. The wildlife liked it too!

The richness of the soil has made the white epilobium grow huge and collapse under its own weight.

The rose garden was unusual in that the planting was restricted to just three roses Rhapsody in Blue, Iceberg, Tickled Pink and Silver Wedding. This gave it a very romantic look and I imagine the look was chosen to reflect one of the hotel’s specialities, as a wedding venue.

There were some wonderful trees in the grounds and many had enticing seats in their shadow.

Long herb walks surrounded two sides of the huge veg and fruit garden. The scents emanating from these herbs was intense in the humidity, especially the helicrysum and thymes. We enjoyed rubbing the leaves of the many varieties of mints.

The productive garden was divided up into several well-protected sections.

So, we came away thinking we may have found another suitable venue for a HPS garden visit.

arboreta climbing plants colours countryside garden design garden photography gardening gardens open to the public hardy perennials Hardy Plant Society herbs kitchen gardens meadows NGS ornamental trees and shrubs Shropshire South Shropshire woodland

Jessamine Cottage – a country garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 9, 2013
6 Comments on Jessamine Cottage – a country garden

Jessamine is a garden with atmosphere. Peaceful. Gentle. Enticing.

The beautiful sign with the name carved into a stunning block of slate sets the scene and it fits beautifully into the Shropshire countryside. It is another wonderful place to visit within a half hour drive of our home.

The owners greeted us upon arrival and we had tea and Bakewell tart sat on the balcony of the cabin that serves as teashop and ticket office. This is a “his and hers garden” nurtured by just the owners. The husband half of the team took a break alongside us on the balcony and relished a huge mug of coffee. He looked as if he deserves it and he told us that he was in the middle of sorting an overgrown bed alongside the pool. It was a hot day and he needed his break.

The view from the tea balcony is of wildflower meadows carpeting the ground beneath an avenue of lime. Beyond these limes colourful borders glow with rich yellows. The meadows were alive with bees, butterflies and hoverflies, which is a delight and a relief at the same time as this year so far has been so difficult for these beautiful and essential creatures. They are our greatest garden allies and we just could not garden without their help as pollinators, pest controllers and the providers of joy for us.

Suitably refreshed and genned up on the history of the garden we headed for the hot coloured border which again was full of blooms which support insect life. It seems we home in on the warmth of these flowers just as our gardening allies do.

The meadow moved gently in the breeze and the subtle rustling drew us closer to see what was in flower. Some colour was provided by the grasses themselves especially the delicate yellow seedheads seen in the photo below.

We were particularly taken by this simple white rose with its simplicity of flower and pure rose scent. Just the scent a rose should have!

A hedgerow bordered the meadow and avenue garden and hid the rest of the garden from our view but carefully cut gaps in the hedge enticed us through where we were to discover a rose garden and a small arboretum. Mrs Greenbench was particularly taken with the roses climbing up poles, so we are considering the idea as a useful addition to our garden at “Avocet”.

There were a lot of well positioned seats dotted around the garden in shade and in the open – a seat for every occasion!

Beyond the arboretum and at the furthest and lowest part of the garden was a shady garden and close by a pool, both providing respite on this warmest of days.

But there was still more to come as back beyond the teashop was a very productive fruit and veg garden and to get to it we passed a bed of marjorams in all shades of purple from almost white to deep purple. But they were magnets for bees, butterflies and hoverflies. Sweet Peas added a further dimension, scent and they graced the cross over point of the grass paths that divided the productive garden into sections.

We ended our warm afternoon visit to this exquisite garden nestled at the bottom of Wenlock Edge back in the tea shop where we considered if Jessamine Cottage would make a suitable visit for the Shropshire Branch of the Hardy Plant Society. Jude and I have been given the task of organising the visits and speakers for this organisation for the next three years so we are beginning to look at gardens we visit with a more critical eye.

Was Jessamine Cottage a possibility? Yes, most definitely. It is on the list!

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.

2013 07 15_1971

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

allotments fruit and veg garden wildlife gardening grow your own July kitchen gardens National Garden Scheme natural pest control NGS Shrewsbury

A lottie visit.

It seems a long while since I featured our allotment plot in Greenbenchramblings and it was from the old green bench on the lottie that my blog was launched, so when I was nominated for a pair of blogging awards I thought it would be a good time to say thank you by taking you for a quick look around our plot.

Firstly thanks to aristonorganic for the 2Awards in 1! I am not a competitive person but I do feel privileged to know that someone appreciates my blog. It brings a smile to my face.

The awards are “Shine On” and “Very Inspiring Blogger Award”.

By accepting them I promise to tell you 7 things about myself and pass on the nomination to other bloggers I enjoy reading.

7 Things About Me

1 I am registered “Bionic”.

2 I want to know what is going on in our garden at night so have just got a live moth trap.

3 I keep a flock of hens at the bottom of my garden and talk to them regularly. I think they talk back!

4 I enjoy our monthly trip to jazz club.

5 I garden with wildlife in mind.

6 I am chairman of our allotment community.

7 I enjoy watching 20/20 cricket.

Bloggers who I wish to nominate are

mybeautifulthings

The Scottish Country Garden

lensandpensbysally

Penny’s Garden

grandparentsplus2

Catherine Howard’s Garden

pbmgarden

So let us go for a wander around our lottie plot. We welcome you through an archway where a “meeter-greeter” awaits your arrival.

Fruit grown as cordons line our paths and here red currants, almost ready to pick, are netted against the attentions of the local blackbird population. We grow flowers with our fruit to bring in beneficial insects which act as pest controllers and pollinators.

Our Runner Beans are in flower providing bright splashes of red whilst below them French Beans give us purples and mauves to enjoy.

We grow Sweetcorn and Courgette together as they are good companions. The large leaves of the Courgettes provide ground cover holding moisture in the soil and creating a cool root run for the corn. Of course it saves space too!

We welcome wildlife onto our plot to benefit us as gardeners and for us to enjoy watching and listening to. Our little pool is alongside our seats. We have little insect hotels dotted around to help us keep our crops healthy and free of pests.

We have a couple of wildflower strips to help our Brassica crops and Blackcurrants.

A barrier of fleece keeps Carrot rows free from the attentions of Carrot Rootfly and the flowers of Heartsease bring in beneficial insects. Growing members of the Allium family close by also helps fool them by emitting strong scents to mask the sweet aroma of Carrots.

You may remember me telling you about making our green roof atop our shed in a post a few months ago and as you can see it is slowly getting established. On the communal spaces near our plot we have at last got the willow dome complete. It has grown enough to train growth over to form a full roof. It is lovely and quiet, cool and shaded in there and it is a popular place for children to sit and read or to look through the woven window and watch the birds on the feeders. We hold our open day at the allotments this weekend, when we open for charity, under the auspices of the NGS, so we can proudly call ourselves a “Yellow Book Garden”.

Tags allotments, community gardening, fruit and veg, fruit and vegetable growing, fruit., garden wildlife, gardening, grown your own, insects, NGS, organic 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

garden design garden photography gardening hardy perennials Hardy Plant Society HPS National Garden Scheme NGS ornamental trees and shrubs Shropshire village gardens

The Hardy Planters at Lower Hall

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 10, 2013
4 Comments on The Hardy Planters at Lower Hall

Our first visit to a local garden with the Shropshire branch of the Hardy Plant Society this year took us to Lower Hall in the picturesque village of Worfield.

The River Worfe which gives the village its name meanders aimlessly through the garden and as we wandered along its paths we kept coming across bridges to take us over its flooded waters. The header picture shows the flower head of Dalmera peltata which grows in the boggy patches along the Worfe. The globe of flowers sits atop a tall thin stem rising straight from the soil before there is any sign of any leaves.

The garden has many different elements to it, a walled garden, a stream, a woodland area and various borders so there is a richness of plants to enjoy.

As always the Hardy Planters of Shropshire stand and admire!

Tags foliage plants, garden photography, gardening, Hardy Plant Society, NGS, ornamental trees, outdoor sculpture, sculpture, Shropshire Hardy Plant Society, shrubs

garden design garden photography gardening gardens open to the public National Trust NGS photography Shropshire South Shropshire The National Gardening Scheme" The National Trust trees

Looking Back One – An Hour at Croft Castle

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date February 24, 2013
6 Comments on Looking Back One – An Hour at Croft Castle

This is the third in the series of posts looking back at garden visits we enjoyed last summer and autumn. Here we shall remember our autumn visit to the grounds of Croft Castle in South Shropshire.

Croft Castle is a favourite National Trust property. We often visit to enjoy a walk around the gardens and take tea in the teashop. On this autumn day we only had a short time but still managed to do both!

Croft is famous for its ancient avenue of Sweet Chestnut trees which are now sadly coming to the end of their lives. Their gnarled, pitted bark shows their great age and makes you imagine just what they would have seen going on under their boughs and all around them over the centuries. If only they could tell.

Autumn was descending on the walled gardens. SAMSUNG

Tags Croft Castle. Sweet Chestnuts, fruit and veg, fruit and vegetable growing, garden photography, gardening, greenhouses, grown your own, National Trust, NGS, organic gardening, Shropshire Hills

autumn colours colours garden photography gardening gardens open to the public National Garden Scheme NGS ornamental trees and shrubs Powis shrubs

Hydrangeas at The Dingle Garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 17, 2012
4 Comments on Hydrangeas at The Dingle Garden

The Hydrangeas at the Dingle Nursery’s Garden shone out in the darker shadier woodland sections. I am a bit particular when it comes to Hydrangeas as I like the delicately shaped and coloured lacecaps but few of the mopheads which I find too blousey. I like individual paniculatas too but again not the blousey ones. In this series of photographs all the Hydrangeas are lacecaps with the exceptions of two which are of a Hydrangea paniculata and one mophead has sneaked in as I just couldn’t believe how bright the blue colour was.

The beauty of the lacecaps is the variety of different shaped and coloured flowers and bracts that appear together on the same shrub.