Category: trees

Birches in Winter

Regular readers of Greenbenchramblings will be very aware of my love of Birch trees in all their many guises. In this post I shall highlight our native Betula pendula.

The texture of its silvered bark metamorphoses as it ages from a smooth shining silver to a pattern of deeply fissured elephant skin.

Our native Birch is a relatively short-lived tree so within any mixed woodland fallen specimens litter the ground. They will slowly dissolve away through the actions of the tiniest creatures and a multitude of fungi.

Perhaps the best way to finish off this series of photos of my favourite trees, the Birches, is with a set of pictures of groups of them standing like cold sentinels.

Tags betulas, birches, birds, National Trust, ornamental trees, trees, winter gardens, woodland

birds flowering bulbs garden photography garden wildlife gardening gardens open to the public Land Art landscapes National Trust nature reserves ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture photography Shropshire spring bulbs The National Trust trees wildlife Winter Gardening winter gardens woodland

A Cold Woodland Walk

A cold dull day with a biting easterly wind. Stay at home and enjoy a book in front of a roaring homely log fire? No, we decided to get out into it and enjoy a walk in the woodland in the grounds of our local National Trust property, Attingham Hall.

We visit regularly and no two visits are ever the same. We set out on this particular walk expecting to see the first signs of spring, perhaps the fresh green growth of Hawthorn, buds on trees fattening fit to burst or birdsong all around. How wrong we were. The wood is still in the grip of winter and birds remain quiet, except for a Mistle Thrush who cast his song far and wide over the tree tops, a melodic uplifting tune. One patch of Hawthorn displayed some green but only one.

However in the protection of a brick wall this Flowering Currant defied the winter and cheered us up with its soft pinky-red flowers hanging in so many tassels. Nearby just beyond the warmth provided by the wall the tight yellow buds of a variety of Mahonia aquifolia patiently wait. The odd splash of blue sky above us reflects in the gloss of the leaves. Close by their cousins the Berberis are a little behind but both will respond to some kinder weather.

The last of the Snowdrops still hang on, and wherever there is protection flowers respond.

Where elderly specimens of trees begin to break and fall sculptural shapes are created. This old split trunk looks huge amongst younger trees and its boughs stretch out across the ground rotting where they fell and colonised by a carpet of mosses.

There is something magical about woodlands, they make you feel calm and relaxed and they make some visitors more creative or more childlike. They build dens, climb trees or create little bits of land art. The National Trust are doing a brilliant job in encouraging these effects on their visitors, in particular with their little booklet “50 things to do before you are 11 3/4“. Right in the depths of the woodland we came across these two simple but beautiful land art pieces.

Tree surgeons at work have left their marks. We were amazed when we spotted the beautiful “fern” chipped into the bark by a chainsaw. The off cuts were used to make a wonderful big logpile to attract insects especially all the beetles who make Attingham their home. The National Trust’s woodland management keeps wildlife in mind. It is heartening to know that Stag Beetles now live here.

In the walled garden the extra warmth afforded by its tall brick walls has allowed flowering plants to make some progress towards Spring.

The best feature of our walk was to see a Honey Bee at work feeding on Wallflowers in the walled garden.

What a great walk we had, cold ears and noses but plenty of fresh air and sheer joy at being outside and in woodland. I hope you enjoy the collection of pics below!

autumn colours colours garden photography gardening ornamental trees and shrubs trees

The ever changing colours of Liquidamber

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 13, 2013
6 Comments on The ever changing colours of Liquidamber

Liquidamber has to be one of the best trees for the small garden in autumn and winter.

It develops the usual colours associated with autumn but holds onto its leaves and the colours get more and more intense as the season progresses.

So for this post I shall regularly take pics of our Liquidamber to illustrate how they change.

The first three photos were taken in October, at which time greens were still bright and frequent amongst the yellows and oranges.

Early in December the colours are richer and not much evidence of green remains.

In mid-December a rim of frost decorated each leaf, emphasising their palmate shape and adding depth to the tints of fire.

By January the leaves are beginning to look dry with browns becoming the commonest colours.

Now in mid-March I would normally be able to enjoy the deepest of red leaves it is possible to imagine and they would be clinging onto their stems until new season leaves force them to release their grip and drop to the ground.

This year this eagerly anticipated redness has failed to appear and the remaining leaves are just crisp and dull brown. Half have already fallen and the others look as if they will soon give up their grip.

Once spring arrives and instigates budburst I shall start taking photos of our Liquidamber once again and follow the progress of its leaves throughout the year.

Tags autumn colours, foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, gardening, liquidamber, ornamental trees, trees, trees for a small garden, winter gardens

birds conservation landscapes Shropshire trees wildlife

Hedgerow Maintenance – the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 11, 2013
14 Comments on Hedgerow Maintenance – the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

Driving around the countryside around our home in Shropshire we are struck at the difference between the worst and the best examples of hedgerow maintenance. Some are beautifully trimmed providing stock proof boundaries which benefit and encourage wildlife. The best examples of these are those that are “layered” as these remain dense in growth and provide homes, food, shelter and nest sites for all aspects of wildlife and often result in special habitats at the base of them full of wildflowers and accompanying wildlife. Insects, small mammals, birds, butterflies, bees and so much more of our wildlife can take advantage of this beautiful and skilful country craft. The trees of the hedgerow even those of reasonable girth can be trimmed and layered to create dense hedges. We found this beautiful length of hedge in a country lane a few miles from home.

I particularly like the artful way it has been thoughtfully finished with a flourish of woven hazel. This may be some sort of “signature” – the craftsman leaving his mark. Although artistic this probably strengthens the structure further by binding the top of the hedge tightly together. This hedger is such a craftsman that the angle of cut on the top of every stake is exactly the same.

A mix of shrubs and trees have been beautifully entwined. Even trees with trunks up to 12 inches thick have been split and layered. It is easy to see how impenetrable to stock these layered hedges are.

We were lucky to find this other hedge in the process of being layered so took some pics. It would have been even luckier if the hedge layer was still around for me to photograph him at work but it must have been his day off!

hedge 12

So those are good examples which are few and far between. The bad and ugly are sadly much more common now, hedges cut by machine, slashed to create ugliness. Some of the cutting blades on these machines seem blunt or perhaps inappropriate for the job in hand. Thicker branches get torn and slowly after a few years these hedges get thinner so are poor as stock proof barriers and even poorer wildlife habitats. Whole sections disappear and tend to be replaced with fencing so the wildlife benefit is lessened further. When the hedge cutter in his tractor cab comes across trees, whatever their size they are cut just the same. The old oak in the photos below had its lower branches hacked off.

The messy hedges that are left are a waste of time, too thin to keep stock in and of little use to wildlife and too thin to allow the usual wildflowers associated with a hedge’s shelter and shade to thrive.

What the answer is to improving hedgerow management in a wildlife friendly manner is difficult to come up with. The agricultural industry in the UK needs to rethink, look again at the idea of countryside stewardship and responsibilities towards the land.

Here endeth my major rant for 2013!

Tags birds, conservation, hedgerows, hedging, layering, shrubs, trees

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

arboreta garden design garden photography gardening gardens open to the public ornamental trees and shrubs photography trees Winter Gardening winter gardens

Betula at Bluebell

Back to Bluebell Arboretum for a look at their collection of my favourite trees, the Birches. Browse the photos below and you will see why.

Betulas are particularly popular at the moment because of an interest in coloured and textured bark. This is coupled with a surge of interest in the creation of winter gardens within major gardens open to the public, an interest influencing plantings in smaller private gardens. I thought a gallery of our favourites at Bluebell would show the amazing variations.

Betula utilis “Wakehurst Place Chocolate”

Tags arboretum, betulas, birches, coloured bark, garden design, garden photography, gardening, Leicestershire, ornamental trees, textures, trees, winter gardens

arboreta colours garden photography gardens open to the public ornamental trees and shrubs photography RHS trees Winter Gardening winter gardens

Bluebell Arboretum

We recently spent a morning at Bluebell Arboretum in Leicestershire, a return visit in fact as we visited it many years ago. It is a young arboretum and small as arboreta go which gives it an intimate, manageable feel.

As we approached the wooden cabin that acts as reception, the door creaked open, “I see you have your walking boots on! I wouldn’t recommend you go around if you hadn’t.” Apparently we had arrived the day after a foot of snow had melted onto already water-logged ground. It was wet so we splashed and slid with great care around boggy pathways, but the trees that greeted us made it all worthwhile.

We are great fans of Betulas (birches) and Acers (maples) and here we found many to admire. We admired them for their profile, their bark texture and colour.

Acer griseum is a classic winter garden tree, with its silky-smooth, shiny mahogany bark. the thinnest of slithers peel off, curl and catch the low winter sun. It has a perfect common name, the Paper Bark Maple. It appears to be wrapped in sparkling, shining and very fancy wrapping paper

Another Acer that caught our eye, similarly had beautifully coloured bark, was Acer x conspicuum “Phoenix”. The bark on this Acer though was silky smooth.

The celebrated Snakebark Maples need to be studied close up where the delicately textured and multi-coloured bark can be fully appreciated.

The type of Acers most frequently grown in smaller gardens and arboreta alike is Acer dissectum, grown for its leaf colours, the fresh young growth in spring, the rich summer colour and perhaps most of all for the extravagent autumn colours. But at Bluebell Arboretum we discovered this variety, “Eddisbury” which had another layer of interest and an extra reason for growing it, the beauty of its stems.

Acer dissectum "Eddisbury" — Acer dissectum “Eddisbury”

I am not a great fan of conifers but two caught my eye, both Piceas. One had bark with eye shapes and the other an amazing profile.

If the amazing trees of Bluebell weren’t enough for the gardener to delight in, other points of interest are there to catch the eye. An archway of clematis, a petrified tree stump, a kettle Robin nestbox, a logpile for beetles, an interesting old stump and another stump with rings making a picture reminiscent of an ammonite fossil.

There were too many examples of my favourite family of trees, the Betulas, so they deserve a post of their own. One to look forward to!

Tags acers., garden photography, gardening, Leicestershire, maples, ornamental trees, shrubs, snakebark maple., trees, winter, winter gardens

allotments birds community gardening garden photography garden wildlife gardening grow your own ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs photography shrubs trees wildlife winter gardens

Allotments under Snow

Today we braved the snow and floods up at our allotment site and went for a walk around to look at what turned out to be a very different world to the one we usually see. The pictures illustrate just how long it may be before we can get any gardening done up there. We still have root crops in the ground – in December it was too wet to get on the soil and now it is all under the white stuff.

Here is the actual green bench that inspires the name of my blog.

The scarecrows remain on duty whatever the weather and shrug off the snow and ice.

Wheelbarrows wait patiently.

The plots have a forlorn look but beneath the ice and snow the soil is waiting – waiting for a little more light, more heat from the sun and plenty of evaporation to lessen the moisture content.

The Winter Garden is full of interest.

The contractors preparing our site extension in the adjoining field were toiling away in the snow, ice and waterlogged soil. They are putting in drainage and clearing out an old pond to create a wildlife pond for us all to enjoy. The ground they overturn presented birds with a rich feeding ground. Blackbirds, Redwings, Fieldfares, Jays, and Thrushes both Song and Thrush revelled in a fresh supply of worms and ground creatures.

Tags allotments, birds, community gardening, dogwoods, fruit and vegetable growing, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, grasses, grown your own, scarecrows, shrubs, snow, snowmen, trees, winter, winter gardens

birds garden photography garden wildlife gardening grasses hardy perennials ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs roses shrubs trees winter gardens

A Wander around our Garden in December

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 18, 2012
8 Comments on A Wander around our Garden in December

The last month of 2012 and therefore here is the last post in the “wander around our garden” series. December was a month that started wet and cold and quickly got wetter and colder. We have found ourselves carrying on regardless – we weren’t going to let the weather beat us. So we donned warm waterproofs and busied ourselves clearing soggy perennials and pruning shrubs.

The birds are suffering from lack of natural food in the surrounding countryside so are flocking to our feeders. They add so much colour and song. This year’s flocks of Long Tailed Tits and Goldfinches are much larger than in recent times. Mixed tit flocks have reached over 70 in number at times and finch flocks up to 25. So we are kept busy regularly topping up the seeds, nuts and fatballs. As a result of the poor harvests of berries and fruit in the woods and hedgerows we have had invasions of large flocks of Blackbirds into the garden and already our shrubs are stripped of their produce. The blackbirds are aided in their berry stripping by Thrushes, Redwings and Fieldfares. All the red berried shrubs were denuded first, leaving not a single berry on our Cotoneasters, Hollies and Mountain Ashes so they are looking a little less colourful. They have now started on their second choice berries – yellows and whites.

There is still an amazing amount of colour in the garden with some flowers still going strong. This Hebe just ignores whatever the weather throws at it and keeps on flowering. When a frost comes these delicate looking flowers prove they are not delicate at all. They stand to attention even when coated in frost.

These small Hypericum shrubs, similar in size to the Hebes, perform on several fronts with flowers still apparent, berries showing several colours on the same plant and leaf colour which gets richer as the weather gets colder.

Odd flowers of Rudbeckias appear throughout the winter way outside their peak flowering period. They are like little bursts of sunshine.

Other plants are meant to be winter flowering and we look forward to these each year. Mahonia japonica exhibits its long thin upright racemes of buttercup yellow flowers with the added luxury of a beautiful warm scent, somewhat reminiscent of pineapples.

The glossy, dark hand shaped leaves of Fatshedera are a perfect foil for bright summer flowers in our Shed Bed, but it produces its own much more subtle flowers throught the winter. They are the palest of cream with a dull orange centre. They look as if they should emit the mouth-watering aroma of vanilla but that is sadly only in my imagination.

After a deep frost these flowers loose substance and flop, hanging lifelessly until warmed by the sun.

The starkness of winter structure exposes simple shapes and patterns working together. This yellowed sword shaped leaf of a Crocosmia cuts dramatically across the curved metal seat back.

Sculptures take on a new life. Our ironwork ferns rimmed with frost particles curls through the whitened grasses in the Stump Garden.

Seating areas look less inviting!

Right down at the bottom of the garden the summerhouse looks sadly at the pool which sits frozen solid at its feet.

Similarly the water in the birdbaths is often frozen. Each morning as I wander down the garden to feed the chucks I take a detour to add warm water to the birdbaths to melt the ice.

Frost decorates ornamental features giving them a new winter look.

Frost highlights the overnight toils of spiders who weave webs around sheds, nest boxes and insect homes.

There is little to harvest in December but we harvest various prunings. Taller thicker branches will be used as bean poles, smaller branches as pea sticks and to support perennials next year, and these spiral willow stems will be part of some sculpture that I am planning. Bamboo prunings will give us our own bamboo canes. Our first real crop of canes! That should save a few air miles!

Whatever the winter has in store for us, we are well-prepared. This pile of hardwood logs, oak and birch, will keep us warm and cosy and its scent of woodlands give a good welcome. And outside the chimenia patiently waits with its own fuel supply for us to venture outside to garden and enjoy a coffee break in the winter sun. Alongside the sculptural fire bowl adds further interest.

And what is happening in our borrowed landscape in December? Sheep seek nourishment in the paddock and provide a little natural fertiliser for the grass, and the wheat fields sadly sits waterlogged, growth at a standstill.

Tags birds, garden photography, garden wildlife, grasses, ornamental trees, roses, winter

allotments autumn colours birds community gardening conservation garden wildlife gardening grow your own hardy perennials meadows ornamental trees and shrubs trees wildlife

A Wander around the Allotments in December

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 15, 2012
5 Comments on A Wander around the Allotments in December

December hasn’t afforded us many days suitable for lottie gardening, sending us too much rain and flooding the site again for a while early on in the month . In fact the first attempt at working on our plot this month resulted in that too well-known sinking feeling. Algae has turned the soil green again.

We arranged to meet council officers and contractors on site one morning to start sorting out the flooding issues. It was of course raining when we met! Four trucks full of machinery and fluorescent coated workers arrived soon after, champing at the bit to start. Sods law came into play. The floods reappeared and water began lapping at our feet and at the wheels of the vehicles. One tractor got stuck in the mud!

The weather won the first round as work was abandoned even before it started, but at least everyone knows what to do now. We were promised that work would commence as soon as the weather allowed.

Things had improved a little by the end of the first week of the month, enough to arrange a day for Jude and I to meet our friend Pete to get some site tasks done in the communal gardens. We planted trees that had been donated by members in the new coppice we are developing, plus two others in the Autumn Garden. These were purchased with the prize money we had received when we won an award as the Best Community Garden in Shropshire by the National Garden Scheme.

As Pete looks after the Autumn Garden he chose the trees. Two great specimens arrived in the back of his car, an Acer rubra and a Gleditsia Sungold. In the photo above Pete is planting the Gleditsia and below is the Acer with its red stems. We can now look forward to the golden foliage of the Gleditsia and the red petioles of the Acer which contrast so well with the yellow autumn leaf colour.

We also transplanted some wild flowers and wildlife friendly plants kindly donated by a member, Dee. They were on her plot and we transplanted them to the meadows and orchards. Wild Hypericum, Red and White Campion, Mallows, Plantain, Foxgloves and Teasles plus a selection of Verbascum. In the picture below Jude is busily planting verbascum in the orchard meadows. The insect homes look so much bigger when plants die down for the winter. We just hope they are full of our friends, the overwintering pest controllers.

In the first few days of December I completed constructing the Tawny Owl nesting box which I had started weeks ago. It is by far the biggest nest box I have ever attempted to make. Each year I ask members to donate their spare wood for nest box construction and plenty came in this year so I hope to make several boxes. My next challenge is to make a box for House Sparrows.

On our own plot we have dug over the plot and given it a deep duvet mulch of manure. Now we will let the worms and other little critters get to work on it. We have pruned our fruit bushes and brambles, and are mid-point through cutting down and digging up a blackberry which refuses to produce any fruit. We gave it our “three chance and out” treatment which we allow every failing plant in our gardens.

At the mid-point of December the weather turned cold with clear ” blue-skied” days and deep frosty nights. The workers came back to get started on the flood prevention work. They are getting on well. We met them early one morning to sort things out and I took advantage of the bright conditions to get some photos taken. Having just my Samsung Galaxy with me the rest of the pics in this post are taken with its camera – a great camera for a phone.

Spiders appeared to have been industrious all through the hours of darkness creating works of art for Jack Frost to add the finishing touches. In the first pic we can admire how they have decorated a shed’s gable end and the second and third show where they have added a feature to the Communal Hut.

It looks as though the spider population of the lotties have taken to using the picnic benches when it is too cold on the rear end for us gardeners to enjoy our coffee breaks on them.

On Wendy’s plot Jack Frost had iced the rose hips.

We have had some beautiful new trees delivered to the site ready for planting when the soil is not frozen. At the moment we would not get a spade in. We have been given a Weeping Silver Lime which we selected to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee Year, plus two crab apples Malus “Evereste” and Malus “Golden Hornet” to plant, one in each orchard to improve fruit pollination, and two ornamental Hawthorns.

The individual plots are looking bare and forgotten. Some have been well dug for the winter, others await better weather. Where water sits in puddles it had frozen solid. On one plot a double digging session had been interrupted by the weather.

On one plot next to the new coppice area the seed heads of Angelica, left for the Goldfinches and Bullfinches to feast upon, were covered in frost.

In the coppice area itself, our newly planted Hollies had attracted spiders.

The communal gardens looked monochrome with frost covering the herbage.

As befits the season, our Winter Garden is looking good! Pete was with me as I took these photos and he and I created this garden less than two years ago, so we keep admiring our handy work.

Splashes of colour sprang up to shine out in the gloom of the misty grey day, the fruit of the Malus “Evereste”, and the fire-coloured leaves of a Hawthorn in the hedge and a Raspberry on a plot.

As we wandered taking these pictures we were followed around by the resident Robins who were waiting for us to start work turning soil over and exposing bugs for them to pounce upon. But no gardening was done, the soil being too solid with frost so no sod could be turned. We found time to top up the bird feeders in our feeding stations. These are busy with tits, finches, Nuthatches and Woodpeckers.