Category: trees

Sussex Woodland in Stormy Weather

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 9, 2012
7 Comments on Sussex Woodland in Stormy Weather

In my last post I followed a winter exploration in our own local patch of woodland As a contrast I can now transport you back into the summer and into another woodland.

As we were exploring a Sussex garden on a day when the weather gave mixed fortunes, we took to the woods to give us some protection from the showers and storms that interrupted the periods of sunshine. We thought the tree canopies would act in place of our umbrella which we had left in the car. The lighting in the wood struck us as really special as the sun and showers mixed so we explored the little wood further.

Tags trees, wildlife, woodlands

birds colours gardens open to the public Land Art National Trust outdoor sculpture photography Shropshire The National Trust trees wildlife woodland

Woodland – Mother Nature as Artist, Sculptor, and Scribe.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 7, 2012
4 Comments on Woodland – Mother Nature as Artist, Sculptor, and Scribe.

A winter wander around our local woodland patch within the grounds of the National Trust’s Attingham Park got off to a strange start. Expecting the cold weather to have restricted visitors to a few hardy souls, we arrived to see the main car park full, all overflow parking fields full and lots of extra parking also filling up rapidly.

We had arrived just after the start of their first Christmas related event – The Frost Fair. Bad planning! However the woodlands were quiet, the only sounds following us around were the songs of small and squeaky birds, Coal Tits, Treecreepers and Goldcrests.

The event we searched out was the art exhibition of the works of Mother Nature. She was her usual brilliant imaginative self.

Her woodcarving looked freshly made and full of texture and colour.

This piece looks to be based on the shapes of a crab’s claw.

Drawings on the cut trunks of a diseased Ash tree reminded me of cave paintings.

This triangular land art installation shows Mother Nature working in a more geometric way.

As the woodland path took us deeper in amongst the trees we appreciated the quietness of our footfalls, the quietness of the soft deep pine needle duvet. When it is quiet the subtleties of bird songs and calls are more easily enjoyed. We stood feet away from a Goldcrest feeding on insects he had searched out from the conifer needles with thin probing beak. He suddenly fell to the floor as if dead, or mimicking the gentleness of a falling leaf. He dropped into the fern and bramble undergrowth and stayed there out of sight. Was he feigning death to fool a predator or pretending to be a falling leaf with the same purpose in mind? As we stood silently in awe of what we had witnessed he reappeared vertically up into the branch he had fallen out of. One of those magical moments that two observers of the natural world will never forget! Any idea what he may have been up to?

Nature playing with light fascinated us as the sun dropped lower in the thin blue sky lighting up the understory with golds and oranges.

Water, be it a stream, ditch, river or pool, affords nature the chance of playing with mirrors to create illusions and mysteries.

On the land shadows are drawn long and dark. The long tall tree shadow stretches out across the pastureland. My own shadow tried to get in the picture until I managed to persuade it to move into the shadow of one of the tree trunks.

The shadow of the precariously leaning seat crossed our path as we approached the gap in the tall wall that would take us into the productive gardens.

The climbing, curling tendrils of this vine glow pink and red in the sunlight, forming a natural frame for the filigree skeletons of trees.

We greatly enjoyed our visit to the open air gallery.

Tags Attingham Park. parkland, birds, garden photography, goldcrest, National Trust, natural sculpture, ornamental trees, outdoor sculpture, sculpture, winter

autumn autumn colours garden design garden photography gardening gardens open to the public ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs photography the South trees

Images of Savill.

Savill Garden is a special places. Wandering around, its paths leads you to surprises, gentle places, sudden views and unexpected delights.

Tags autumn, foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, gardening, grasses, ornamental trees, the Savill Gardens

colours garden design garden photography gardening gardens open to the public grasses ornamental trees and shrubs photography the South trees winter gardens

The Winter Garden at The Savill Garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 29, 2012
9 Comments on The Winter Garden at The Savill Garden

For our second post about the Savill Gardens we shall discover the colours, shapes and textures of the Winter Garden. Although planted with winter interest in mind when we explored in the autumn it was full of interest.

The third and final visit to the Savill Gardens will feature a selection of images from around the gentle walk we took through these stunning gardens. We had looked forward to visiting these gardens for years and when we finally did we were not disappointed in any way.

Tags foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, gardening, grasses, ornamental trees, shrubs, the Savill Gardens, trees, winter gardens

autumn autumn colours colours garden design garden photography gardening gardens open to the public grasses hardy perennials ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs photography the South trees

The Savill Garden in October

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 27, 2012
4 Comments on The Savill Garden in October

At last we have got around to visiting the Savill Garden. It was worth waiting for! The new visitor reception is an amazing building, a single storey space under a long, sinuous roof shaped like the tail of a Whale.

Looking up at the wonderful reception building.

Looking down into the garden from the reception building.

The Savill Garden is situated on the edge of Great Windsor Park and is just a small part of the Royal Landscape. We followed the recommended path around the garden so that we could see the effects of Autumn throughout.

In most areas of the garden, Savill had the typical look and feel of a stately home garden, both in plants grown, choice of design features and border arrangements, but hints of newer thinking were showing through, such as the use of grasses and new perennial plantings.

A true highlight of our visit to the Savill Gardens was the surprise at coming across this modern water feature. It looked good and it sounded good.

Although we visited the gardens at Savill in the Autumn one of the most colourful areas was the Winter Garden, already showing many interesting features. So the next post will be about the winter Garden in Autumn.

Tags autumn, autumn colours, foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, gardening, grasses, greenhouse gardening, ornamental trees, shrubs, the Savill Gardens, trees

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

A Wander Around our Garden in November

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 23, 2012
6 Comments on A Wander Around our Garden in November

This is the penultimate garden wander for the year and what a colourful one it is. The weather has turned cold with daytime temperatures failing to reach double figures and night time temperatures only just above freezing. Some days though do please the camera, with deep blue skies in between storms.

This rich red oriental poppy never fails to impress even this late in the year.

Several of the plants that feature in the November garden seem to sport odd shaped flowers. The Strawberry Tree, Arbutus unedo has flowers that hang like pearly cream bells. Cyclamen hederifolium have curious fly away petals while Shystostylus flowers hang on gently curving stems.

Roses seem to be blooming away giving us brightness for most of the year. Many that started blooming in late May are still flowering now and they are producing buds in readiness to flower right through to the end of the year.

At the moment I pass the wonderfully colourful corner of the Shed Bed, where grasses have coloured up intermingled with the dries flower heads of Eryngium and Agastache. It has to be my favourite November patch in the garden.

Having passed my favourite corner I pass our trees as I go down to to the bottom of the garden to feed the chicks. Their bark textures and colours change every day. This birch’s chocolate coloured bark is peeling back to reveal snow white smooth bark below, like a white shirt beneath jacket collars.

It seems to be a special year for cotoneaster berries, with every variety covered thickly in readiness for arrival of the winter migrant thrushes.

There is something very special about the freshness of the flowers of the Fatsia, with their creamy, greeny whitish colours. They always look to me as if they should smell of vanilla and be edible!

There are difficult decisions to be made in the November garden. Which seed heads to cut down and which to leave for their looks and wildlife value is perhaps the most difficult. How could you possible cut this clematis down when it looks this good? We tend now to leave perennials standing unless or until they fall and become soggy. Once they do this they endanger the lives of the plants they may be smothering. To me the idea of “putting the garden to bed for winter” just doesn’t add up. A garden is for 12 months, all of them

Wrapping the greenhouse in its winter jacket of bubble-wrap is the least favourite of all of our gardening tasks. This Novenber we started on a cold day knowing that as we added the thermal layer to the greenhouse we would heat up as well. But the sun came out and we got too hot. We started off wearing fleece jackets over jumpers but by the time we had finished we had shed both these layers and were down to tee-shirts.

First we collected the rolls of wrap from their summer quarters – the woodshed, and piled them up outside

Next we attempted to begin hanging it inside the greenhouse over specially positioned strings and wires. The bubblewrap then attacked Jude, the Undergardener.

Eventually Jude managed to overcome the wrap and get on with the job in hand, lining the sides and then hanging it over strings tied across the roof. Soon the temperature increased.

I hope these plants appreciate it!

Let’s us finish our November wander with a couple of richly coloured beautifully lit views across borders, and a quick look across our borrowed landscape.

Tags autumn, autumn colours, clematis, foliage, garden photography, grasses, November, ornamental trees, poppies, roses

garden design garden photography gardening gardens open to the public grasses hardy perennials National Trust ornamental trees and shrubs The National Trust the South trees

Go South 7 – Nymans

This is the last of my “Go South” posts and as promised it features a garden. Well after all those coastal posts in this series it was only a matter of time before we visited a garden. And boy what a garden it was!

Nymans was created by one of the great supporters of the English plant collectors and it shows in the variety of plants and in the difficulty in identifying some of them.

Nymans is a garden to delight any plantsman who will leave with a list of must-haves. It will also make any good gardener desire his very own areboretum just to plant the rare and special trees spotted at Nymans.

I am not a great fan of coniferous evergreens but these three display diversity in their foliage colour and in their structure and shape.

In the shade of deciduous trees the shapes of their trunks are revealed.

Walking around this varied and surprising garden is like walking through the pages of a good book on garden design. Here you can find every principle of design shown in all its glory. Any gardener, whatever the size of their garden could adapt ideas to be found on a walk about at Nymans.

Framing a view …..

Using a structure to invite you onwards ….

Planting in trios ………………..

Drawing the eye …………

Using structures as an invitation and to support plants to provide shade from the sun ……………

Much of the house belonging to the gardens at Nymans is now in ruins, but they somehow suit the garden. They provide a good foil for planting.

The ruins provided some oportunities to photograph little details and patterns.

But the gardens of Nymans aren’t all about big views and big trees. Richly coloured traditionally proportioned double herbaceous borders excite the eye of the visitor.

There was so much to see at Nymans that another post will appear soon.

Tags garden photography, gardening, herbaceous borders, National Trust, Nymans, ornamental trees, shrubs, trees

autumn autumn colours colours fruit and veg garden design garden photography gardening ornamental trees and shrubs trees

Nuts and Berries

As allotment gardeners we enjoy late summer and early autumn as the busiest harvesting time, but lots more food is coming into readiness in our ornamental gardens and parks. Nuts, seeds and berries provide feasts for wildlife and feasts for our eyes.

Sweet Chestnut awaiting the attention of squirrels in Pittville Park in Cheltenham.

Onopordum seed heads against a blue sky in our garden.

Drooping Dieramas.

Black umbellifer seeds.

Crataegus berries and autumn foliage.

A host of Arum Lilies.

Jude “The Undergardener” mystified by an unknown chestnut.

The chestnut had spiky golf balls as nut capsules.

Mad clashing colours on Euonymous europaeus.

Crocosmia Lucifer graceful stems with its ginger coloured seeds.

Let us now have a wander around our garden and spot red berries, and photograph them before the Mistle Thrushes, Redwings and Fieldfares gorge on them.

But unlike Henry Ford we do grow our berries in more than one colour!

White Dogwood.

Two-tone Hypericum.

Musky purple grapes.

This unusual cream berried Cotoneaster always confuses garden visitors. (C. rothchildsiana)

Tags autumn, autumn colours, autumn harvests, fruit., garden photography, gardening, harvests, ornamental trees, shrubs

autumn autumn colours colours garden design garden photography gardening gardens open to the public National Garden Scheme ornamental trees and shrubs photography shrubs The National Gardening Scheme" trees

The Dingle – A Welsh Garden Wonder

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 3, 2012
4 Comments on The Dingle – A Welsh Garden Wonder

Close to Welshpool, just a half hour from home across the Welsh border, are our favourite nursery and garden centre, The Dingle and The Derwen, part of the same family. They sell unusual trees and shrubs and many good-value perennials all locally grown. But hidden away in the Dingle nursery, through a little wooden gate is a wonderful sloping garden. The garden is mostly a wonderful collection of unusual trees and shrubs on a gentle slope down to a lake, so a visit in the autumn is an assault on the senses.

The nursery which is now over 40 years old, grows thousands of plants on its 150 acres of Welsh countryside. We rarely come away without a gem – and they give free coffee away too!

The garden itself extends to just four acres, but those four acres feel much larger than expected with a complex network of paths which give occasional views which are wide and stunning. This is good garden design.

As the paths take us around corners they feature interesting, colourful shrubs and trees to delight the eye before enticing us to find out what is around the next corner.

Being on a slope, the garden’s many seats are most warmly welcomed by aching legs.

Some of the seating provides cover which proved useful a few times as showers burst from the dark sky just visible through gaps in the trees.

Coloured, textured foliage and bark keep the interest of the plant lover in us going strong and enticing us around each corner.

As in any good garden little cameos stop us in our tracks and catch the eye.

The lake at the lowest point of the garden, provides a restful place – restful to the eye and restful to the legs.

Strong contrasts in foliage colour show up in the brighter weather as we work our way back up the paths to the gate.

As in any garden specialising in trees and shrubs the stars of the autumn are the Acers.

Back up the top of the garden we pass through the little wooden gate and are tempted for a perusal of the colourful nursery beds.

Tags acers., autumn, autumn colours, cornus, foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, gardening, NGS, ornamental trees, Powis, shrubs, trees, Welshpool

autumn colours garden photography gardening grasses ornamental trees and shrubs photography trees

Leaves

Just for a change we have no words just photographs to enjoy. A few sneak in near the end though!

If only you could smell the leaves below! They are from the tree called Cercidyphilum and they smell so sweet. I think they smell of toffee apples, Jude thinks they smell of candyfloss while others think the scents reminiscent of brittle toffee, burnt sugar, in fact anything sweet and sticky!

The most underrated plants for autum leaf colour must be the grasses. They very rarely get a mention in relation to autumn colour, so let’s put it right.