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We really enjoy visiting the gardens of friends throughout the year to see how they change and develop. Many of these friends are also fellow members of the Shropshire Branch of the Hardy Plant Society.

One such garden belongs to our friend Von and we have visited her special garden several times. In the summer we visited this garden which is a short drive from home. The garden gently slopes away from the house and the conservatory affords a good view down the garden and to the countryside beyond.

The first photo was taken from partway down the slope looking back up towards the house. The second is the view through Von’s old apple tree to the countryside.

The next sets of photos shows other broader views within the garden.

One powerful element of a garden that lifts it from the average is the way plants are grouped. Each plant group works together to create a plant community just as in the natural world.

Sculptural pieces and found objects integrated into a border add extra interest to Von’s creation.

It is amazing what you can find on shelves in greenhouses!

We always enjoy time spent in Von’s garden and this early May visit was no different. Meeting there with other members of our mini-group of the Shropshire HPS added so much more as we have got to know each other as friends as well as group members.

After a break of a few months, due to family health probems and computer troubles, my garden journal returns to share with you my pages in the journal for August.

On the first two pages I featured some of the roses we had in flower in August and wrote, “August starts as a confusing month both for us gardeners and our gardens.

Some days felt like spring with the addition of April showers, while others were more like dull November days. Some plants developed rapidly and collapsed when wind and rain battered the borders Nothing could stop our roses from flowering though. They are having their best year ever.”

Over onto the next double page I shared two of my sketches, a pencil drawing of a small grass called, Briza maxima and a pencil sketch of the seed heads of a plant that has just had its name changed back to Allium siculum after a decade or so being removed from the allium group and named then to Nectaroscordum siculum. So someone must have realised that its first name change must have been recognised as a mistake.

Over the page onto another double page spread featuring our crazy weather and the damage it caused and opposite I looked at some of our August wildlife.

“In the skies above us huge flocks of gulls congregate. We feel like we are at the seaside as we enjoy their calls.”

I wrote that, “After last year’s drought and the long wet periods that followed complete with deeply cold times, the garden is reflecting this in the trees and shrubs that are suffering. But now some are dying and we are experiencing many sad losses.

Our Cercis ‘Forest Pansy’ has had branches broken in the wind and we have had to prune back to healthy growth points.Several of our Acer palmatum are slowly dying as foliage dries and becomes crinkled.”

I wrote that, “Our Pittosporum tennuifolium ‘Silver Queen’ lost all its leaves and branches after turning brown and brittle.”

The first photo below shows Jude helping Ian to reduce the Pitosporum to just a 6ft trunk. Within weeks there were new shoots shooting which was so unexpected.

On the next page I looked at some of the fruit appearing on some of our shrubs and I noted that, “Fruit comes to the fore from now onwards and two 0f our cornus shrubs have produced so many berries. Cornus mas drips with deep red fruit almost grape-like.”

Below I wrote, “Cornus kousa ‘China Girl’ follows its white bracts looking just like impressive flowers with fruit on 3in stalks. They begin green and move on to red raspberry-like fruit. In dry weather they turn brown and drop.”

On the opposite page I looked at the time when we tried to improve one of the ‘Doughnut Circles’. I wrote, “We often redesign areas of our garden and this month it was the turn of one of our circular beds in the front garden. We call the two circles “Doughnuts”.

Firstly we stripped the bed of most of the existing planting. We put fresh gravel on the surface and began planting a new set of plants.”

I continued by adding, “The new plants are featured overleaf. We were so pleased with our ‘new look’ doughnut.”

The final page in my journal was concerned with new plants that we ordered for the doughnut. “The plants we chose were Agapanthus, Alliums, Sanguisorba and Thalictrum.”

We will return for another look into the entries for my garden journal for the month of September. Plenty to look forward to in the next few weeks!

As promised I am back to look at more of the Minsterley Show where we will be considering the livestock show classes.

There is so much tradition to keep to in the livestock judging enclosures, including black bowler hats and white coats. Even the youngsters showing their calves dressed smartly in white, which does not seem a sensible colour around these calves. The patterns on some breeds are really interesting to look at.

No patterns or markings on these breeds just beautiful colours. The greys certainly looked attractive on this breed unknown to us. The ginger bulls were much more familiar as they graze in several fields not far from us.

On to the goats, a small category, none of which wished to have their photographs taken. Instead they just turned away as the shutter was about to act.

The sheep show pens were many and very busy as stewards collected sheep for judging. Sone breeds are coloured for showing but no-one seemed to know why – they just do it!

And these are the rosettes that every exhibitor is hoping for, the more the better.

As we returned to the car parking in the neighbouring field we liked the design of the wigwam-like tent. Opposite was a display of modern tractors the sort that speed through our hamlet and make a ridiculous amount of noise. Not good when we are gardening in the front borders.

That is it for another year but we will be back same time next year.

It has been a few years since we visited the Minsterley Show which is held in fields about a mile or so from home. It was covid that prevented the show going ahead for a couple of years and then a date clash stopped us attending last year.

But nothing stopped us enjoying our local country show this year. For a few days prior to show time we had watched the marquees, tents and livestock pens going up and even heavy rain failed to stop everything being ready.

The day of the show dawned bright mostly sunny but with periods of cloudy skies. The threatened rain came to nothing.

The show celebrates the things that are locally important, so we saw vintage tractors, competitions for sheep and goats of all kinds, a huge variety of cattle and horses from Shetland ponies to decorated heavy horses.

Various sized marquees were home to artists and crafts people, bee keepers and producers of all types of food, savoury and sweet. Between the marquees were stalls and display areas featuring all sorts of companies selling vintage tools, solar panels, country clothing etc. Of course there were all sorts of food and drink sellers too and of course the purveyors of ice cream.

We began at the display areas exhibiting vintage transport, as well as tractors. We were then drawn to the sports cars of our childhood days.

Nearby was this beautiful piece of engineering!

A short walk away was the marquee housing exhibitions of home made crafts, cookery and a section all about plants. Here we found a display created by the WI and tables of plants from hostas to dahlias.

I couldn’t resist pointing my lens at this treasure chest of garden flowers and foliage.

So that is part one of my post all about Minsterley Show ………….

In part two we will look at by far the largest section of the show, livestock!

I have decided to start off with a look at the seats in our own garden as we have moved some and bought some new ones.

From our own garden we move on to the seats in a garden of one of our gardening friends patches.

See you sometime with a fresh collection of garden furniture photos.

Back visiting my garden journal for 2023 and we should be well and truly in spring, feeling the changes in both light and temperature.

To begin with I wrote, “April arrived but bring its expected ‘April Showers’ with it. Instead we had alternating sunshine and storms. Luckily we had jobs to do both out and inside the glasshouse. One job was to sort out my aeonium collection which overwinters inside the glasshouse. In spite of this protection we lost quite a large percentage of them. We potted on cuttings and bought on others purchased from specialist nurseries.”

From aeoniums we moved on to look at alpines. I noted that, “We grow alpines in various places around the garden, in a scree garden behind the glasshouse, in pots and stone containers and along the edge of the drive on the Chatto Garden. Our et and cold autumns and winters are not appreciated by alpine plants which often don’t last long.”

On the opposite page we look at more small scale plantings, a spring bulb called muscari. Here I wrote how “Every gardener loves spring bulbs, which manage to brighten our gardens with daffodils and tulips probably the favourite. But I have a soft spot for muscari. Over the last few years I have been searching for less well known varieties, so now have a small but interesting collection.”

Below are photos of just ten of the collection.

From muscari growing and flowering closely to the ground I moved on to look at clematis, a climber which flowers much higher up. Here I noted that, “We have been busy buying clematis since we moved so now we have so many. We must list them one day to see what we have. At this time of year we enjoy many ‘alpina’ types which tend to have white, blue or pink flowers whose long slender petals hand down gracefully. Below we show a few we have in our garden.”

On the opposite page I looked at a few of the gardening tasks we performed in April.

Next the journal displays a double page spread featuring tulips, that most colourful bulb flower of all. To introduce them I wrote,“Most of the strong April colours are gifted to us by tulips. Te tiny ones below tend to be species tulips, with the larger more developed flowers are cultivarsbred for size, shape and colour.”

On the final page of entries for April I returned to show some more gardening jobs tackled during the month. I noted that,“April is no different to any other month as there is a list of jobs to tackle.”

The next visit to my Garden Journal might show that we are getting much closer to summer.

Back with the fifth post in this post Covid-19 occasional series of posts celebrating garden seats. Here are three spotted while enjoying a wander around Wildgoose Walled Garden and Nursery the colours of which caught my eye. The third shot is of seats created by the volunteer gardeners to use when weeding the borders. The gardener we spoke to reckoned they were really comfy.

The next photo is of a very comfy and inviting seating area from another NGS Yellow Book garden.

Finally seats we found while wandering around the wonderful Bodnant Gardens in North Wales. These wooden benches were situated in the highly scented rose garden.

See you next time with number 6 in this occasional series.

Already I am creating the third monthly entries for this year, March, the month when the weather should be looking better and more conducive to gardening.

On the opening page I wrote, “March, according to the meteorologists we are now in spring, but as gardeners we know it is still well and truly winter. So far the weather has been cold and very dry. This type of weather however doesn’t stop us getting out into our garden.”

I show this with a set of photos of us at work.

Hebes feature on the opposite page where I wrote, “Hebes enhance our garden every day of the year, both interesting foliage and delicate looking flowers. Foliage comes in different sizes, shapes and colour from glaucous to almost black, but they are always glossy. Plants themselves vary in size and shape too, and flowers come in white plus shades of pink, purple and blue.”

The following photos show just a few of our collection.

On the next two pages are featured how we continued to develop the new outdoor dining area. and then the snow came! The large glaucous leaved bush bottom left is about 4 feet in diameter. A big, old healthy shrub!

The next double page spread features one of my sketches on the left hand page plus early flowering bulbs opposite.

Writing about working to finish our new outdoor dining area, I noted “We have just finished changing our ‘Secret Garden’ into an outdoor dining area.’

I repurposed this unwanted futon stool, making it into a planter. Jude planted a selection of herbs, giving us an herb garden right next to the table.

On the opposite page I celebrate the arrival of our first snow of the winter, and share a selection of photos taken in the cold.

Over the page we find that I wrote, “Emerging from beneath the snow this small piece of fennel dried and delicate. Drawn to actual size.”

I then looked at bulbs that were in flower, about which I wrote, “Early flowering bulbs and perennials provide food for early emerging bees of all sorts. Crocus are very important to wildlife.

On the final page of my entries for March I considered signs of wildlife in our garden. I noted that, “I am amazed at how many signs and sights of our garden wildlife we experience in cold weather. Our hedgehogs have come out from the houses we have provide for them and those they build for themselves. Poos are the most obvious sign! Birds remain busy on the feeders, and some are already nesting.

Early flowers on shrubs, bulbs and perennials are a delight for early bees.”

“The snail on the terracotta flower pot stops bees getting a chance to nest which is why it is there.”

“This sparrow terrace had a nest starting in the bottom compartment but then a swarm of Tree Bees took it over. I opened it up recently and found both nests tightly crammed in.”

So that is all of the entries for my garden journal for March 2023.

The crocus we have were mostly bought ‘in the green’ several years ago so we have not got as many as we have had. We need to order more ‘in the green’ collections. However this year we have discovered that some have started moving into grassed areas.

The first snowfall of the winter arrived well into March which the meteorologists think is Spring. Several forecasts have been threatening us with snow recently almost every day.

It was very light when it came – you could almost wander between the flakes. As you can imagine I was soon wrapped up and out in the garden with camera in hand. Here is a gallery of those photos.

And finally, a photo I have wanted to take for a while now – a snowdrop in snow!