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On a wet dull day in mid-May we made our way to the north of our county, Shropshire to visit the second NGS garden of the year, Pooh Corner owned and gardened by our friend and fellow Hardy Plants Society member, Sue. This is a garden that is well thought of by fellow Hardy Plant Society members and we had wanted to visit for a while. Sadly circumstances hadn’t allowed until now. It is situated on a modern estate in the town of St. Martins and is like an oasis among roads and other houses.

Straight away we found interesting plants often in great plant communities.

The garden with its amusing name showed off the gardener’s sense of humour along the many paths.

Hidden away among plants we were delighted to find some interesting and varied sculptural pieces.

Rain had been almost forgotten by the time we had explored much of the garden and we really enjoyed wandering its many narrow paths taking us amongst the plants.

What a lovely way to spend a disappointingly damp day out. We certainly felt much better for our time in this great little garden.

After living near Shrewsbury for close to a couple of decades, we finally today wandered along the Rea Brook Valley Circular Walk, a guided 3 mile amble.

We began in a large car park next to a supermarket, not the best launch pad for a walk but things could only get better! We couldn’t find any signage to help find the starting point, but did know that we needed to find the station platform of the historic railway, “The Old Potts Way”. We also knew this was to be found near the town’s abbey.

We noticed a footpath sign on the grass alongside the abbey and luckily it pointed us in the direction of the route we wanted to follow. But there was no sign of the kingfisher logo which the walk details led us to believe would guide all round the walk.

We walked in front of the old railway station where the line terminated and wandered along the platform where our start to the walk we discovered to be far from auspicious. We passed a supermarket carpark and the back wall of the building – most uninteresting except for some graffiti. Soon we wandered passed a multi-screen cinema and a few fast food outlets. At least to our left the Rea Brook itself looked a little more promising.

To our right as we wandered along the back of the supermarket the ground sloped upwards and was cover in deep green ivy dotted with clumps of Bluebells just coming into flower. We were surprised when Jude found a nest fallen from the branches of one of the tall sycamore trees. It was a nest constructed beautifully from dried grass stems and lined with a cup of dried mud so would have belonged to a pair of Song Thrushes who would have nested in the ivy covering the tree trunk.

Our first real glimpse of the Rea Brook was to our left as we passed the supermarket where it ran at the bottom of a steep nettle covered bank. These would have provided plenty of food for caterpillars of some of our common butterflies. A little further on we enjoyed the blossom of an ornamental cherry. Soon, after wandering through a pasture field with shiny black cattle in, we found ourselves walking on the site of the Old Potts Railway track and here we found more wildflowers and even the odd reminders of its past.

We also noticed the kingfisher sign for the first time which the walk leaflet said would guide us all the way – at least it did from there on!

The next set of photos is all about whites and greens.

We began to notice that traffic noise started increasing as we approached the first of several tunnels and bridges we were to encounter along the way. These underpasses are such miserable places! When we were met by green pastureland on exiting this dark tube it felt so cheering. We began to get better views of the brook itself too. We found a dried up side stream coming across the grassland and providing a habitat for marsh/bog plants.

Sadly we soon viewed another ugly underpass which our path took us through. It did have some interesting graffiti though.

We were nearing the point where we were to cross over the brook and return to our car on the opposite side. Enjoy my gallery of the return journey.

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On the 11th April we excitedly left home to make the short journey to our nearest NGS garden in the village of Edge. This was the first visit to a National Garden Scheme garden for many months due to lockdowns caused by Covid 19. We have visited Edge Villa many times before as owners/gardeners Chris and Bill are friends and they always have good plants for sale.

Come with us as we take a leisurely stroll on a bright spring afternoon. This first set of photos illustrates the essence of the garden, interesting plants, humour, views and ideas.

The second set of pictures shows a wide view across to the greenhouse from the pond area, plus a look at some interesting plant combinations.

We next move on to further plant images.

I feature some of the many beautiful trees enhancing the garden, including a double flowered prunus and a flaked bark acer. The pond sits at the lowest point of the garden and has a great viewing seat. The sculpture of two metal figures look as if they are deep in conversation about the pond.

This is the penultimate set of photos all concerning the area slightly up from the pond.

Little cameos and silver-grey foliaged plants feature below to finish our journey in pictures.

So there we have it, sharing our visit to Edge Villa. We plan to visit another NGS garden in a few weeks again owned and gardened by gardening friends, Ruthall Manor.

I began my April journal entries by stating, “April is a month when there is so much going on and so many garden tasks to perform. Luckily we like garden tasks! We are still enjoying early flowering bulbs, perennials and shrubs.”

I shared a gallery of low growing flowering plants.

The second page is about some of our birdlife in the garden at this time of year.

I wrote, “The month began with unseasonably warm temperatures, at times moving into the low 20 C. Bright sunshine emphasised the beauty and freshness of spring. Wildlife became dominant in the garden with ladybirds on almost every plant and bees, hoverflies and odd butterflies entertaining us. The trees, still bare of leaves, were visited daily by flocks of tits and finches, goldfinch, chaffinch, greenfinch and siskin.”

I featured a watercolour painting of a greenfinch painted by my father a few decades ago.

“Euphorbias are important features in our garden throughout the year and we grow so many different varieties and cultivars.”

I shared photos of some of our euphorbias looking good in April. They show the variations in colour and shapes of foliage, bracts and flowers.

Turning over to the next page we can see that we continued to be busy with garden tasks, where I noted, “April continued where March left off where numbers of garden tasks were concerned. We finished coppicing and pollarding our cornus and salix grown for stem colour. Because we now get so many garden visitors our grass paths get ruined every year so we have re-surfaced them with bark chip.”

I included a couple of photos of finished coppicing and pollarding and one of Jude bringing out garden furniture which had been over-wintered in the summerhouse, followed by five illustrating the re-surfacing of our old grass paths.

My next entry is my watercolour of a little bouquet of spring flowers all from bulbs, muscari, leucojum, scilla and fritillary.

General views of the garden featured on my next page. “I took a wander around the garden taking photographs of general views of the borders.”

Viburnum feature on the next page where I wrote, “One of our favourite garden shrub families are the Viburnums, so naturally we grow several varieties around our patch . At this time of the year a few are already in flower, while others have leaf buds bursting or flower buds fattening.”

Tulips have such a strong presence in our spring garden, giving such cheerfulness and colour on the dullest of days. When the sunshines so do the tulips! Despite being divas they seem to work so well with their plant companions.

I noted, “Flowering spring bulbs for April are the tulips of which we have hundreds. Here is a selection in bud.”

For the final couple of pages I shared two drawings created on my iPad, one of our Amelanchier glowing in early morning sunshine against a bright blue sky and the other a view from the summerhouse overlooking the wildlife pond.

“Amelanchier glows against the early morning blue sky.”

“Looking out from the summerhouse over the wildlife pond.”

So there we have my April entries into my Garden Journal 2021. We shall have a look at the journal in May.

On another woodland walk before spring had made her mark at Attingham Park we enjoyed a wander looking at the silhouettes of mature tree specimens. I shall include both coloured and black and white photos to see what different details they show up.

As we followed the gravel path to the stable yard these trees took our attention, silhouetted against a beautiful blue wintery sky. In the stable yard we collected our coffees and cookies and then admired the willow sculptures.

We walked out towards the patch of woodland where the woodland floor was alive with Song Thrushes and Blackbirds foraging among the autumnal leaves. In the tree tops their larger cousins the Mistle Thrushes sang their hearts out proclaiming their territory and hoping to attract mates. We admired the crisp outlines of the leafless trees against the rich blues of the winter sky.

Completely different forms of tree shapes could be seen in and around the walled garden where fruit trees had been skillfully trained against the red brick walls or along tightly strung wires.

Here are a few blocks of photos of tree silhouettes. The delicate skeletal forms of the mature deciduous trees were broken up by the occasional dark and much heavier forms of evergreen conifers.

I shall change some shots now to monochrome and check out the difference.

These monochrome versions of the coloured photos give a much more simplified view of the tree structures, giving an ethereal quality to them and a delicacy that the original coloured photos lacked. I hope you enjoyed seeing both versions.

Around the middle of March the garden gained a freshness full of promise for the months ahead. I took a wander around the garden with Jude, aka the Undergardener and my trusty Nikon finding fresh new herbage perennial foliage as it bursts out with renewed life.

I hope you enjoy sharing the photos we took.

All these delicate fresh leaves will, within a few days, take off growing at an amazingly rapid rate and the plants will mature and get ready for flowering. Such an exciting time in the garden!

This is the month when spring will really come to life and we will begin to appreciate the freshness of new growth. We must also find time to sit and appreciate what is happening all around us, the garden we care for and the wildlife that joins us in our quarter acre patch.

On my first page for the new month I wrote, ‘March is the month when the garden should show signs of moving into spring, a month when we look forward to buds bursting on trees and shrubs and new fresh growth showing on perennials. We have noticed signs of wildlife returning to activity in the garden with bees, both honey and bumble, busy around flowering shrubs and bulb flowers. Birdsong is getting more tuneful as they begin to pair up and build nests. Blue Tits and Great Tits are exploring nest boxes and both Wrens and Robins busy themselves nest-building.’

Gardening tasks featured on the second page for March where I wrote, “For us early to mid-March is a busy time with plenty of tasks to be getting on with.“

The captions for the photos read, “Jude has been busy sowing seeds of herbaceous perennials”, “We have tidied the plants on our nursery shelves”, “I have been planting snowdrops in the green – ‘Galanthus elwesii’ and “We have been refreshing our bark paths and using the old bark as a mulch below trees.”

Gardening tasks continued over leaf,The first block of photos showed us working away mulching with the compost. The second block shows me pollarding my willows and a Cornus Midwinter Fire. I wrote, “a lorry arrived to deliver a load of green waste compost for us to share with our next door neighbour, Vicky. We aim to compost the front garden with a 2 inch deep mulch of this black magic gold.”, and followed by, “Then we began the long but enjoyable task of pruning willows and dogwoods.”

Onto the next page and I concentrate on our Salix (willows) and their catkins. I noted, “Some of the most beautiful flowers in March are the catkins of Salix (willows) and Betulas (Birches), their colours, textures, form and their ability to catch the light.”

The two blocks of photos show on the left the catkins of two varities of Salix gracilistyla. The pink catkins are of Salix gracilistyla ‘Mount Aso’ and the black ones from Salix gracilistyla ‘Melanostachys’ “ The second batch of photos shows the catkins of our pollarded willow, Salix acutifolia ‘Blue Streak’ and one of our many Birches, Betula albosinensis ‘Septentronalis’.

On the opposite page is a drawing of one of the most unusual and beautiful seed heads in the garden, Lunaria annua (Honesty) for which I turned to oil pastels.

For the next two pages I look at the new foliage growth of our many herbaceous perennials. I noted, “The second half of March sees the borders punctuated with fresh new growth of herbaceous perennials. There is so much variety of colour, texture, shape and structure. Exciting even more rapid growth will start soon!”

Over the page in complete contrast to the lush greens of newly emerged foliage I did two drawings of a grass seed head. The grass is an unusual one which is difficult to find for sale, Phaenosperma globosa, the second part of its name referring to the rounded seeds which are scattered around the delicate stems.

The left hand sketch was created in fine tipped fibre pens while the right hand drawing is in fine tipped mechanical pencil.

Opposite the drawings are photos of tree silhouettes against blue skies. I wrote, “Blue skies in March this year have been a rarity as we have suffered from dark grey clouds above us most days. But when we have had clear blue above our heads when we have been in the garden, it has been a rich, deep blue, great to show off tree silhouettes.”

In the gallery below I did include one flowering shrub, Ribes sanguineum ‘King Edward VII’ which is at its best with blue skies behind.

Garden tasks feature on the final page of my garden journal for March, where I stated, “As the weather improved towards the end of the month, we became so busy with typical springtime tasks, making sure we are ready for the new season.”

Beneath the first group of photos below I noted, “I cut deciduous ferns down to grass level, threw the prunings onto the grass . Jude then mowed the grass going over the fern cuttings and thus cutting them up mixing them with the grass mowings to create a great acidic mulch material.“

Beneath the next pair of photos I noted, “We regularly mist over our herbaceous seedlings and Jude revitalised the Scree Bed.”

Just four pictures remain organised in two pairs. Beneath the first pair I wrote, “We mulched the Shade Border with composted bark. Seedling weeds in the Rill Garden were dealt with by burning.”

Beneath the second pair I wrote, “We have been bringing out our garden sculptures from under cover.”

So there we have my entries for March in My Garden Journal 2021. We shall share another look in April.

As promised we are back on our town wanders around Shrewsbury carrying on as we arrived at the river. We took a short but steep flight of stone steps to the toll path but flooding took away our choice of going left or right. Only our path to the right was open! To the left the path was under water!

Before taking the steps we passed this interesting colourful building with a ceramic tile montage adorning a window place. It is one of a series to be found around Shrewsbury made by the students of the Wakeman School had created featuring things seen while looking upwards in the town.

One thing that attracts us to this walk is the architecture on the opposite bank, which is so varied all with gardens flowing down to the water’s edge. The right hand photo below is of a beautifully and sensitively renovated brewery building turned into an apartment block

The side of the river we walk along features a long avenue of mature, very tall, upright and graceful Lindens, or Lime trees. Opened grass areas combine with these trees to give the park its character and make it such a popular place.

The grassed area of the park is on a slope upwards back towards town and towards the top of this slope we began to see the new St. Chad’s Church with its tower topped by a golden cross which caught the sun.

From St Chad’s we made our way back into town down and our parked car.

We were back by the market hall that replaced the old stone built one from The Square that we saw earlier.

We dislike going into town with too many people, noisy shops and traffic. Towns seem to make people need to hurry and forget manners and even forget how to smile, hence we visit as little as possible. During lockdown we found it necessary to go into our nearest town Shrewsbury. It felt a different place with so few shoppers around and little traffic.

Decades of destruction has changed the face of Shrewsbury when poor planning decisions were made allowing dozens of beautiful, architecturally important buildings to be demolished to make way for very poor buildings to take their place and in one area, Frankwell the heart of a mediaeval village within the town boundaries was ripped out to make room for a roundabout! Despite this our county town has over 300 listed buildings remaining today.

Hidden behind the main streets of the town down a narrow road can be found a beautiful area around open lawn with mature trees and two churches bounded on one side by rambling medieval buildings, the Bear Steps.

We left this area by following a narrow passageway called Grope Lane. Shrewsbury has its own name for these narrow alleys, “shuttes”, but the steep one we took is called simply ‘lane’. It took us down into the High Street where we made for the Market Square. This area is home to an interesting array of architectural styles, but sadly some of our favourites were hidden behind scaffolding.

From the square we made our way towards another open area, the home of the original St Chads church. Today it presents as a green space dotted with seats for locals to rest and chat upon. The only stone work showing is a red sandstone chapel. The main church collapsed and was reduced to a pile of rubble overnight back in 1788. Thomas Telford designed its replacement which is still standing near the town park. I have a photo of the new church in my next blog – part two of this wander around Shrewsbury.

We left the openness of the green space and wandered back into town, via quiet red-bricked backstreets. We were aiming for Wyle Cop, a steep shopping street full of ancient attractive buildings housing unusual shops.

We took the lane between the red-brick old mill building and the stone-built imposing building which was once a cinema, aiming for the walkway alongside the river. (see part two)

This is the final winter walk report from our wanderings around the woodland walks at our local National Trust property, Attingham Hall. So far we have concentrated on different aspects of the trees we love looking at as we wander, and this one will be no different. We will be enjoying the differences in their bark, colours, textures and patterns.

Hopefully the next report may be more spring like!

Here is a gallery of the shots I took in late February showing close-ups of tree bark.

I thought I would finish with what is in my mind the most beautiful bark of all, that of the Betula pendula, our native birch. It changes so much during the lifetime of the tree. My photo shows it at its most mature. Beautiful!