Categories
colours garden design garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials light light quality ornamental trees and shrubs Powis Powys roses shrubs trees Uncategorized Wales woodland woodlands

The Dingle Garden in June

As we reach the middle of the year we made our monthly visit to the Dingle Gardens, and for once the weather looked set fair. This meant that we had strong contrast between light and shade and any colour was brightly lit when the sun hit it, leaf colour or flower colour.

A Cornus kousa on the lawned area loked at its best, with creamy white bracts covering it from head to toe. The light emphasised the shapes and textures of quite ordinary trees ans shrubs lifting them above their normal character, including this tall conifer and the little Box shrub.

  

Hosta leaves and fern fronds looked lush and fresh and appeared in every shade of green, some glaucous and some almost yellow. Their textures were emphasised also by the light, every curl and ripple of leaf and each curl and twist of fern fronds.

      

Conifers are difficult to appreciate in such a heavily planted hillside garden but on this day they seemed extra interesting with extra interest in their needle shapes and colours.

  

Conifer foliage appeared far more textured and more varied in colour than on the dull days of our earlier visits as the bright sunlight emphasised both the colours and textures.

   

The shubs were flowering well on this visit and some petals became almost translucent and a few perennial plants had cme into bloom too. These flower colours had an extra element of richness to them as they presented strong contrast to the multitude of greens and greys of foliage.

Roses seemed to have appeared from nowhere. In a garden full od trees and shrubs with interesting foliage, bark and stems rose bushes out of flower really do disappear. But in June suddenly the subshine finds heir beautiful scented flowers. Most here are simple blooms including our native roses.

To finish off my post on our June visit to the Dingle Garden I shall sign off with a gallery of flowering shrub photos, which I hope you enjoy. We will be back in July for our next monthly visit to see what is going on.

 

 

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Plealey Garden Party – a look back to summer

It often feels good to look back to a summer’s day especially when we are in the grips of an exceptionally long and cold winter. We had been asked by the organisers of the Plealey Garden Party to set up a stall to sell some of our plants. So we prepared our seedlings and young plants from cuttings and nurtured them until the event, when we priced them up, spruced them up and boxed them up for the journey to the other end of our hamlet.

The day of the garden party dawned bright and sunny and warmed up as the day moved on, perfect weather for it! This is the highlight of the hamlet’s year when all fifty households get together with friends, relatives and visitors from nearby villages for an afternoon. The afternoon also raises money for local charities. It is usually held in Well Lane but builders working along it prevented this from happening in 2017. Luckily a resident volunteered her garden for this one.

 

We loaded up one of our neighbours'(Chris and June) Landrover with trays of plants and Chris delivered them for us as we took a leisurely wander down the road following the trail of bunting. The vehicle certainly made life so much easier for us.

We put our folding table together and laid the plants out as we planned how to display them to look enticing or at least at their best. We were situated in the beautiful dappled shade of old apple and pear trees which was to prove a boon as the day warmed up.

 

In a short while we were all set and stood back to admire our handiwork. We were pleased with our efforts and hoped the sun would bring out the visitors/punters.

This is the view we had from our seats behind our plants, and the welcoming view for the visitors.

 

The stallholders waited patiently for the tea party to be declared officially open and the people arrived, mostly young families and couples. The local ukelele band burst into life and entertained us all afternoon, and luckily they thought to bring along a gazebo to protect themselves from the sunshine or the rain just in case.

 

The weather brought in a good crowd who stayed for a long time and enjoyed the refreshments in the hot weather. The tables were beautifully decorated with small posies from the garden.

 

A popular visitor to our hamlet’s event was this horse and cart which we often see passing by our front garden. What a delightful and peaceful mode of transport to explore the narrow country lanes around Plealey.

 

It turned out to be a very successful afternoon with lots of visitors who spent plenty of money that was then sent to the chosen charities. Next year the party will be back in its usual location of Well Lane so we hope the success continues.

 

 

 

Categories
architecture garden arches garden design garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials ornamental trees and shrubs pergolas Uncategorized woodland woodlands Yorkshire

Parcevall Hall Gardens – Wharfedale

Situated in Wharfedale one of the most beautiful places in North Yorkshire, Parcevall Hall was really difficult to access via narrow roads, hairpin bends and narrow bridges, but it somehow suited the place that we enjoyed one day in September. The gardens were beautiful and typical of those created in the arts and crafts style, the house being redesigned and much developed at that time also.

The house and gardens sit beautifully on a steep slope which certainly added interest for there was much for the garden team and designer to overcome in the making of the garden, slopes and steps abound. Some of the garden was above the hall, a Rose Garden and the area known as Silver Wood, which hid an unusual rock garden. Below the house terraces were dug into the slope and many different garden rooms created. There was strong design to appreciate and beautiful plants to admire.

 

We walked up from the Garden Office and Tea Rooms after crossing over a tiny clear stream and wandering up through woodland. From a clearing in the woods we enjoyed a view over the rambling rooftops of the hall and all its outbuildings.

   

The woodland was dotted with berried and flowering shrubs many with signs that birds and rodents had been enjoying them.

       

Although the plan we were following meant we expected to find the Rock Garden hidden within Silver Wood it was still a wonderful surprising sight when we first came across it. It was a rock garden of huge proportions cut out from the natural slopes and featured a tiny meandering stream falling slowly down its slope. There were some interesting plants to be found among the rocks.

 

Please follow the gallery below to tour the rock garden with us. Click on first photo and navigate using the arrows.

After leaving the Rock Garden and Silver Wood we wandered around the hall to find the terraced gardens below it. Each terrace had an atmosphere of its own and different plantings. The best way to show you what we found is by using another gallery to help you enjoy these terraces with us.

To finish off this journey around Parcevall Hall I want to show you this little group of bronze hares looking up at the moon. Moonstruck hares! Great little cameo!

One rogue has no interest in the moon at all and had even turned his back on it to preen himself.

Categories
Christmas traditions Uncategorized

Our Christmas Traditions

Recently, Judy wrote on her blog, newenglandgardenandthread.wordpress.com, about their family traditions at Christmas time. Check out her post to read her words. She suggests other bloggers post about their family traditions too, so here is a summary of my family’s Christmas traditions.

Firstly we have to have a real green tree, no artificial ones allowed by request of the guests who descend on our home every Christmas Eve. We have three generations celebrating every year but this year we gain a fourth, Jude and I of course, Jude’s mother Sheila, our children Jamie and Jo and their spouses Sam and Rob, and this year a little one year old joins us, our granddaughter Arabella (the fourth generation). We have to decorate the tree before they arrive and place presents beneath and around it.

Christmas Eve means a family evening meal, with log burner and open fire lit and glowing nicely. We all intend to go to bed early and inevitably fail especially Jude and I. Jude has to be Father Christmas later when the house goes quiet – she has to drop off “Christmas Stockings” for everyone outside their bedroom doors. Aren’t we strange!

Chrsitmas Day is a day of chaos and feasting, from the first brew of tea to wake us up through the all too big feast, Christmas dinner itself and regular snacking of sweet or chocolate items throughout. Presents are unwrapped in the morning after a traditional English breakfast and mugs of coffee. Friends and family are contacted during the day to thank them for presents and cards and to wish them a Happy Christmas.

A good doze is the order of the day once the feast has been demolished. The day ends with an evening when the family play board games, eating chocolates until we collapse and retire to our beds.

The day after is Boxing Day, a day of relaxation and walks for those fit enough. It feels very quiet and calm!

So that is it – our traditions of Christmas Day.

Categories
architecture garden design garden designers garden photography garden ponds garden pools gardening gardens grasses hardy perennials meadows National Garden Scheme NGS ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture reflections sculpture Tom Stuart-Smith trees Uncategorized walled gardens water garden water in the garden Yellow Book Gardens

Cogshall Grange – a Cheshire garden designed by Tom Stuart-Smith

Sometimes when you find a garden in the National Garden Scheme’s Yellow Book, you just know it is going to be a special place. Such was the case with the gardens at Cogshall Grange in Cheshire. The description in the book was so inviting and the reality matched it perfectly. It had been designed by Tom Stuart-Smith, one of our favourite garden designers and featured both formal and informal elements, woodland borders, a walled garden, modern herbaceous planting, wildflower meadows and an orchard, all set in the grounds of a Georgian country house.

Jude and I traveled up to Cheshire with friends Pete and Sherlie who also love the work of Tom S-S, so we all arrived full of anticipation.

As we moved from room to room in the garden discovering each feature the atmosphere and mood changed and we were constantly presented with fresh perspectives. This garden was a true garden experience.

We were really looking forward to seeing inside the walled garden which was where the influence of Tom Stuart-Smith was clearly to be seen, but of course we started with coffee and cake to get us in the mood. We discovered and enjoyed interesting small areas of planting as we made our way towards the walled garden, a delicately planted container, some beautifully pruned box and some varied, well chosen plant combinations.

Just as the garden was a careful amalgam of traditional parkland and modern perennial planting so the country house was a combination of old and modern architecture.

      

The walled garden was where the influence of Tom S-S could be seen and felt most strongly, with his very personal planting style and choice of plants mostly hardy perennials. The atmosphere was so gentle and calming. There was so much to photograph within its walls that the only way to do it any justice at all is through a gallery for you to peruse at your own pace. Please as usual click on the first shot and navigate using the arrows. I hope you can identify the very special feeling of this space.

We left the walled garden via a gateway which led us into gentle meadows of wildflower planting.

Walking back to the car to begin our homeward journey, we continued to make discoveries, some grassland had been cut to contrast with the longer uncut areas which were dotted with sculpture such as this beautiful stone seat.

   This beautiful garden excelled!

Categories
Uncategorized

Planting for the future

Source: Planting for the future

Categories
Uncategorized

Simply Beautiful – 11

The succulents known as Sempervivum, common name House Leek, come in such a vast array of colours. We grow dozens of different ones but recently bought a new selection of six plants with a very subtle range of colours, reds, greens and browns. Simply beautiful!

Categories
Uncategorized

Are you sitting comfortably? Part 12 of a very occasional series.

So back again with another selection of garden seats discovered on our visits and wanderings around gardens of all sizes. Every garden however small needs one seat, but every garden deserves as many seats as the design allows. Gardens are to be enjoyed, by the gardeners themselves first and foremost but also by guests and visitors.

At the end of April we visited two spring gardens, The Weir near Hereford, a National Trust property, and a garden open for the Hardy Plant Society 60th Birthday celebrations.

The Weir Garden is an unusual design as it runs in a valley alongside a river, with its paths following the valley side. There are so many points of interest and viewpoints but only a few seats to invite the visitor to sit and take it all in.

  

Conversely our second garden in Stafford was a medium-sized town garden but had seats to help appreciate the beauty of the plants and design features.

More seats to come in “Are you sitting comfortably – Part 13”. We will be on the look out as we visit  gardens for more fine examples of places to relax, sit down and enjoy the views.

 

 

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Starlings under the Pier

Aberwyswyth on the mid Welsh-coast is a seaside resort and a very traditional small seaside town, with promenade, castle, Georgian hotels all along the sea front and a pier pointing out to sea.

This pier is there for the entertainment of holiday-makers and day-trippers alike but many of these human visitors do not realise that many more starlings visit early each evening that humans during the day.

As light falls tens of thousands of these black glossy birds put on a great aerial display, a show in the sky above the waves, an extravaganza! A murmuration no less – one of the wonders of the natural world far superior to anything man can create.

st-1 st-2 st-3 st-4 st-5

 

Categories
architecture light light quality photography the sea the seaside the shore Uncategorized

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside! A Crazy Lighthouse

We do love to be beside the seaside and love the surprises it gives us! When we visited Burnham-on-Sea we were in for a real treat, a big colourful surprise which took us totally by surprise. It was a lighthouse on the beach but not only that, it was wooden lighthouse!

We knew one existed somewhere as we remember seeing it on a BBC series called “Coast” but didn’t realise it was at Burnham until we spotted it in the distance as we were taking in the sea air promenading aimlessly along the soft sandy beach. We walked towards it seeing more detail as we got closer.

The first picture shows the point at which we stopped to decide if we could get to it and back again in the time we had and of course before the tide slowly returned to maroon the lighthouse back at sea. The second picture shows me photographing the lighthouse just as we reached a point close enough to fully appreciate its strange beauty.

b1-01 b1-21

The third photo records the moment that the lighthouse filled the viewfinder.

b1-17

When we got close enough to touch the wooden boards of the lighthouse we looked upwards and then realised how tall it actually was and how bright the red and white clapboards were glaring in the sun and against the deep blue of the October sky.

b1-25

Its reflections in the saltwater pool beneath it were crisp and sharply outlined.

b1-12

To enjoy our visit to see the crazy lighthouse please enjoy my gallery of illustrating our amble across the sands. As usual click on the first photo and then navigate using the arrows.

I hope you enjoyed sharing our discovery of the lovely eccentric construction on the beach. We love being at the seaside, wandering beaches or discovering the character of shoreland towns. Surprises like this lighthouse add to the experience.

 

thinkinGardens

for people who want more than gardening from gardens

This Veggie Life

A Vegetarian | Nature Lifestyle Blog

Rambling in the Garden

.....and nurturing my soul

The Arch City Gardener

Journeys In St. Louis Gardening and Beyond

Garden Dreaming at Châtillon

Consult the genius of the place

Storyshucker

A blog full of humorous and poignant observations.

gardeninacity

Notes from a wildlife-friendly cottage garden

PlayGroundology

...an emerging social science

The Official Blog of British Wildlife

'The most important and informative publication on wildlife of our times' - The Independent. This blog is a member of The UK & Ireland Natural History Bloggers group: www.uknhb.blogspot.com

iGrowHort

Inspire - Cultivate - Grow Native Plants - Restore Landscapes

Bishops Meadow Trust

To create and protect a semi-natural wild space for the people of Farnham to enjoy and experience an array of British wildlife in our town

Gardening with Children

The www.gardeningwithchildren.co.uk Blog

UKbirdingtimeline

birding through the seasons, why birds matter and how to conserve them

NATURE WALKER

with a camera in hand

Jardin

Transform your outdoor space

Eva's space

My allotment, cooking and other interests

Old School Garden

my gardening life through the year

LEANNE COLE

Trying to live a creative life

fromacountrycottage

trying to live as lightly as possible on our beautiful planet

Good Life Gardening

Nature lovers from Leicester living the good life.

mybeautfulthings

Finding the beautiful in the everyday

mawsonmichelle

Michelle's Allotment

In and Out of My Garden

thoughts from and about my garden

Greenhousing

Big plans for a small garden

The Scottish Country Garden

A Walled Country Garden in South East Scotland

The Fruity Chicken

Life at the fruity chicken

willowarchway

Off grid living. Self sufficient. "PERMAGANICS RULE".

St Anns Allotments

Nottingham's Grade 2* Listed Allotments and Community Orchard

Manifest Joy Harvests

a journey in suburban vegetable gardening

Allotmental

The madness of growing your own

Penny's Garden: a harvest beyond my front door

A novel approach to vegetable gardening

arignagardener

Sustainable living in the Irish countryside.

NewEnglandGardenAndThread

Master Gardener, amateur photographer, quilter, NH native, and sometimes SC snowbird

dianajhale

Recent work and work in progress and anything else that interests me

planthoarder

a chaotic cottage gardener

Lens and Pens by Sally

a weekly blog that creates a personal philosophy through photographs and words

Dewdrops and Sunshine

Stories from a sassy and classy Southern farmbelle.

The Pyjama Gardener

Simple Organic Gardening & Seasonal Living

gettin' fresh!

turning dirt into dinner

JOY...

today the world is created anew

Garden Birds

Notes from a Devon garden

ShootAbout

Life Through The Lens

Adapting Pixels

A photography blog showcasing the best photography pictures and videos on the internet

Wildlifegardening's Blog

Just another WordPress.com site

naturestimeline

personal observations from the natural world as the search continues for a new approach to conservation.