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The Walled Garden at Croft Castle

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 26, 2025

We hadn’t visited Croft Castle for a few years. We set off this morning with low expectations of the day’s weather which we had gleaned from various weather apps. We were expecting a cold day with the possibility of a few showers and cold winds. But we were surprised to see the sun appearing and with it a little warmth.

We decided to have a quick coffee followed by a wander around the walled garden and then an amble up the gently sloping hillside beyond the cafe.

The walled garden has long been the favourite part of this National Trust property and we have seen many changes over the years. We were expecting to see changes on this visit too.

On the short walk from the cafe to the walled garden we followed alongside a broad border between the pathway and a tall brick wall. The border has different ground covering plants throughout the seasons and interesting views all around. If we turn around we get completely views.

We entered the walled garden through a blue gate in the brick wall.

We always follow the same route around the walled garden.We turn right once we enter through the gate and basically look at all four wall borders. Once we have looked at all the walls then we look inwards to study the borders in the central area.

As we began to look along the first wall the first plant that caught our eyes was this tree peony, with its large buds fattening up as it gets ready to open and allow the petals within to unfurl.

Euphorbia short and tall.

The sloping ground of the walled garden, presumably south facing, supports an impressively organised vineyard. In complete contrast on the other side of the garden is an orchard with old, lichen covered apple trees.

Rustic plant supports made by the gardeners fit into the walled garden well.

Blue painted doors and gates are a feature of the gardens at Croft. The Victorian glasshouse has been refurbished so looks good as we explored its features.

Returning back into the main walled garden we continued to find interesting plants in the borders. In places the gardeners have used interestingly shaped pieces of wood to become features on the walls and borders.

After wandering around the walled garden and discovering interesting artefacts and plants beginning to show spring growth, we made our way back to the sloping ground that was home to ancient oaks and sweet chestnuts. That will be the subject of my next posting.

Tags flowers, garden, gardening, gardens, nature

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Visiting Mary’s Garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 12, 2025

Our mini subgroup of the Hardy Plant Society Shropshire Group, drove down to Clun at the bottom of South Shropshire to visit a fellow member, Mary’s garden.

Her garden is wrapped around an interestingly designed bungalow, so presented us with plenty of corners to turn around and view new areas of planting. We found a wonderful rambling rose on the fence even before we had entered. There were other beauties all around the garden.

We started our wanderings by going to to the left of the property where we enjoyed having close looks at some interesting plants including sedums, some holding onto droplets of rain in their own special way.

There were plenty more plants of interest in this area, some growing in clever combinations.

To get to the rear garden we passed beautiful wood stacks which always look and smell so good. A view of the main garden greeted us as we turned around the next corner of the bungalow. We could see colourful mixed borders, a pond and differential mowing.

The pond fitted neatly into one end of the main border and there we found this flowering carex.

But it was not all mixed borders here as there were plenty of shrubs and small trees to attract our attention, including this very floriferous viburnum. We all admired its flowers and its incredible layered effect. It looked so at home planted just off to one side of mown grass and in an area of longer meadow.

Even as we returned to our cars after our goodbyes we found one last patch of garden, with irises growing beneath the front window.

So, thanks for the invitation to visit your wonderful garden Mary. As they say “a good time was had by all”. The coffee and cakes were much appreciated and topped off the afternoon so well.

Tags flowers, garden, gardening, gardens, nature

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My Garden Journal May 2025

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 6, 2025

So it is time for me to share my garden journal with you, my 5th month of the year.

Roses dominated the start of May and I noted that,”In the countryside around us May means Hawthorn blossom, hedges edged with cow parsley, birds singing and nest building. In the garden things are pretty much the same. Our first roses show early in the month. This year though a couple flowered late April.”

From roses I next considered the colour white in the garden where I wrote,”White has never been my favourite flower colour and I have never found a white garden or border that I could appreciate. The most famous white garden of all must be the one at Sissinghurst, but I found it a great disappointment. However as I wandered around our patch recently I realised we had a lot of white!”

On the opposite page I moved on to consider some of my collection of succulents which had decided to come into flower this month. Their flowers are always so unusual in shape and colour. I wrote that “Being a collector of succulents I mostly enjoy their foliage, their shapes, colours, textures and the way many are flushed with reds and purples. But many flower and do so beautifully.”

Below are photos of my succulents that are currently flowering.

Irises are the next family of plants that feature in my May entries. Before sharing some photographs, I noted that, “The two main iris groups flowering in our garden at the moment are Bearded Iris and Iris sibirica, both have complex flower structures but differ greatly in size.”

I always find space in each month’s entries to include showing the gardening tasks we have been working on. May is no exception. I wrote, “The first half of May was a summery surprise with clear blue skies and high temperatures in the low twenties. It gave us freedom to enjoy pottering in the garden without rain.”

“We frequently mow the grassed areas now. Time to put up the traps in our fruit trees came suddenly.”

We have been adding a few plants in the “Chicken Garden” and while there Jude re-oiled our old railway station bench.”

I finished revamping my succulent containers and trimmed the Lonicera nitida “Bagginson’s Gold”.

Over the page on the left hand I shared a a sketch of a twig which the wind blew from a aesculus (chestnut) tree. I have recently read a book where the author had completed quick sketches of weeds she passed while on the walk each day taking the children to school, wandering through the path and other very local places she used regularly. So I decided I would try a quick sketch of the twig allowing myself 30 seconds to complete, not including the time studying it beforehand.

Wildlife was the subject of the following page. I wrote,“The wildlife in our garden remains very busy from the tiniest insect to the much larger birds. Nesting birds spend most of their time searching every nook and cranny for tasty morsels for their nestlings and partners sitting on eggs simply waiting for the slightest sound from inside the shells. It is good to see that small birds easily find enough food to feed their families without having to leave our garden. We feel proud of this.

We have three robins nesting, as well as wren, titmice, blackbirds, dunnock and probably some finches too.”

The first photo below shows an ichneumon wasp and the others show the different types of moth we caught in our live trap. The final trio of pictures shows the final moth photo, the trap and lastly a mating pair of Damsel flies inside the utility room.

For my final page for the month of May in our garden I look at the trees and shrubs that flower in our garden in that month.

I noted that, “Flowering trees and shrubs add so much to the May garden, including several viburnum and three different calycanthus”

So May came and went in the blink of an eye because we had so much going on in garden and our plants were performing so well.

See you soon when I report on our garden in June.

Tags flowers, garden, gardening, nature, photography

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Bridgemere Show Gardens May

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 3, 2025

For the fifth time this year we went up to Bridgemere Garden Centre to have a slow wander around their show gardens featuring their show gardens from previous RHS Shows at Chelsea and Hampton Court. This month was a special one though because it presented us with the first opportunity to explore the 2024 Chelsea People’s Choice Award and the Children’s Choice Award designed by one of our favourite garden designers, Anne Marie Powell. Sadly the judges disagreed with public and children and did not even give the designer a Gold Medal. We, like most gardeners we know thought they got it wrong. Sadly they will never admit that they could be wrong.

We had a quick wander around the other show gardens with the intention of seeking out obvious changes since our last visit, and there were lots of changes to attract us.

Firstly, just inside the gate we encountered the Cottage Garden which had gained so much colour as perennials showed off their colourful blooms.

We then made our way to the pool which we anticipated would have come to life. We passed some interesting planting on the way.

We went off to the Rose Garden expecting lots of colour as we have so many roses out at home. The reality was that most were still in bud with just a couple out to please us.

One flower that shone out throughout the gardens was the bearded iris.

We reached the new garden designed by Anne Marie Powell after admiring a grouping of Cornus kousa, their bracts glowing in the shade of larger trees.

The new garden is called the Octavia Hill Garden celebrating the life and work of the founder of the National Trust, a conservationist and a social reformer being especially concerned with the welfare of Londoners and other cities at the time.

We were not disappointed in the slightest with the garden in its new situation at Bridgemere albeit smaller in size and with some elements missing, such as the feature hand carved oak retaining wall with habitat panels.

The first set of photos shows our first views of the garden.

We sat on the first wooden sculptural seat where we could absorb the atmosphere of the garden and appreciate the quality of the planting choice and plant combinations. The next group of images illustrate the plants and some of Anne Marie’s plant groupings.

The central planting areas flow on both sides of a rippling stream which runs through chips of reclaimed red bricks and on into a pond. These plantings could also be viewed from a crushed red brick path which meandered around the outside of the garden.

The following group of photos show the central planting area, stream and pool.

This photo (below) shows the red brick based stream making its way through the matching beautiful colours of the plantings.

The pool had the added interest of sound and movement of an unusual water feature, where water arrives out of three corten steel channels.

We can now have a look at the outside path with plants along the fence borders and carved wooden block seating. Tripods of hazel wands housed a log pile and a stick pile as insect habitats, and would be good for the larvae of beetles and beetles themselves, useful predators and wildlife gardeners love them.

At the far end of the garden about half way around the crushed red-brick paths we arrived at a raised area topped by a corten steel overhead structure. Here also we got long views back over the whole garden and rested on some unusual seats.

Tags history, London, nature, photography

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Three Great Garden Visits in November – Part 2 – “John’s Garden” at Ashwood Nurseries

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 23, 2025

A look back to the autumn reminds me of our wander around “John’s Garden” at Ashwood Nurseries.

We have visited John’s Garden plenty of times at different times of year, and loved it every time. It is so full of atmosphere and John is such a great character and plantsman. He loves greeting his visitors and enjoys opening his garden and sharing it. He also raises so much money for local charities.

The garden is bordered on one side by a beautiful and sometimes busy canal and not many gardens can claim that. John has the skill of grouping plants together for the greatest effect and has created beautiful long vistas as well as small cameos that deserve closer attention.

The garden is entered through a wooden farm-style gate which takes you through “Adam’s Garden” dedicated to his former young head gardener who died suddenly at the age of 27.

A wooden gate guarded by a sculpture of an owl leads you into the main garden. We soon stopped for a close look at a surprising sight, beneath some carex foliage were autumn flowering snowdrops, Galanthus “Autumn Beauty”. The pale stripes of the carex foliage boosted the whiteness of the blooms of the snowdrops.

In John’s Garden trees are pruned and shaped to look at their best and then paired with the best possible partners, as shown in the photos below.

Sometimes here the views are long and often at the same time tall. Just use the white bench below to help give a sense of scale to the scene.

Foliage itself can be enough to attract the garden visitor.

John has an eye for garden sculpture and where best to position it within his garden.

One of the most interesting forms of garden sculpture is cloud pruning where the gardener trims shrubs to the desired design. John is so good at this technique.

As I write this post on a cold December day, it seems apt to finish by visiting the Winter Border.

Tags flowers, garden, gardening, nature, plants

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Wildgoose Garden and Nursery in Summer

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 20, 2025

Wildgoose Garden and Nursery is one of our favourite gardens and very convenient for us as it is situated in South Shropshire as we are too. We have been at least once a year since it opened. The planting is a variation on the prairie style and thus is good throughout the summer, autumn and winter. Planting consists of tall perennials coupled with unusual annuals and grasses.

The garden is explored by following the gravel paths that meander throughout. There is no real lawn except for a few grass patches because the garden is owned and run by two true plants people, Jack and Laura.There is a wonderful cafe selling beverages and home made cakes, alongside a selection of quality gardening books and some Niwaki tools. A collection of pots all beautifully planted up welcome visitors to the cafe.

Leaving the refreshments behind we took off on our journey of discovery, following paths that lead us to patches of colour.

Wildgoose has a special atmosphere that relaxes you and gives a feeling of peace and calmness. This is best illustrated by sharing some general shots of the garden.

Sometimes as you wander you will come across wonderful pairings of perennials.

Jack and Laura were trialling single flowered dahlias for their colour and their attractiveness to pollinators. The ones we saw were beautiful and the insects were there in abundance.

Once you have taken a few steps into Wildgoose you feel like you are in a different world, a world of peace and quiet except for the sounds of insects and birds.

I have just read an article about new nurseries in the January edition of Gardens Illustrated and Wildgoose was included. Jack and Laura said that they wanted their garden to be a ‘……. genuinely restorative place.’ I believe they have succeeded!

Tags flowers, garden, gardening, gardens, nature

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Calke Abbey in the Mist

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 14, 2025

On a misty day this month we walked a couple of miles around one of the marked trails at Calke Abbey to take photos of tree silhouettes now that their leaves had long fallen to the ground. It was a cold day and misty which made walking a little uncomfortable but the strange light certainly enhanced views of the trees.

Coppiced trees give a different look to their silhouette as they tend to be in copses close to their neighbours.

The walk took us downhill for a while meaning the horizon was above us so we looked up through the trees against a sky of grey mist. Some of the park’s deer wandered along the sloping horizon line.

Walking around the Deer Park keeping to the fenceline we could look into the area spotting different tree shapes and silhouettes with occasional sightings of the deer including odd white and black ones.

Sometimes trees closer to the perimeter fence allowed us to see through their filigree of smaller branches. The two photos below show the big lake behind the trees along one bank.

Distant views highlight long lines of trees often along the horizon.

The National Trust once used to tidy away any fallen trees of large boughs but now these are left for the good of wildlife. This fallen tree trunk is now carpeted in bright green moss which will be home to so many insects and invertebrates. These little creatures will then attract birds.

So what we thought might be an unpleasant day due to the cold and the mist, turned out to be a most enjoyable experience.

Tags deer, nature, poetry, trees, writing

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My Garden Journal April

What strange weather we are having yet again, this being the third year with unseasonal weather making gardening such an unpredictable pastime. Butterflies appear every time we have a warm sunny day while bees, hoverfly and wasp numbers are increasing day by day. Ladybirds come out from their winter hiding places as he sun warms them up.

By mid-month we are regularly visited by three species of warbler who entertain us with their songs – Garden Warbler, Blackcap and Chiffchaff.

I began by writing a few words, “April means tulips, tulips ……” and at the end of the two pages, “……. and yet more tulips.”

I continued with the theme of bulbs and even included two more shots of tulips. The other photos were to show different bulb flowers and wrote, “Tulips are not the only bulbs to be giving colours this month, although some tulips come later than others like T. Purple Parrot.”

On the opposite page I considered some of our gardening tasks we managed to tackle in this month, and I wrote, “This month presents us with so much to do in the garden because everything is growing away so quickly – especially the weeds.”

“Potting up our dahlias and brushing up birch catkins blown down by strong winds.”

Weed burning gravel areas and taking bubblewrap down in greenhouse. Edging the grass paths after mowing.

Preparing the summerhouse for the new seasons to come. Tidying up a new plant before planting.

“Tidying up the Prairie Garden and planting a new shrub in a pot.

In the next two pages I will look at clematis already blooming and on the opposite page fruit blossom.

On the top of my page concerning flowering clematis I noted that, “Early flowering clematis are usually blue with a few pinks and every shade in between.”

On the page opposite I shared photos of the blossom on our apple trees. I wrote, “Fruit trees are full of blossom, but sadly a few seem to be blind this ear.”

Crab apples are so good at multi-tasking. The blossom is beautiful and attracts pollinators and predators. They help in pollinating culinary apples.

We grow a dozen heritage varieties of apple. They taste so different to each other.

We have reached the final page for April where I wrote, “We always plant violas in our pots to accompany shrubs and perennials because they come in such a vast range of colours and they flower for several months. This winter they performed better than ever.”

It feels good to end on such a positive note. Back in May.

Tags flowers, garden, gardening, spring, tulips

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Bridgemere Show Gardens April

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date April 28, 2025

We drove out to Bridgemere to visit the show gardens once again under another blue sky. As usual we started our wanderings at the cottage garden where we found this group of white tulips displayed in a wheelbarrow. Close by this circle of box hedging was filled with red and white tulips.

We stopped next at the pond which until now had no plants giving a display, but now it seems to have come back to life. Kingcups gave bright splashes of gold. One thing a photo cannot do is let you appreciate the wonderful sounds of water on the move.

We found another raised bed close by full of tulips with just two different, delicate colours, ice cream colours really.

It was so heartening to see fresh new foliage bursting from their buds. This acer had bright new leaves drooping downwards with flower buds hanging below in contrasting reds. A feature of springtime is the sight of ferns unfurling in typical crozier patterns.

Daffodils featured in last months post about the show gardens and they are still going strong, but they are well outnumbered by tulips which featured in many different areas of the garden.

This garden is totally dominated by sheets of tulips between hedges of box, creating very dramatic pictures. This garden is on a gentle slope giving much better views of the tulip collections.

In contrast to tulips bergenias are never considered to be a feature of spring gardens but here at Bridgemere there were quite a few different ones flowering well now. I really like bergenias as ground cover or edging plants and we grow many in our own garden.

There are many spring flowering shrubs and small trees here which look extra special against a pure blue sky.

This is the time for magnolias, rhododendrons and camellias. to shine and here they certainly do it well!

So much is happening in this garden this month, flowers bursting from buds and foliage colouring up on almost every shrub and tree, meaning that we could appreciate broader views more than earlier in the year.

One spring flowering shrub that we enjoy in our own garden are ribes, the flowering currants. We grow red, yellow, white and bicolour ones. We really liked this dark flowered one growing here at Bridgemere which sadly was not labelled.

We enjoyed the spring colour in the show gardens this months and are looking forward to next month’s visit when we envisage many changes.

Tags flowers, garden, gardening, spring, tulips

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Back to RHS Harlow Carr

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date April 23, 2025

We have visited the RHS gardens at Harlow Carr near Harrogate several times now and it must be one of our favourite gardens of all times. It is a garden that never stands still but is always having new borders or gardens created and established areas redeveloped. We visited once again last year in October.

As usual, after staying overnight in a hotel in Harrogate, we arrived as it opened and started off with breakfast. We enjoyed our breakfast in a newly opened restaurant in the Harrogate Arms Cafe. We were given a map as we arrived and we used it to decide on a routeway around when we finished eating.

We then made our way towards the Alpine House passing through the Sub Tropical Garden on route where we enjoyed many plants too delicate for us to grow in our garden in chilly Shropshire. It was a garden with patches of shade and sunny areas in between.

It is always exciting to find plants we do not know, such as the two trees below, on the left a Cornus kousa ‘Wolf Eyes’ and the right a variety of a richly coloured Liquidamber we had never seen before.

My favourite part of Harlow Carr are the Main Borders which are always so colourful and designed in the prairie garden style. The gardeners here are always finding improvements to make to these borders.

As we are soon to revamp our prairie border at home we looked for plants that may work for us and came away with our heads full of ideas.