Category: village gardens

Taking advantage of the light.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date September 8, 2013
9 Comments on Taking advantage of the light.

Early September sees the light values changing in subtle ways. As the sun dips against a blue sky and evening takes over from the day, light comes into the garden from much lower down. This angle has a magical effect on the prairie planting in our Beth Chatto Garden.

I couldn’t resist taking my camera with long lens out the first time I was lucky enough to spot these first signs of Autumn. Please let me know what you think of these photos. I have included every shot I fired off in a brief ten minutes of special light. Catch the moment!

So here is the gallery warts and all, no interference from Photoshop. As usual click on any photo to get going and then click on the arrow.

Tags agapanthus, flower photography, garden photography, grasses, hardy perennials, light quality, light vales, photographing plants, photography

garden design garden photography gardening grasses ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs photography Shropshire village gardens

A Garden Gallery

After posting my “Bouquet for August” a few days ago I was wandering around our patch with camera in hand taking photos for our son Jamie and his fiancée, Sammy as they had asked us to go over to help redesign their garden. They have lived with their cottage garden for 6 months or so now and are beginning to feel they need to add their own touches to it. From what they had said I felt I knew what sort of planting they were after so I decided that the best way to show them was with a series of photos.

These photos give a snapshot of our garden plants. Please enjoy my garden gallery. As usual just click on any image to get started and click the arrow to progress through.

Or if you prefer just enjoy them as a set below.

bird watching birds climbing plants colours conservation fruit and veg garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening grasses hardy perennials ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs photography roses Shropshire village gardens wildlife

A Garden Bouquet for August

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 31, 2013
5 Comments on A Garden Bouquet for August

It is time I took up my camera and took photos of the delights our garden has to offer. This is a particularly important set of photos as we have decided on August 3rd as the date we are going to open our garden for the National Garden Scheme next year. We keep looking for gaps or places in need of improvements be it little tweaks or bigger tasks such as re-laying our main central path in the back garden.

So I went off around the garden with my zoom lens attached to see what’s what in our patch. As it panned out there was so much to see in the back garden that all this month’s photos were taken there. Please enjoy the journey and feel the damp, cool morning air which acted like a soft lens filter giving a delicate misty blue atmosphere to some of the shots.

In the “Shed Bed” the delicate china blue flowers popping out of the spiky spheres of the echinops provide sustenance for our bees and the apple tree trained over an arch will provide sustenance for us. The odd white flowers come from the gentle creamy colours of the hydrangea heads.

Our tulbagias continue to flower in the new slate garden close by and above them the purple sedum foliage hangs from the old gypsy kettle on our old ladder.

There are lots of plants to look at around the end of the greenhouse where the vine is dripping with grapes awaiting late summer sun to ripen them and paint them in purple and black. The Quince vranga tree has a few fruits hanging at the tips of the branches and the soft pink curled flowers of Sanguisorba “Pink Elephant” brighten the border below.

In the long “Tree Border ” this lilac flowered clematis is dripping with flowers and the thornless blackberry is heavy with young unripe fruits.

The Secret Garden and the Chicken Garden are at their best, blooming brightly with the cordon apples full of ripening fruit acting as a backdrop, many of which are just beginning to develop a flush in their cheeks. The Shropshire Damson tree overhangs one border and its deep purple fruits are weighing down its branches so heavily that the fruits look like they are reaching out to hold hands with the flowers.

A few new plants are waiting, still in their pots, in the Secret Garden while we decide where to plant them. They seem to be the colours of citrus fruits!

Along the central pathway our pears are close to their peak picking time. As I pass each day I look longingly to see if a couple are ready. Surely this is the ultimate gardening experience, eating a juicy, scented pear still warm from the sunshine just seconds from leaving the branch. The few plums look sad and lonely – from all four cordons we have just one clump of fruit. A poor year!

In the greenhouse the tomatoes are producing prolific amount of fruit in shades of yellow, red and purple. We are picking and enjoying them daily and adding some to the store of produce in the freezer. In the late autumn we shall make them into chutney coupled with our onions and apples.

From the greenhouse door I can look out across the “L Bed” and the “Long Border” through an arch draped in richly scented roses and a delicate china blue clematis. This is a herbaceous clematis rather than a climber, but it does enjoy a good scramble over everything in its path.

This strange fruit is a heritage cucumber called Booths Blond, which Jude the Undergardener tells me is very tasty. I don’t eat them, they are one of the few fruits and veggies I don’t enjoy. This variety certainly looks very different to the long straight regimental cucumbers sold in supermarkets.

We have been concerned about the lack of butterflies and bees this year but recently they have come back in good numbers. Honey bees, bumble bees and solitary bees are all feeding furiously on any simple flowers. The butterflies are particularly tempted by the buddlejas and the marjorams. We garden with wildlife in mind particularly in the choice of plants we grow. Our flowers tend to be simple and open, just the sort preferred by pollinating insects. We rely on our insects and birds to look after our garden for us. We garden totally organically relying on wildlife to do our pest controlling and pollinating of our crops.

As I am writing this the sky is full of House Martins and Swallows gathering together in readiness for their long migratory journey to the African continent. There they will find flies to feed on while here in the UK the insect population will disappear with the onset of winter. These acrobatic flying little birds seem to be celebrating a good English summer!

In the shrubs and trees warblers and titmice are busy feeding up after a period of moult. August and September are when we tend to see our warblers, Willow, Garden and this year even a Grasshopper Warbler. Chiffchaff and Whitethroat tend to be with us most of the year.

Tags apples, birds, clematis, damsons, foliage, fruit and veg, fruit and vegetable growing, fruit., garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, grasses, greenhouse gardening, grown your own, harvest, insects, organic gardening, roses

garden design garden photography gardening grasses hardy perennials Hardy Plant Society HPS ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs Shropshire shrubs village gardens woodland

A Woodland Garden Retreat

So here we are back on our August garden visit day with the Shropshire branch of the Hardy Plant Society. I left you as we were on our way to a woodland garden created by two of our kindred hardy planters, Joe and Wendy.

Members had been asked to bring along some finger foods and some plants they had propagated themselves. The food was to become a tasty spread for all to enjoy – we know the hardy planters make mighty good picnics. The plants stocked a plant stall to help raise funds for the society. The picnic and the plants were tempting and looked really impressive. We were tempted into indulging in both, enjoying homemade cakes and bakes, freshly picked salad crops and peaches. Most members returned for refills at least once! We took home too many plants as well, being drawn to a deep orange crocosmia, a white flowering phlox, and a couple of plants new to us.

This combination of photos appealed to me – can you spot why?

But, I digress, the main purpose of the afternoon was to revel in the delights of this woodland garden in Penley, a little village in north Shropshire. Joe and Wendy have created a garden that invites the gardener’s feet to follow paths around corners and through arches to discover secrets and special plantings around every corner. Joe is one of those gardeners who can name any plant presented to him and just as we expected there were labels everywhere and we will admit to needing them. There were so many plants we didn’t recognise. Joe comes to our rescue on our group outings whenever the name of a plant alludes us or we come across a new discovery.

The final pic in the next set is a plant we have only seen a couple of times before and it is a real beauty – the only yellow flowered weigela.

Joe’s real speciality is hydrangeas and we found them throughout the 4 acre garden. Here are a few the last pic is of a new variety called “Chocolate”, named after the colour of its leaves.

2013 08 19_2797

Right in the depth of the woodland we came across an opening that contained a delightful surprise, a pool with boardwalk surrounds. Grasses softened the wood and chain sculpture while splashes of colour were provided by the deep blues of agapanthus.

But this lovely garden was far more than trees and shrubs as Joe and Wendy have found space for some fine plantings of perennials.

We were really pleased to find this stunning plant which features in the next batch of photos. We thought it as a rudbeckia but with its deep red stems, beautiful dark foliage and such delicate flowers we didn’t know which one, but what we did know was that we needed one for our garden, imagining how well it would sit in our hot border. So I took a couple of photos and went to seek out Joe who I confidently felt would proffer its name without even having to think about it, but when I showed him the photos on the back screen of the Nikon he referred me to Wendy as she was better at the non-woody members of their garden. So off to find Wendy who looked at the photos and also looked blankly, her memory having failed her. But being organised she had a planting list for each border and we soon discovered that it wasn’t a Rudbeckia at all, it was a Heliopsis “Summer Nights”. So it is down to us now to seek it out for our hot border.

So there we have it, a great day out in a great garden with lots of friends to share it with.

Tags garden photography, gardening, grasses, ornamental trees, shrubs, trees

Cheshire climbing plants fruit and veg garden design garden photography gardening grow your own hardy perennials Hardy Plant Society HPS kitchen gardens Land Art ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture roses village gardens

A garden to make you smile.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 23, 2013
1 Comment on A garden to make you smile.

On a blustery, heavily overcast day last weekend we visited two gardens on a day out with our friends from the Shropshire Branch of the Hardy Plant Society. Bumping down a narrow south Cheshire lane that twisted and turned a little too much for comfort, found us at “The Rowans”, a one acre garden loosely based on an Italianate theme. The elements reminiscent of the Italian styled gardens appeared in the structured garden rooms and the use of ornament especially sculpture, but I felt the theme of happiness was much more in evidence.

There were signs scattered throughout the garden to inform and delight.

Humour was potently presented in ornament and statuary. Animals dominated!

But not all the entertaining was performed by animals – there were lots of varied bits and pieces to find amongst the plantings and hanging from the branches of trees.

The planting was not of rare or desirable plants but quite ordinary plants well grown and well put together.

We particularly liked the dense planting in an old wheelbarrow and a miniature pool in a blue glazed pot. Oh, and of course we enjoyed seeing how someone else grows their veggies!

We enjoyed a refreshing cup of tea or two before leaving and left with a promise of some seeds of two plants we liked. The kindness of gardeners shows no bounds.

We then took off back down the bumpy lanes to find our afternoon treat, a woodland garden that is the province of two of our Hardy Plant Society friends. So in my next posting you should find us there enjoying a tasty Hardy Plant Society lunch.

Tags Cheshire, foliage, fruit and veg, fruit and vegetable growing, garden ornament, garden photography, gardening, ornamental trees, outdoor sculpture, Shropshire Hardy Plant Society, shrubs

climbing plants colours fruit and veg garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening gardens open to the public hardy perennials National Garden Scheme NGS ornamental trees and shrubs village gardens

A Modern Cottage Garden in Herefordshire

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 21, 2013
8 Comments on A Modern Cottage Garden in Herefordshire

Church Cottage was the place we were seeking as we trundled down a narrow rutted country lane not far from Ross -on-Wye. Look for a definition of an English Cottage Garden and the main elements will be lawns with borders full of randomly planted perennials put together with no thought given to colour. The gardens at Church Cottage were so different. The garden was the creation of a garden designer who described herself as a plantaholic.

We were soon absorbed in the soft planting and enjoyed the many calm places to sit and rest.

It seemed that the wildlife appreciated this garden as much as we did.

After a quiet sit with tea and cake listening to the birds in every bush, tree and overhead and watching clouds of butterflies exploring the borders we set off for a most enjoyable wander.

It soon became apparent that this garden was designed by a gardener with a great eye for combining colours beautifully.

There were archways, pathways and framed views to entice the visitors. Sometimes we were taken down a pathway as the design gave no choice but at other times choices were presented. Often equal choices. So visitors were sent and guided much of the time but on occasion the choice of route was totally up to the visitors themselves.

In just the same way as the powerful design of the garden took us on journeys, on occasion we were stopped in our tracks by interesting and enthralling objects or cameos.

But as in any garden the stars of the show were the plants and in this gardens some of the borders were exceptionally beautifully planted. There were outstanding plant groupings.

This was a garden that appealed to us when we read the info in the Yellow Book and although it was further away than our usual day trips we just had a feeling it would be worthwhile. It was hard to find – but it was so worth the effort. We loved it!

Tags garden designers gardens, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, Herefordshire, Herefordshire gardens, NGS

fruit and veg garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening kitchen gardens ornamental trees and shrubs Shropshire South Shropshire village gardens

Village gardeners open their gardens for their church

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 14, 2013
3 Comments on Village gardeners open their gardens for their church

Recently some of the parishioners in the village of Chirbury in south Shropshire opened their gardens in support of the Historic Churches Trust.

A few of the gardens were on the outskirts of the village so we enjoyed views of the beautiful countryside as we went searching for them with our little map.

These were not like the usual gardens we visit as they were not gardens tended by plantsmen. They were interesting because of their little quirky details as well as some good plant combinations. Come for a wander around Chirbury with us on a warm but blustery day.

birds climbing plants colours fruit and veg garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening grow your own hardy perennials herbs ornamental trees and shrubs village gardens

A cottage garden with a difference.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 3, 2013
5 Comments on A cottage garden with a difference.

We visited my sister, Penny and her husband, Tony this week and enjoyed a lazy afternoon sat on the terrace under a large awning escaping the afternoon sun as the temperature rose well into the 30’s again. From their front garden, situated beneath Bredon Hill in Gloucestershire, you would believe that a traditional cottage garden awaited you around the back but prepare to be surprised.

The front is a gravel drive and turning point with neatly mown grass areas and gravel gardens, featuring a beautiful stone birdbath.

Move around the back and a wide inviting paved terrace greets you, and the pervading warm scents of herbs emphasises the feeling of welcome. The aroma of coffee brewing and comfy seating under the awning made us feel so welcome. This is good garden design!

Sit and enjoy your brew and wide steps constructed of recycled railway sleepers infilled with gravel entice you deeper into the garden through a lovely Japanese influenced archway

The archway sets the scene of what is to come, or at least in part. But relaxing over coffee and cake afforded us the opportunity to spot little details and elements of decoration and humour. An over-sized ceramic hand acts as a bird feeder, a terra-cotta green man watches us from the nearby fence and a recycled wood burner too large for the house has become a garden heater.

Up the wide steps and through the black wooden archway is a cool shaded garden based on the principles of Japanese garden design. A buddha, a Koi pool,

The atmosphere here is so powerful, there is a feeling of calm and peacefulness. Again – good garden design. The play of light and shade, cool and warm, changes as you walk through from section to section. The planned tea house should add another rich element to the garden.

Glimpses through the boughs of the tree provide clues to what lies beyond, a little productive patch, with fruit trees and raised veg plots. The tomatoes, picked from the vine and eaten while still warmed by the sun were delicious, sweet but with just the right amount of a hint of acidity.

The male and female components of this pine were present at the same time, the cones seemingly glued direct to the trunk and the female flowers wrapped around the stem near the final whorl of leaves. A fascinating little tree.

When you retrace your steps back through a garden it is amazing how you find new surprises awaiting you. The light hits things from different directions and puts the spotlight on objects and surfaces that failed to catch my eye before.

The harsh mid-summer light added depth to shadows and textures emphasised.

Wildlife is welcome, encouraged and appreciated here too as shown by the presence of birdhouses. There is the constant hum and buzz of an ecologically sound space. Stay still and you will hear grass hoppers, bees and the yaffling of a Green Woodpecker, the constant chatter of Goldfinches and Linnets. Butterflies are abundant and entertain with their movement and colours. To prove the friendliness of the garden and the gardeners towards our wildlife a grass hopper landed on my back before alighting on the window behind me.

However good the overall design of a garden is, in the end the little details can add another layer of interest. Penny and Tony have the knack of selecting interesting items that catch the eye just when you think you have discovered the essence of the garden.

This is a great garden to spend an afternoon in, relax and catch up with our sister and brother-in-law. And they present a fine cup of coffee and most excellent lemon drizzle cake!

Tags apples, birds, foliage plants, fruit and veg, fruit and vegetable growing, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, grown your own, ornamental trees

climbing plants colours garden design garden photography gardening grow your own half-hardy perennials hardy perennials Hardy Plant Society HPS July ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture poppies roses Shropshire succulents village gardens

A min-group day out – part two.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 25, 2013
1 Comment on A min-group day out – part two.

So we are still in the little Shropshire village of Ruyton-XI-Towns and we are moving on from Jill’s lovely garden to a neighbour’s garden. We are told this garden has to be seen to be believed as a brilliant example of how to squeeze in lots of top quality plants into a long, twisting space sometimes narrowing to just a path width.

The narrow borders are full to the brim with interesting plants and any vertical surface covered in climbers especially clematis and roses, many of which are richly scented.

We were impressed with the colour of this little selection of poppies and their tissue paper petals that unfurled from loose buds.

Our third garden delight of the day was a different kettle of fish all together. It belonged to Chris, another “Hardy Planter” and was out of the village along a narrow country lane with verges rich with native flowers. As we neared our destination cultivated self seeded plants added an extra depth to the colours within the grasses of the verge beneath the hedge.

This garden had a delightful little nursery in the shade of mature trees close to the lawn where we sat to enjoy our tea and cakes. We could see what was awaiting us in the nursery and we were tempted by an unusual pink flowered Geranium phaeum and a Lysimachia “Firecracker”.

What struck us about the garden was the way shrubs and trees had been used to create frames, gateways and doorways to tempt your footsteps. The low afternoon sun created deep shadows and brightness that invited you onwards.

Closer to little interesting features and details caught our eye.

We wandered back down the lane after a good wander around, an enjoyable break for tea and cake and after making a few purchases in the little nursery and we were delighted to see that self-seeders from the garden were making their way down the hedgerow and verges.

Tags foliage plants, fruit and veg, garden photography, gardening, ornamental trees, outdoor sculpture, poppies, roses, sculpture

colours fruit and veg garden design garden photography gardening grow your own half-hardy perennials hardy perennials Hardy Plant Society HPS ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture roses Shropshire village gardens

A mini-group day out – part one Jill’s garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 19, 2013

“What is a mini-group?” I hear you asking. Well they are area groups within the Shropshire branch of the Hardy Plant Society. We live just south of Shrewsbury so fit into the Shrewsbury Mini-Group but we could equally belong to the South Shropshire group. Perhaps we ought to select the most interesting sounding visits planned by both groups and have extra gardens to visit.

Last month our little group visited two of our member’s gardens plus a garden of a neighbouring house. They were all in the little village of Ruyton-XI-Towns. It is a village we have driven through but never stopped in and once parked up we wandered down looking for Jill’s garden, our first stop for the day. In fact we were parked only a few metres from there. We passed through the front garden which was small but packed with plants with lots of colour and texture and then around the side of the house where again every possible place for a plant had plants in it. Pots and interesting containers were everywhere we looked.

As we reached the end of the house the view that met us stopped us in our tracks. This was going to be a real treat! The garden was full of colour and had strong design elements, with paths that invited exploration, arches and frames to encourage you to go through them and pieces of sculpture and interesting natural objects to stop the eye.

Jill is a gardener who can put plants together beautifully taking leaf texture and shape into consideration alongside flower colour. When we looked in more detail at the planting we discovered a few special plants, ones we couldn’t recognise and a few of those that you have to dig deep into the recesses of your memory to recall their names.

From Jill’s garden we all wandered down the village street to a neighbour who had a garden that was best described as long, thin and wriggling, never more than a couple of metres wide and often only wide enough for a plant fringed path. Despite of this the gardener had packed in dozens of fragrant roses and clematis clambering up any surface or tall plant. This will be the subject of my next post where we will also enjoy the third garden we visited that day, where we ended the day with tea on the lawn. How civilised is that?!