Category: wildlife

In search of bluebells near Sugnall Walled Garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 6, 2013
15 Comments on In search of bluebells near Sugnall Walled Garden

So after enjoying our refreshment in the tea shop at Sugnall and refreshing our souls in the tranquillity of the walled garden we went off up a narrow lane in search of a nature reserve recommended by Geoff. We were anticipating the delightful experience of seeing and smelling the most English of wildflowers, the Bluebell.

Geoff did not let us down. We found the reserve and it was a stunning place to walk and enjoy what is best about the English countryside. A meadow, a marsh and a broadleaf woodland surrounded by traditional mixed farmland.

It was clearly signed and even had a box on the fence with leaflets in giving us a map and info. Jude the Undergardener loves maps so was happy before we even set off, happy enough to cross a meadow with cattle in!

The hedgerow gave protection to a select few delicate wildflowers such as Red Campion and Stitchwort.

As we left the meadow behind we passed a wet area alongside the track just before we entered the wood itself. It had a primeval quality to it.

Entering the wood the temperature fell a few degrees and the strength of the sun weakened as we walked in dappled shade. The pathway look inviting and was soft underfoot as our feet touched the deep leaf litter.

The scent of Bluebells was intense in the humid atmosphere below the heavily leaved ancient oaks, ash and beech. Below this rich scent lingered the warm aroma of leaf mould. Click an image below and use the arrow to take a stroll with us through the bluebells.

This little reserve is well-known for the huge and very ancient badger sett which covers a large proportion of the wood. Entry holes litter the slope all along one side of the wood. Evidence of their liking for the bulbs of the bluebells as part of their diet can be found. Small holes in the ground show where the bulbs have been dug up and consumed, the top growth, stem, leaves and flowers are left to litter the surface. These bulbs are poisonous to most wildlife but badgers relish them.

Red Campion thrive mixed within the bluebells just as they did under the hedgerow along the more open meadowland. Campion and bluebell with their pink and blue go so well together.

As ever, when visiting any woodland I spot the hand of Mother Nature in the natural sculpture she crafts.

So two great places to visit within half a mile of each other and so different from each other. The two things they do have in common though are tranquillity and atmosphere.

Just before leaving for home we took a short stroll along the boardwalk through the marshland bordering the meadow near where we parked the car. Click on any image and use the arrows to view the short gallery.

Tags badgers, bluebells, campions, outdoor sculpture, spring bulbs, Staffordshire Wildlife trust, wild flowers, wildlife

colours flowering bulbs fruit and veg garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening grasses hardy perennials Land Art ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture photography Shropshire shrubs spring bulbs spring gardening wildlife

A Bouquet for April

At last spring has arrived in the garden and taken it by storm. Buds are bursting, birds are nesting and bees buzzing searching the blooms.

Any bouquet for April will have to embrace flowering bulbs.

And how about adding a few bursting buds of trees and shrubs? Our miniature chestnut, the sweetly scented daphne flowers and the froth of snow-white amelanchier flowers.

All around the garden fresh fruit blossom promise beautifully scented and delicious, delicate flavours. The pinks of apple blossom and whites of plums. Oh so tasty!

The insects are appreciating these new signs of life too, in particular the bees and butterflies. This little bee knows that there is something good awaiting him inside the tulip once it opens. He is just a centimetre or so long and coloured a rich gingery orange.

I shall finish off by inviting you to enjoy a little gallery of garden delights taken on the last day of April.

Dusky pink primula hides in arum and stipa leaves.

Copper sculpture with copper leaved phormium.

Kingcups on the dge of the wildlife pond.

Tags amelanchier, apples, foliage, fruit and veg, fruit blossom, fruit., garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, grasses, insects, ornamental trees, outdoor sculpture, sculpture, spring bulbs, spring flowers, spring garden

allotments birds garden wildlife gardening natural pest control succulents Uncategorized wildlife

Growing up! Making a green roof.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date April 29, 2013
10 Comments on Growing up! Making a green roof.

We have created a new feature on our allotment this week – a green roof. We thought we would try to make up for the area of ground taken up by the footprint of our shed by making a garden on its roof. We have spent months at the planning stage, working out how to strengthen the roof, how to make sure we could still collect rain water run-off to fill our butts and choosing plants that would look good and support wildlife. We would like the roof to entice more beneficial insects , pollinators and natural pest controllers to visit our plot. Spiders, beetles, hoverflies will also be welcomed as our little garden helpers and of course we want to attract butterflies too just to delight in watching them.

After strengthening the structure of the shed by building an internal framework of 2 x 2 inch lengths of wood, we added a second layer of roofing felt. Next we fitted the outside frame out of 6 inch deep feather edge and inside this stapled down a double layer of geo-textile membrane. We hope the membrane will allow rainwater to pass through it after permeating through the compost. The rainwater will then be caught in the guttering and can run into the butts.

A structure of 2 x 2 inch lengths of wood was used to divide up the surface.

We next added the first layer of special compost to a depth of about an inch. This is a lightweight compost to which we added perlite to a ratio of 1 to 3 perlite to compost. Chicken wire was then laid over this first layer of compost and then a second one inch layer of our compost/perlite mixture was added. The wire should help hold the compost in place in times of heavy rain and we hope it will also give something for the roots to grow through and grip onto.

Finally the planting. Delicate alpines in some sections and mixed sedum and sempervivum in others. We added a driftwood feature for interest.

What we hope we have created is a little meadow in the air, a miniature garden that takes up no growing space that could otherwise be used for crop production. We will have the added benefit of an increase in insulation, giving us a cooler shed in the summer and a warmer space in the winter.

So now we are keeping our fingers crossed, hoping that we do not have any heavy downpours before the plants get their roots down, and hoping that Blackbirds do not find a way in. They have a habit of uprooting young plants in the hope of finding a tasty morsel.

I shall keep you informed of progress.

Tags allotments, birds, garden wildlife, gardening, organic gardening, roof gardening, roof gardens

bird watching birds garden photography garden wildlife natural pest control wildlife

Home Search

There seem to be too many members of the titmice family around this year looking for suitable nesting sites. All our nest boxes are occupied and being fought after. This little chap, a young male Great Tit is using his imagination and setting up home in one of our terracotta pots at ground level in the Beth Chatto Border, our gravel garden. He is just a few feet from our study window so is entertaining us as we work on the computer.

His family will provide us with natural pest control in return for our hospitality. Feeding a couple of nests of fledglings will dispose of thousands of aphids and caterpillars.

He is such a star we thought he deserved a little photo gallery all of his own. Just click on any pic.

Tags birds, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, Great Tits, nest boxes, organic gardening, wildlife

bird watching birds conservation nature reserves photography Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust wildlife

Go North – Find Spring

Living here in the midlands, neither North nor South, we always go South to get an early glimpse of Spring or north to get a late look at Winter. This year it all seems topsy-turvy!

Earlier this week we went North and discovered Spring!

We visited a Wildfowl and Wetland Trust reserve close to the coast north of Liverpool, called Martin Mere, a reserve we visit regularly. We can get there and back in a day and the walking is on the flat. There are several hides giving views of pools, reedbeds and scrapes and the luxury of clear views of so much wildlife.

We expected to see the progress towards Spring a good few weeks behind our home patch but we were surprised to find evidence to the contrary. The flowers of spring were showing their golds and creams. We enjoyed the sight of Celandines and Primroses glowing beneath hedges of Hawthorn bursting into the brightest green leaves, the brightest green it is possible to imagine. The quality of light highlighted the remnant seed-heads from last year and gave them a new lease of life.

The commonest of wildfowl and waders fed alongside rarer visitors and we enjoyed them all equally. Just over seventy species of bird spotted in one day are testament to the quality of the reserve’s habitat management.

I took lots of photos during our visit and not all of them fit in with the text above so just click on any shot in the gallery below to enjoy a slide show celebrating our first true day out this Spring.

Tags birds, conservation, Martin Mere. WWT, wildlife

birds gardens open to the public National Trust nature reserves photography Shropshire The National Trust trees wildlife winter gardens woodland

Birches in Winter

Regular readers of Greenbenchramblings will be very aware of my love of Birch trees in all their many guises. In this post I shall highlight our native Betula pendula.

The texture of its silvered bark metamorphoses as it ages from a smooth shining silver to a pattern of deeply fissured elephant skin.

Our native Birch is a relatively short-lived tree so within any mixed woodland fallen specimens litter the ground. They will slowly dissolve away through the actions of the tiniest creatures and a multitude of fungi.

Perhaps the best way to finish off this series of photos of my favourite trees, the Birches, is with a set of pictures of groups of them standing like cold sentinels.

Tags betulas, birches, birds, National Trust, ornamental trees, trees, winter gardens, woodland

gardens open to the public National Trust nature reserves Shropshire wildlife woodland

Attingham’s Deer

We always keep an eye out for the deer herd at Attingham. Today we were treated to a close up view of a group of these Fallow Deer. They were so busy feeding they hardly noticed us. We felt honoured that they let us watch them and take a few photos. Click on any pic to see them as a slide show.

Tags deer, National Trust, wildlife, winter

birds flowering bulbs garden photography garden wildlife gardening gardens open to the public Land Art landscapes National Trust nature reserves ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture photography Shropshire spring bulbs The National Trust trees wildlife Winter Gardening winter gardens woodland

A Cold Woodland Walk

A cold dull day with a biting easterly wind. Stay at home and enjoy a book in front of a roaring homely log fire? No, we decided to get out into it and enjoy a walk in the woodland in the grounds of our local National Trust property, Attingham Hall.

We visit regularly and no two visits are ever the same. We set out on this particular walk expecting to see the first signs of spring, perhaps the fresh green growth of Hawthorn, buds on trees fattening fit to burst or birdsong all around. How wrong we were. The wood is still in the grip of winter and birds remain quiet, except for a Mistle Thrush who cast his song far and wide over the tree tops, a melodic uplifting tune. One patch of Hawthorn displayed some green but only one.

However in the protection of a brick wall this Flowering Currant defied the winter and cheered us up with its soft pinky-red flowers hanging in so many tassels. Nearby just beyond the warmth provided by the wall the tight yellow buds of a variety of Mahonia aquifolia patiently wait. The odd splash of blue sky above us reflects in the gloss of the leaves. Close by their cousins the Berberis are a little behind but both will respond to some kinder weather.

The last of the Snowdrops still hang on, and wherever there is protection flowers respond.

Where elderly specimens of trees begin to break and fall sculptural shapes are created. This old split trunk looks huge amongst younger trees and its boughs stretch out across the ground rotting where they fell and colonised by a carpet of mosses.

There is something magical about woodlands, they make you feel calm and relaxed and they make some visitors more creative or more childlike. They build dens, climb trees or create little bits of land art. The National Trust are doing a brilliant job in encouraging these effects on their visitors, in particular with their little booklet “50 things to do before you are 11 3/4“. Right in the depths of the woodland we came across these two simple but beautiful land art pieces.

Tree surgeons at work have left their marks. We were amazed when we spotted the beautiful “fern” chipped into the bark by a chainsaw. The off cuts were used to make a wonderful big logpile to attract insects especially all the beetles who make Attingham their home. The National Trust’s woodland management keeps wildlife in mind. It is heartening to know that Stag Beetles now live here.

In the walled garden the extra warmth afforded by its tall brick walls has allowed flowering plants to make some progress towards Spring.

The best feature of our walk was to see a Honey Bee at work feeding on Wallflowers in the walled garden.

What a great walk we had, cold ears and noses but plenty of fresh air and sheer joy at being outside and in woodland. I hope you enjoy the collection of pics below!

colours garden photography gardening shrubs wildlife

The Stuttering Start to Spring

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 15, 2013
12 Comments on The Stuttering Start to Spring

We have been getting signs that Spring may be on its way. Buds of Hawthorn and Elder have started to split open to allow the brightest of green leaves to squeeze their way out. Yesterday frogs left us a gift in the wildlife pond – a big pile of spawn. Seeing the first spawn this late in the year is unusual as we normally find some in mid-February.

Last night the temperature dropped to minus 6! The spawn was frozen into the icy surface of the pond and fluffy snow flakes littered the surface.

The Hellebores that we have been enjoying so much over the last few weeks drooped losing all their structure. Stems bent over and lowered the flowers to the frozen ground. We know they will burst back when temperatures again rise above freezing and perhaps assisted by a little sunshine.

Happily a few plants in the garden have responded more positively to the fall in temperature. The foliage of Hebe “Red Edge” is always colourful but in this spell of renewed cold it has taken on richer tints.

Tags foliage, foliage plants, frog spawn, frogs, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, hebes, hellebores, shrubs, wildlife

birds conservation landscapes Shropshire trees wildlife

Hedgerow Maintenance – the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 11, 2013
14 Comments on Hedgerow Maintenance – the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

Driving around the countryside around our home in Shropshire we are struck at the difference between the worst and the best examples of hedgerow maintenance. Some are beautifully trimmed providing stock proof boundaries which benefit and encourage wildlife. The best examples of these are those that are “layered” as these remain dense in growth and provide homes, food, shelter and nest sites for all aspects of wildlife and often result in special habitats at the base of them full of wildflowers and accompanying wildlife. Insects, small mammals, birds, butterflies, bees and so much more of our wildlife can take advantage of this beautiful and skilful country craft. The trees of the hedgerow even those of reasonable girth can be trimmed and layered to create dense hedges. We found this beautiful length of hedge in a country lane a few miles from home.

I particularly like the artful way it has been thoughtfully finished with a flourish of woven hazel. This may be some sort of “signature” – the craftsman leaving his mark. Although artistic this probably strengthens the structure further by binding the top of the hedge tightly together. This hedger is such a craftsman that the angle of cut on the top of every stake is exactly the same.

A mix of shrubs and trees have been beautifully entwined. Even trees with trunks up to 12 inches thick have been split and layered. It is easy to see how impenetrable to stock these layered hedges are.

We were lucky to find this other hedge in the process of being layered so took some pics. It would have been even luckier if the hedge layer was still around for me to photograph him at work but it must have been his day off!

hedge 12

So those are good examples which are few and far between. The bad and ugly are sadly much more common now, hedges cut by machine, slashed to create ugliness. Some of the cutting blades on these machines seem blunt or perhaps inappropriate for the job in hand. Thicker branches get torn and slowly after a few years these hedges get thinner so are poor as stock proof barriers and even poorer wildlife habitats. Whole sections disappear and tend to be replaced with fencing so the wildlife benefit is lessened further. When the hedge cutter in his tractor cab comes across trees, whatever their size they are cut just the same. The old oak in the photos below had its lower branches hacked off.

The messy hedges that are left are a waste of time, too thin to keep stock in and of little use to wildlife and too thin to allow the usual wildflowers associated with a hedge’s shelter and shade to thrive.

What the answer is to improving hedgerow management in a wildlife friendly manner is difficult to come up with. The agricultural industry in the UK needs to rethink, look again at the idea of countryside stewardship and responsibilities towards the land.

Here endeth my major rant for 2013!