Artefacts, ornaments, sculpture and collected objects all come to life with a coating of frost. When the garden takes on its bare look of winter these items gain extra significance . Some are completely hidden during the growing months and we can appreciate them anew as leaves fall and greenery dies down.
In “The Stumpery” in our front garden, which could well be the world’s smallest stumpery featuring only one stump, a rusted iron sculpture based on ferns is given new life when rimmed with frost.
In “The Beth Chatto Border” our sundial and terracotta oil jars are given extra texture detail with a cold white coating.
Lanterns hang throughout the garden some from arches and some on their own stands like shepherds’ crooks.
Chicken sculptures abound as you might expect!
And finally a look at a piece made in hammered sheet copper by our daughter, Jo. The frost hides its shine, intensifies its texture and calms its colours.
Today is the Winter Solstice! A day to celebrate! From tomorrow each day will get a little longer, giving a bonus of extra light. So here is a present of a bouquet of frosted roses.
We delight in every rose bud that appears in the winter months and celebrate each and every one that opens out to present us with a bloom. When iced with a crystal layer of white frost they look even better.
I suppose I shall have to prune them down by half to stop the wind rocking the roots loose before too long, and then it will be a long wait until next May to appreciate these delicious blooms once again.
The last month of 2012 and therefore here is the last post in the “wander around our garden” series. December was a month that started wet and cold and quickly got wetter and colder. We have found ourselves carrying on regardless – we weren’t going to let the weather beat us. So we donned warm waterproofs and busied ourselves clearing soggy perennials and pruning shrubs.
The birds are suffering from lack of natural food in the surrounding countryside so are flocking to our feeders. They add so much colour and song. This year’s flocks of Long Tailed Tits and Goldfinches are much larger than in recent times. Mixed tit flocks have reached over 70 in number at times and finch flocks up to 25. So we are kept busy regularly topping up the seeds, nuts and fatballs. As a result of the poor harvests of berries and fruit in the woods and hedgerows we have had invasions of large flocks of Blackbirds into the garden and already our shrubs are stripped of their produce. The blackbirds are aided in their berry stripping by Thrushes, Redwings and Fieldfares. All the red berried shrubs were denuded first, leaving not a single berry on our Cotoneasters, Hollies and Mountain Ashes so they are looking a little less colourful. They have now started on their second choice berries – yellows and whites.
There is still an amazing amount of colour in the garden with some flowers still going strong. This Hebe just ignores whatever the weather throws at it and keeps on flowering. When a frost comes these delicate looking flowers prove they are not delicate at all. They stand to attention even when coated in frost.
These small Hypericum shrubs, similar in size to the Hebes, perform on several fronts with flowers still apparent, berries showing several colours on the same plant and leaf colour which gets richer as the weather gets colder.
Odd flowers of Rudbeckias appear throughout the winter way outside their peak flowering period. They are like little bursts of sunshine.
Other plants are meant to be winter flowering and we look forward to these each year. Mahonia japonica exhibits its long thin upright racemes of buttercup yellow flowers with the added luxury of a beautiful warm scent, somewhat reminiscent of pineapples.
The glossy, dark hand shaped leaves of Fatshedera are a perfect foil for bright summer flowers in our Shed Bed, but it produces its own much more subtle flowers throught the winter. They are the palest of cream with a dull orange centre. They look as if they should emit the mouth-watering aroma of vanilla but that is sadly only in my imagination.
After a deep frost these flowers loose substance and flop, hanging lifelessly until warmed by the sun.
The starkness of winter structure exposes simple shapes and patterns working together. This yellowed sword shaped leaf of a Crocosmia cuts dramatically across the curved metal seat back.
Sculptures take on a new life. Our ironwork ferns rimmed with frost particles curls through the whitened grasses in the Stump Garden.
Seating areas look less inviting!
Right down at the bottom of the garden the summerhouse looks sadly at the pool which sits frozen solid at its feet.
Similarly the water in the birdbaths is often frozen. Each morning as I wander down the garden to feed the chucks I take a detour to add warm water to the birdbaths to melt the ice.
Frost decorates ornamental features giving them a new winter look.
Frost highlights the overnight toils of spiders who weave webs around sheds, nest boxes and insect homes.
There is little to harvest in December but we harvest various prunings. Taller thicker branches will be used as bean poles, smaller branches as pea sticks and to support perennials next year, and these spiral willow stems will be part of some sculpture that I am planning. Bamboo prunings will give us our own bamboo canes. Our first real crop of canes! That should save a few air miles!
Whatever the winter has in store for us, we are well-prepared. This pile of hardwood logs, oak and birch, will keep us warm and cosy and its scent of woodlands give a good welcome. And outside the chimenia patiently waits with its own fuel supply for us to venture outside to garden and enjoy a coffee break in the winter sun. Alongside the sculptural fire bowl adds further interest.
And what is happening in our borrowed landscape in December? Sheep seek nourishment in the paddock and provide a little natural fertiliser for the grass, and the wheat fields sadly sits waterlogged, growth at a standstill.
For our second post about the Savill Gardens we shall discover the colours, shapes and textures of the Winter Garden. Although planted with winter interest in mind when we explored in the autumn it was full of interest.
The third and final visit to the Savill Gardens will feature a selection of images from around the gentle walk we took through these stunning gardens. We had looked forward to visiting these gardens for years and when we finally did we were not disappointed in any way.
The third wander around the allotments at Bowbrook already! We were expecting a warm bright day but it turned out misty with a chill in the air. So much work has been done to the plots with many allotmenteers all ready for the coming growing season. Tree surgeons have been to do a bit of work on our mature Sycamore tree and the resulting wood has been put to good. The shredded wood is being used by some plot holders to surface their paths, some branches have been used to create a brash pile and some logs used to create a big impressive log pile.
Our welcome message on the wall of our composting toilet.
To welcome visitors and plotholders to the site we have planted up two half-barrels outside the gateway and opposite the gate on the edge of a plot we have our posh main site sign which features a map of the site, our mission statement and photos of the main functions of the site.
Let’s begin the wander with a look at what is going on our own plot, number 37. We are just about ready for the 2012 season with soil dug over composted and raked. The kale which we have overwintered looks very healthy with its wonderfully coloured crinkle edged leaves of glaucous green, purple and pink.
The perennials in out “Bee and Bug Border” are producing new shoots. These plants are grown to attract beneficial insects both predators and pollinators, such as bees, hoverflies and lacewing.
Our bean poles, made from coppiced Hazel, are up ready for Runner Beans to climb when planted out in late May and behind them we have cloches warming the ground for early plantings of Carrots, Parsnips and Beetroot. If the weather is kind we shall sow these seeds at the end of this month.
This Ladybird sheltering near our shed lock is hoping for some sun to get warmed up a bit.
After a quick perusal of our site we began the wander around the whole allotment field, starting in the car park where Daffodils give a golden welcome as plotters arrive to work or enjoy the communal spaces. Each September we hold a “Donate a Daffodil Day” when members are asked to donate bulbs which are then planted around the site by volunteers on one of our working parties. In the first year alone we had over a thousand bulbs donated and planted several hundred in the car park border and on the grass verge alongside our entrance gates.
Moving on down towards the first communal orchard we spotted this insect hotel on Wendy’s plot and admired Tracy’s rhubarb which is well advanced.
The first of the community orchards is alongside Tracy’s lottie and she looks after its maintenance, mowing the grass paths, pruning the apples, pears, plums and damsons and generally keeping it neat and tidy. She also looks after the Fruit Avenue leading away from the orchard. She is a great asset! At the moment daffodils and crocuses are flowering between the fruit and in the avenue muscari are in flower. Bees are busy exploring these early flowers.
Our wander then took us through the Fruit Avenue with “super fruits” planted on both sides, out alongside Alan’s plot, affectionately known as “The Blue Plot”.
Blue alkathene water pipes are very popular around the site as effective ways of holding fleece or netting covers to protect crops. Wandering further on around the trail towards the Spring Garden we passed a plot that is always good to see as some interesting projects seem to on the go. Today we noticed that she had started to create a herb garden with tree stumps as seats and herbs in the ground around them and in a half-barrel planter. She is always building something – she seems very good at d.i.y. She made her raised beds which we saw have already got some early sowings in.
Behind this plot is the Spring Garden which is looked after by two other volunteers, Jill and Geoff, who keep it looking immaculate. Of course it is now beginning to reach its peak time. Bulbs are well up and some flowering, perennials are showing fresh green growth and the Violet Willow is covered in its sparkling white pussy willow buds.
Moving on from the Spring Garden, as we followed the trail, we noticed Blue Tits exploring the nest boxes. Beyond our big old Oak is the new log pile created with logs left by the tree surgeon after his safety work on our mature trees. The log pile will soon be home to Dunnock and Wren and as it begins to rot down insects, invertebrates and beetles will move in.
We soon reach the Winter Garden which continues to look impressive, full of interesting bark and stems on trees and shrubs and colourful flowers on bulbs and early herbaceous plants.
Some crops still look good after the winter and continue to give plot holders some good pickings. These brassicas, Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Cabbage look very healthy and appetising.
The beautifully coloured Red Veined Sorrel in the photo above is already putting on plenty of fresh leaves ready for harvesting, whereas the beautifully coloured flowers of Purple Sprouting Broccoli are now ready for enjoying after the plant has been standing through the winter.
Lots of our plot holders displays plaques with garden related sayings on for the amusement of all. How about this one to finish our March wanderings around the site?
The lighting on the day of our visit to Durham Massey recently was amazing for taking photographs. It was a sunny day with a bright blue sky above. The light acted light a spotlight shining just above ground level. It lit up leaves, tree trunks, flower petals. And it shone in “The Undergardener’s” eyes!
Peeling bark and Snowdrops.Winter light reflected in the glossy bamboo foliage.Back-lit Hydrangea seed heads.Twiggy highlights like spiders' webs.Long shadows of the White-stemmed Birch cross the carpet of Snowdrops.Winter light turns Cornus mas flowers into gold along the orange peel bark.Orange stems and yellow foliage enriched by the lightLooking out from the shadows.Curling silhouettes of an old gnarled Rhodendron bush.Fence shadows.Snowdrops and moss.Sparkling Hydrangeas.Into the light.Fallen rotting tree trunk looking like a huge tuning fork.Jewel coloured Bergenia leaves.Sparkling Lake
This is the third of the garden wandering posts already. Why is this year going so quickly? Could it be that we have had so many days when the weather has been amenable to gardening? So what is happening here in our garden? The bulbs are at last flowering well after such a slow start but in contrast the birds are responding quickly to warmer periods of weather. Robins are nesting in the box on my fishing tackle shed, House Sparrows are using three boxes around the garden, Great Tits are using the box on the summer-house and Blue Tits have started building in the box opposite the front door. They are so busy! Blackbirds are collecting moss from the lawns and dried grass stems from the borders so are nesting somewhere close by. The early morning bird song gets louder and more birds join in the chorus each day.
We have spent most sunny days continuing to clear borders, cutting down and adding new mulch. Clearing the “Beth Chatto Garden” is a hands and knees job. Jude the “Undergardener” pulls up weed seedlings by hand. Very tedious but made more enjoyable by the constant song of Blackbirds, Song Thrushes and Robins. Calls of Buzzards high above us provide a good excuse to stop occasionally.
In the front garden Euphorbias are bursting into growth and some have already sent up their flower stalks curling over like shepherds’ crooks. New growth on the later ones is showing bright colours as they emerge from the bark mulch.
The flowering quince at the end of the drive is covered in bright red blooms scattered amongst its thorny angular network of stems – it will flower for months giving a warm welcome to visitors.
At last our first daffodils are fully in flower! We have waited so long. Muscari are also now bursting into bloom adding their own shade of blue all around the garden.
The Primroses we grew from seed a few years ago now give us big clumps of flower in their own special shade of yellow. They are self seeding and spreading around the garden, with an occasional plant producing flowers of an extraordinary shade of greyish pinky. Not sure I like them!
One of the delights of this time of year are the Pulmonarias with their flowers coloured pink and blue on the same plant and their beautifully marked hairy leaves.
Helleborus have featured in both the January and February garden wanderings and they are still going strong. Two of the last ones to come into flower are this red hybrid and the magnificent near black variety. It looks good in bud and full flower and has the added attraction of interesting foliage. The clump of mixed Hellebores in the “Chicken Garden” give us plenty to look at on coffee breaks when the March sun bursts through and its warmth feels so good on our backs.
The bees appreciate the early flowering bulbs especially purple crocuses but soon they will be flocking to feed on the Flowering Currant, the exceptionally large flowered variety Ribes sanguineum King Edward VII, which is on the point of bud burst. The buds on the Daphne bhulua “Jacqueline Postill” have opened to reveal highly scented flowers in several shades of pink.
March in the garden is full of promises with buds developing and preparations underway for the productive garden. The photos show buds of Clematis, both climbing and herbaceous, and Apples and Pears.
The Sempervivum in the alpine troughs and on the slate scree bed are all budding up nicely but one pure white-flowered one is out and glowing in the March sunlight. They are such precious little jewels of plants.
Our two newest areas of the garden, the Chicken Garden and the Secret Garden, are turning glaucous green with Allium leaves. One area is like a lawn of Allium. They seem to enjoy our soil too much and are spreading and self seeding madly!
The productive side of our gardening mostly happens on our allotment but we have a big greenhouse in the back garden where we start off many of the veggie plants. Some seedlings have germinated in the propagator and lots cells and 5 inch pots are full of compost ready for us to sow peas, broad beans and sweet peas.
In our raised wicker beds just outside the back door the cut-and-come-again salad leaves are almost ready for the first cutting – and of course the first eating. So many different textures, colours and tastes! Delicious! Much is still to happen in March and on into April.
Our Comfrey patch is showing strong growth. This is one of the most important areas of the garden for in this 2ft by 10ft bed we grow a comfrey variety called Bocking 14, which we can cut 4 or 5 times a year. The leaves can be put in the bottom of potato trenches before we plant the potatoes to feed them and prevent the disease “Scab”. We also put them as a mulch under fruit trees and bushes as a feed and as a weed suppressant, and use them to make a liquid feed mixed with nettles.
So much is still to happen in the March garden. It is a busy and exciting month. So much to look forward to.
I recently published my blog about the winter garden at Dunham Massey. (see “The Winter Garden at Dunham Massey”) This wonderful area of planting is beautifully situated within and underneath an area of mature trees, some of great age and height, so my camera wandered upwards and shot some pictures.
Jet aircraft from the nearby airport painted white lined art against the deep blue of the sky.
The tracery of bare winter branches bursting from the thick trunks of the mature trees painted far more delicate works of art in the sky. No straight lines in their doodlings.
In this avenue the gardeners have added their personal touches to the trees’ artwork with their pleaching work.
The artwork below has been created over decades by the growth and development of this huge tree, creating its own unique textures and patterns.
Looking up gave surprises and delights, looking up into the world enjoyed by birds and insects. Looking up also concentrated and enhanced our listening, affording us the joy and thrill of hearing the calls of Nuthatches, Goldcrests and the Titmice family against the drumming sound of Woodpeckers.
We have been gardening with wildlife in mind now for four decades.We have endeavoured to include a wildlife pond in each of our 4 gardens in that time. Each year the frogs attracted to the ponds gather together towards the end of February to croak loudly day and night, to mate and leave piles of spawn. They have been so consistent up till now – whatever the weather the spawn appears in the same weeks of the year. If there is snow on the ground or if a mild spell gives bonus sunshine and blue skies they still perform in late February.
But this year they have waited until the first few days of March! I wonder why? We can’t complain about their lateness though as all this spawn will provide lots more frogs to live in the garden and act as natural pest controllers.
We visited the Winter Garden at the National Trust’s Dunham Massey just after it opened, so we returned this week to see how things had developed. Wow! This is some Winter Garden. The National Trust enlisted Roy Lancaster, one of my gardening heroes, to help with its design so there is some interesting planting. We wandered around it for hours trying different routes through it which afforded us the opportunity of seeing each bit of planting in a different light. This is a garden for all the senses, our eyes, noses, fingers and ears enjoyed every moment. It was busy but the design and quality of planting seemed to make everyone remain quiet. Quiet enough to hear the birds, bees and insects at work.
A winding path lead us through an area of mature trees underplanted with miniature daffodils, an area where the trees’ long shadows cut across the Daffodils, beautifully lit by the low sun and shining like gold, and soon we glimpsed the massed planting of white barked Birches.
There were two distinct areas of Birch trees, single stemmed specimens one side of a path and multi-stemmed on the other. Betula utilis “Doorenbos” was the chosen variety and their trunks were a clear crisp white.
As well as the usual winter flowering bulbs such as crocus, snowdrops and daffodils there were several different coloured varieties of Iris reticulata those tiny bulbous plants with over-sized flowers in shades of purple and blue, all with yellow beards.
In some areas of lawn these diminutive Irises have been naturalised under trees. We had never seen this done before and have to say it was very effective.
It was so heartening to see and hear bees, hoverflies and other insects at work around the flowering shrubs, Lonicera fragrans, Cornus mas, Daphne mezereum “Alba”, Viburnum bodnantense and Viburnum tinus.
Lovely as the flowers of winter are, sometimes the colours, textures and shapes of leaves can be just as impressive – Bergenias, Liriope and variegated Ilex for example in their many colours.
We cannot ignore the snowdrops though, and here at Dunham Massey they have been so thoughtfully placed, at the bases of trees or shrubs.
The textures and colours of bark add another dimension to this winter garden, peeling bark, shining bark, bark like snake-skin, red stems, contorted stems, curling stems, shimmering stems.
In the photo below the ginger-coloured shining bark of Prunus serrula shoot upwards from the golden leaves of Liriope.
With all the new season’s flowers, the colourful stems and bark, and the scents it would be too easy to miss the effect the winter light can have as it plays across the seed heads of last year’s flowers and stems. Giant lilly stems with their huge seed pods towering up above a sea of desiccated flower heads of a variety of Hydrangeas stopped us in our tracks.
When the wind blew these seed heads rustled gently, temporarily drowning out the sound of the Blackbirds turning over the mulch of bark and throwing the dried leaves fallen from trees last Autumn over their shoulders. The gentlest breeze set the bamboos swaying and rustling but it took a stronger wind to move the conifers overhead and start their music making. Over our heads in the mature tree canopy we could hear the calls and songs of Goldcrests, Nuthatches, Coal Tits and Blue Tits occasionally drowned out by the drumming of Great Spotted Woodpecker, all proclaiming their territorial rights in their own unique way.
There was so much to appreciate in the Winter Garden at Dunham Massey that it is hard to leave. But it had another surprise around another corner, a beautifully woven willow den, created from many coloured stems. Jude, the Undergardener, as usual could not resist, so a quick exploration was called for before coffee and cakes called even louder from the restaurant!
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