greenbenchramblings

Fruity

We harvested our first apples last month and have been harvesting other varieties as they ripen. We still have a few varieties waiting on the treesto be collected. The first harvest was from a tree we have trained over an arch, having bought it as a one year maiden. It is a deep red-blushed beauty called “Scrumptious” which is a rather silly name but I have to admit quite apt. The basket weighed in at 8lb 7oz. – very pleasing!

The other variety that we normally harvest in September is James Grieve, which grows in the company of a clematis over another arch. This tree is a reliable heavy cropper and this year’s crop looked most promising as we waited for it to ripen. We can enjoy the taste of this apple straight from picking and they stay full of flavour for a few months, but it does not store too well.

The harvest did live up to expectations weighing in at 27 lb with a few of the individual fruit being really large as we can see in the picture below of these two sitting on Jude, the Undergardener’s hand.

All the apple, pear and plum trees in our garden were bought as one year maidens and we have trained them into cordons, over arches and as step-overs. Now after ten years it is so rewarding to see them as such productive trees. Of course apple trees are worth growing for their blossom as well, so they are doubly useful to us gardeners.

The apple below is Red Falstaff a variety we have trained as a single-stemmed upright tree. It sits to the left of our greenhouse door, where, coupled with Scrumptious on the right of the door, it gives the impression of being one of a pair of sentinels guarding the doorway. We harvested our Red Falstaff a few days ago and the fruit has developed much deeper red blushed cheeks. In total though the little tree produced only half a dozen pounds of fruit.

The green fruit below is a Bramley apple, the only pure cooker we grow. It is not the best of croppers as we made the mistake of training it as a step-over. Bramley is a tip-bearer so when we carry out the formative pruning necessary with step-overs we are effectively cutting out most of its future fruiting buds. However it does give us a small crop every year, so it has forgiven me my ignorance. We stew this cooking apple and then freeze them to use in pies in the winter and spring. As we do not grow many cooking varieties we tend to use wind falls and any damaged fruit of eaters as cookers or as ingredients in chutneys or mixed with blackberries in jams.

Ashmeads Kernel seen below however is a most successful step-over tree, with a dry textured skin and nutty flavour. This apple is one of the last to be harvested in late October but will not be at its eating best until December through to February, when its flavours will have fully developed.

We grow some heritage varieties which tend to produce fewer fruits but are usually better flavoured, such as Cornish Aromatic, Beauty of Bath, Pixie and King of Pippins.

The photo below shows the unusually shaped, boxy fruit of Cornish Aromatic with its green skin with a few freckles of slightly deeper green.

Any apples whose flavour improves with keeping ,we store in shallow trays with individual fruit wrapped in newspaper to make sure no fruits touch each other. If an apple does go bad when in store then this barrier of newspaper will stop it spreading too quickly.

The act of picking fruit evokes our senses, the touch of the skin as we twist the fruit from the tree, the scent of the fruit in the hand and the subtle variations of reds and greens to delight the eye. And then of course comes the taste, in some cases best straight from the tree in others the tastes matures with age, reaching a peak months after being plucked from the tree. There is also the sensation of the first bite, the crunch, the juice running and the balance of taste between sweet and acidic, and the hints of fruits shared with other fruits, strawberries and pineapples.

Our pear trees were a great disappointment this year. Out of our four cordons only one produced any fruit at all but just look at the size of them!

Tags allotments, apples, autumn, community gardening, fruit and veg, fruit and vegetable growing, fruit., garden photography, gardening, grown your own, harvest, organic gardening

blogging photography thanks

Another thank you.

I was recently nominated for another blogging award, the Kreativ Blogger Award, by Penny who writes the blog, harvestbeyondmyfrontdoor.wordpress.com . I am grateful for her nomination and by accepting it I agree to list 7 things you may not know about me and nominate 7 blogs of my choice for this Award.

As this award is about creativity I thought I would share just one photo that I created accidentally as I clicked the shutter button whilst carrying my camera out into the garden last week. Hard to tell what it is but it is quite pleasing in a simple way.

Margie, who posts one of my favourite blogs recently asked me about the photographic equipment I use so my 7 items about myself will relate to this.

1. My main camera is a Nikon DSLR

2. I use two lenses, both zooms, a Nikkor 18 – 55 and a Nikkor 70 – 300 VR.

3. If the weather is too wet or if I am shooting in adverse weather conditions I use my Canon Powershot compact.

4. If I forget my camera and find a picture that needs to be taken I use the camera facility on my Galaxy Smartphone which is an exceptionally good camera. It has a good macro facility and is great for shots without flash both indoors or out in the dark.

5. I keep a Skylight Filter on the lenses at all times to protect the precious glassware.

6. The only creative filters I use are a polariser and a +4 close up filter.

7. The software I use is Photoshop Elements.

My nominations for the Kreativ Blogger Award are

1. allotmental.com

2. photonatureblog.com

3. grandparentsplus2.wordpress.com

4. thepyjamagardener.wordpress.com

5. arignagardener.wordpress.com

6. anartistsgarden.co.uk

7. fennelandfern.co.uk

Tags awards, blogging, thank you

autumn autumn colours colours garden design garden photography gardening gardens open to the public National Garden Scheme ornamental trees and shrubs photography shrubs The National Gardening Scheme" trees

The Dingle – A Welsh Garden Wonder

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 3, 2012
4 Comments on The Dingle – A Welsh Garden Wonder

Close to Welshpool, just a half hour from home across the Welsh border, are our favourite nursery and garden centre, The Dingle and The Derwen, part of the same family. They sell unusual trees and shrubs and many good-value perennials all locally grown. But hidden away in the Dingle nursery, through a little wooden gate is a wonderful sloping garden. The garden is mostly a wonderful collection of unusual trees and shrubs on a gentle slope down to a lake, so a visit in the autumn is an assault on the senses.

The nursery which is now over 40 years old, grows thousands of plants on its 150 acres of Welsh countryside. We rarely come away without a gem – and they give free coffee away too!

The garden itself extends to just four acres, but those four acres feel much larger than expected with a complex network of paths which give occasional views which are wide and stunning. This is good garden design.

As the paths take us around corners they feature interesting, colourful shrubs and trees to delight the eye before enticing us to find out what is around the next corner.

Being on a slope, the garden’s many seats are most warmly welcomed by aching legs.

Some of the seating provides cover which proved useful a few times as showers burst from the dark sky just visible through gaps in the trees.

Coloured, textured foliage and bark keep the interest of the plant lover in us going strong and enticing us around each corner.

As in any good garden little cameos stop us in our tracks and catch the eye.

The lake at the lowest point of the garden, provides a restful place – restful to the eye and restful to the legs.

Strong contrasts in foliage colour show up in the brighter weather as we work our way back up the paths to the gate.

As in any garden specialising in trees and shrubs the stars of the autumn are the Acers.

Back up the top of the garden we pass through the little wooden gate and are tempted for a perusal of the colourful nursery beds.

Tags acers., autumn, autumn colours, cornus, foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, gardening, NGS, ornamental trees, Powis, shrubs, trees, Welshpool

garden photography gardens open to the public Land Art outdoor sculpture photography the South

David Nash at Kew Gardens – Part 1

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 1, 2012

Can you have a better day than this? Outdoor sculpture collection with one of the world’s best exponents – David Nash. The only World Heritage Site that is a garden – Kew. And the best company possible – Jude and our four kids (we started off with two but they each gained another).

And here they are (well just four of them) taking a break in the Temperate House. Apart from Jude and Sam we are all camera-toters so it is impossible to get a pic of us all together as there is always at least one left somewhere composing their artistic endeavours.

We drove down to London in drizzle and mist – a miserable journey through beautiful countryside we couldn’t see, but after a night’s rest in a comfy hotel room we met our four kids in the White Peaks Cafe just inside the world of Kew. The day was a great improvement over yesterday but as we left the car our ears were subjected to the cacophony of noise made by the parakeets now dominating the parks of the capital. They do not fit here at all. Our native Jays in their subtle outfits of pink and blue were much more in keeping.

Lattes and lemonades safely stored away we followed the Kew App that sent us on the trail of the collection of David Nash pieces. It was over a year since we had seen his retrospective exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park so we were more than ready to appreciate his work again.

Two of my favourite pieces were created from strips of cork oak bark, a huge cone in the conservatory and a low dome out in the open.

As with much of his work there is beauty in the details.

Suddenly I was presented with a sighting of a wonderful juxtaposition.

So another amazing exhibition of the work of David Nash. I wonder when we shall be treated to his next?

Tags cork oak, David Nash, garden photography, Kew Gardens, land art, outdoor sculpture

autumn colours garden photography gardening grasses ornamental trees and shrubs photography trees

Leaves

Just for a change we have no words just photographs to enjoy. A few sneak in near the end though!

If only you could smell the leaves below! They are from the tree called Cercidyphilum and they smell so sweet. I think they smell of toffee apples, Jude thinks they smell of candyfloss while others think the scents reminiscent of brittle toffee, burnt sugar, in fact anything sweet and sticky!

The most underrated plants for autum leaf colour must be the grasses. They very rarely get a mention in relation to autumn colour, so let’s put it right.

Tags autumn, autumn colours, autumn leaves, colours, foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, gardening, leaves, ornamental trees, trees

autumn garden design garden photography gardening hardy perennials ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs photography roses Shropshire

A Wander around our Garden in October

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 28, 2012
6 Comments on A Wander around our Garden in October

The tenth post in this series of wanders around our garden already! Just two to go! What shall I do for a monthly garden post instead next year? Any ideas for me?

October started off with days of endless heavy rain but after a fortnight it changed to steady drizzle. A bit of sun would be welcome right now.

The first frosts have visited us forcing us to bring the Aeoniums, Echeverias and our other tender plants under cover. We shall have to keep them safe in the “bubble wrapped” greenhouse, by giving them virtually no water and removing any dry or damaged foliage and when the temperatures drops below -15 C give them additional snug coverings of fleece and bubble-wrap. Another sign of autumn is the log delivery which was tipped off the back of a truck onto our drive mid-month. We sorted them and stacked them around the front door. The wonderfully evocative woody aroma of oak and birch trees mixes with the sweet scents of the woodland floor. The scents of the season.

We visited the gardens at our favourite nursery yesterday, The Dingle at Welshpool, a superb autumn garden on a sloping hillside leading down to lakes. (Look out for my post in the next week or so) As usual we returned with a few acquisitions – a tiny orange Kniphofia, Cornus canadensis and Clerondendron bungeii.

We have planted the Kniphofia with a trio of bronze-leaved grasses and near to our darkest blue Agapanthus. As the “poker” is flowering now, its head of tubular orange flowers glows alongside the Agapanthus’ developing seed heads of blue and pewter.

Sometimes autumn hues aren’t just provided by deciduous trees changing the colours of their leaves but by foliage on perennials, grasses and shrubs. Euphorbias are a fine example, as are grasses which have the added bonus of seed heads. Look out for the pic of our Pentstemon Huskers Red which always surprises with its deep red autumn explosions.

But amongst all this red hot foliage we mustn’t lose sight of the flowers that continue to add colour to the garden. There are now fewer so each one is a precious jewel.

I shall finish off with a few pics of autumn coloured leaves, just what you expect in October! And then take a look at one border and take a walk down just one of our many grass paths.

Tags autumn, autumn colours, colour, crocosmias, foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, grasses, October, ornamental trees, pentstemon, roses, shrubs

allotments autumn community gardening fruit and veg garden photography garden wildlife gardening grow your own hardy perennials Shropshire

A Wander around our Allotments in October

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 26, 2012
5 Comments on A Wander around our Allotments in October

Flooding and its problems have dominated our allotment month. For the third time this year our allotment site has been under water. Rotten potatoes, bark paths washed away, rows of seedlings washed onto other plots and onto pathways and items stored in sheds ruined. This is sadly becoming a regular occurence. We have a meeting with the town council next week so perhaps we can come away with some positive news for the allotment members.

But let’s concentrate on the positives of our lovely site. The people and the plants. This is our friend Sherlie with a monster cabbage!

Phil had never grown apples until four years ago when he asked me to help him set up a row of cordon apples and pears and teach him the necessary skills. Now look at what he has achieved this year!

Our wander with camera in hand took us through the Autumn Garden over to our plot and then across to the Winter Garden via the Spring and Summer Gardens.

The Autumn Garden, appropriately, is now looking wonderful with late season flowers looking colourful amongst foliage the colour of fire.

Butterflies, bees and hoverflies were flocking to the asters in this garden for the first fortnight this month but as the weather turned colder they rapidly disappeared. Buddlejas flower profusely around the site during the summer attracting beneficial insects and pollinators, but this orange one flowers in the autumn.

We grow a variety of Sorbus trees here and they provide wonderful foils for late flowering perennials.

The stars here though have to be the Echinacea.

Around the trees in the Birch Grove fairies have been at work. So many plot holders have been taking photos of their handywork.

On our own plot we are still picking autumn raspberries. The three varieties of kale we are growing are looking quite colourful as is a sole sunflower – the only sun to be seen up on the lotties at the moment. The day these pics were taken was dark and overcast.

A little bit of extra colour can be found in the leaves of our blackberry bramble.

The crops that we will be harvesting during the winter and early spring are coming along nicely. Leeks, parsnips, carrots and celeriac.

The Winter Garden is an oasis of brightness with most of the colours coming from foliage.

I shall finish my October wander with some great news. Three Bowbrook Allotment Community gardeners were invited to the Mayor’s Award Ceremony earlier in the month. Dave, on the left, received his certificate and cup for the Best Front Garden in Shrewsbury and Sue and Paul collected their award for Best Half Allotment in Shrewsbury. Well done to them!

Tags allotments, apples, asters, autumn, community gardening, dogwoods, fruit and vegetable growing, garden photography, grasses, grown your own, organic gardening, ornamental trees, winter gardens

photography the sea the seaside the South

Go South 6 – Old Hastings

We all have favourite seaside venues, our favourite sandy beach, favourite, fish and chip cafes, favourite harbour etc. If we were asked we would go for the quietest beaches or the oldest, most interesting harbours. A secret beach on Anglesey, Bamborough or Dungeness would satisfy the first, but there would be a few contenders for the second such as Whitby, Mousehole and the feature of this post – Old Hastings.

Think of Old Hastings and a picture forms in the mind of a busy beach cluttered with fishing boats and their gear and friendly fishermen who enjoy and even invite visitors to wander around taking photographs. This shingle beach area with its fishing boats and net shops is known as “The Stade”.

We arrived to see and hear a violent noisy sea crashing in waves against the shingle beach and the walls of the harbour. But the sun appeared and this made the occasional shower less bothersome. We began by exploring the “Stades”, wandering in between the “net shops” the tall, black-painted clapper boarded sheds built to dry fishing nets. They have a special beauty and a character all of their own.

Across the road an imaginative architect and builder had created an apartment block that reflected the Stades’s net shops but looked modern. Most impressive!

But what is a fishing village without its boats?

As usual my camera and I were attracted to little details.

Tags coast, Old Hastings, South coast, the stades

autumn nature reserves photography Shropshire wildlife woodland

Brown Moss – a Shropshire Wildlife Gem

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 22, 2012

Brown Moss is an area of wet land, shallow pools, reedbeds and marsh surrounded by woodland, part of which contains old coppiced wood. We parked hidden in trees and emerged into the open to see the “moss” in front us. There was less open water than we remember.

Where the woods meet the marshes occasional Silver Birch grow with their white stems glowing in the sunshine now that most of the yellow leaves of autumn have fallen to colour the ground beneath in shades of primrose.

We skirted the marshy area and wandered into the woodland in search of fungi. The woodland here is mixed, some tall specimens with patches of coppiced smaller trees, some deciduous and some evergreen conifers. Jays foraged in the oaks for acorns which they buried in the soft ground between the woods and the pools, hoping to find them in times os severe weather. They were so busy they took little notice of us so we got close enough to enjoy the blues and pinks of their plumage and smile at their strange hopping gait in the long grass.

A pair of slim birches presented a natural portal into the woods, but Jude the Undergardener decided to consult the map – just in case it was Mother Nature playing a trick on us!

There were fewer fungi to see than expected and we were particularly disappointed not to see any Fly Agaric, but there were bracket fungi and earth ball fungi to find. The brackets are found on the trunks and the balls on the ground below.

We stopped deep in the woodland for a coffee just where we found a fallen birch conveniently providing us with a wooden bench. With the long zoom on my Nikon I scanned the trees above to see what could be seen from this different viewpoint. A tiny white ball of fungus stuck like a table tennis ball high on a tree trunk.

On the edges of the wood the skeletons of the summer’s flowers attracted spiders to make webs and the low light lit them up.

The low lighting continued spotlighting foliage along the edge of the marshlands. We skirted the marshland on soggy paths and occasional boardwalks.

At times the wet areas joined with the woodlands and mystery pools hung in the shadows. The water in the pools was clear but tinted with the russet colours of the underlying soils.

Two finds kept us mystified for a while. The first was these strange black and white colour washes on the sawn end of a felled tree trunk. It appeared to be some sort of fine fungal growth but we remained unsure.

The second mystery was solved after a bit of tracking Sherlock Holmes style with noses to the ground and eyes peeled. The trail began with the spotting of a small pile of outer leaves of maize cobs. We followed them until we found a whole pile around a tree stump. Two clues lead us to the answer. A badgers’ sett in the deeper shade of the trees and on the edge of the wood a field of maize.