greenbenchramblings

Gardening in lockdown – Jude’s micro-nursery plants sort out

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 28, 2020
4 Comments on Gardening in lockdown – Jude’s micro-nursery plants sort out

We sell lots of plants mostly perennials and shrubs when we open our garden and when we give talks to clubs and societies. I take the shrub cuttings and Jude deals with seed sowing and looking after plant divisions and self seeded perennials.

The greenhouse is almost exclusively used to sow and then grow on Jude’s perennial seeds.

As they reach a suitable size they are potted on and then hardened off in trays outside. This also allows us to water them from below.

Cuttings taken from succulents are also kept in the greenhouse until they are large enough to pot on and move outside. Perennials end up on the shelves in Jude’s little nursery which has a label saying “Jude’s Micro-nursery”.

At about the same time dahlias are potted on when they show good new growth after their winter rest. Begonias are hardened off too.

Tags hardy perennials, herbaceous plants, potting on, seedlings, succulents

garden design garden furniture garden photography garden seat garden seating

Gardening in lockdown – Sitting Comfortably at Avocet

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 23, 2020
5 Comments on Gardening in lockdown – Sitting Comfortably at Avocet

I have occasionally shared posts for years now called “Are you sitting comfortably?” where I feature garden seats we find on our exploration of other people’s gardens. As we are in “lock down” now we are not visiting any gardens other than our own here at Avocet, so I thought it would be fun to feature all the garden seating in our Avocet garden.

We hope you enjoy sharing them with us! I have taken a photo of each seat and then one or two of the view from each seat. This lock down period means that we have no visitors to sit in our seats – how strange!

Let us start in the front garden where we have a pair of purple chairs and a seat under an arch.

Here are the views from the arched seat…….

…..and from our purple chairs.

Moving into the back garden the seats become harder to find as they are situated in each area sometimes well hidden away from paths. The first seats, a pair of wooden folding chairs are alongside the Conservatory Garden give us views over the Conservatory Border.

Nearby is a set of metal table and four chairs sitting alongside the rill in the Rill Garden. The view from here looks out across the Rill Garden towards the Winter Garden.

If we then follow the central pathway and take the first grass path on the left we find ourselves in the Hot Garden where we have two hand crafted wood and metal seats made for us by sculptor Nik Burns. We like his work as he uses wood selected fro woodland local to us. They are so beautiful being made for us using local elm and burr oak, so special!

These seats afford us views around the Hot Garden.

Next to the Hot Garden is a path that we can cross over to enter the Japanese Garden where we find just one seat a cold concrete bench, from where we can get a good look around this part of our garden.

If we then wander past the Wildlife Pond and the Bog Garden we can visit Arabella’s Garden where we have an old Victorian Railway Platform seat made from cast iron and wood. From this seat we can see the plantings in Arabella’s Garden and also look out across the farmland beyond our garden.

Brightly coloured table and chairs sets are found in the final two garden rooms, The Secret Garden and The chicken Garden. The orange set is in The Chicken Garden and the pale blue set in The Secret Garden.

The photos below show on the left the view from the orange seats and on the right the view from the pale blue seats.

Tags garden benches, garden furniture, garden seating, garden seats

gardening gardens ornamental trees and shrubs shrubs trees

Gardening in lock down – acers

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 18, 2020

Slowly but surely over the years we have built up a good collection of Acers, mainly Acer palmatum but we do have a few others too. At this time of year they are coming out of their fresh new spring green foliage so it is a good time to share photos of them with you as we come towards half way through our lock down period.

So the photos below were taken in the final week of April and show a selection of our different cultivars. We do hope you enjoy them as we do!

Tags Acer palmatum, acers., gardening in spring, Japanese maples, small trees, spring, spring garden

colours flowering bulbs garden photography spring spring bulbs spring gardening

Gardening in lock down – tulip time

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 14, 2020
2 Comments on Gardening in lock down – tulip time

We love tulips as they appear magically several months after we planted those beautiful bulbs so full of potential and promises.

Some of the tulips we planted last autumn have ended up looking striped which reminds me of raspberry ripple ice cream.

They provide masses of different colours and varied petal shapes, some even show off their frilly cut edges. We plant more each autumn so our stock is increasing slowly but we also lose a lot each year to winter damp and viruses. Planting new bulbs will carry on every year. Some are extra special such as this one with frilled edges to its petals where they turn from pink to yellow.

Here is a set of photos showing a selection of those we grow for you to enjoy.

By early May most of our tulips will have flowered and then dropped their petals. All the early herbaceous perennials are waiting to take over for months.

Tags gardening in spring, spring, spring bulbs, tulips

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My Garden Journal 2020 – April

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 7, 2020
1 Comment on My Garden Journal 2020 – April

Back with my garden journal I will now share with you my pages for April, a strange month as we are in total lock down because of the coronavirus problems. The many sunny warm days allowed us the luxury of leisurely time in the garden and even time for lots of sitting on our several garden benches enjoying coffee and cakes.

On my first page I featured the Kiwi Vine, the climbing plant which opens with beautiful moss green leaf buds which turn a purer green as the days progress. I wrote, “April sprung onto the scene with frost-free nights and days littered with ‘April Showers’, sunshine and sparkling light rain. Leaves change on shrubs, trees and climbers are opening rapidly, changing colour, shape and texture. Our Kiwi Vine has beautiful foliage and we enjoy observing how each bud opens day by day.”

The first batch of photos was taken during the first week of the month.

For the next set of photos I wrote, “The third week of the month and the foliage is fully open and bright green.”

I then moved on to consider some of the gardening tasks we undertook in April. “Gardening tasks for April included planting Gladioli and Asiatic Lily bulbs in the ‘Hot Garden’ and cutting down our coppiced Cornus shrubs and pollarded Cornus Midwinter Fire.”

“The plants on the nursery shelves have now been potted on and returned refreshed to their shelves.”

“Jude has pricked out the seedlings of early sowings of annuals such as Cosmos and Sweet Peas, and I re-potted my succulents, Salvias and Fuschias” which have had winter protection.”

On the opposite page I revealed my foliage plants of the month, our many Acer palmatums, and I wrote, “Foliage plant of the month is Acer palmatum the wonder of spring and autumn.”

Tulips featured on the next double page spread where I shared photos of “Tulips – open and closed!”

The final double page spread of this month’s journal features the early Imperial Fritillaries, of which we grow two cultivars and on the opposite page my plant of the month for bark and stems, Cercis siliquastrum.

“Flowering plant of the month for April is the very bright extravagant looking Fritillaria imperialis. We grow just two in our Shrub Garden, F.i. ‘Willliam Rex’ which is a rich orange-red colour with each flower topped in purple, and F. i. ‘Lutea’ a beautiful clear yellow one. But they attract the dreaded Lily Beetles!!”

I created i-Pad paintings of each when in full fat bud and then took photos of them when they had opened up.

I wrote, “Plant of the month for ‘stems and bark, for April is Cercis siliquastrum, a tree that I have chosen not so much for its colour or texture but for its attraction to lichen and its unusual trait of displaying its little cerise flowers directly appearing from its bark.”

“A close-up phot of the bark of the Cercis bark shows its texture and the variety of colour coming from lichens.”

I created a painting of the flower and lichen on a twig of the Cercis, using watercolour pencils, fibre tip pens and watercolour colour washes..

And that is my journal for April so soon I will be starting my May entries.

Tags Acer palmatum, acers., April, April garden, cercis, Cercis siliquastrum, Fritillaria, Fritillaria imperialis, garden journal, gardening in spring, imperial fritillaries, kiwi, spring growth, the garden in April, the spring garden, tulips

garden design garden furniture garden photography garden seat garden seating gardening gardens gardens open to the public National Garden Scheme National Trust NGS nurseries Shropshire South Shropshire The National Trust village gardens Wales walled gardens Yellow Book Gardens

Are you sitting comfortably – no 21 in an occasional series

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 5, 2020
1 Comment on Are you sitting comfortably – no 21 in an occasional series

First set of seats in this installment about garden seating features those we found while on holiday near Pembroke followed by more we discovered at Bodnant Garden in north Wales. Then a set we found at Wildegoose Nursery and Garden and finally some we found at our friends, Nathalie and Tony’s Oswestry garden and Ruth and Mike’s village garden in North Shropshire.

Tags garden seating, garden seats, gardens of the National Trust, National Garden Scheme, village gardens

buildings Wales

Iron Age Homesteads – Anglesey

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 2, 2020

About 18 months ago Jude and I were in search of trees bent by the wind from the sea, shaped and pruned by mother nature herself. I wanted the photos for a new garden talk I was writing. We found ourselves in the area of Anglesey near the lighthouse at South Stack, where so many times in the past, we had noticed a sign pointing up through a field where Iron Age homestead remains were to be found.

As we had enjoyed exploring so many other pre-historic remains during our week on Anglesey we decided to follow the trail up the hill to see what was to be found. It surpassed all our expectations.

The stone circles were a mix of homes, stores and workshops. Local flora has established itself producing miniature rockeries, homes to alpines which seem happy to grow there.

Anglesey is so full of prehistoric sites we keep finding more to discover and explore. This island never fails to surprise however many times we visit.

Tags Anglesey, prehistoric features

countryside hedgerows pathways trees Wales wildlife

A short walk along an Anglesey Hedgerow

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date April 24, 2020

About 18 months ago we spent a family holiday on the isle of Anglesey, spending some of our time seeking out ancient sites.

We walked along a young native hedge, planted by Cadwy in the last few years, along a gravel path that led us towards the wonderful prehistoric burial mound, Bryn Celli Ddu.

Some shrub species were flowering well but we were also fascinated by the number of wildflowers already established and growing happily in the new hedge’s shade.

The main hedging species was Hawthorn which was interspersed with Gorse and Elder punctuated by taller trees such as Damsons, Sycamores and Field Maples. even the odd Oak sapling was trying its luck beneath the hedge.

Flowering perennials and even a bulb species have colonised the shaded area beneath the leaf canopy of the hedge and the accompanying trees. We spotted Herb Robert, Celandine, Bluebell, Daisy, Vetch, Primrose, Lady’s Smock, Germander Speedwell and Dandelion.

Even in shady places plants found it to their liking. Ferns enjoyed the shade at the very centre of the hedge and ivy clambered over he stone built wall where the hedge ends.

Insects and invertebrates move in as the number of plant species increase and that leads to predators including other insects, birds and mammals.

The delights of Dandelion and its “blowing clock” were experienced by our granddaughter Arabella after Jude shared its magic.

Success!

Tags Anglesey, footpaths, hedgerows, hedges, trees and shrubs, wild flowers

garden design garden fun garden furniture garden photography garden seating gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials light quality ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture sculpture shrubs water in the garden

Return to Waterperry – part 2

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date April 15, 2020
4 Comments on Return to Waterperry – part 2

As promised I am back sharing with you our summer time visit to the gardens at Waterperry.

Through this wooden gate we discovered a formal garden divided into four sections all featuring interesting and unusual alpines. The golden crocus lookalikes are Sternbergia lutea. Since seeing this beautiful patch we ordered a dozen for our own garden.

The orange flowers looking somewhat like Pentstemon pinifolia ‘Wisley Fire’ was in fact Zauschneria californica ‘Dublin’. Again, although we already grow P. ‘Wisley Fire’ we have bought the Zauschneria too and planted it in scree,

Occasionally when exploring gardens we come across seats that really surprise and impress and here at Waterperry we did just that. The first, the ‘Head Gardener’ seat seems to suit me! I want one! Jude obviously equally enjoyed the other.

As well as garden seats we discovered a spherical stone water feature which had the thinnest film of water seeping over its edge and down the sides. Completely different but again rather interesting was this thatched dovecote.

These metal and glass screens looked equally good close-up as they did from a distance. The light altered their colours as we moved around them.

I will finish this report on our return visit to Waterperry Gardens with photos of this beautiful figure sculpture sitting on top of the wall and a stunning piece of cloud pruning.

Tags alpine gardening, alpines, fun in the garden, garden humoir, garden sculpture, garden seating, garden seats, gardens of Oxfordshire, herbaceous borders, herbaceous plants, outdoor sculpture, Oxfordshire, Waterperry, Waterperry Gardens

fruit and veg garden buildings garden design garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public grow your own hardy perennials ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture sculpture

Return to Waterperry – part 1

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date April 8, 2020
2 Comments on Return to Waterperry – part 1

Waterperry in Oxfordshire is a garden we have visited a few times in the past and enjoyed it every time, so finding the opportunity to drop in while traveling down south we welcomed it.

Set up in 1932 the garden is the home of the School of Horticulture for Ladies run by the stern-looking Beatrix Havergal. Today it is a glorious garden which gave us several hours of enjoyable wandering.

We visited at a time when I was writing a new garden talk titled, “Fabulous Foliage, the unsung hero of our gardens”, so many of my photos focused on the way the gardeners put foliage colours and textures together. The pear orchard was a very peaceful place and looked to promise great crops before too long.

The garden is punctuated with pieces of sculptures varying widely in style, from the beautiful figure in the canal to the rather formal to the beautiful obelisk with words from the Koran on each face.

Probably our favourite part of the garden was the designated ‘quiet place’ which was an enclosed garden exuding calm and peace. The planting softened the formal layout and the beautiful sculptural figure with the lamp pulled us towards it. I was so impressed by the simple but effective plant combinations at her feet.