Back with the 32nd post in my Simply Beautiful series where I look at the beauty of a single object, in this case Iris flowers, one white and one black found in the same garden.
Simply beautiful!
We reach the milestone post in this occasional series featuring the amazing variety of garden seats we find and enjoy sitting on as we reach no 20.
I will start with a couple of very different seats located very near each other in an NGS garden we visited in May, the gardens of “The Citadel”.
This next set is of seats we found while exploring one of our favourite walled gardens and nurseries in Shropshire, Wildegoose Nursery and Garden.
These next few are from another NGS Yellow Book garden, the wildlife friendly patch at Gorsty Bank just a half hour or so drive from home.
So that is it for this selection of garden seats but another selection will follow soon.
Gardening friends Ruth and Mike opened their village garden for the first time under the auspices of the NGS this July. We were sadly away in Sheffield at the time so were unable to visit on that day. However we were invited to visit the following week with one of the mini-groups linked to the Hardy Plant Society Shropshire Group.
We arrived on a sunny warm day to spend the afternoon exploring the borders full of interesting plants beautifully placed together to give maximum effect. We wandered through the next door neighbour’s garden before following a path through an orchard and through a gateway into Ruth and Mike’s garden.
Once we reached Ruth and Mike’s garden proper we were immediately amazed by the use of colour in the richly planted mixed borders, where plants gelled so well with their partners creating such satisfying plant communities. Come with us now through the garden by following the gallery of photos. As usual click on the first pic and then navigate using the arrows.
Ruth and Mike’s garden met all our expectations and in fact surpassed them too. It is a great garden and worthy of celebration. As it was open for their first time this year as an NGS Open Garden many people will be able to enjoy it for years to come.
Back again with no 6 in this very occasional series of posts looking at garden walls and steps that we find our garden wanderings.
First wall is one we found and walked alongside at an NGS garden at “The Citadel” near Shrewsbury and the second very different wall at another NGS garden at Wildegoose Nursery and Garden in South Shropshire.
So I am off now in search of another interesting selection of walls and steps in every garden we visit.
This is the 31st posting in this series called “Simply Beautiful” and it features those wonderful primulas, Primula auricula. Enjoy this selection from our garden.
As we reach the half way point in the year the garden really comes to life with bright green fresh growth and so much colour from flowers, herbaceous perennials, shrubs and climbers especially roses and clematis. I began by writing, “At the beginning of June we were still worried about how dry the garden still was and longed for some rain. Luckily a few days into June and this is exactly what happened. And luckier still was that the planned group visits to our garden at that time were not interrupted by wet weather. After rain, until the droplets on their flowers and buds dry off, make roses look sad and dejected.”
I then shared a batch of Rose pics.
The next double page spread featured wider shots of borders and plant communities.
I wrote, “I decided it would be a good idea to go out with my camera in hand to take wide shots of the garden borders to give an impression of the whole garden. But, as the overcast sky and rain didn’t go away, I went out into the heavy rain and took the shots I wanted.”
“Plant-a-Boxes – end of drive” “Herbaceous Violas – front door”
Then followed a set of 4 photos of our “Beth Chatto Garden”.
Next a set of photos of the Shrub Borders, and the New Garden finishing with a photo of out Hare who guards the lawn daisies.
“The New Garden”
“Our Hare Sculpture who guards the lawn daisies.”
Below are four photos of our Beth Chatto Garden.
“The Beth Chatto Garden”
The last two pics on this page show the Shed Roof Garden and the new Foliage Garden by the shed.
Turning over the page we move into the back garden, where I wrote, “To access the back garden you can go either side of the house. Access to the left and you can enjoy the “Shade Border” featuring ferns. Once in the back there are two paths to choose from both of which will take you the length of the garden.”
“Taking any pathway will present enticing views into the borders.”
Onto the next page I wrote, “The new Hot Garden has settled well and already giving pleasure.”
“Arabella’s Garden is now lush with growth and gives pleasure to her when she visits. She checks on it every time.”
Over the page I share my pencil crayon sketches of two of our smaller grasses, both Briza.
The final page for this month shows the Bog garden and the show of Alliums which dominates two borders in Jun. I wrote, “At the very bottom of the central path to its left lies the Bog Garden and the Wildlife Pond. Lush, colourful foliage is the order of the day, the tall reeds and Irises adding height.”
“Various Alliums dominate the Chicken Garden and Secret Garden throughout June and will continue into July.”
So there we have my June entries into my Garden Journal 2019, a great month in our garden.
This is only the fifth post in my very occasional series all about the garden walls and steps we spot on our garden visits, so here is my latest selection.
This selection of walls consists almost entirely of stone built specimens looking good in informal, modest settings. The first photo shows a natural looking wall that backs a garden pond and looks good in its coat of lichen and mosses. Its companion to the right is again a natural looking wall holding back a raised bed of mixed planting.
This next wall is the home to a collection of insect homes, the residents of which will act as predators and pollinators. The dry stone wall provides homes for wildlife within its structure.
Below are two very different walls, one constructed of stone and surrounds a natural looking water feature, whereas the tall red-brick built wall acts as a retaining wall to formal gardens on the terrace behind.
Ferns love walls and often find homes on them, growing from spores that settled into cracks where they found sufficient moisture and soil to become established.
From photos of walls I shall now move on to share my photos of garden steps, beginning with a variety from Whitlenge Garden and Nursery in Worcestershire.
The first steps are constructed of stones and stone slabs but beautifully decorated by Mother Nature who donated a lovely Primrose. The rest are from recent garden visits we have made this spring. I hope you enjoy the variety of designs and materials that people choose to use.
I hope you have enjoyed this selection of garden walls and steps. I shall start collecting photos for no. 6 in this very occasional series.
So here is my my 7th post in this very occasional series all about the garden entrances and archways that we discover on our garden visits. The first two are from a friend’s garden and the set after are those entrances and archways we found at the show garden of a designer in the West Midlands.
I shall finish with a mixture of entrances ans archways we have discovered this year on visit to NGS, Yellow Book, gardens.
I will now start seeking our entrances and archways on all our garden visits for No 8 in this very occasional series.
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Julie’s Garden
Jude and I enjoy our monthly summer visits to gardens with fellow members of the Hardy Plant Society Shropshire Group but in addition we visit other gardens with our mini-group colleagues. The mini-groups are sub-groups of the main county group of the HPS. This year we are visiting each others’ gardens in turn, one a month from Spring to Autumn.
At the end of March we journeyed out to the village of Fitz to visit the garden of mini-group member Julie. An open area of lawn invited us to wander and soon our eyes were drawn towards a old shrub pruned into a piece of sculpture.
The wood was close to a beautiful pond beneath a Silver Birch, with softly coloured perennials beneath, including some beautiful Epimediums.
Throughout th egarden we kept discovering interesting trees and shrubs.
But Julie’s garden had more to enjoy than plants and plant combinations, with sculptural pieces and touches of humour and signs of inventive minds at work.
This beautiful piece of sculpture features four simply constructed seats which look exactly right where they are. It was created by their son as a set piece for exams – beautiful!
Many of us were fascinated by this crescent trellis built to support climbers so we spent time working out how it was made.
The pool edge held a mixture of pieces, some there just to amuse.
So there we have it – a visit to an interesting village garden in spring.
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flowering bulbs garden design garden furniture garden paths garden photography garden pools garden seat garden seating gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials Land Art light light quality ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture pathways shrubs spring spring gardening village gardens Yellow Book Gardens
Moors Meadow – a romantic garden full of magic
We had not visited the magical garden at Moors Meadow for several years so we were really looking forward to exploring it with my brother Graham and sister-in-law Vicky.
The garden here was pronounced Britain’s most romantic garden by a national gardening monthly. We were so looking forward to finding out if it lived up to this and if it still felt as magical as we remembered.
It didn’t take long for us to discover that it was indeed a garden full of surprises, artifacts, unusual plants, amazing seats and wandering pathways through changing moods of garden.
I shall now share a gallery of photos showing our walk around the gardens.
So there is my gallery of photos of our journey around the magical and romantic gardens at Moors Meadow. I hope you enjoyed sharing our journey and our enjoyment.
greenbenchramblings 