greenbenchramblings

A Garden in March – Trentham

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 28, 2014
2 Comments on A Garden in March – Trentham

This post sees us visiting one of our favourite gardens to visit, Trentham, for the third time this year.

panorama trentham

We were hoping for slightly better weather for our March wander but it was cold and mostly overcast. The breeze was icy enough to make our eyes and noses run!

Passing over the bridge over the River Trent we get our first glimpse of the gardens and at first sight little has changed in Piet Oudolf’s River of Grasses. There remains a lot of straw coloured stems mostly now cut low to the ground but within them we found one lonely daffodil blooming away cheerfully. A joke by a gardener perhaps? A rogue that came in a wheelbarrow from the compost heap? Beneath the trees in the sweep of River Birches the chatreuse bracts of the euphorbias glow like swarms of glow Worm.

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Moving into the Piet Oudolf prairie borders there are signs of strong growth on many perennials especially the Thalictrum, Papavers and Monardas. Beneath the old Yew trees the circles of Cyclamen continue to bloom for the third month running.

The only change with the Hornbeam arbour is that the leaf buds are on the verge of bursting and the gardeners have painted the bench. Nearby we found seagull shaped areas of crocus in the lawns just as last month we had found them created from snowdrops.

Moving through the Hornbeam tunnel we discovered that the Helebores we enjoyed so much in February were still going strong. When we reached the Italian Garden with their formal beds we found much more colour than on previous visits with daffodils, pansies and primulas flowering within the box hedging. A splash of yellow from a Forsythia matched the golden blooms of the daffodils growing in the urns along the stone balustrades. They were lovely daffs with clear yellow colour throughout and long trumpets with slightly reflex petals (flying backwards!).

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The distant view over the Tom Stuart-Smith Italinate Garden looked much the same until we peered over the ballustrades and we immediately noticed a sea of blue mist. On closer inspection we discovered the colour was from masses of Scillas. It is a good year for Scillas – such common little bulbs but such a brilliant blue that enhances everything that is alongside it. We found them with the fresh bronze-purple filigree foliage of fennel, with narcissi and with another small bulb which I think may have been Chionodoxa.

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These huge, strongly bursting bulbs we believe may be Cardiocrinum gigantium. We shall find out on future visits.

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Moving from Tom Stuart-Smith’s garden towards the old parkland we came across a new addition to the collection of fairy sculpture dotted around the gardens. This new one is by far the best, a fairy blowing the seed parachutes from a dandelion seedhead. So delicate! My photos do not do it justice.

We were enjoying the sight of thousands of daffodils growing in the lawns when a sudden shower of icy rain and hail forced us to take an early coffee break but we were soon wandering again through the “display gardens”. You can see that the first picture of the daffs was taken through a haze of rain.

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Watch this space! One area of the display gardens was being re-developed so we shall have something new to discover on our April visit. There were some exiting metal structures going up but apart from that we couldn’t even guess what the gardeners and landscapers were up to.

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We took a detour into a part of the gardens that we did not even know existed – a short woodland trail. We couldn’t access it all as work was being done to the fire pit area but we liked what we saw. Sadly the visit to the bird hide was a waste as the multitude of bird feeders hanging there were empty! The woodland is alongside the lake and on the lakeside we found batches of this mysterious looking plant with yellow-green flowers in a tight umbrella shaped head. Does anyone recognise it?

Den building was an activity provided for the children and it looked as if they had been enjoying being creative.

Making our way back to the car we passed the rose border where perennials were coming into growth strongly. The view through to Piet Oudolf’s River of Grasses looked just as it did last month. The roses were making new growth especially the climbers. We found a colourful planting of hellebores and Brunnera “Jack Frost” as we left the garden which was a real bonus.

I shall close with my one successful photo of the fairy sculptures – at least one worked! So we are now looking forward to out April visit when there should be a lot of change. The growth rate will be accelerating nicely by then.

Tags garden sculpture, outdoor sculpture, Piet Oudolf, spring bulbs, spring flowers, spring garden, Staffordshire, Tom Stuart-Smith, Trentham Garden, Trentham Gardens

architecture buildings canals light light quality photography reflections

A Canalside Walk in the City Centre

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 26, 2014

A canalside walk in the city centre! It just has to be Birmingham. You may remember a recent post about the new library in the great city of Birmingham. To those of us who live in the centre of the UK and not in the South and who know the city well, then it is obvious that Birmingham should be the Capital of England and not London. Being in the middle of the country it could represent the whole nation properly without the dreadful North-south divide that having the capital in the south has created.

The first photo is a self portrait and also sets the scene. The following batch illustrates the quality of light available for me to use that day. All the photos were taken on my Galaxy Phone’s camera – great little camera to use on the streets when you don’t want to be noticed. People remain at ease if you have a phone in your hand rather than a camera.

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The new library proved what a vibrant, forward thinking city Birmingham is. This post will feature a part of the city’s past that has been brought back to life. Its canals. Here small business thrive, cafes and bars are full of life and people just wander looking contented.

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We soon discovered that there is such an array of buildings of all shapes, sizes, functions and ages to be viewed from the canal towpath.

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It was hard to imagine as we walked the towpaths that this thin strip of water was a hub of transport a few centuries ago, the equivalent of the clogged M6 motorway we had traveled on to get to it. This little tug barge was one of the few signs of the canal’s previous importance.

Our usual coffee break was taken within the comfort of one the National Convention Centre cafes. One of our favourite concert venues, the Symphony Hall is integrated with this building. There are some wonderful features here both inside and out.

As we progressed around our canal-side ramble we got occasional glimpses of the New Library. Can you spot it in the picture below?

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No canal wandering can be complete though without a few reflections to enjoy, and not forgetting a nice old curvy bridge!

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I keep trying to get a good picture of shadows created by benches and am never very pleased with the results. The one below I was actually quite pleased with. I then finish off with a pic of patterns found beneath our feet and my favourite photo of the day, the glass globe against a filigree of delicate branches.

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Tags architecture, Birmingham, canals, cities, cityscapes, modern architecture. townscapes, towpaths, water

allotments diy fruit and veg gardening grow your own natural pest control recycling

Revamping our Strawberry Bed

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 24, 2014
1 Comment on Revamping our Strawberry Bed

We have now had our allotment for 5 years and this means our strawberries and raspberries are getting weaker and producing poorer crops. After this period of time the threat of virus hangs over them.

We renewed our raspberry canes last autumn and so it is time to renew our strawberry plants. A bright warm early spring day found us digging up and composting our old plants which had become woody. We got rid of the old weed suppressing membrane and dug over the flattened soil below. We then added lots of organic matter in the form of old growbags, our own chicken manure and composted chicken bedding. A quick rotovate and the soil looked good, full of organic matter and a great texture.

We made the wooden surround from recycled scaffold boards which fits our 3-Rs policy which we follow on our plot. Reduce – Reuse – Recycle.

To protect our strawberry plants from pests and to help effective pollination we have sown a wildflower strip close by.

Soon we had new membrane down and we spread out our new little plants spaced out to give the best yields.

We planted the little plantlets very carefully as they felt so delicate. When we had finished they looked tiny in their new raised bed. We now have 12 Honeoye and 12 Cambridge Scarlet which will hopefully keep us in strawberries for the next five years.

The little plants looked so vulnerable when we had finished but just a week later we checked on them and they were showing signs of strong bright green growth.

Tags allotments, fruit and veg, fruit and veg growing, fruit and vegetable growing, gardening, grow your own, home produce, organic gardening, organic pest control, strawberries, weed suppressing membrane

climbing plants colours flowering bulbs garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening gardens grasses hardy perennials ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs Shropshire spring bulbs trees Uncategorized Winter Gardening winter gardens

Aiming for a year round garden. Part One – The Winter

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 22, 2014
5 Comments on Aiming for a year round garden. Part One – The Winter

Over the last few years we have worked hard planning to make our garden look and feel good all year round. So today I took a wander with camera in hand to see how well we had done so far. See what you think. Are we getting there?

Of course flowering bulbs come into their own at this time of year and we now have a wide selection of crocus, muscari, miniature narcissi and Iris reticulata throughout the garden. Grasses are of equal importance but only recently have they been accepted as an essential element of the winter garden. The first photo shows how well our Pony Tails Grasses contrast with the foliage of Hebes. In the second crocus team up with grasses to create a great combination of colours and textures.

A have a soft spot for celandines, enjoying the glossy yellow native plant that lights up our hedgerow bases as well as the cultivated bronze leaved Brazen Hussey and the “Giant Celandine” in the photograph below.

Euphorbias are another of those families of plants that are all year round essentials in our gardens but at this time of year their new bracts glow on overcast days. Foliage is perhaps more important than flowers in the winter garden as it provides variations of colour, pattern and texture. Phormiums, Heucheras and grasses are most effective.

Scent can play its part as it pervades the calm air and delights us as we wander with the thought of brighter warmer days. Daphnes, Sarcoccocas, Cornus, Mahonias and Viburnums all perform well in our garden.

Textured bark on our trees in our Spring Border looks especially good in winter light. The peeling orange bark of the Prunus serrula and the birch is like slithers of brittle toffee.

Hellebores star in most gardens in winters since so many wonderful easily grown specimens have become available in most garden centres and nurseries.

Here some of our many hellebores are twinned with coloured stemmed cornus and salix.

Any flower brave enough to appear in the winter is worthy of mention be they primulas, witch hazels, pulmonarias or bergenia. They would perhaps seem quite ordinary if they flowered among the stars of the summer garden but in the winter they are extraordinarily good garden plants.

A recent discovery is the shrub Drimys with its red stems, glossy green foliage and buds looking fit to burst into life.

Structures such as our cloud pruned box hedge that lines our central path become much more important and noticeable in the emptier garden of winter. But we hope our garden is now richer in this the coldest and darkest of our seasons.

We must not forget the role our feathered friends play in adding colour, sound and movement to our garden in winter.

Part Two of our search for the all year round garden will consider our garden in Spring. Signs of that season are already giving hints of what is to come such as in the buds of the quince fruit tree.

Tags dogwoods, foliage, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, grasses, greenhouse gardening, organic gardening, ornamental trees, shrubs, winter, winter garden, winter gardening, winter gardens

indoor plants

The Blooming of a Big Bulb

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 19, 2014
4 Comments on The Blooming of a Big Bulb

We had a lovely present from my brother, Derrick and his partner Lyn at Christmas, a big fat Amaryllis. We potted it up and waited. It seemed a long wait but suddenly there were signs of growth, buds started opening looking like little green tongues sticking out. Once they reached about 4 inches in height a flowering stem burst upwards growing at a great rate. It was noticeably taller each day and the bud at its topmost point plumped up until it reached about 18 inches. It then stopped adding any growth to the stem length and instead the bud expanded. Until.

The deepest red petals started to appear, almost black.

After a few days the flowers were huge, as wide as a saucer and each petal developed the texture of the softest most luxurious velvet.

We positioned them near some of my paintings as the petals matched colours in the paintings. these abstracts were based on a special rock structure on a beach in North Wales, where the darkest grey rock had extrusions of red forced into them.

At their peak the four flowers that topped the stem looked far too heavy. It seemed as if the stem would bend or snap at any moment. The contrast between the yellow and red became intense.

And now for one final set of photos – the bloom at its best.

Tags amaryllis, bulbs, flowering bulbs, indoor bulbs

garden design garden photography gardening outdoor sculpture

Garden Art

When we work in the garden we like looking at the bits of broken pottery, metal and glass that we unearth. I presume most of us gardeners do the same. Ever since we first moved to our garden here at Plealey ten years ago we have been collecting together the more interesting pieces without a thought of what we might do with them. Our bucket filled up until recently I thought I would select out interesting pieces that would go together to make a few pictures with.

We chose square white frames to give simple plain backgrounds and I managed to create these three pictures.

Here they are in more detail. I hope you enjoy looking at them – I certainly enjoyed making them. I like their simplicity and crispness. I photographed them outside on the lawn when the sun would add shadow but they have a place waiting for them. We intend to hang them on a wall outside which is painted a pale cream colour.

Tags artwork, collected objects, garden decoration, gardening, gardens, outdoor art

garden design garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public ornamental trees and shrubs trees

The Trees in Two Gardens

When we visit gardens I tend to concentrate on taking photographs of borders and flowering plants, and often ignore the wonderful silhouette of the trees.

So when we went to Dunham Massey and Trentham in February I concentrated on their trees so just sit back and enjoy my photos. A tribute to trees.

Firstly enjoy the trees of Dunham Massey.

And now to Trentham and its trees. The first photos show trees planted during the recent renovation of the garden and the latter photos the mature trees from the original parkland.

Tags betulas, birches, gardening, gardens open to the public, open gardens, parkland, Staffordshire, trees, Trentham Gardens

flowering bulbs garden design garden photography gardening spring bulbs spring gardening Winter Gardening

Our Crocuses

We look forward to late February and early March as that is when those little jewels, the crocuses burst into bloom, attracting the local honey bees and any winter flying bumbles and solitaries.

Our crocus lawn is in its second season and is looking great.

In almost every other part of the garden they open their sunny flowers whenever the slightest sunny ray catches them. We thought we would take a wander around the garden with camera in hand and see how many different crocus we now have in the garden. Enjoy the journey with us.

Tags crocus, crocus lawn, flowering bulbs, spring, spring bulbs, spring garden

allotments community gardening garden buildings Winter Gardening

A day of destruction as a funnel hits our allotments

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 6, 2014
9 Comments on A day of destruction as a funnel hits our allotments

Last week a wild wind phenomenon hit our allotments and left a trail of destruction in its wake. A “funnel” tore its way across the plots and it flattened sheds in its path. It moved sheds from their bases. It took the roofs off others. Anything light was scattered about, compost bins, water butts and cold-frames.

In the first pair of pictures half of the felt from the shed roofs had been torn off typical of the minor damage to many sheds. Others like the one in the third photo had been blown from off its base and it collapsed in a heap, with the contents crushed inside. See if you can see which bit is which.

Others fell off their bases and landed on their sides remaining almost intact while others lost their roofs which took off like kites.

On our own plot there was little damage. We had an allotment years ago on another very windy site so we were prepared like all good scouts and guides. We had sunk heavy fence posts at each corner of our shed and fixed the shed by screwing it firmly from the inside. (see photo below). Our tripods had crashed, our wooden planks awaiting transformation into a raised bed for strawberries were blown across the plot, our central metal gazebo was well bent and our flying scarecrow, Biggles, was blown from the top of it and we found his plane crash landed nearby but sadly Biggles and his head had parted company.

This devastation came in the middle of an ongoing problem with water-logging and floods, so it really felt as if the weather had got it in for us.

At home we did not get the funnel passing through but we had days of gale force winds roaring through the garden. It managed to lift our lovely Ceanothus right out of the ground roots and all! The tree ties had been broken and the tree stake had snapped a few inches from the ground. The last of our rose arches finally collapsed hurrying up our replacing them with wooden arches.

When Jude and I next went up the lotties a week after the great storm we were amazed to find everything had been put back to how things were before, most of the sheds were back on their bases, roofs repaired and those that had toppled over were upright again. The biggest surprise of all was to see the shed that had barrel-rolled down the path back on its base and looking pretty good considering. Without saying a word to Paul, the owner of the shed, some fellow allotmenteers had got together and moved it back for him. Just look how good it looks in the photo below. In the second photo if you look in the background to the right you can see Henry’s shed also back in place and roof repaired. This is why we call our site Bowbrook Allotment Community with the emphasis on community.

The storm hit mostly during the night and then had abated by mid-morning. In the afternoon two members emailed me with photos and details of the plots that had received damage. This meant that I could contact the individuals concerned and let them know the sad news. One couple went round the sight with a smart phone and as they found a plot that had sustained some damage they sent me a photo with details and plot number.They even made some damaged sheds safe and did temporary repairs. This sort of helping each other is what makes life easy for me as Chairman. I felt proud to be involved!

Most of the photos in this post are from members of Bowbrook Allotment Community.

Tags allotments, Bowbrook Allotments, community gardening, community spirit, gales, garden buildings, sheds, storms, weather, windy weather, winter

climbing plants garden design gardening herbs recycling roses

Hide that ugly pipe!

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best. Recently we saw on a television gardening programme some covers to fix over drain pipes so that you can plant climbing plants to hide the ugly plastic pipe.

So we sent for a pair and then went off to the Antique Centre at nearby Church Stretton in search of an interesting galvanised container suitable for growing some climbing plants in. Success! We found an old cannister hidden in a pile of miscellaneous objects from an old bakers shop. Baking tins, a till, the manager’s desk, enamel signs, and a miscellany of galvanised containers!

We were so pleased with ourselves that we treated ourselves to a coffee at a great coffee house across the road, Ginger Green. They make excellent coffee and an amazing array of cakes! As you see from the pics below they pride themselves in the look of the coffee too! 10 out of 10 for presentation.

When the climbing frames arrived we fixed them up, put the galvanised cannister in place and drove off to the Derwen Garden Centre near to Welshpool. We came away with a clematis, a climbing patio rose and two thymes perfect for planting up our new planter which waited patiently at home. We were also tempted to a Calyanthus a flowering shrub we had been seeking for a long while.

We must now sit back and wait for the summer when we shall find out if our planting works and if the plants will climb the frames and hide the ugly pipe.