We have watched over the last few years how the walled garden at Clumber Park has been brought back to life. Although it is a few hours from home we visit at least once a year.
Now it is a peaceful place to wander around admiring the vegetable growing techniques, the orchards and the meadows beneath, the long flower borders, the trained fruit on the walls themselves and the national collection of rhubarb.
We were very lucky on this recent visit as we had our own personal guide who came around with us. He was grey haired and didn’t say a lot but he didn’t mind when I took his portrait.
We like to approach it along the dramatic avenue of cedars where the enticing view of the distant old gates within the warm red of the tall brick walls draws us in. The cedars themselves have such sculptural qualities and an air of mystery pervades the shadows under their glaucous sweeping branches some scooping down to touch the grass below.
The tall warm bricked walls are now protecting skilfully trained apples, pears, peaches, cherries and figs. In the open a collection local varieties of fruit are being established and in the borders below the walls herbaceous plants, herbs and the National Collection of Rhubarb varieties flourish.
The wide central gravel path that bisects the walled garden runs from the main gates to the greenhouse. It runs between a colourful double herbaceous border.
Old fruit trees remain to give a sense of continuity and sit comfortably amongst gently swaying meadows. We were delighted to see a Medlar in flower.
We enjoyed discovering ideas to take home with us as we moved within the vegetable growing areas, such these rustic supports for peas and sweetpeas made from birch prunings. Much of the productive planting was done in neat, long and impressively straight lines.
Being run along totally organic lines the walled garden was well-provided with bird nesting boxes and insect shelters to attract beneficial insects.
As we wandered around we noticed amongst the productive rows of veggies, this beautiful Victorian glass and metal cloche still in regular use. It performed as well now as it always has done just like the walled garden itself.
As we prepared for our journey back to Shropshire, our helpful little cheery guide waved a small wave and wandered off.
We can start the second part of our wander by looking again at the front garden. Buds give us hints of blooms to come in midsummer, Phlomis, Oriental Poppies, Erygiums and Echinops. Promises of yellows, reds and steely blues.
Foliage colour and texture can be as striking as the most colourful of flowers.
Our collection of Clematis are beginning to flower and others are covered in robust buds.
Flower colours have been so important during the first few weeks of this month simply as an antidote to dull days and dark skies. It matters not whether it is a gaudy cerise beauty or a subtle green or white.
Blue on blue.
Another view of our Freda Border.
Our mini-meadows in their pots are developing well. We think we may be onto a winner.
The Shed Bed created on the site of an old shed which we demolished when we moved in, is really pleasing as below the shed we found just rubble, gravel, broken pots and sand. We added wheelbarrows of compost to improve it and now every little flower is a true gem.
A vine grows over one end of the greenhouse acting as a natural shading agent as well as feeding the gardeners. The startlingly red flowering currant has hitched a lift along it so the vine drips with red droplets.
We enjoy these irises as cut flowers but bees take advantage of them before we pick them. This clump is growing through our stepover apples. Double harvesting – cut flowers followed by apples.
The planting around the pool has closed in and made it an intimate area. Nearby the Prairie Garden is bursting with fresh blooms.
In the Secret Garden Aquilegias and Alliums look good alongside the purple foliage of Pentstemon Huskers Red.
These aeonium enjoy the hottest part of the garden, the Rill Garden.
To one side of the rill we grow a snake bark maple, with silver and green striped bark, cream and red seed capsules and in autumn it has amazing rich red foliage. A wonderful specimen tree to finish this garden wander underneath.
A week into May the rain stopped, the temperature rose a little and the skies cleared, bird song increased in volume and in response the garden had a burst of growth. Fledgling Robins, although only hours out of the nest began to follow us around the garden as we worked as if they had an inbuilt knowledge of the link between gardeners and Robin food.
Variations in foliage colour is strong in early May light.
Leaf buds on trees and shrubs started to unfurl and herbaceous plants looked greener and fresher with the new leafy growth. Flower buds fattened ready to open in the next few days.
New seedlings of mixed salad leaves.Fresh growth on Bowles Golden.The deep reddish bronze foliage of this Rogersia contrasts beautifully with its green-leaved neighbours.Aquilegias are about to flower in every border. Can’t wait!Grey Hosta spear soaring skyward.This herb valerian self seeds throughout the garden and its scent is welcomed wherever it blooms.
The surge of growth will hopefully allow Mother Nature to catch up a little. The rose bushes are often clothed in fat buds a few of which burst before the end of the month, but at the moment their leaves are still not fully out. Similarly the flowers of the Cercis are usually out now flowering on the bare stems and trunk but their buds are tight shut while the foliage is bursting into life.
Rose foliage emerges a deep shade of red.The new fresh leaves of Cercis display a deep bronze colour.
Our fruit trees do not want to miss the fun – their leaf and blossom buds burst into life.
Apple blossom gives us so many shades of pink to enjoy.Very late emerging bud on our Hampton Court vine.
Flower buds are bursting – they do not want to be left out!
The first flower of the Persicaria bistorta stands alone in the lush foliage of the Bog Garden.The yellow scented flower of this deciduous rhododendron are nearly with us.Misty blue Cammasia buds opening.Fat Allium bud rising from the whorl of leaves.Red Campion buds ready to burst cluster atop their stem.
The most unusual coloured new buds appear on our two miniature Horse Chestnuts.
Delicate pale bronze new hands of chestnut leaves.Salmon pinky orange?
The key moment in April came when our allotments featured in a national gardening magazine, “Grow It”. A great article full of photos! And then towards the end of the month the lottie chairman, John and I were interviewed by Matt Biggs for an article in the “Edible Garden” magazine. (Please excuse the name dropping!)
So let’s take a wander around the site starting at our own plot, number 37, where the last of the leeks are still in the ground but the kale is beginning to go to seed. Seeds we sowed a few weeks ago are now germinating and popping their heads above the soil. The autumn sown broad beans are flowering as are our currants and gooseberries. So it is all systems go.
Jude harvesting the last of the leeks with our Wolf weeding tool.Shed painting - not our favourite job!The green roof of our insect hotel.The incredibly coloured flowers of Crimson-flowered Broad Bean.New seedlings of early peas.
As we began our wander we were pleased to see two families from the nearby estate wandering around our interest trail with their children. Later they were sat in the willow dome reading stories. This is what community allotments are all about! We shall start our wanderings at Hut 2, one of our communal huts and move on to the Autumn Garden, one of our “Gardens of the Seasons”.
Colourful welcome to Hut 2, our information centre.A species crab apple, Malus floribunda, is a recent addition to the Autumn Garden.We planted the malus to attract bees - it works!Japanese maples grow in the dappled shade of the trees in the Autumn Garden
Moving on from the Autumn Garden towards the first communal orchard we follow a native hedge in which for the first time a Song Thrush has nested. the parents are busy feeding their young and collect worms and bugs from plots right under the noses of the gardeners.
Thrush collecting food for its youngsters.The empty thrush egg we found a few weeks ago alongside the hedge.We are trying to encourage wise watering on the plots so lots of new guttering and butts are appearing.Ready for action.Have the crows got their own back?
In Crowmeole Orchard flowering spring bulbs are coming to an end as Camassias and Allium push up their flowering buds. The apples, pears and plums are covered in pink or white blossom.
Blackthorn - bees love the blossom, birds love the fruit and allotment holders love to make sloe gin from them.Homes for beneficial insects who will help pollinate the fruit and predate on pests.The Fruit Avenue getting more colourful by the day.
As we wandered through this orchard a flock of Long Tailed tits in their pink and brown livery flew off in the bouncing flight pattern, having fed on the peanuts in the feeders. Their long trailing tails followed on. We moved on following paths between plots towards the Spring Garden and Sensory Garden near the old oak tree. Plots are full of ridged rows of sown potatoes and white plastic plant labels marking newly sown rows.
Phil and Doreen have planted up a border alongside their plot.Several plot holders are topping up their paths with wood chip.Alan's tyre beds.
The Spring Garden in its second spring is looking so good and has become a popular place for allotment holders and visitors.
The most colourful spot on the site in April is the Spring Garden.Forsythia flowering in the Spring Garden.Spring Garden beauty.
Through the Willow Tunnel is one of our many picnic benches where we stop for coffee on our April wanderings. As we enjoyed our brew curlews called in nearby fields with their mournful song and the Great Spotted Woodpeckers flew busily overhead.
We have just started to shape the willows into a tunnel.The Sensory Garden is growing well now the weather is warming up.
The Winter Garden has passed its peak after being so popular for months. We have been busy giving it a sort out.
The stems of the White Stemmed Rubus look magical in the spring sunshine.The dogwoods and willows grown for their coloured stems have been pruned hard to encourage fresh wands of growth.Fresh Fennel foliage in front of a Euphorbia.
We wandered next through the Woodcote Orchard where the paths are cut short and neatly through the long grass, and looked at the Turf Spiral, a favourite of the children.
Follow the trail post down the neat path.We have been adding another layer of turf to the spiral to create somewhere to sit.
Our final stop on the way back to the car park was the Herb Garden where herbs are now well established. This last section of our lottie wander took a lot longer than the others as we enjoyed a good chat with Dave and Jean. We put the world to rights and shared details of how all our crops were getting on.
It is already into the fourth month of the year and so this is the fourth in this monthly series of garden wandering posts. So much happens in April, so many plants start into growth, so many seeds are sown and the weather changes so often. Frost, hail, sun, mild, cold, windy, calm – everything comes randomly and we gardeners get caught out inappropriately clothed. Wildlife is equally confused, with bees, hoverflies, butterflies and wasps appearing on warmer days and disappearing as soon as it cools down again.
Taking advantage of some bonus sunshine.
Some spring bulbs are going over while others are in full swing, some tree blossoms are going over while others are just coming into flower. There is so much to do in the garden, productive or ornamental, and it feels good to be out there doing it.
How red can a flower be!
As soon as April arrives we know the garden will look and feel differently every day. Come around our garden with me and my camera and see what is going on.
The front garden glows in the afternoon sunshine, with every shade of green in new herbaceous growth splattered with the many colours of bulbs.
The Hot Border.Euphorbias below white-stemmed birches.
The Shade Garden is soon to reach its peak time, with its fresh leafy growth and the tiny, pale jewels of flowers. Pulmonarias, Dicentras, Anemones, Arums and Corydalis are all budding up and beginning to flower while the ferns are hardly showing any signs of awakening.
The Shade Garden bursting into life.China blue pulmonaria.Pale pink pulmonaria.Silver splashed Arum leaves.Primrose yellow Anemone.
On the gravel patch, which we call our “Chatto Garden”, new foliage is bursting through. Irises, Euphorbias are starting into healthy growth. The large terra-cotta pot of bulbs is bubbling over with the blue of Muscari and a sprinkling of tiny mauve species Tulips.
The glaucous sword shaped iris leaves.Spears of Euphorbia griffithii "Dixter" piercing the gravel.The thistle like spiked and variegated Galactites tomentosa.Muscari blue and tulip mauve give a gentle colourway to the big pot.Bright welcome at the gate - yellow Mahonia and red Cydonia.
Trees and shrubs are a little later coming to life in the spring, the miniature Chestnut’ sticky buds are only just bursting while the Amelanchier lamarckii and Spiraea “The Bride” are in their full white ball gowns.
"The Bride" is always such a good arching shape.The long arching raceme of Spiraea.Amelanchier blossom like delicate stars.Chestnut buds burst out in salmons, russets and reds.
In the side garden by our main entrance the two potted apple trees are in full flower, with blossoms of many shades of pink, promising lots of juicy fruit to enjoy. We have added a second House Sparrow nesting box giving six nest holes altogether and hopefully a little less noisy bickering. The new box is apartment living as opposed to the terraced original. Right by our doorstep is a pot of violas in an unusual colour combination of blue and brown. In front of the garage door our replanted alpine troughs are beginning to come to life.
Our miniature apple trees welcome callers.Apple blossoms - pink beauties.Sparrow city.Alpine troughs protected from the cold winds.Unusual colour combination.
Wandering into the back garden it is hard to know where to point the lens first as so much is happening. The fruit trees are in blossom, tulips add their jewel colours in every border and new leaves are appearing on most shrubs and perennials.
A mass of Damson blossom against a blue sky.Jude, "The Undergardener" at work in the "Shed Bed".
The garden is full of sound, scents and movement. In the pools Pond Skaters perform their dances on the surface and tadpoles wriggle in black masses in the shallow pebble bay. Around each flowering shrub bees and hoverflies flit and buzz. In nearby fields Skylarks sing their “high in the sky” songs and the haunting call of Curlews reach us from the damp land alongside the nearby fishery. But the strangest sound of all is the regular sound of Tawny Owls calling to each other – have they lost their biological clocks? The calling starts mid-afternoon on most days.
Lush growth at the pool side.
Scent is provided by Viburnum, Mahonias, Wallflowers, Flowering Currants, Hyancinths, Daffodils and the last of the flowers on the Daphnes. Herby scents come with the new fresh greens of the mints, thymes, marjorams and fennel.
Strong in scent beautiful in colour, the last flowers on the Daphne.The complex flower head of a viburnum.
In the Secret Garden it is the tulips that take centre stage, in so many colours and shapes.
The Secret Garden awakens in Spring.The darkest orange tulip.
Some of the most impressive new foliage is to be found on our acers, growing under the trees we grow as a wind break, acid green, lemon yellow, flaming orange and salmon.
New brightly coloured foliage shines in mottled shade.Glowing red fresh, new leaves.
We have eventually relented and cut down the last of our many grasses. We leave them as late as possible and often leave some too late and end up cutting new growth coming up within the old. This Miscanthus napalensis was left until last, understandably.
Old grass and new acer.
Just to show how fickle the month of April can be, the day after I took the photos for this blog we woke to three inches of snow and large flakes continued to fall all morning. Many tulips and daffodils were flattened and our clump of Black Bamboo was pinned to the ground by the sheer weight of snow.
Iris swords piercing the snow.
I shall finish with two shots – one before the snow and one after. This lovely old oak tree root is our miniature stumpery – all we have room for!
Late Saturday night we were digging jazz at our jazz club. Early Sunday morning we were digging soil on an allotment. Double digging at its best! At Shrewsbury Jazz Network we enjoyed a brilliant young band called the JJ Wheeler Quintet. JJ the young drummer leads the band and composes and arranges their music. We had a great night.
Sunday morning we, the Undergardener and I, woke early anticipating a mild sunny day, just right for helping out our Daughter, Jo and Son-in-Law, Rob on their allotment. After a short drive we arrived and Rob opened up the gate. Jo was elsewhere enjoying learning more about jewelry. The three of us aimed to finish preparing the plot for sowing and planting. Their plot is divided up into small beds divided by grass paths and we were determined to dig, rotovate, feed with poultry manure pellets and rake them all level.
Unfortunately I forgot that essential blogging gardener’s tool, my camera so I had to use my phone.
Jude, the Undergardener, and Rob weeding the onion bed (plus my shadow)Jude, the Undergardener helping sort the onions, without my shadow.Onions weeded and fed.We finished planting and putting up supports for the new cordon apples.We finished off the luxury insect hotel.Success! Paths cut, edges trimmed and all beds ready for the sowing and planting season.
Today we held our first allotment working party of 2012. Once or twice a month throughout the year I organise working parties to develop and maintain the communal areas at our site, Bowbrook Allotment Community. These communal areas are for the enjoyment of our allotment holders, the local residents, school groups, nature and gardening clubs etc. We have a small sub-committee of the main allotments management committee which is responsible for these areas, The Green Spaces Committee. We invite volunteers to join us at our regular working parties.
At 9:00 am we opened up the site gates and collected up the tools and machinery we might need. The day started foggy and chilly, just 6 degrees bu the forecast was optimistic. fifteen volunteers turned up with trowels, forks, spades and flasks of coffee. The mowers and strimmers were fueled and readied for some hard work.
Plots and sheds engulfed in mist.Geoff on hands and knees planting in the mist.Ian popping plug plants out of their trays.Jude, Anthony and Dave preparing planting holes for the plug plants.
By coffee time the light had improved as the mist cleared. The sky turned blue and temperatures rose so jackets were removed as we retired to the picnic benches. The temperature rose to a hefty 20 degrees.
A well-earned rest and coffee for Ian and John.
After our coffee break we moved on to planting more plugs in other meadow areas, under the bushes in the Hazel Grove and on the Wildlife Banks.
Dee and John planting under the Sycamore tree.Jill and Dave plugging away.Dee, John and Tracy planting in the wetter meadow area.
After a mid-day break for lunch we moved over to the one of the orchards to plant more wildflowers amongst the trees.
Jude, still on hands and knees, in the orchard.
Finishing our day’s work planting in the orchard was extra rewarding as here we could appreciate the fruits of our labours. During working parties in the autumn we planted bulbs such as Fritilleries, Muscari, Narcissi and Alliums, and today many were in flower attracting bees and butterflies.
Native Daffodils flowering away under the apple trees.The star flower of the orchard, the Snakeshead Fritillery.Turn over, peer inside and find more magic.
So what could fifteen volunteers achieve on a sunny March day? We planted over 2500 wildflower plants to enhance our communal meadows! An amazing day!
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.
What a harvest! Today we harvested the “Scrumptious” apples from the tree trained over a garden arch and these two baskets of deep rosy apples weighing in at just over 11lb are the result. The taste is sweet and juicy and the flesh white with red blushing close to the skin.
Today we harvested our two Red Windsor apple trees. They are miniature trees called “coronets” and we chose them to flank our front door, where they live in big, heavy, 24inch terracotta pots mulched with a layer of pebbles. One of the trees was a thank you gift so we bought another to make a matching pair. They seemed a far better option to the more formal possibilities – standard hollies, conifers or lavenders.
They are ideal for this position as they give lots of blossom early in the year which is much loved by bees and hoverflies and colouful fruit throughout the summer. Then today they yielded a 6 lb harvest of tasty looking fruit. The fruit is described as cox-like but we shall wait and see. The only problem with growing apples by your front door is that the postman thinks they are for him!
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