Tag: climbers

My Garden Journal in May

Just as I completed my journal for June I realised that I had not yet posted “My Garden Journal for May”, so here it is now for you to enjoy! The June journal report won’t be far behind!

Summer creeping in can only mean that our May garden is changing by the day. Exuberance in every border with things growing before your eyes. A month of excitement! I began my May entry in my garden journal by writing,

“May means exuberance! It is the month when our garden shows us the ability it has to surprise. It shows off its strength and its artistic talents. Growth is so rapid and colour so exciting, that we are aware of what our garden means to us and also aware of its power that Mother Nature possesses and uses with pride and to excess!”

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I then turn to looking back at my original garden journey recording the first few years that we have lived and gardened at Avocet.

“Looking back in my garden journal that recorded the early years at Avocet, I read a paragraph that shows just how similar May is now.

“The garden is bursting with life – butterflies including Holly Blues, bees and so many birds. Suddenly the garden is alive with birds giving extra colour, sound and movement. There seems to be so many finches – Goldfinches, Chaffinches and Greenfinches. Swifts, Swallows and House Martins swoop overhead especially in the evening.”

Sadly though there are far fewer Swifts, Swallows and House Martins overhead. So many have not survived their long migrations. What does the future hold for these beautiful acrobats?”

Turning over the page of my journal and we see the next two pages feature Acers and Roses.

“Acers are one of the many stars of the May garden, a month when their foliage and stems are delicate and colourful.”

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“May means Roses and by the middle of the month we have many buds and pioneer blooms. Reds and pinks dominate at the moment. Yellows and oranges are still to come.”

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I moved on to look at one of the climbers we enjoy in our garden and at the grasses that have now started to grow rapidly.

“Think of climbers early in the summer garden and Clematis is the first plant to spring to mind.”

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“Grasses are growing quickly now and the myriad shades of green move skyward in our borders.”

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Turning over again and succulents are discussed. These are a recent interest and I have only been growing them and propagating them for a few years.

Succulent plants are an interest that has grown over the last few years. Beginning with Aeoniums and Echeverias I soon branched out.”

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“Troughs of succulents grace the Rill Garden in May and on into October when the risk of frost mean that they retreat to the warmth of our greenhouse.”

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When we turn over next we see that I talk of Hostas and in particular those growing in our Bog Garden. The bog garden is so full of life at the moment with plants growing appreciably by the day.

“Hostas are one of the more subtle of our garden favourites both their foliage and later in the year their flowers. The Bog Garden next to our Wildlife Pond and snuggled up to it is a place of rapid growth in May.”

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White is not a colour I particularly appreciate in the garden and as a result I do not use it much.

“White is not my favourite colour in the garden. I particularly do not like white painted garden furniture or white painted fences, trellises or walls. We tend to paint our seats in ivory or cream which are much softer colours particularly on bright sunny days. Our fences we paint in browns and trellis work in gentle shades of green which acts as a great foil for our plants. I think this dislike of white is to do with our weather as it can work so well in other countries. Where flowers are concerned I appreciate them most in May when white can look good with the brightness of fresh foliage. Below are photos of a few particularly good white flowers, Viburnums, Cornus, white Bluebells, Iberis and Camassias. Some of these are the purest of white where others have gentle hints of colour. The Camassia has a green tint to it and the Iberis the gentlest hint of pink.”

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As we leave May behind we can look forward to the longest day, the time when day and night share equal number of hours.

Tags acers., aeomiums, bog garden, bog plants, clematis, climbers, climbing plants, Echeveria, echeverias, gardens in May, hostas, May, ornamental grasses, roses, succulents, the garden in May, white flowers, white in the harden

diy garden design gardening roses

Replacing the garden arches at Avocet

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date February 20, 2014
6 Comments on Replacing the garden arches at Avocet

We made the mistake when we designed the garden here at Avocet of using metal arches to span our paths and grow plants over. We have 8 arches altogether around the garden with all sorts of climbing plants over them including trained fruit trees. Most of the climbers are purely decorative, different varieties of clematis, rose, honeysuckle and a purple vine so not only do they look good but many are scented to give wafts of their gentle aromas as we pass through the arches. The productive trees are apples, blackberry and cherry.

We soon found out that the windy site here close to the hills of South Shropshire was not the place for metal arches. We get strong winds swirling around the hill behind our house which often distort, break or blow over our plant covered arches. For years we have carefully repaired them and put them back up with the plants mostly intact. This winter we found our garden was attacked by frequent gale force winds and howling storms so we have given up on the metal arches and are slowly replacing them with much more solid wooden constructions.

We began with the arch nearest the bottom of the garden which by the end of January was leaning at an uncomfortable angle so we had to duck to get through it and parts of it had broken off. This arch was clothed with a rose called Goldfinch, a small yellow early flowering variety which flowers profusely every year without fail but it also grows strongly so has to be pruned extremely hard, so hard you feel cruel doing it! On the other side of the path climbs a purple leaved vine which looks amazing when then the sunlight glows through its foliage. It also flowers and fruits some years producing tiny dark purple grapes which are very bitter – even the birds turn their beaks up at them.

First job was to prune the climbing planting carefully and even more carefully unwind their main stems from the remains of the arch. Then we extricated the arch. It looked a sorry sight lying on our lawn.

Once pruned the rose hung limply without support until we carefully bent it sideways and tied it onto the wooden support for our cordon plums.

We had three arches delivered and luckily they came in pieces as they were so heavy. At least we could unpack them and move them to where they were to be put up one piece at a time.

Once the plants were pruned and tied out of the way we could get on with digging out 12 inch deep trenches to fix the uprights into.

Once the hole was dug out to the correct depth we then spent a while with a metre long spirit level making sure the upright piece was vertical in both planes. We then poured in the post fix concrete mix and left it to dry.

Once the concrete had set we could fit on the top decorative pieces and the job was done. Just the easiest part left – re-tying the climbers back in place. They should now be ready for the spring. Just seven more arches to go!

Tags clematis, climbers, climbing plants, climbing roses, garden arches, garden structures, gardening, roses

birds climbing plants garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening photography Shropshire wildlife

Late Summer Clematis

The Undergardener and I don’t really like the big dinner-plate clematis that flower earlier in the year but we adore the small-flowered, often bell-shaped subtle ones that are stars of the late summer. Every time a tree gets tall enough to support one we plant a new clematis to befriend it, even though every obelisk and arch is already adorned with one. To get double the flowering effect clematis love the company of climbing roses and we pair them up with our apples that we have growing over arches. The apples fruit well and the clematis flower well, and I wonder if this is another case of companion planting in action. Could it be that they benefit each other when grown together?

The flowers manage to attract the harsh summer sunlight giving them the appearance of silk or tissue paper.

They are so amenable too. We treat them as herbaceous perennials and cut them down in the winter. Although they have masses of flowers deadheading is not necessary and instead they can produce wonderful seedheads like whispy white spiders. Many flower more than once a year too.

Wildlife love clematis especially our avian friends. They nest in the jumble of vines which also serve as roosting shelters. Dunnocks nest every year in at least one of our clematis and chaffinches and goldfinches do so occasionally. Goldfinches extract the seeds from the fluffy seedheads in winter, Warblers, Robins and all members of the Titmice family gorge on all the insect life that live in them in the summer and feed on the seeds in winter.

When visiting a garden this August with our fellow Hardy Plant Society enthusiasts we came across the clematis with the tiniest, most delicate flower we had ever seen on a clematis, in the deepest purple hue and to top it all off it had an enticing scent. It was appropriately called Clematis aromatica.