Tag: gardening

A month late publishing this visit to my garden journal, but I have only just realised that I have not published it. It is in fact almost time to share my December post about our garden.

We expect the garden to show many changes during November because it starts off feeling very autumnal but by the end it gets much more wintry. But of course the way in which our climate is changing it is impossible to predict anythingto do with our weather.

On my first page of November notes I began by saying, “It is now November and the days are getting shorter and overall darker. Nevertheless we find time to work in the garden.”

“We finished bubble wrapping the greenhouse, tidied the ‘Winter Garden’ and planted up a small rectangular border by the new shed.”

“The new shed is now finished apart from fitting out the potting shed end and glazing its window. The water butt also needs connecting to the guttering and down pipes. We added dozens of bulbs to some of our borders. A great way of looking forward!”

Over onto the next page I looked at the ‘Shade Garden’ and noted that, “I rarely feature the ‘Shade Garden’ in my journal but it really looks wonderful at this time of year and onwards into winter. Our ferns add so much to this space with so many different foliage shapes and textures. The climbers on the wooden fence, ivies, clematis, honeysuckle and Hydrangea petiolaris remain full of interest.’

The photos below show some of the many plants in the ‘Shade Garden’ and a few shrubs which grow just as the ‘Shade Garden’ melds into the ‘Rill Garden’.

The ‘Shade Garden’ plants continue onto the page opposite. I noted that, “Blue ceramic meconopsis contrast beautifully with the autumnal yellow foliage of the climbing hydrangea. These ceramic meconopsis poppies were made by artist Anna Whitehouse. Clematis look so good at the end of their season and honeysuckle give colour in their berries and flowers.”

We move on now to look at grasses that we grow. “Grasses are one of my favourite plant families and they are such an important element in our November garden. Their foliage take on gentle colours from bone white to oranges and golds. They provide so much colour, form and texture as well as being important to wildlife. They become shelter for insects and invertebrates. Larvae survive the winter by hiding in the base of grasses. Birds also feed off the seed heads in particular goldfinches.”

In the autumn every patch of colour becomes important, so on the next page I wrote, “Everywhere I look in the garden in mid-November I can appreciate little patches of colour mostly from foliage but an occasional flower adds to each scene. Earlier the whole garden featured bright autumn foliage colours, but a recent storm, Storm Claudia roared through our patch removing most leaves which had given us colour. So now we have tree silhouettes with a few scattered leaves.”

The photos on this page were mostly taken in the Rill Garden.

My final page for November considers our garden wildlife. I noted that, “Wildlife goes quiet at this time of year apart from the wintry, watery song of the robins. Now both males and females have their own territories so sing to let others know. We see wrens about a lot now as they move silently from plant to plant in search of insects. Buzzards and red kites are seen regularly, with a group of five kite seen low flying over the fields of the organic farmer as they feed their land. They are joined by gulls which regularly fly overhead now. Bumble Bees and wasps still feed on warmer days, attracted to various different mahonias which are flowering well at this time of year. We are surprised to see caterpillars out and about while we work in the borders. We regularly spot voles and shrews scurrying between cover.”

“As we clear fallen leaves off lawns and off plants in borders we make leaf piles up against our fences and in densely planted borders to provide safe winter hibernation spaces for our hedgehogs”

So that is it for my journal entries for November. But there are a few words to add, “At the end of the month we found a hedgehog’s hibernaculum beneath our log pile close to our front door.”

September arrived with sun and clear skies, a continuation from August but it soon changed to allow more rain and cooler temperatures to take over with odd interludes when the sun returned. Strong winds have been a feature too with gale force at times. For my first page I noted that,“September has sneaked in. The first few days of the month have carried on in exactly the same way as August, hot and dry.

The Met Office tell us that we have entered a new season. Summer has given way to Autumn, but in reality there is no change. I think that September should be tagged onto Summer.”

I then shared photos of colourful plants in our garden.

On the opposite page I looked at just a few of the gardening jobs we have been working on this month. I wrote that, “Some days during August the days were too hot were too hot to do garden tasks, so now that it was slightly less hot we took the opportunity of getting on with the monthly tasks we had on our list.”

Now is the time to cut the mixed hedge – no birds nesting! We planted three astrantias below Cornus mas.

We changed the seasonal plants in our three welcome boxes, using Hebe tricolor, Dianthus ‘Red’, Ceanothus ‘Skylark’, Cotoneaster ‘Coral Beauty’ and Physocarpus ‘Diablo’. When we change the planting scheme next time the shrubs will be planted into the garden.

Turning over to the next page we find photos about roses in all their stages from buds to full blooms to mature hips.I wrote that,“September is a good month for roses as many are still flowering so buds and flowers are seen together with hips forming on some.”

Rosa ‘Summer Wine’ from buds to hips.

Rosa ‘Blush Noissette – bud, bloom, and dying bloom all together.

Bobby James, a rambler, produces plenty of hips.The second photo shows the hips in mottled light.

Rosa glauca covered in hips. Our largest hips.

Carrying on from roses my next page continued to be concerned with colour in the borders. Here I wrote, “Apart from the roses there are plenty more surprises to catch the eye. As days alternate between blue sky sunny days and dark wet days these plants look good whatever.”

Hardy begonia, tulbaghia and sedum.

Dahlia, sedum and echinacea.

Helenium, rudbeckia, achillea and patrinia.

More colourful perennials star on the following page where I noted that,“One of the shining stars of our borders this month is the Aster family. There are so many available and we grow quite a few. I still use the name Aster as I am not sure about all the name changes imposed onto gardeners by the DNA botanists. They show no respect for gardens, plant hunters and us gardeners.”

Wildlife in our garden features on the opposite page from our asters. I noted that, “As the month moves on temperatures slowly drop and are now in the mid to upper teens, which means that the number of insects, spiders, bees and butterflies reduces too. This Large White came into the house allowing us to see its beautiful markings. Small blue butterflies have been showing more than we can ever remember before. Ladybird numbers have remained high all month keeping us free of aphids. Frogs join us in the borders as we work but retreat to the closest pond when we disturb them.”

Garden Spiders come in such beautiful colours. They construct amazing webs.

It is good to get such close up looks at a wasp. Colours and markings are beautiful and they have such beautiful yellow legs.

Turning over the page and we see another of my 30 second sketches, this time the subject is one of our hardy begonias.

On the opposite pageI looked once again at plants providing colour for us and I wrote, “There are still plenty of plants flowering away strongly this month giving us colourful patches particularly the perennials. But there are still a few climbers, shrubs, and trees performing too.”

On the next double page spread I firstly share a watercolour sketch of Solidago rugosa “Fireworks”.

The final page shows us working away on seasonal tasks in our garden. I commented that, “Extremes of weather, dry, wet, windy whatever happens work in the garden goes on. We tidied up our Shrub Border, planted three different astrantias beneath our Cornus mas and the shed building moves on.”

That is my journal for September. It is anyone’s guess what weather will be thrown at gardeners next month!

The first garden visit this year with the Hardy Plant Society Shropshire Group was to north Shropshire to a town called Wem. The garden was called Sunningdale and we were really looking forward to seeing the garden once again. We have visited twice before but the last time was about ten years ago so we were looking forward to discovering what changes had been made. The first development being this original sign on the brick wall which was angled into the garden entrance.

We met the owner, Sue, just inside the front gate to the garden. She welcomed us and suggested we start our tour to the left and around to the back of the house. Along this narrow pathway there was much to draw the eye, the reddest of roses, a multicoloured succulent and containers of magnificent hostas.

The passageway alongside the house led us to a newly redeveloped area with a strong Japanese theme. A long shelter painted in black housed interesting seats and artefacts and gave views over the gravel area with the expected plants especially acers and miniature conifers.

The twisting conifer below had such soft needles and green cones at the top of each branch.

From there we could see colourful irises, lupins, and a yellow flowered jasmine all worth a closer look.

Throughout the garden after passing through the pergola there were so many points of interest from oversized hanging conkers to a ceramic frog and plants that drew our attention.

We wandered along a straight path along the one border of the garden to discover what extra horticultural treats we had in store. We began with a closer study of a lilac with oversized flower heads.

I will finish now with a photo of a beautiful hardy fuchsia in all its floral glory.

We returned to wander around the show gardens at Bridgemere Garden Centre towards the end of August. Our visit came after weeks of drought and very high temperatures so we wondered how the gardens had faired.

As usual we started our wanderings at the ‘Cottage Garden’ to see what was happening.

Dahlias were performing so strongly alongside an apple tree laden with colourful blushed fruit.

On the opposite side of the wide pathway that leads us towards the pond and onwards, shrubs were showing the effects of the drought.

The border beneath a dying prunus tree was looking as if we haven’t had a drought for months and looked so good. At this time of year as spring bulbs have disappeared and pulmonaria have ceased flowering, this garden has become a beautiful foliage space, featuring hostas, pulmonaria and ferns. On the opposite side of the gravel path a single spotted flower attracted us both, a tricyrtis or Toad Lily plant.

Once again we noticed plants nearby that were suffering from the drought conditions. A hemerocallis had drooped and yellowed whereas the nearby clump of eupatorium and the large acer behind it both looked healthy in spite of the recent weather.

The pond was our next port of call which was suffering from an attack of duck weed and drooping Gunnera manicata leaves.

Tree fern fronds have dried up and in some cases dropped off the hard stems/trunks. Water iris have turned a pale shade of brown but are sporting healthy seed pods.

We left the pond behind and made our way towards the Winter Garden and the RHS Chelsea 2025 Peoples’ Choice award winning garden looking out for sufferers and survivors of the drought. It was interesting to see how the many plants here have faired and comparing them with our garden at home. Both autumn crocus and Rudbeckia ‘Lemon Queen’ have faired well and were covered in blooms.

Hydrangea generally have been mixed in their response to the dry, but with this H. aspera ‘Anthony Bullivant’ which looked dead from a distance but close up there were signs of new growth. There is still hope for our gardens!?

In the Winter Garden things looked mixed with dried up plants alongside healthy specimens. The acers looked good and healthy but other plants look as if autumn had already arrived and the betula had completely lost its leaves.

We noticed that throughout all the gardens some perennials were looking so good as if they were ignoring the dry.

We called in at the Anne Marie Powell award winning garden and immediately stopped to look at these pea-like flowers and unusual looking colourful pods. We couldn’t remember its name so were so pleased to find a label – it was Collutea medea Copper Beauty. The thing that we liked the most in this garden this month was the variety of healthy looking foliage.

Overall we were interested in seeing how the garden has dealt with the drought.

Here we are back at Plas Cadnant, The Hidden Garden of Anglesey where in Part One I covered the walk down from the Welcome Buildings through the double borders and the slow descent down the Ravine. I was looking forward to the collection of unusual ferns and walking down to the mountain stream. Here in the Lower Valley the first feature we reached was the Reflecting Pool with interesting plants all around the area.

The photos below are of a large and very healthy specimen of Podophyllum ‘Spotted Dotty’ and the Reflecting Pool with a row of Dalmera peltata lined up on its edge.

Primulas and Oxalis add gentle spots of colour among all the restful greens here including lots of unusual ferns and some native flowering plants such as bluebells and red campion.

The long upward gradient awaited us as we rested by the stream, but we still had plenty to look forward to on the journey, the Upper Valley Garden, Ann’s Seat and Valley View, Mrs Fanning Evan’s Secret Garden and the long Raised Border.

The slope up was quite steep to start with as the path meandered its way uphill. It was a good job that there were a few seats to use for short rests on our way. This wooden bench was surrounded by our native woodland bulb bluebells, which were not only good to look at with their stunning shade of blue with hints of pink and purple, but they also had such a rich sweet scent from the flowers.

Soon we reached the level where flowering woodland shrubs, mainly rhododendrons and azaleas, provided much colour. Narrower footpaths meandered through the shrubs which afforded us beautiful close up views of the flowers and also a chance to enjoy the rich aromas. The brightness of the flowers could have been a bit overpowering but the rich foliage of small trees such as acers added some respite and a beauty of their own.

The massive foliage of the Gunnera, often called giant rhubarb, looked so good alongside the smaller but much glossier leaves of rhododendrons and laurels and the excessively cut fronds of ferns including tree ferns. It all had a tropical atmosphere but with the calls and songs of native birds.

As the gravel paths among the brightly coloured pinks and reds of the rhodos and azaleas gave way to more open woodland plantings, with paler more subtle colours of yet more ferns and trees.

When we reached the stone wall that ran across the garden the path led us through an archway into the next section of garden. As we passed through the entrance we stopped to admire a very smart pyramidal piece of topiary. but first we just had to admire this very high backed bench. Of course Jude had to try it out for size and we took the advantage of a rest and to peruse the garden map to see where else we had to go.

We were looking forward to exploring the ‘Secret Garden’ of Mrs Fanning Evans, which was just the other side of the beautiful stone wall.

Mrs Fanning Evans was the last gardener at Plas Cadnant before it was abandoned until its rescue and restoration. This patch of garden is the only remaining feature of the original 1940’s planting. The remaining plants are a Magnolia x soulangiana, Eucryphia ‘Nymansay’ and Buddleia alternifolia and they certainly have survived well but are showing their age.

Nearby looking across across an area of grass, we spotted a large rectangular pool with a white seat overlooking it. This was too tempting so we walked across the grass to get a closer look. We couldn’t work out what the deep pink flowering plants were around its margins. They were bergenias, very floriferous ones.

We had virtually completed our tour of this superb garden, having just the raised border to enjoy before we found ourselves back at the cafe and just had time for a quick cup of coffee before it closed and we then made our way back to the hotel.