Tag: gardening

Pulmonarias – unsung heroes of the spring garden.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 11, 2013
15 Comments on Pulmonarias – unsung heroes of the spring garden.

Some plants become taken for granted and fail to be fully appreciated. I recently posted about celandines and got lots of favourable comments, so today I shall feature the wonderful pulmonarias with their subtle flowers and unusual foliage.

Here is the classic pulmonaria seen in so many British gardens with flowers in both pink and blue on the same plant and bristled leaves splodged with silver. We grow them in almost every border in our patch but they really prefer a little shade.

The best way to sing the praises of pulmonarias and hopefully encourage a few more gardeners to go out and get some for their own gardens is to put together a little gallery of photos of our plants to show their subtle beauty.

Just click on a photo and follow the journey to see if you are convinced.

Tags foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, gardening, pulmonarias, spring, spring flowers, spring garden

colours flowering bulbs fruit and veg garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening grasses hardy perennials Land Art ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture photography Shropshire shrubs spring bulbs spring gardening wildlife

A Bouquet for April

At last spring has arrived in the garden and taken it by storm. Buds are bursting, birds are nesting and bees buzzing searching the blooms.

Any bouquet for April will have to embrace flowering bulbs.

And how about adding a few bursting buds of trees and shrubs? Our miniature chestnut, the sweetly scented daphne flowers and the froth of snow-white amelanchier flowers.

All around the garden fresh fruit blossom promise beautifully scented and delicious, delicate flavours. The pinks of apple blossom and whites of plums. Oh so tasty!

The insects are appreciating these new signs of life too, in particular the bees and butterflies. This little bee knows that there is something good awaiting him inside the tulip once it opens. He is just a centimetre or so long and coloured a rich gingery orange.

I shall finish off by inviting you to enjoy a little gallery of garden delights taken on the last day of April.

Dusky pink primula hides in arum and stipa leaves.

Copper sculpture with copper leaved phormium.

Kingcups on the dge of the wildlife pond.

Tags amelanchier, apples, foliage, fruit and veg, fruit blossom, fruit., garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, grasses, insects, ornamental trees, outdoor sculpture, sculpture, spring bulbs, spring flowers, spring garden

allotments birds garden wildlife gardening natural pest control succulents Uncategorized wildlife

Growing up! Making a green roof.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date April 29, 2013
10 Comments on Growing up! Making a green roof.

We have created a new feature on our allotment this week – a green roof. We thought we would try to make up for the area of ground taken up by the footprint of our shed by making a garden on its roof. We have spent months at the planning stage, working out how to strengthen the roof, how to make sure we could still collect rain water run-off to fill our butts and choosing plants that would look good and support wildlife. We would like the roof to entice more beneficial insects , pollinators and natural pest controllers to visit our plot. Spiders, beetles, hoverflies will also be welcomed as our little garden helpers and of course we want to attract butterflies too just to delight in watching them.

After strengthening the structure of the shed by building an internal framework of 2 x 2 inch lengths of wood, we added a second layer of roofing felt. Next we fitted the outside frame out of 6 inch deep feather edge and inside this stapled down a double layer of geo-textile membrane. We hope the membrane will allow rainwater to pass through it after permeating through the compost. The rainwater will then be caught in the guttering and can run into the butts.

A structure of 2 x 2 inch lengths of wood was used to divide up the surface.

We next added the first layer of special compost to a depth of about an inch. This is a lightweight compost to which we added perlite to a ratio of 1 to 3 perlite to compost. Chicken wire was then laid over this first layer of compost and then a second one inch layer of our compost/perlite mixture was added. The wire should help hold the compost in place in times of heavy rain and we hope it will also give something for the roots to grow through and grip onto.

Finally the planting. Delicate alpines in some sections and mixed sedum and sempervivum in others. We added a driftwood feature for interest.

What we hope we have created is a little meadow in the air, a miniature garden that takes up no growing space that could otherwise be used for crop production. We will have the added benefit of an increase in insulation, giving us a cooler shed in the summer and a warmer space in the winter.

So now we are keeping our fingers crossed, hoping that we do not have any heavy downpours before the plants get their roots down, and hoping that Blackbirds do not find a way in. They have a habit of uprooting young plants in the hope of finding a tasty morsel.

I shall keep you informed of progress.

Tags allotments, birds, garden wildlife, gardening, organic gardening, roof gardening, roof gardens

colours garden design garden photography gardening ornamental trees and shrubs shrubs

Flowering Quince

At the bottom of our drive alongside the gateposts we grow a beautiful flowering quince. It grows alongside a low wall and its cheery blooms peek through the trellis that sits atop the stonework.

It is a very friendly, bright and cheerful plant to say welcome to visitors.

It flowers often throughout the year but at the moment it looks splendid as the first flush of blooms were killed by ice and snow and remain as mauve mummified blooms alongside vibrant fresh red blooms.

With the sun shining through the blooms the red is even brighter.

The new buds perch along the bare branches like little birds on a twig.

Then the buds extend ready to burst.

So that is the flower that says welcome to our home and garden! There is only one problem with it – it has long vicious spines awaiting the unsuspecting gardener.

Tags flowering quince, flowering shrubs, garden photography, gardening, shrubs

colours garden design garden photography gardening hardy perennials Winter Gardening winter gardens

Celebrating Celandines

Some plants are taken too much for granted and do not get the recognition they deserve. The celandine is just such a plant. Rarely does it find itself in a top ten favourite plant list But when it appears in spring it is a very special plants worthy of celebration. Along our lane sides they shine looking like gold sovereigns glowing in the fresh green of the new year’s grasses.

In our garden alongside the central path sits a bronze leaved selection found by the one and only Christopher Lloyd in a patch of our native celandine in his own garden, Great Dixter. It is called Brazen Hussy and it has the shiniest foliage I have ever seen. It glows so much that taking a photo of it upsets the camera’s metering system and it seems impossible to show the depth of the purple colouring. We love it. We have patches along the water’s edge in our wildlife pond and in the shade border.

We have an orange-flowered variety which has not inherited the family’s ability to spread and in some people’s minds become a nuisance. It keeps us on tenterhooks each spring – we think we have lost it but just as we have given up hope it suddenly springs into rich orange flowers.

Tags foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, gardening, spring flowers, winter gardens

bird watching birds garden photography garden wildlife natural pest control wildlife

Home Search

There seem to be too many members of the titmice family around this year looking for suitable nesting sites. All our nest boxes are occupied and being fought after. This little chap, a young male Great Tit is using his imagination and setting up home in one of our terracotta pots at ground level in the Beth Chatto Border, our gravel garden. He is just a few feet from our study window so is entertaining us as we work on the computer.

His family will provide us with natural pest control in return for our hospitality. Feeding a couple of nests of fledglings will dispose of thousands of aphids and caterpillars.

He is such a star we thought he deserved a little photo gallery all of his own. Just click on any pic.

Tags birds, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, Great Tits, nest boxes, organic gardening, wildlife

colours garden design garden photography gardening hardy perennials spring gardening Winter Gardening

A close-up look at the Hellebores in our garden.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date April 8, 2013
15 Comments on A close-up look at the Hellebores in our garden.

Hellebores never fail to amaze. They flower early and continue in bloom for a long time. They present an unusual range of colours and markings on their petals which can vary in shape. We tend to choose reds and purples, plain and spotted and whites and creams mostly plain.

Let us start by venturing out into the borders armed with flower trug and secateurs, ignoring the chill in the air and nipping off a collection of flowers in a variety of colours.

The individuality of each is best appreciated by displaying them floating in a shallow bowl of water.

Now for a real challenge – looking closely and trying to show their character in water colours. I have chosen the deepest blue-mauve, the yellow-green and the pale yellow with purple streaks.

Tags garden photography, gardening, hellebores, sketch pad, winter gardens

colours flowering bulbs garden photography gardening ornamental trees and shrubs Shropshire spring bulbs spring gardening Winter Gardening winter gardens

A Bouquet for March

Here is this month’s “Bouquet” post. The first photo says it all!

There are in fact two flowers visible – both yellow. Our Cornus mas is still in bloom and the flower buds of daffodils are spearing their way through their white duvet.

Let’s hope our April Bouquet is a bit more impressive!

Tags cornelian cherry, cornus, daffodils, dogwoods, garden photography, gardening, shrubs, snow, winter, winter gardens

colours garden design garden photography gardening gardens open to the public hardy perennials meadows outdoor sculpture photography

Breezy Knees

Enough of this cold, wet, miserable weather! Let’s transport ourselves back to warmer times and brighter days in the wonderful Vale of York.

Breezy Knees. What a great name for a nursery! We came across it in an article written by Roy Lancaster for the RHS members’ magazine, “The Garden” and he highly recommended it. So when travelling around the Vale of York and finding ourselves close to it we just had to go and have a peruse. It also has a garden to wander around attached to it, which highlighted many of the unusual herbaceous perennials it sold.

How about this for a bench?

The nursery is less than ten years old and created on open farmland, very open hence its quirky name. We arrived at the end of a period of rain and the day before had seen the nursery’s show gardens closed as much of it was flooded. From the nursery to the gardens entails a ten minute walk between fields and we soon discovered the relevance of its name.

The garden is a collection of small garden rooms displaying different types of garden styles and conditions, from an annual meadow to a rose garden and from raised beds to double borders. The most unusual is the “Rogues Gallery” where garden thugs live together and warn us of their behaviour.

We began our exploration of Breezy Knees with a wander along an enticing path cut through the Spring Meadow, and then moved on through the show gardens discovering some beautiful plants along the way.

If you are up that way, make sure you drop in to Breezy Knees. It will be worth it.

A sense of humour always adds an extra element to any garden. Breezy Knees certainly had plenty to offer. As well as their long bench we were delighted to come across this pair of wonder wellies! Jude the Undergardener looks as if she is checking to see if they are her size!

Tags foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, gardening, meadows, outdoor sculpture, sculpture, Vale of York, Yorkshire

gardening

Fence Repairs

The fence that runs along the bottom of our garden needs replacing. The winter wet and cold has rotted many parts of it.We always regard this part of our boundary as important because it includes the gate which gives us access to the wider countryside and so are eager to keep it in good repair.

It took a day to take the old fence down and replace a few rotten posts.

Then a visit to the local woodland timber yard resulted in a delivery truck dumping a pile of fence panels and a new gate. The garden smelled of freshly cut wood.

A second day saw us fixing up new fence panels and a new gate complete with replacement hinges and catch. We thought it looked mighty good when we finished!