Tag: gardening

The Garden’s got its hat on, hip hip hip hooray ……

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 21, 2013
18 Comments on The Garden’s got its hat on, hip hip hip hooray ……

The garden has its hat on – a hat of snow.

Plants are sporting their new white headgear.

All sculptures and ornaments are wearing their ermine hats and coats.

The insects are warm in their homes, hopefully hibernating safely, but we will not know until the spring. Each night the little Jenny Wrens queue up to roost in their wicker basket.

Tags birds, garden photography, garden sculpture, garden wildlife, gardening, insects, organic gardening, outdoor sculpture, sculpture, winter, winter gardens

colours conservation garden design garden photography gardening ornamental trees and shrubs shrubs winter gardens

Colourful Stems

In the first few months of each new year the garden treats us to a colourful show of bright and varied coloured stems of shrubs. The most colourful are the dogwoods and willows of which we grow several specially chosen for their coloured stems. They glow in any bright days at this time of year.

This selection of stems cut from our garden include dogwood, Kerria, willow, bamboo and Winter Jasmine.

The first pair of photos shows Cornus, the first is “Midwinter Fire” which we grow alongside our summerhouse just where it gets backlit by the winter sun, the second is “Cardinal” of which we have several specimens around the garden as they look good in any light.

Below is neither a dogwood or willow but an extremely red stemmed Acer called “Sango Kaku”, which we have planted alongside Cornus “Midwinter Fire”. We look forward to seeing them grow together.

The Cardinals in our front garden grow in front of our White-stemmed Birch, Betula utilis “Silver Queen”.

We keep adding shrubs with coloured stems and yesterday I took these cuttings below off gardening friend Pete’s fiery willow.

Sometimes the coloured stems are made even more special with the addition of flowers. The willow below with its black stems glow with the emergence of its white flowers at this time of year.

I shall finish with the photo of a bunch of stems cut from our bamboos.

Tags coloured stems, cornus, dogwoods, garden photography, gardening, salix, shrubs, willows, winter, winter gardens

garden photography gardening photography winter gardens

Melting Frost

We awake each morning this week to frost which gives way to mist. As the day light increases, the drops of melted frost hang from plants like miniatures lanterns.

Please click on the first image in the gallery below and click the right arrow. The technical details are with each photograph.

Tags frost, garden photography, gardening, melting frost, winter, winter gardens

gardening

Oops!!

What a loud noise a tine makes when it snaps off your fork! Yesterday I dug up the root of an old Rubus – it was tougher than I thought and certainly tougher than my fork wanted it to be.

Tags broken fork, garden fork, gardening

garden design garden photography gardening outdoor sculpture winter gardens

The Frosted Garden – Part Two

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 7, 2013
12 Comments on The Frosted Garden – Part Two

Artefacts, ornaments, sculpture and collected objects all come to life with a coating of frost. When the garden takes on its bare look of winter these items gain extra significance . Some are completely hidden during the growing months and we can appreciate them anew as leaves fall and greenery dies down.

In “The Stumpery” in our front garden, which could well be the world’s smallest stumpery featuring only one stump, a rusted iron sculpture based on ferns is given new life when rimmed with frost.

In “The Beth Chatto Border” our sundial and terracotta oil jars are given extra texture detail with a cold white coating.

Lanterns hang throughout the garden some from arches and some on their own stands like shepherds’ crooks.

Chicken sculptures abound as you might expect!

And finally a look at a piece made in hammered sheet copper by our daughter, Jo. The frost hides its shine, intensifies its texture and calms its colours.

Tags garden photography, garden sculpture, gardening, winter, winter gardens

garden design garden photography gardening grasses ornamental grasses photography Wildlife Trusts

The Frosted Garden – Part One

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 5, 2013
8 Comments on The Frosted Garden – Part One

As a gardener I dislike the frost because it prevents me getting any tasks done but I love the way frost adds completely new character to the plants. The simplest bare stem or branch can come to life when the low sun catches a rim of frost.

As a photographer I dislike the frost as it makes my fingers hurt with cold deep down into the joints but I love the way light and frost adds a magical element not present at any other time. I find my fingerless thermal gloves a great help.

Grasses, when frosted create line drawings. My eye and camera lens are drawn to them on every frosty day.

Looking out into the garden on bright frosted days, the low morning light creates special moments as it catches the seed heads of perennials.

In our frosted garden artefacts, ornaments and objects take on a new life. The copper obelisk looks black against the whiteness and it sports a delicate white coating. My next post will be about others.

Tags foliage, foliage plants, frost, garden photography, gardening, grasses, winter, winter gardens

allotments fruit and veg gardening grow your own

Big Parsnips etc.

We are never very good at growing parsnips, but we have been getting better in recent years. With our allotment getting flooded six times this year we were not hopeful of success with our root crops. When the seedling carrots, beetroots and parsnips were just a centimetre or so tall and very delicate they found themselves underwater. When the water drained away the little seedlings just shrugged the experience off and carried on growing. The season carried on with the crops periodically under water. Imagine our surprise when we began harvesting healthy young roots of carrot and beetroot. Once frost had sweetened the parsnips and celeriac we began harvesting them too. By Christmas they were most impressive! I included my secateurs in the pictures to give an idea of scale.

We haven’t used excessive amounts of fertiliser to get them to this size just simple organic gardening techniques. Lots of manure dug into the ground, deep mulches of garden compost and feeding with comfrey feed made from our own comfrey plants. Not root crops these but they did delight and surprise us with their size and flavour. Elephant Garlic is not garlic at all but more closely related to leeks. We eat them roasted when they taste of sweet, delicate garlic.

Now we definitely have something to live up to next year. Perhaps the weather will be nearer normal next year and we might even avoid the floods. Mind you of course, the crops above might have excelled because of the floods rather than in spite of them.

Tags allotments, carrots, celeriac, elephant garlic, fruit and veg, fruit and vegetable growing, gardening, garlic, grown your own, harvest, organic gardening, parsnips, root crops

garden photography garden wildlife gardening grasses hardy perennials ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs photography

Looking back at 12 months of garden wanderings.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 31, 2012
6 Comments on Looking back at 12 months of garden wanderings.

As 2012 ends and 2013 begins it seems appropriate to look back at the twelve posts I made based on monthly wanders around our garden. So please enjoy my selection of 12 shots. Just click on a photo to see a larger image and slide show.

Hope 2012 has been kind to you. Wishing you all a Happy, Healthy and Peaceful New Year.

Tags garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, grasses

allotments fruit and veg gardening grow your own

Old Garden Tools

I just love old garden tools. I like using them and I like collecting them. They feel good in the hand, smooth and worn and I know I am holding a piece of gardening history. Every tool has a story to tell, a story I shall never know. But you can always imagine!

When you find old tools in antique centres, on market stalls or at garden or smallholder shows they seem dry and dull and lifeless. It is when I do them up that I feel in touch with the old gardeners who have used them for decades.

I have been amazed to find that for almost every old tool there is a modern equivalent and that today’s versions are often virtually identical. I enjoy trying out tools from my collection and find them just as easy to use. So it seems there are no new ideas in garden implements just new versions of the oldies.

The garden line below was used by Jude, The Undergardener’s Grandfather back in the early years of the twentieth century when he worked a market garden. We use it all the time on our allotment as it is far superior to any available today. It is a design that just could not be improved upon.

On a recent lottie visit we had hoeing and raking to do so I decided to take up my old triangular headed hoe and my “crome”. They worked really well, the sharp tines of the crome breaking down the soil to a fine tilth and with the hoe we could manouvre between winter onions and leeks a treat.

I enjoy trying out these oldies from my collection and I find them easy to use and often more comfortable than their new cousins. Perhaps it is the materials they are crafted from, the hardwood handles honed from local trees and the iron blades and tines. Today’s plastics and stainless steel give less and feel harder and colder. Of course the main difference is that old tools were individually made by craftsmen.

The art of repairing them and bringing them back to life is moat satisfying. I clean up the metal to prevent them getting any rustier and treat the wooden bits to a few coats of linseed oil well rubbed in. The smell brought back memories of my cricketing youth when I used to treat my bat handle in the same way.

Below is one of my pieces in need of some tender loving care, its handle dry and its blade rusted.

And here he is all spick and span!

This batch has been rust-treated, linseeded and given the first of two coats of satin finish varnish.

And here they all are in all their glory, decorating the back wall of our garage.

These two little hand tools are weeders better known as “daisy grubbers”. They seem so well designed with sharp forked tongues, a fulcrum point and beautifully shaped wooden handles, hand turned by a craftsman.

Tags allotments, fruit and vegetable growing, garden tools, gardening

garden photography gardening photography roses winter gardens

Happy Winter Solstice – A Bouquet of Frosted Roses

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 21, 2012
5 Comments on Happy Winter Solstice – A Bouquet of Frosted Roses

Today is the Winter Solstice! A day to celebrate! From tomorrow each day will get a little longer, giving a bonus of extra light. So here is a present of a bouquet of frosted roses.

We delight in every rose bud that appears in the winter months and celebrate each and every one that opens out to present us with a bloom. When iced with a crystal layer of white frost they look even better.

I suppose I shall have to prune them down by half to stop the wind rocking the roots loose before too long, and then it will be a long wait until next May to appreciate these delicious blooms once again.