Tag: gardening

The recycled veggie box

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 17, 2011

How about this for a nifty bit of recycling! A simple transformation from veggie box to coffee table for the garden. We were in search of something unusual to use in a newly created section of our garden so searched the web for wine boxes and came across this veg storage box.

The box was used by J &JH Goodley, fruit and veg growers from Upwell near Wisbech in Lincolnshire and is dated 1970. There is a red inked stamp on the side indicating that it was manufactured by W Groom Ltd, Boxmakers of Spalding also in Lincolnshire.

The box has a red ink note stamped onto its side indicating an 8 shillings deposit. This was a brilliant way to encourage re-use of packaging which seems to have faded away. Could it be a good time to re-introduce the idea?

Tags gardening, recycling. veg box

gardening trees

Monkey Puzzle

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 12, 2011

I am a real tree lover. I enjoy them in every season – their fresh spring growth, their luxuriance in summer, the colours of autumn and the structure of their skeletons in winter. There are not many trees I really dislike but the one I most definitely do dislike is the monkey Puzzle Tree. They are just too rigid and characterless for me. This one however I did like -it was dead! I couldn’t resist photographing it to send to my brother who loves them!

Tags gardening, ornamental trees

gardening

stripes and spikes

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 10, 2011

Galictites tomentosa! What a name! But just look at the beauty and presence it brings to our gravel garden! The grey and silver foliage arranged in dramatic star-bursts.

The seed heads sit through the autumn and most of the winter providing interest for us particularly on frosty days and food for the goldfinches who sit atop the stalks and pull the seeds out. Luckily some are left to drop in readiness for warmer spring weather when they germinate in the gravel to give us next year’s plants. We can enjoy feasting our eyes on their fresh new foliage, summer flowers and statuesque stalks topped off with fluffy seedheads. But there has to be a drawback – weeding out the excess seedlings is a painful business as the spikes on the end of each leaf spike can give the unwary gardener a prickly shock. They need a warning – handle with care!

Tags foliage plants, gardening

gardening ornamental trees and shrubs trees

Super Pods

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 28, 2011

These two deep pinkish-red seed pods come from very different trees, the first is from our Judas Tree (Cercis) at home. They form after the pink flowers which appear early in the summer, bursting straight out from the bark, which is a unique habit as far as I know. (But I feel sure someone will know of others!)

The second we found under a Magnolia. Where the Judas seedpod was thin and partly see-through almost like a Mange Tout Pea, the Magnolia pod was rounded and almost waxy in texture. When they are ready to expell their seeds they dry up slightly, fissures open like dry lips and the bright orange seed is exposed.

We have now put the magnolia seeds to stratify in damp sand in the fridge for 2 or 3 months and then we shall sow them. And then wait a very long time!

Tags cercis, gardening, judas tree, magnolia, tree seeds

gardening hardy perennials

Bodnant’s Hot Border

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 25, 2011

We recently visited the National Trust’s Bodnant Garden in North Wales, a garden we had not seen for five years or more and we had heard that the new Head Gardener had made many changes for the better. We were blown away by their new hot border which is one of the first areas of the garden you encounter. On the opposite side of the gravel pathway is a border of very different mood and character. A gentle mix of Verbena bonariensis and Verbascum chaixii with highlights of Dahlia “Bishop of Llandaf” creates an atmosphere like a gentle summer’s day Their new Head Gardener has certainly made huge steps forward and the garden looks the best we can ever remember it being.

Tags Bodnant, gardening, hot borders, National Trust

garden photography gardening hardy perennials

Colours without names

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 23, 2011

Wandering around the garden this morning after feeding the chucks, I was struck by the similarity in colour of three different flowers but what colour are they? There are so many colours in the garden that are difficult to put a label to. These three blooms are salmony, yellowy, pinkish I suppose but whatever they end up looking so subtle and gently beautiful. They are also the colours of some smoothies or yoghurts.

Tags gardening

gardening

Hagley Hybrid? Part Two

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 22, 2011

Well, things may be a little clearer as to the identity of the wrongly sold Hagley Hybrid clematis. My friend Geoff, a gardener by profession, suggested it might be Princess Diana, so here is a photo of our clematis bought as Princess Diana (on the left) and the clematis bought as Hagley Hybrid (on the right). If Geoffs assumption is correct , then what is the other which we thought was Princess Diana?

Tags clematis, gardening

fruit and veg

Purple Plum Profusion

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 20, 2011

We have just harvested the plums from one of our row of cordons- lovely rich purple plums. We filled the trug after picking over 10lb of fruit – not bad for one cordon.

Our two metal chickens admire our harvest. The real ones would be eating them with relish.

Tags allotments, fruit., gardening, grown your own, harvest, plums

climbing plants gardening

Hagley Hybrid?

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 19, 2011

We bought a clematis a few years ago labelled as Hagley Hybrid. Once it started flowering we were unsure whether it actually was this variety. But nevertheless it is a stunning climber which rambles happily over the trellis in our Rill Garden and always makes its way towards the top pool and on its way makes a diversion to clamber over a standard holly. Its deep pink-red blooms contrast beautifully with the deep green glossy leaves of the holly.

The red spidery flowers of Clematis "Hagley Hybrid".

Tags clematis, gardening

fruit and veg gardening grow your own

Apple Arch

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 19, 2011

We have trained a Scrumptious apple tree over an archway over the path to the greenhouse. Starting with a one year maiden whip we trained it over the arch pruning it as a cordon and within three years we were harvesting heavy crops. The only problem we encountered was when the main trunk was snapped off in heavy winds when it was heavily laden with fruit. But we learnt our lesson and from then on always tie it in as it grows with much stronger fixings.

In the photo the redness of these delicious and attractive apples looks great behind the yellow saucer shaped flowerheads of the fennel and the metallic blue globes of the echinops.