Clumber Park, a National Trust property in Nottinghamshire, is famous for its walled garden and we recently spent a few hours wandering around enjoying the productive beds, orchards and herbaceous borders, but the highlight has to be the huge renovated Victorian greenhouse. We were enthralled by the details. Enjoy sharing them with us.
Why is it that however much effort we put into planning colour combinations of flowering plants in our garden, Mother Nature comes along and shows us how to do it properly and to show she is the boss.
We bought a beautiful new Sea Thrift with deep cerise flowers and contrasting purple foliage a few days ago and without thinking placed it next to a Bergenia. Walking past today I noticed that the flowers matched perfectly. Just check this out!
May is a busy month on the allotment, seeds need sowing, seedlings need thinning, weeds need hoeing and early crops reward us with early harvests. And of course our grass paths separating the four areas of the plot need regular mowing.
The wildlife all around is equally busy, seriously going about the business of breeding with all its inherited trials and tribulations. The weather, predators, prey availability and the search for food for both adults and nests full their young all contrive to make their lives difficult.
We shall begin our May lottie wander on our own plot to see what is going on. The soil is now easily worked so using the hoe to remove seedlings is easy so the plot is looking tidy.
Whenever we are working our plot or helping maintain the green spaces around the site, we are entertained by birds of prey, Buzzards and Kestrels soaring or hovering over our heads and around our feet Robins, Blackbirds, Blue and Great Tits, and Song Thrushes search for food for their young hoping we disturb grubs and bugs with our digging, raking and hoeing. More secretive in their search for fodder for young are the Black Caps, Woodpeckers and Nuthatches. Overhead the hirondelles, (Swallows, Swifts and House Martins), having recently returned from their winter haunts greedily scoop up insects on the wing.Although the weather has been warm and dry for a few days now the end of our plot where the clay comes nearest the surface and the topsoil is very thin, water still saturates the land, making working it impossible. But in this wetness in the ridged soil our Red Duke of York potatoes are pushing their purple tinted foliage out towards the sunshine.
In the orchards and over the meadows wildflowers are blooming alongside naturalised ornamental bulbs, attracting butterflies, the crinkle winged Commas, the Orange Tips with orange tips to their wings and the wonderful ethereal Holly Blues.
The Buddleia Borders are coming to life now and the Spring Garden remains very colourful.
Two plot holders, Phil and Doreen, have created a new bed in a shaded area near their plot and made it accessible for all to enjoy.
Most plots are ready for sowing and planting or partly planted up and sown.
Our May Working Party jobs were decided upon by where the shade was, as it was too hot to work in the full sunshine. We managed to get most of our tasks completed though.
Our Willow Dome has had its doorway and windows woven and neatened up and the sides pruned and woven. It is a favourite feature with children as somewhere to listen to a story, or as a play den, and as adults for somewhere to escape to at coffee time from the heat of the day.
As we have recently launched our site’s Wise Watering Campaign it is heartening to see guttering and butts appearing on several sheds.
Since our allotment site opened three years ago, many allotmenteers have put plaques on their sheds and signs have appeared in all sorts of places. Words of wisdom and humour!
Let’s take a wander and see what we can find.
Two youngsters, Ethan and Elliot, seem to have forgotten their Mum, Mandy, when they made their sign. Mandy’s plant labels are so attractive and original.
It is already into the fourth month of the year and so this is the fourth in this monthly series of garden wandering posts. So much happens in April, so many plants start into growth, so many seeds are sown and the weather changes so often. Frost, hail, sun, mild, cold, windy, calm – everything comes randomly and we gardeners get caught out inappropriately clothed. Wildlife is equally confused, with bees, hoverflies, butterflies and wasps appearing on warmer days and disappearing as soon as it cools down again.
Some spring bulbs are going over while others are in full swing, some tree blossoms are going over while others are just coming into flower. There is so much to do in the garden, productive or ornamental, and it feels good to be out there doing it.
As soon as April arrives we know the garden will look and feel differently every day. Come around our garden with me and my camera and see what is going on.
The front garden glows in the afternoon sunshine, with every shade of green in new herbaceous growth splattered with the many colours of bulbs.
The Shade Garden is soon to reach its peak time, with its fresh leafy growth and the tiny, pale jewels of flowers. Pulmonarias, Dicentras, Anemones, Arums and Corydalis are all budding up and beginning to flower while the ferns are hardly showing any signs of awakening.
On the gravel patch, which we call our “Chatto Garden”, new foliage is bursting through. Irises, Euphorbias are starting into healthy growth. The large terra-cotta pot of bulbs is bubbling over with the blue of Muscari and a sprinkling of tiny mauve species Tulips.
Trees and shrubs are a little later coming to life in the spring, the miniature Chestnut’ sticky buds are only just bursting while the Amelanchier lamarckii and Spiraea “The Bride” are in their full white ball gowns.
In the side garden by our main entrance the two potted apple trees are in full flower, with blossoms of many shades of pink, promising lots of juicy fruit to enjoy. We have added a second House Sparrow nesting box giving six nest holes altogether and hopefully a little less noisy bickering. The new box is apartment living as opposed to the terraced original. Right by our doorstep is a pot of violas in an unusual colour combination of blue and brown. In front of the garage door our replanted alpine troughs are beginning to come to life.
Wandering into the back garden it is hard to know where to point the lens first as so much is happening. The fruit trees are in blossom, tulips add their jewel colours in every border and new leaves are appearing on most shrubs and perennials.
The garden is full of sound, scents and movement. In the pools Pond Skaters perform their dances on the surface and tadpoles wriggle in black masses in the shallow pebble bay. Around each flowering shrub bees and hoverflies flit and buzz. In nearby fields Skylarks sing their “high in the sky” songs and the haunting call of Curlews reach us from the damp land alongside the nearby fishery. But the strangest sound of all is the regular sound of Tawny Owls calling to each other – have they lost their biological clocks? The calling starts mid-afternoon on most days.
Scent is provided by Viburnum, Mahonias, Wallflowers, Flowering Currants, Hyancinths, Daffodils and the last of the flowers on the Daphnes. Herby scents come with the new fresh greens of the mints, thymes, marjorams and fennel.
In the Secret Garden it is the tulips that take centre stage, in so many colours and shapes.
Some of the most impressive new foliage is to be found on our acers, growing under the trees we grow as a wind break, acid green, lemon yellow, flaming orange and salmon.
We have eventually relented and cut down the last of our many grasses. We leave them as late as possible and often leave some too late and end up cutting new growth coming up within the old. This Miscanthus napalensis was left until last, understandably.
Just to show how fickle the month of April can be, the day after I took the photos for this blog we woke to three inches of snow and large flakes continued to fall all morning. Many tulips and daffodils were flattened and our clump of Black Bamboo was pinned to the ground by the sheer weight of snow.
I shall finish with two shots – one before the snow and one after. This lovely old oak tree root is our miniature stumpery – all we have room for!
When walking in woodland it is remarkable how often we find wonderfully shaped pieces of wood, sculpted by mother nature herself. On a recent wander around a local Shropshire Wildlife Trust wood we found enough such pieces to create the following gallery.
The weather turned colder today, back to more normal temperatures for the time of year. Last week on some days we enjoyed 20 degrees celsius but it has dropped back to 9, and it felt cold. But we had planned to take a walk at Attingham Park, the weather failed to stop us. Walking through the woods towards the walled garden we were delighted to see splashes of colour from Primroses, Celandines, Rhodendrons and the first leaves of Horse Chestnut trees.
Occasionally a piece of sculpture surprised and entertained us. This piece hanging above us from the branches of a tree, enticed us to look up into its structure, where it captured our images in its circular mirrors. With me are son, Jamie and his girlfriend Sam.
The walled garden changes with the seasons but also as the gardeners and volunteers develop it. The big change which we were delighted to see as we passed through the gate into the protected growing area inside the walls – the pigs had returned.
Each time a new area of the old walled garden is due for re-development, pigs move in to prepare the planting areas. They clear the weeds, turn over the soil and add manure to improve soil structure and add some plant nutrients. Today the pigs we were mesmerised by were young Tamworths with their red bristles.
The veggie beds looked almost empty but the decorative borders were full of colour mostly from bulbs and wallflowers. A few veg had survived the winter and added their own colours. The stems of the chard contrast nicely with their leaves, making them most attractive plants.
In the very centre of the walled area is a large circular dipping pool, from where the old gardeners would collect water by dipping watering cans. Archaeologists have cleared it out and their explorations and excavations have left its beautiful brick interior for us to admire.
The beds lining the paths that lead from the dipping pool are lined with tulips, hyacinths and wallflowers to give colour and scent for visitors to enjoy.
The warming red brick walls that gave protection to the fruit and veg growing within them are lined with beautiful trained fruit trees. The espalliers are wonderfully trained and later in the spring blossom will clothe their limbs and in late summer and early autumn with fruit.
The garden enclosed in a wall inside the outer wall produces fruit and cut flowers and is home to renovated glasshouses and coldframes.
A border outside the gardeners’ bothy was bursting with hot colours. Polyanthas and Wallflowers in reds, oranges and reds shared the space with an impressive clump of Fritillary “Crown Imperials”.
On the return walk we passed through an area of woodland where fallen limbs from the old trees had been used by children to make wonderful dens. Let’s have a wander around and enjoy a few. We enjoyed admiring the children’s handiwork and Jamie and Sam had to try one out for size. Knowing that I would blog about our day out they decided that if they sneaked into a photo they could get themselves into my next posting.
The long-awaited and eagerly anticipated day arrives. First outdoor sowings on the lottie. A big flask of coffee, a bunch of bananas and half a dozen apples in the trug and we arrive at our plot with blue sky above and warmth of the sun making us feel good.
We began by tidying our paths, I mowed and Jude, “The Undergardener” trimmed the edges. Instantly the plot looked the business. We removed the cloches that had been warming the soil for a fortnight and discovered warm, moist soil below all raked to a fine tilth.
The tools for the job collected from the shed, seed packets at the ready and the sun on our backs – ready for off! I use a range of tools by Wolf – three handles, short medium and long, and a range of inter-changeable heads. For today’s sowing I got ready a wide rake, narrow rake, cultivator, drill-maker, seed-sower and hoe.
Where the soil had been warmed with a covering of cloches we sowed legumes, Broad Bean “Super Aqualdulce”, Pea “Sugar Ann” which we enjoy by eating the young pods whole, Pea “Oregon Sugarpod” a mange tout type. First job is to take out a 2 inch deep drill six inches wide with a draw hoe and then keep watering along it until the water stops draining away quickly. The seeds are then placed in the drills and covered with dry soil to keep in the moisture and a final topping of compost to act as mulch and to clearly mark where we have sown. Although we label our seeds as they are sown we take this second precaution against the Blackbirds who enjoy pulling our labels up and throwing them on the paths.
When we returned home we planted up our first batch of seed potatoes, Rocket and Kestrel. The Rocket will be ready first, hopefully within 11 weeks and the Kestrel a few weeks later. Kestrel looks good with its purple eyes and tastes good too.
Late Saturday night we were digging jazz at our jazz club. Early Sunday morning we were digging soil on an allotment. Double digging at its best! At Shrewsbury Jazz Network we enjoyed a brilliant young band called the JJ Wheeler Quintet. JJ the young drummer leads the band and composes and arranges their music. We had a great night.
Sunday morning we, the Undergardener and I, woke early anticipating a mild sunny day, just right for helping out our Daughter, Jo and Son-in-Law, Rob on their allotment. After a short drive we arrived and Rob opened up the gate. Jo was elsewhere enjoying learning more about jewelry. The three of us aimed to finish preparing the plot for sowing and planting. Their plot is divided up into small beds divided by grass paths and we were determined to dig, rotovate, feed with poultry manure pellets and rake them all level.
Unfortunately I forgot that essential blogging gardener’s tool, my camera so I had to use my phone.
This is the third of the garden wandering posts already. Why is this year going so quickly? Could it be that we have had so many days when the weather has been amenable to gardening? So what is happening here in our garden? The bulbs are at last flowering well after such a slow start but in contrast the birds are responding quickly to warmer periods of weather. Robins are nesting in the box on my fishing tackle shed, House Sparrows are using three boxes around the garden, Great Tits are using the box on the summer-house and Blue Tits have started building in the box opposite the front door. They are so busy! Blackbirds are collecting moss from the lawns and dried grass stems from the borders so are nesting somewhere close by. The early morning bird song gets louder and more birds join in the chorus each day.
We have spent most sunny days continuing to clear borders, cutting down and adding new mulch. Clearing the “Beth Chatto Garden” is a hands and knees job. Jude the “Undergardener” pulls up weed seedlings by hand. Very tedious but made more enjoyable by the constant song of Blackbirds, Song Thrushes and Robins. Calls of Buzzards high above us provide a good excuse to stop occasionally.
In the front garden Euphorbias are bursting into growth and some have already sent up their flower stalks curling over like shepherds’ crooks. New growth on the later ones is showing bright colours as they emerge from the bark mulch.
The flowering quince at the end of the drive is covered in bright red blooms scattered amongst its thorny angular network of stems – it will flower for months giving a warm welcome to visitors.
At last our first daffodils are fully in flower! We have waited so long. Muscari are also now bursting into bloom adding their own shade of blue all around the garden.
The Primroses we grew from seed a few years ago now give us big clumps of flower in their own special shade of yellow. They are self seeding and spreading around the garden, with an occasional plant producing flowers of an extraordinary shade of greyish pinky. Not sure I like them!
One of the delights of this time of year are the Pulmonarias with their flowers coloured pink and blue on the same plant and their beautifully marked hairy leaves.
Helleborus have featured in both the January and February garden wanderings and they are still going strong. Two of the last ones to come into flower are this red hybrid and the magnificent near black variety. It looks good in bud and full flower and has the added attraction of interesting foliage. The clump of mixed Hellebores in the “Chicken Garden” give us plenty to look at on coffee breaks when the March sun bursts through and its warmth feels so good on our backs.
The bees appreciate the early flowering bulbs especially purple crocuses but soon they will be flocking to feed on the Flowering Currant, the exceptionally large flowered variety Ribes sanguineum King Edward VII, which is on the point of bud burst. The buds on the Daphne bhulua “Jacqueline Postill” have opened to reveal highly scented flowers in several shades of pink.
March in the garden is full of promises with buds developing and preparations underway for the productive garden. The photos show buds of Clematis, both climbing and herbaceous, and Apples and Pears.
The Sempervivum in the alpine troughs and on the slate scree bed are all budding up nicely but one pure white-flowered one is out and glowing in the March sunlight. They are such precious little jewels of plants.
Our two newest areas of the garden, the Chicken Garden and the Secret Garden, are turning glaucous green with Allium leaves. One area is like a lawn of Allium. They seem to enjoy our soil too much and are spreading and self seeding madly!
The productive side of our gardening mostly happens on our allotment but we have a big greenhouse in the back garden where we start off many of the veggie plants. Some seedlings have germinated in the propagator and lots cells and 5 inch pots are full of compost ready for us to sow peas, broad beans and sweet peas.
In our raised wicker beds just outside the back door the cut-and-come-again salad leaves are almost ready for the first cutting – and of course the first eating. So many different textures, colours and tastes! Delicious! Much is still to happen in March and on into April.
Our Comfrey patch is showing strong growth. This is one of the most important areas of the garden for in this 2ft by 10ft bed we grow a comfrey variety called Bocking 14, which we can cut 4 or 5 times a year. The leaves can be put in the bottom of potato trenches before we plant the potatoes to feed them and prevent the disease “Scab”. We also put them as a mulch under fruit trees and bushes as a feed and as a weed suppressant, and use them to make a liquid feed mixed with nettles.
So much is still to happen in the March garden. It is a busy and exciting month. So much to look forward to.
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