Tag: greenhouses

Melting

Snow is a bit of a novelty when it arrives and I always enjoy watching it change the atmosphere, character and look of the garden. But after five days I have had enough of it so got excited when the sun came out for an hour or two this afternoon and the snow and ice started a steady drip, drip, drip – melting gently.

A new challenge for me and my camera! See what you think.

Poor old Matilda has melting snow running down her forehead and she does not look pleased!

As the sun gives a rare January appearance, the snow begins to melt and for a while takes on a transparent look and glows.

The greenhouse begins to lose its duvet of snow.

The tallest stems away from shadows melt first. This pair of rosebuds is clear of snow and ice but their yellow petals, exposed where the bud has tried to open, have suffered from this attack of January weather.

Tags garden photography, gardening, greenhouses, January, roses, snow, winter, winter gardens

birds climbing plants garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening hardy perennials ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs photography Shropshire trees village gardens wildlife

A Wander around our Garden in August

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 25, 2012
5 Comments on A Wander around our Garden in August

Our garden in August is a bright, colourful place full of lush growth, rich scent and so much wildlife to enjoy. Our wild birds are mostly quiet at present as August is the time when they hide away as they go through their annual moult. They have gone to ground and gone silent.

Above our heads however avian activity is busy and exciting. The Swallows and House Martins are feeding up in anticipation of their migration south. The sky is full of them, but the screaching of Swifts is absent as they began their own long journey a few weeks ago. For a few days there is a gap in the sounds – we miss them for their excited calls and aerial displays.

The calls of the young Buzzards can be heard above the Swallows and Martins, as they excitedly search out thermals and discover the joy of riding them. The Peregrines have reappeared now that their breeding season is over so we can watch the adult pairs rising in ever-higher circles until they disappear from view. Our eyes become incapable of seeing them as they become smaller, become dots and are then gone. They have the luxury of far better long distance vision than us – they will see the movement of their prey from hundreds of feet up in the air. A real treat is to spot them as they stoop, travelling down at speeds of over 200 miles per hour with a pigeon in their sights.

Yesterday when deadheading in one of our borders we were surprised by a low-flying, high speed Green Woodpecker who zoomed close to us, just a few feet away. A real treat!

Insect life is flourishing. On any warm bright day a variety of insects can be seen hunting out nectar and pollen. Butterflies, bees and hoverflies are attracted to Buddleias, Alliums, Salvias, Nepetas, Lavenders and Echinops. There are so many Peacock Butterflies around at the moment but you can’t have too many of them. The Holly Blues are much scarcer and flit continuously rarely seeming to settle.

Bees and hoverflies are attracted to our Lavender hedge which borders the lane which passes in front of our garden.

The ponds are full of life with shoals of young fish basking in the shallows, diving Beetles and Boatmen moving up to the surface and back to the bottom regularly. On the surface Pondskaters pace out the length and breadth of the pond surface. Young newts regularly appear at the surface take a gulp of air and drop back down. When Jude the Undergardener nets the duckweed and blanket weed from the pond she catches newts every time. She is delighted with every newt that graces her net. I am convinced that removing the weed is an excuse for her newt catching exploits. In August the majority of newts Jude catches are youngsters.

The front garden is looking good! So much colour! The Hot Border is HOT!

The “Beth Chatto Garden”, our gravel garden, is full of interest with Agapanthus taking centre stage. These Agapanthus were actually bought from the Beth Chattos Gardens nursery.

Early in August the front garden was dominated by yellow – even Jude the Undergardener was wearing yellow – but after a few weeks all the other colours caught up.

In the back garden the growth in our Secret Garden is exuberant to say the least. The foxgloves are going over but the achilleas, lychnis and alliums are still giving us a full performance.

Elsewhere in the borders of the back garden the seedheads of our Snakebark Acer add rich reds, Crocosmias give every shade of yellow, orange and red, Achilleas add subtlety and the spiky Erigeron flowers provide silver.

In the greenhouse tomatoes, cucumbers and capsicums are adding sweetness and freshness to the cut-and-come-again mixed leaves of ours summer salads.

The world beyond our garden is changing this month as in our borrowed landscape the hay in the paddock has been cut and baled and the wheat fields turn gold and are being harvested one by one. By the time my September garden wander comes around the skys will seem empty as the Swallows and Martins will be on their way to warmer climes, but the garden will be getting busier with mixed feeding flocks of titmice and Goldcrests, and others of mixed finches.

allotments community gardening fruit and veg garden photography garden wildlife gardening grow your own hardy perennials meadows National Trust natural pest control photography The National Trust wildlife

Clumber Park – The Walled Garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 25, 2012

We have watched over the last few years how the walled garden at Clumber Park has been brought back to life. Although it is a few hours from home we visit at least once a year.

Now it is a peaceful place to wander around admiring the vegetable growing techniques, the orchards and the meadows beneath, the long flower borders, the trained fruit on the walls themselves and the national collection of rhubarb.

We were very lucky on this recent visit as we had our own personal guide who came around with us. He was grey haired and didn’t say a lot but he didn’t mind when I took his portrait.

We like to approach it along the dramatic avenue of cedars where the enticing view of the distant old gates within the warm red of the tall brick walls draws us in. The cedars themselves have such sculptural qualities and an air of mystery pervades the shadows under their glaucous sweeping branches some scooping down to touch the grass below.

The tall warm bricked walls are now protecting skilfully trained apples, pears, peaches, cherries and figs. In the open a collection local varieties of fruit are being established and in the borders below the walls herbaceous plants, herbs and the National Collection of Rhubarb varieties flourish.

The wide central gravel path that bisects the walled garden runs from the main gates to the greenhouse. It runs between a colourful double herbaceous border.

Old fruit trees remain to give a sense of continuity and sit comfortably amongst gently swaying meadows. We were delighted to see a Medlar in flower.

We enjoyed discovering ideas to take home with us as we moved within the vegetable growing areas, such these rustic supports for peas and sweetpeas made from birch prunings. Much of the productive planting was done in neat, long and impressively straight lines.

Being run along totally organic lines the walled garden was well-provided with bird nesting boxes and insect shelters to attract beneficial insects.

As we wandered around we noticed amongst the productive rows of veggies, this beautiful Victorian glass and metal cloche still in regular use. It performed as well now as it always has done just like the walled garden itself.

As we prepared for our journey back to Shropshire, our helpful little cheery guide waved a small wave and wandered off.

garden photography gardening grow your own National Trust The National Trust

Pelargoniums at Clumber Park

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 23, 2012
2 Comments on Pelargoniums at Clumber Park

The beautiful, immensely long renovated Victorian greenhouse at Clumber Park never ceases to amaze. When we first visited Clumber the greenhouse looked sad and neglected but we discovered that plans were afoot to return it to its former glory. We were delighted to find one section which now housed an amazingly varied collection of Pelargoniums. Shades of pink. Fruity scents. Textured and patterned foliage. I can share these with you through my photographs.

A word of warning – if you have a total aversion to pink look no further!

Tags foliage, foliage plants, garden photography, gardening, greenhouse gardening, greenhouses, grown your own, National Trust, organic gardening, pelargoniums, scented pelargoniums, scented plants, Victorian greenhouses, walled gardens

garden photography gardening National Trust photography The National Trust

Clumber Park – Greenhouse Abstracts

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 21, 2012
7 Comments on Clumber Park – Greenhouse Abstracts

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.

Tags Clumber Park, garden photography, gardening, greenhouse gardening, greenhouses, National Trust, Nottinghamshire

autumn gardening grow your own half-hardy perennials

Bubble Wrap Duvet

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 7, 2011

Today we woke to the first frost of the year. My phone tells me its minus one. It’s only a thin weak frost but a useful reminder of how lucky we are to have gone this far into the year without one. Last year we had our first in September and that was not unusual. It also made us feel a little smug that we had got round to giving the greenhouse its duvet of bubble wrap at the weekend. It takes 100 metres of the large bubbled wrap to get the inside safely wrapped for winter – it is the only time I regret owning such a big greenhouse!

Bubble wrap is always so hard to fix up and always looks a mess but it does the job. We used a combination of black gaffer tape and the little plastic fiddly fixings specially designed for the job.

We moved under cover the peppers, chillies and sweet, growing in bags to hopefully get a few more fruits from them as well as the potatoes in their bags planned for cropping in December. We then had the time-consuming task of bringing in any half-hardy plants in pots such as aeoniums, begonias, echeverias, Euphorbia mellifera, salvias and summer flowering bulbs.

As a belt and braces procedure we take cuttings of some of the salvias, as well as bringing the parent plants in, as they often fail to survive through the winter even under the protection of the greenhouse.

This Salvia with its stunning red flowers which have an added cerise hue in sunlight only started flowering in late October so we could only appreciate its glorious flowers for a few weeks before bringing it into the greenhouse. If the first frost had come at the more usual time in late September or early October presumably it would have failed to flower this year. fingers crossed now that we can keep it through to warmer times.