Tag: nature

My Garden Journal 2024 October

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 8, 2024

When starting my garden journal for October 2024 I wrote “October is when autumn really gets going and evidence of the new season is all around us in our garden and in the countryside. The most obvious changes to look out for are changes in leaf colour and ripening fruits.

The main fruit for eating that we pick this month is the apple. We have 20 different apple varieties in the garden, 4 trained over arches, 4 stepovers and 12 cordons.”

“Crabapples are in our garden for their decorative qualities, but they also help desert apples to get pollinated effectively.”

“Autumn colours are starting to develop early in the month.”

Onto the next page where I looked at some of our sorbus varieties all in berry. I wrote, “Sorbus give the garden so many different coloured berries and autumnal leaves all together. They are closely linked to our native Rowan or Mountain Ash.”

On the page opposite I looked at other berried trees and shrubs where I wrote, “But it is not just sorbus that have coloured berries. There are plenty more – cotoneaster, lonicera, hypericum, holly and arum lily

Next page featured some of our hardy fuchsia and I noted that, “It’s amazing how you can discover plants that you have ignored for years. This is what happenedto us when we started to grow fuchsias again. This happened when we found plants F. “Thalia” and F’ microphylla at Stocktonbury Bury and Croft Castle respectively.”

The final photo in the set above we grow mostly for its unusual blue-grey foliage. It is almost worth growing just for its long name which I can never remember the whole of! Fuschia microphylla ssp. hemsleyana ‘Silver Lining’.

On the page oppsite the fuschias I feature roses! I wrote, “In some years some roses seem to keep flowering out of season, usually to the end of December. Hips are now getting fatter and redder. Sadly October’s strong winds snap off whole branches loaded with flowers and hips.”

Then I shared six photos of late flowers.

Next page ,which is the final page for this month, shows some of the garden tasks we found time to do. I noted that, “October has been a very difficult month with so much rain that the ground has been saturated. We had several jobs planned and then delayed by wind and rain. We had to repair wind damaged branches and tie in wild shoots. In the first photo Jude is tying in a wild rose branch. The other photos show us emptying and re-planting the Prairie Garden.”

I finished off the October entries into my garden journal with the words, “We now have to wait to find out if our work has been successful.”

Tags autumn, garden, gardening, nature, plants

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A Monthly Wander Around the Gardens at Oakgate Nursery and Garden – October

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 29, 2024
2 Comments on A Monthly Wander Around the Gardens at Oakgate Nursery and Garden – October

Mid-October and we visited Oakgate Nursery and Garden in order to purchase a few new plants, asters and grasses for our Prairie Garden which we are currently revamping.

It was so good to see salvias still looking so floriferous. They seem to grow really well in the garden here. We were hoping to see some early signs of autumn so we looked out for shrubs and trees showing early rich coloured foliage. We also hoped to see plenty of flowers around as every month manages to produce some flower colours.

Around the outdoor seating areas for the cafe, autumn had arrived with Acers and Cornus contraversa ‘Variegata’ commonly called ‘The Wedding Cake Tree’ showing extra colour on their foliage. Hydrangeas were still flowering well!

A general view across the first part of the garden showed how foliage colour can add so much interest, while looking downwards just in front of our feet this lovely circle of cyclamen was flowering well.

On our October visit we also witnessed several shrubs and trees displaying berries, such as Callicarpa bodinieri and Euonymous alata with its startling orange and deep pink berries

And berrying trees are performing well this year especially Sorbus. Each cultivar has its own berry colour.

Other shrubs were showing that autumn has arrived by developing their leaf colours into yellows, oranges and reds and occasionally pink.

Taking a small path through a wide border and then a coniferous hedge we realised how the orchard trees were full of fruit, mostly apples but also a medlar.

The Rose Garden presented us with a surprise as there were so many roses in flower and bud. There were a few other flowers around giving welcome colour to the border.

A good way to finish this look at Oakgate gardens is a gallery of photos showing autumn foliage colours.

Tags autumn, garden, gardening, nature, plants

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A Short Break in Devon – RHS Garden Rosemoor Part 2 Looking at the Themed Gardens

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 10, 2024

As neither of us are keen on rose gardens, preferring to see roses used as shrubs in mixed borders, we missed out the “Queen’s Mother’s Rose Garden” and the “Shrub Rose Garden”. As the Winter Garden had been redesigned by well-known garden designer Jo Thompson it was in the middle of a rebuild so we had to miss out that garden too.

Thus the first of the themed gardens we explored was the “Cool Garden” designed in 2019 by Jo Thompson and was based on imaginative use of water rills lined with granite setts with curved stone walls. The planting features grey foliage and blue, white and pastel flowers.

Sculptures of birdlife added liveliness and extra beauty to the Cool Garden. The wren added a strong contrast to the birds of prey.

We also enjoyed how the crisp white pieces featuring seabirds and a barn owl sat within the greenery.

It never ceases to amaze me how sympathetically sculpture fits into gardens. The RHS is very good at exhibiting sculptural pieces in their gardens and over the years we have enjoyed several.

The next garden room we entered was a strong contrast to “The Cool Garden” being “The Hot Garden”. The planting was so different as was the feel of the garden. It was a clever decision placing these two gardens next door to each other.

There was a strong contrast in the planting within “The Hot Garden” utilising stronger, brighter colours.

Another of the themed gardens here at Rosemoor that we have always enjoyed is the Cottage Garden, so I will share some photos of that area next. On the way to the cottage Garden we stopped to have a look at this lovely wildflower bank and these two strongly coloured, cheerful looking roses.

The Cottage Garden itself was full of interesting plant combinations and some old apple trees.

I will finish off looking at RHS Rosemoor with a gallery of photographs taken as we explored these wonderful, inspirational gardens.

We will be visiting other RHS gardens before too long and we know we will really appreciate the expertise of the staff and volunteers.

Tags flowers, garden, gardening, nature, photography

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A Short Break in Devon – part one – RHS Rosemoor

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 2, 2024

In mid-June this summer we took off southwards for a long drive down the motorways for a mid-week break in Devon, taking in some visits to 3 gardens, RHS Rosemoor, Wildside and Yeo Valley Organic Garden. The weather forecast promised heavy rain!

Day one saw us breakfasting at the restaurant at the RHS garden Rosemoor, which we have visited a few times before.

There is so much to see at Rosemore that we never know where to start or which route way around the many acres to follow. The above rather beautiful map helped us in planning our route.

We made our way towards the woodland area passing some beautiful plants along the way such as this Cornus kousa and deeply coloured rose.

Just as we reached the woodland edge we were surprised to find this beautiful rustic building.

Behind the building a stone wall covered in plants acted as the boundary to the woodland.

We enjoyed wandering along the footpaths through the cool calm woodland, an antidote to the warm humidity outside.

In the woodlands we came across some sculptural pieces, starting with the wood carving of an acorn above, and still within the trees a bronze deer, a wooden cone and an owl carved into the trunk of a dead tree.

In the children’s woodland play area were large metal sculptures of insects and invertebrates.

We discovered other sculptures in wood and stone, the one stone piece being a balancing work.

It wasn’t long before we met the first of the themed gardens which we were looking forward to exploring as they had been developed since. we last visited. I will continue with these themed gardens in the next Rosemore post. As weather often seems to be at the forefront of gardeners’ minds I will look at the Cool Garden and the Hot Garden.