Tag: winter

My Garden Journal 2016 – January

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date February 10, 2016
1 Comment on My Garden Journal 2016 – January

I will once again be keeping my garden journal during 2016 recording my thoughts on our own garden here at Avocet in the tiny hamlet of Plealey situated just inside the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the South Shropshire Hills. I will share the sounds, sights and aromas of our garden and make mention of the wildlife that shares the garden with us. In 2015 I found a quote every month from a little book, ” Led by the Nose” written by Jenny Joseph. In 2016 I will look back at what I recorded in my first garden journal which I began in the first full year of living in Plealey. Although we moved here in August 2004 my journal began in January 2005. It will be interesting to compare 2005 with 2016.

So, welcome to our “Avocet” garden in 2016. I hope you enjoy the journey through the months with me.

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My first page for 2016 features my gouache painting of a Great Spotted Woodpecker and a few words about this charismatic garden visitor.

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“The Great Spotted Woodpecker makes its presence felt in our garden. It is black and white with splashes of bright red. It announces its arrival with a loud call as it flies in with its undulating flight. It hits the bird feeders hard so they swing around. These hungry birds stay feeding for far longer then any other bird.”

On the opposite page I write “Gardeners often pose the question“What is your favourite season in the garden?” It is easier for some to answer this question and they quickly give a definitive answer, while others find the choice impossible to make. For me? Well, I admit I always answer “The one we are in.” Not many gardeners will say “winter” viewing it as a “non-time” in their gardens. Many put their gardens to bed for the winter by chopping a huge percentage of the plants to the ground. Their interest only returns when spring bulbs burst into flower. I absolutely love the winter garden!”

I illustrate the page with my watercolour painting of two hips from Rosa “Graham Thomas”, a David Austin New English Rose which we grow as a climber. It gives joy to the gardener for many months of the year with its profuse golden sunny yellow blooms and when it finally gives up in December it begins to produce its green hips which quickly turn to yellow then orange.

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Turning the page over I write “As the weather turns colder at the end of the first week of the new year we are delighted to see the garden full of birds. Often we hear our feathered visitors before we see them. While spending a day in the garden cutting down soggy perennials we heard the Buzzards mewing over our heads and the grating call of Mistle Thrushes defending their favourite berried trees. The high pitch calls of Goldcrests are barely audible” Below these words we find my gouache painting of a pair of Goldcrests.

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Foliage features on the opposite page where I write “In winter flowers generally give way to interesting foliage on both shrubs and evergreen perennials. There is such a wide variety of shapes, colours and textures to be found in our January garden”.

A selection of photographs which I took in the garden on the same morning follows.

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Turning the next page my text is all about the scents of winter flowering shrubs.

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“Scent is such a powerful force in the winter garden and it is shrubs that put in a strong performance. We plant these scented shrubs close to paths so that we can enjoy them close up. On still days though their perfumes can be appreciated all over the garden. Cornus mas, the Cornelian Cherry, has a delicate scent but striking flowers of a bright yellow to which sunlight adds a hint of lime green to make it really zing.”

A much more strongly scented winter flowering shrub grows close to the main path in our back garden and is generous with its scent spreading it all over nearby borders, is Daphne bhuloa “Jacquiline Postill”.

On the page opposite I put the spotlight on a plant called “Physalis alkenengi” as I had come across the skeletal remains of its fruiting head while gardening in the Hot Garden.

I write “Physalis alkekengi is a strange little plant. It is inconspicuous for most of the year apart for twice when it gives splashes of colour. We rarely notice its off-white flowers in mid-summer but bright red papery “lanterns” soon follow. Inside its lanterns are hidden glossy orange berries. The wet decay of winter breaks down the papery cases which turn biscuit coloured before the flesh falls away leaving a lantern shaped net within which sits the orange berry.”

I illustrated this page with a watercolour painting of this little garden treasure. It was a great challenge!

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My next page is about two gardeners at work. Jude the Undergardener and I produce our own bean poles and pea sticks to use on our crops which we grow on our allotment plot.

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“Bean Poles and Pea Sticks

We have reached the stage now where our garden has matured enough to allow us to produce our own bean poles and pea sticks to use on our allotment. Our two Hazels provide us with the majority, but other shrubs add to our stash when we prune them.”

On the page opposite I share my photos of the first frost of 2016.

“The first frost of the year arrived in the third week of January. It added a new white dimension to foliage which sported rims of tiny white crystals.”

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My final words and pictures in my January entry in my garden journal look back at my 2005 garden journal and a current garden project.

“Looking back at my January entries in my garden journal of 2005, I notice that I was then building a heated propagator in our new 14 foot by 8 foot greenhouse. This has served us well over the years making seed germination so much easier. This year I am making a much bigger propagating bench. For this version I will need support of my Undergardener, Jude.”

I hope you enjoy my photographic journey through this most enjoyable two day project. It was a good task to do while the weather outside was too cold, windy and wet to get any outdoor gardening done. The greenhouse was warm and snug so a good place to be working. When describing our efforts I used short captions for each photograph.

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“Using recycled wood we made a new bench. We checked it was perfectly level.”

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“We fixed in a double layer of insulation boards after adding an edge of 6 inch board. Then we fixed on a layer of plastic sheet.”

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“We added a 2 inch layer of soft sand. The control box, thermostat and probe were fixed to the box.”

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“Then we laid out our heating cable carefully. The cable had to be covered in soft sand.”

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“A second layer of soft sand was added to a depth of 2 inches. We carefully made it level. The final touch – a layer of capillary matting”.

Here ends the entries from the first monthly entry into my Garden Journal for 2016. See you in February when we will start to use our newly constructed heated propagation bench.

Tags foliage, foliage plants, garden birds, garden wildlife, green house gardening, greenhouses, plant propagation, propagation bench, seasons, shrubs in winter, winter, winter garden, winter gardening

flowering bulbs garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public ornamental trees and shrubs spring bulbs Staffordshire trees Winter Gardening winter gardens

The Dorothy Clive Garden in January – Part 2

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 24, 2016

So here we are back at our feature garden for 2016, the Dorothy Clive Gardens on the border of Shropshire and Staffordshire. I will start with some views from around the garden. It will be interesting to see how these views change through the year.

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Let us now look at the bright red colours of berries and the more subtle browns and biscuit colours of seedheads of Hydrangeas and Phlomis.

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The delicate beauty of these seed heads deserved a very close look to fully appreciate them.

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We walked down the gentle slope towards the pond and the scree garden around it. Throughout the other seasons the borders here will be glowing with colour and full of exuberant growth.

Different textures together add interest to the winter garden where the bare stems of deciduous shrubs and perennials sit alongside bright new growth which are the promises of spring and summer.

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The Rose Garden looks very bleak in the winter when its bones are revealed, the obelisks and arches of black metal and the bare unpruned stems of the roses.

Near the bottom of the slope we came across a stand of three old Birches and a single tall specimen nearby. In the border here obelisks have been created from the trunks of felled Birches. It is good to see them given a second life.

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We spotted this architectural looking plant as we walked back up the slope and we were both unsure what it was but came to the conclusion it was a Tetrapanax.

We are not really fans of conifers but admit that in the winter they can give strong structure to the garden.

I will finish off with a selection of photos, a rustic seat, a terracotta bird box on an old brick shed, a larger then life statue of a stag above a stream and pool and finally a snow topped sundial on a sunless day.

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That is it for our January exploration of our featured garden for 2016, The Dorothy Clive Garden. We are already looking forward to our February visit when we may see more signs of spring bulbs in flower and some more early flowering shrubs.

Tags betulas, birches, Dorothy Clive Garden, Shropshire, Staffordshire, winter, winter garden, winter gardening, winter gardens

colours flowering bulbs garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public grasses hardy perennials ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs Shropshire Staffordshire trees Winter Gardening winter gardens

The Dorothy Clive Garden Month by Month – January

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 21, 2016
3 Comments on The Dorothy Clive Garden Month by Month – January

This is the report of our first visit to this year’s featured garden, the Dorothy Clive Garden. We have been making occasional visits to this beautiful garden for about forty years now and have enjoyed many new developments for this is not a garden to rest on its laurels. It is affiliated to the Royal Horticultural Society and is run by the Friends of Willoughbridge Garden Trust.

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The garden was born way back in 1940 when Harry and Dorothy Clive lived in the large white house, Elds Gorse. The first area to be tackled was the old quarry which is now a richly planted Dingle Garden. Harry Clive created this first part of the garden so that his wife, who was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease could take daily exercise in a beautoful garden. Sadly she died in 1942 and Harry continued to develop the garden as a tribute to his wife. In 1958 the Willoughbridge Trust was founded to ensure that the garden continued for ever as a place of “rest and recreation” for the public.

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We made the one hour journey to the Dorothy Clive Garden on a very cold morning in mid-January. We were surprised to drive through areas of snow and arrived at the garden to find snow covering the garden in a shallow layer. We left our tracks in the snow as did a Grey Heron before us.

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Snow decorated the foliage of trees and shrubs where later in the year we will discover the colours and scents of their flowers. The weight of wet melting snow bent grasses down towards the ground and gave the plants a graceful shape.

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The first view of the garden opened up before us as we climbed a gently sloping path towards the tea shop which in winter doubles up as the ticket office. Naturally we were tempted by the aroma of warm coffee and the sight of home made cakes. The little flower arrangements in the centre of each table added to the warm welcome we received from the staff.

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Just outside the tearoom the little nursery area held plants hidden under snow and sculptures of rabbits and hares wearing hats of snow. The gardeners had been painting acorn fence-post tops a gentle shade of green.

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We left the tea shop and mini-nursery to walk towards the Dingle Garden an area of woodland garden created in an old quarry. Snow topped off the buds and leaves of Azaleas and Rhododendrons and the seed heads of the occasional herbaceous perennials.

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But we were particularly delighted to find flowers out, the simplest of Snowdrops with droplets of melted snow hanging from their stems, the occasional Rhododendrons and Camellias and Witch Hazels in sunshine colours.

The overnight snow and ice had turned this pink Rhododendron translucent and delicate, while the flowers in the Camellia Walk were just managing to hang on. The pink scented flowers of this Daphne however shrugged off the cold and looked fresh and cheerful.

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Hydrangeas looked as good covered in seed heads as they do in flower with gentle biscuit and ginger hues.

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During the winter when undergrowth has died away and low growing deciduous shrubs have dropped their leaves the trunks of Rhododendrons and Azaleas are exposed. We can then appreciate their amazing scrolls and curlicues.

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The new winter garden at the Dorothy Clive Garden was a surprise to us as it is totally new so we didn’t know it existed. A great surprise! The Laburnum Arch through which we left the Winter Garden has been a popular feature of the garden for many years.

The colours and textures of trees can add so much to any garden and the gardeners at Dorothy Clive certainly know how to choose them and place them to best advantage.

You only need the tiniest touch of light on berries to make them sparkle. The last drops of melting snow hung on many.

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Mahonias are always a good plant in any garden with their glossy evergreen leaves which show rich autumn colours and in the winter yellow scented flowers appear to be followed by black berries with a white floury dusting.

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We shall return for part two of this January visit to our feature garden of 2016 to see what other treats the Dorothy Clive Garden has in store for us.

Tags azaleas, betulas, coloured bark, coloured stems, Dorothy Clive Garden, rhododendrons, Shropshire, snowdrops, spring bulbs, Staffordshire, winter, winter garden, winter gardening, winter gardens, winter shrubs

birds colours flowering bulbs garden photography garden wildlife gardening grasses half-hardy perennials hardy perennials ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture roses shrubs succulents Winter Gardening winter gardens

My Garden Journal – December

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 1, 2016
5 Comments on My Garden Journal – December

To celebrate the moving from 2015 into 2016 I thought an appropriate post to publish would be my final monthly garden journal entries for 2015.

This is the final month of reporting on my garden journal where I have been keeping track of what has been happening in our Avocet garden. December should be a month of cold nights, frosts and wintry showers but this year it has been a month of strong winds and rain accompanying mild temperatures. We have still only had one frost in this last bit of the year. Our Dahlias remain outside as we move into the first week of December as we are waiting for frosts to blacken their foliage which would allow us to prepare them for their winter rest.

Opening up my garden journal onto the first pages for December reveals photos of berries which are such a strong feature of our winter garden.

My first entry for December reads, “The berries of our trees and shrubs give bright splashes of colour in the Winter Garden.”

My photos show berries of Hypericum, Sarcoccoca, various Hollies and one of our Sorbus.

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“We have many different Cotoneasters throughout the garden giving shiny berries in many red shades – ruby, scarlet, crimson – and one even has yellow berries. They are so easy to grow but add so much to the garden. Each variety has a different habit and foliage in different shades of green, different sizes, shapes and textures. But what is common to them all is that they are true favourites of our berry eating thrushes.”

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The greenhouse features next in my December Journal as it is during this month that it fills up with tender plants which we want to overwinter.

“The greenhouse is very full and busy in December. Our Fuschia thalia after flowering outdoors for months is still full of bloom now but in the sheltered environment of the greenhouse. Accompanying this special Fuschia, our succulents are also sitting out winter under shelter, after spending the summer and autumn in the Rill Garden.”

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I tried to show the uniqueness of the Fuschia and its incredibly bright colour with watercolours.

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My final quote for 2015 from the little book by Jenny Joseph, “Led by the Nose” appears as we turn the next page.

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“Fragrance outdoors in this season is not so much a twinkle in the eye as a sniff in the nosmic imagination. You will see the tips of bulbs and look forward to being overcome by spring.”

Below these words I share photos of a few of the flowers that are sharing their scent with us this month, roses and perennial wallflowers.

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“Roses and Perennial Wallflowers invite us to get our noses close to their blooms so that we can enjoy the sweetest of scents. Other plants need us to rub their leaves before they share the secrets of the scent with us.”

The accompanying pictures show two such plants, salvias and mints.

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The colour yellow can cheer up the garden in the deep dark days of December, so I moved on to see what plants were giving us these golden tints.

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“On gloomy days in December when there is no sign or chance of sunshine, we really are grateful to plants that give us cheerful yellow flower and foliage.”

Opposite my tour of our garden yellows I make mention of the members of the ?thrush family that share our garden with us in the winter.

“Let me introduce you to our Winter Thrushes, drawn in a stylised fashion.” I hope you enjoy them.

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We next turn from the colour yellow to bright pinks, Nerines.

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“Nerine bowdenii is the shocking pink of winter. It is difficult looking at these dry bulbs to think that such bright and wonderfully shaped flowers can burst from them.”

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Seed heads are the theme of the page opposite the Nerines.

“Seedheads on perennials and grasses play such an important part in our Winter garden. We have even bought ourselves a trio of seedhead sculptures made from stoneware.”

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So now we turn the page to the very last entry in my 2015 Garden Journal.

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“As December slowly comes to an end for 2015, we are already looking ahead. Jude’s little nursery is well-stocked with young plants which we will sell on our open days and to garden clubs who visit Avocet. The greenhouse keeps our tender plants warm and snug. They are patiently awaiting Spring 2016.”

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Young plants that we are growing on for sale at next year’s open days are sheltering in a plastic mini-greenhouse to encourage them to grow strong and healthy ready for next year. They look pretty sad through the winter though as most are herbaceous perennials.

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Tags berried shrubs, berried trees, berries, cotoneaster, garden journal, gardening, nerine, winter, winter garden, winter gardening

Cheshire colours flowering bulbs garden design garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public light light quality National Trust ornamental trees and shrubs shrubs spring bulbs The National Trust trees Winter Gardening winter gardens

Winter Wonderland at Dunham Massey – part two

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date April 5, 2015
1 Comment on Winter Wonderland at Dunham Massey – part two

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Welcome back to the National Trust property Dunham Massey in Cheshire where earlier this year we enjoyed our annual exploration of their wonderful Winter Gardens. No winter flowering plant can have more presence than Cornus mas, the Cornellian Cherry.

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Better known perhaps are the Witch Hazels with their flowers of yellow, orange and red which glow like fire in the slightest brightness of the winter sun.

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Deep inside their brightest of ribbons of petals deep secrets hide, revealed only when the petals fall.

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In part one of this two part visit to Dunham Massey I shared with you my love of the biscuits and browns, the last of life from the previous seasons. Now I will share some more beautiful details in close up, using a close-up attachment on my Nikon. It really brings out the importance of structure and the richness hidden in these modest colours.

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Amazingly exactly the same colours are there to be found in the bark of a winter garden’s trees.

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On some old flowerheads from last year, especially the Hydrangeas, the dominant colour is bone white which does look good too!

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As we wandered around the Winter Garden paths which meander among the borders we kept getting glimpses of a shrub which looked to be still in its Autumn coat. We couldn’t get close enough to see what it was so before leaving we sought it out and discovered it to be a Mahonia of the japonica/bealii type but we were not sure which one and it wasn’t labeled. Below is the photo I took to show its bright “autumn” colours against the intense dark greens of surrounding evergreens.

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Naturally I must finish off this double dose of winter beauty where I began, singing the praises of white barked birches! Singing their praises through the lens of my camera!

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Tags betula, betulas, birches, Cheshire, Cheshire gardens, cornellian cherry, cornus mas, Hydrangeas, National Trust, The National Trust, winter, winter garden, winter gardening, winter gardens, witch hazels

allotments colours community gardening flowering bulbs fruit and veg garden photography gardens irises light light quality meadows NGS ornamental trees and shrubs shrubs spring bulbs Winter Gardening winter gardens

The Allotments at Rest

We took a walk around our allotment site today to see what was going on and check that everything was okay. We had just watched the site on TV as we featured on a BBC2 series called the Great British Garden Revival. I filmed with Dermuid Gavin a feature on wildlife gardening. It was a strange experience seeing our allotment site on the screen but even stranger seeing our own plot being used as an example of a wildlife friendly garden.

For today’s wander we arrived during a period of sunshine with a clear blue sky over our heads, but by the time we were half way around the clouds had arrived and we were subjected to light but very cold rain. The pure white catkins of the Violet willow in the Spring Garden sit like droplets of rain water after a storm. They are bright enough to be visible from a long way away. They draw attention to themselves very well!

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Probably the brightest of winter colours on any veg plot is provided by Swiss Chard especially the cultivar called Bright Lights. Light catches on the textured leaves emphasising their undulating surface. The other crops still in evidence are sprouts that have overwintered and the new fresh foliage of the Globe Artichoke. These leaves now just a few inches long will expand to a massive few feet in length and the plants will reach a good nine or ten feet in height. Their purple, teasel like flowers will delight our pollinators the butterflies, bees and hoverflies and the seed heads that follow will be a magnet to greedy Goldfinches and Linnets in the autumn. Perhaps the strongest pattern of all was found on Tom’s plot, where he has set out all the old clay drainage pipes that he dug up from his plot.

Both the male and female catkins glow purple on the Alders in the Autumn Garden where their neighbours the Buddlejas are showing fresh foliage with their texture like reptilian skin.

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Last year’s plants in the meadows and borders are now skeletons of their former selves. There is a strong structure linked with subtle beauty in these spent seed heads.

The wildlife shelters sitting in the orchards and meadows hide so many hibernating creatures. They shelter creatures from the winter cold and house anything from the tiniest insects up to amphibians such as frogs, toads and newts, birds like Wrens and Dunnock and mammals including our confident Weasels. A lost glove adds a splash of colour! In our “Dedge” the bright colours of the various Lichen, yellows, chartreuse and greens, glow however dull the light is.

A few spring flowering bulbs are showing spears of green piercing the cold soil. Some are even flowering such as the diminutive Iris reticula and Snowdrops.

Variegated foliage always looks good in the winter when the silver or gold stripes, spots or squiggles shine against deep green backgrounds.

Perhaps it is only right that the most colourful and interesting garden of all at the moment is our Winter Garden. The coloured stems of different forms of Cornus and Salix give us reds, oranges, greens and yellows and even black. The white stemmed Birches are now over 20 feet tall and they dominate this garden. Euphorbias and Hellebores give colour at close to ground level, while the Viburnum bodnantense “Dawn” and Cornus mas provide pink and chartreuse at eye level. Both these shrubs are also powerfully scented.

Elsewhere the coloured stems of a Salix in our Withy Bed shines gold and the Cornus “Midwinter Fire” glow like flames.

Our tour finishes off with a look at this year’s major project, our wildlife pond. We inherited this large farm pond in the summer and are busy tidying up around it in readiness of the work that lies ahead.

This little character is hidden for most of the year under a patch of Chrysanthemums grown for cutting but in winter he appears to cheer us all up.

I shall finish this post with a couple of bright jewels.

Tags allotments, birches, Bowbrook Allotment Community, Bowbrook Allotments, communal gardens, community gardening, cornus, dogwoods, fruit and vegetable growing, salix, scent, scent in the garden, scented plants, willows, winter, winter garden, winter gardening, winter gardens

allotments community gardening Shrewsbury Shropshire winter gardens

Celebrating Winter – Part Two

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 25, 2014
1 Comment on Celebrating Winter – Part Two

Welcome back to part two of my Winter Celebration post. Our celebrations are a good illustration of true community spirit and show how people with a common purpose, in this case allotment gardening, can come together in friendship.

We return to our allotment community garden Winter Celebration as the light fades. The children share their Christmas excitement by playing games organised by Liz one of our committee members and ably helped out by fellow committee member Anne.

First up was a game of “Pin the red nose on Rudolf” which proved a difficult challenge!

Races followed which were accompanied with loud laughter and shrieks of delight!

But things didn’t always go according to plan!

Little Edward was amused and amazed by it all.

The BBQ was soon glowing and the fire pit beginning to show flames.

All the lanterns and candles were lit alongside the main grass pathway. They looked great! At times the air was full of smoke from the BBQ and fire pit. The willow decoration making went on under artificial lighting.

Muffins and crumpets were toasted on the glowing embers of the BBQ and spread with butter and home made jams, brought in by the committee.

Little Ella carried her own lights around with her. She glowed wherever she went. We finished the day of celebration by taking a wander around the site by candle light carrying our lanterns and torches and enjoying seeing the decorated sheds in the dark. Ella and her red lights led the way.

To finish my pair of posts about our Winter Celebration I will leave you with two photos, the first shows our tree with our lanterns down the central pathway and the second the dying embers of the fire pit as we lock up to go home.

The day after we returned to complete the tidying up. At every one of our seasonal celebrations we finish late and we are always too tired to get all the tidying up completed so back we go the following morning. Jude and I arrived to find that other committee members had already got plenty done. We had to use wheelbarrows to collect up the lanterns and jam jars which held the candles, as we had so many.

Tags Bowbrook Allotment Community, celebrations, Christmas Trees, communal gardens, community, community spirit, winter, winter garden

allotments community gardening Shropshire Winter Gardening

Celebrating Winter – Part One

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 23, 2014
3 Comments on Celebrating Winter – Part One

This is the first of my special posts for Christmas. Part two will arrive in your inbox on Christmas Day.

Our Winter Celebration at our allotment community garden was a true winter wonder! We celebrate each season on the allotments when we get together as a community. We have children’s activities and games, and seasonal family activities as well as some sort of barbeque.

We have a close relationship with a local nursery called Love Plants and they often help us by donating plants when we create new gardens. For our Winter Celebration they donated a fine specimen of a Nordman Fir. We thought it would be fun if everyone who came to the celebrations brought along a tree decoration and added it. It was hard to imagine how it would turn out. We collected it wrapped in netting and fitted into a heavy log.

Our celebrations began at 2:00 and as visitors arrived they added their tree decorations to our Nordman Fir.

By the time darkness fell the tree was well covered and looking mighty bright. One member even added a string of lights to the tree, so when it got dark the tree glowed beautifully.

As well as a Christmas Tree we also had a Tree of Wishes and Memories. We provided parcel lables on which members and visitors could write down their thoughts for Christmas and the New Year, expressing their wishes and writing down their memories. The photo shows Pete tying his on.

As with all our seasonal celebrations our Tea Committee set up shop with the help of a generator, a tea urn, camping gas cookers and lots more. Being cold, they planned to serve tea, coffee and hot chocolate drinks at. The committee members brought in home made soups to be shared. With allotments to produce the ingredients the soups just had to be tasty. They were wonderful! The photos below show Wendy starting to set out the tea shop and Michael getting the generators started.

Our friend and fellow plot holder Sherlie, a retired florist planned to show visitors how to create Christmas decorations from willow and other natural materials. Before members arrived she set up a display of her work and gathered materials.

Once proceedings got under way lots of people were tempted to have a go.

At our Autumn Celebrations we challenged members to decorate their sheds for a “Spooky Shed” competition. For our Winter Celebrations the challenge was to create sheds dressed for Christmas. The results were amazingly creative and original. In the couple of hours leading up to our celebrations members got creative with their sheds.

Here are a few shots of the sheds including the winning ones.

One family even decided to wrap their shed up as one massive present!

Christmas Greetings appeared everywhere, on plots, on sheds and alongside paths and lanterns and lights adorned many plots.

Jude organised an activity for adults and children alike, making bird cakes to keep the birds well-fed over the winter. Lots of people joined in and got very sticky hands. The allotment birds are going to be very well fed this winter!

We had a BBQ all ready to go and a fire pit ready to be lit when darkness fell. Here are Michael and Ian relaxing as they wait to light up the fire pit. We shall pick up the story of our day of celebrations in part two.

Tags allotments, Bowbrook Allotment Community, Bowbrook Allotments, celebrations, Christmas Trees, community gardening, community spirit, winter

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Aiming for an all year round garden – our garden in December.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 18, 2014
6 Comments on Aiming for an all year round garden – our garden in December.

The final chapter! December. We have followed the journey through the months of 2014 looking at our garden trying to decide whether we have succeeded in our aim of creating a garden with interest in every month of the year.

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So here we are on our final wander of 2014 to see how the garden is looking in December. Next year we open our garden for charity throughout the spring and summer so we hope we have succeeded in our aim for creating an all year garden. The day I decided to go for my wander with camera in hand coincided with the day of the first proper frost. But it didn’t last long and had little affect on the plants. The grapes are now well past their sell by date, but the chickens and the local Blackbird population seem to enjoy them anyway. Frost brings out the texture in leaves and seed heads.

The Blackbirds and Mistle Thrushes are enjoying the variety of berries we grow for them, but once the winter migrant thrushes arrive they have more competition.

As the frost melts away it has a translucent look where it sits on the leaves of this Hypericum.

Garden ornaments and furniture both play a more important role as the plant life dies down over the winter months.

Our Hellebores are coming into flower far too early this winter. We usually enjoy them in February and March. But the Prunus subhirtella autumnalis can blossom anytime from November to March, so to see it this good in December is no surprise.

Our trees show off their wonderful silhouettes now they are bereft of leaves. The bark texture shows up sharply in winter light.

Some of our Japanese Acers are hanging onto their leaves still so give us plenty of colour to admire.

As trees are now largely leafless and much of the perennial growth has died down other features of the garden gain prominence. Just look at the curled up Birch bark in one of our insect hotels and the hanging glass globe.

The poppy seed heads have shed their seeds long ago and are now very delicate but extremely beautiful.

We have a few flowers alone and out of season, the last Sweet Peaand a single Calendula struggling to stand upright in the cold, but other flowers coming out now seemingly enjoy the cold and poor light. Violas with cheerful faces welcome visitors. It seems that the perennial Wallflower and the Welsh Poppy can send out an odd flower in any month of the year but in the depths of winter they seem to glow more than a any other time.

Hebe “Great Orme” is still flowering well after many months and shows no sign of giving up. The last seedhead of our many Crocosmias still glows a russet-ginger in the low light. The viburnum is just beginning its long display of honey scented blossom.

The last few leaves of the Ricinus in sheltered spots retain their glossy texture like well-polished shoe leather. Some curl at the edges and glow orange. Veins deepen to the darkest blood red.

So that is it. Another year in the life of our quarter acre plot here at Avocet. We have had a great gardening year with plants performing outstandingly, our first open day and the first magazine article featuring our garden. Next year looks set to be just as busy!

I am going to begin a new series in January – my garden journal – featuring words, paintings, drawings, photos and I hope some i-pad art too.

Below is a further small selection of shots taken in mid-December on a day the sun shone. They celebrate the year in our garden and give promises for the year to come.

Tags December, foliage, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, grasses, NGS, outdoor sculpture, sculpture, the garden in December, the gardening year, winter, winter gardens

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Late Arrivals

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 16, 2014

Our winter visiting Redwings arrived the latest ever this year. These migrant thrushes usually arrive late October and into November sweeping in in huge noisy flocks. They are very obvious arrivals but this year they have been more stealthy. They just crept in during December with the first appearing in our garden on December 11th. One or two Redwings at a time dropped in to lunch on the berries we grow for them, the Cotoneasters, Crab Apples and Sorbus. They soon discovered that one problem with arriving at the restaurant late is that some of the items on the menu have all gone. The resident Mistle Thrushes moving in from the woods had already indulged on the Sorbus berries and our Blackbird population had made inroads into the crop of “Butterball” Crab Apples and started dining on the Cotoneaster bushes. You can see from these photos that they were taken during heavy rain! It didn’t stop the birds from feeding though!

One male Redwing seems to dominate, being larger and sporting much brighter markings. His eye stripes are striking and his speckled chest is covered in the blackest and biggest streaks and spots. He is featured in the final two photos of the set below.

One thing we noticed as the berries started getting in short supply was that some House Sparrows mixed in with the Blackbirds and Redwings to gorge on the berries.

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We still haven’t seen any Fieldfares this winter. These winter migrant thrushes usually arrive with the Redwings. There will certainly be few berries left for them when they do come!