Monday, 18 October 2010

Dead hedge


A good example of creating a stock proof barrier in a rural setting, when a fence won't do. Posts are driven in with brushwood woven in between. Whips (small trees/shrubs) can be planted which will eventually grow into a hedge. This one at the Waulkmill, joins beautifully to a wicket gate and drystone wall.

Tuesday, 12 October 2010

Let's hear it for autumn



Outside the Imperial War Museum in London is the Tibetan Peace Garden.
What could be cooler than white Japanese anemones and electric blue ceratostigma? The combination of flowering ivy and virginia creeper careering over a high wall is lush. Plenty pollen for the bees and colour for the eye until winter comes.

Monday, 11 October 2010

Trentham Gardens


Piet Oudolf's planting at Trentham, Staffordshire: Creamy Selinum wallichianum, with cauliflowers of purple sedum, plumy grasses and some eupatorium hanging about at the back.

Thursday, 7 October 2010

Last tomatoes


Finally clearing out the greenhouse, here are the last ripe tomatoes of the season. Same number again of green ones! This year I grew Scottish Yellow and Mini Orange, both from the Heritage Seed Library, at Garden Organic. The Mini Orange has tended to mildew, even in the greenhouse. The Scottish Yellow has yielded well and looks good, but tastes better cooked. I got a great oven dried toms recipe from someone at our East Cheshire Organic group.

Monday, 9 August 2010

Staunton Harold





Two different gates from Staunton Harold. You know you are going somewhere special when going through these. And two different faces, the angel from above the doorway of the seventeenth century church and the twenty-first century green man from the adjacent craft centre.

Saxon sculpture



Two faces from the distant past give a Byzantine blessing. They can be seen at the church of St. Mary and St. Hardulph at Breedon on the Hill in Leicestershire. Incidently Breedon on the Hill means hillhill on the hill, each new invader to the area adding their own word for hill. It is a very lovely hill.

Tuesday, 3 August 2010

Garden matures





One year after re-planting, this garden is beginning to fill out. The soil has a tendency to dry out, due to the competing root systems of existing mature trees and shrubs. However with careful mulching and feeding the underplanting is thriving.