30 Wednesday Sep 2020
Posted in Gardening, Our Garden@19, Photography, Plantlife, The Life of Brian., Wildlife
Why you should allow some ivy to grow in your garden.
I do grow some cultivated variegated forms, ivy does not produce any flowers until their adult growth stage when the leaf shape changes, usually at around 10years. They can be kept pruned to their juvenile stage and leaf shape when they will at least provide nesting sites for birds.
Do you grow ivy in your garden?
30 Sunday Aug 2020
Posted in Gardening, Our Garden@19, Photography, Plantlife, The Life of Brian.
Tags
Blue border, Dahlia, Garden tours, Our Garden@19, Patio, Phlox, Raised beds, Roses, vegetables, virtual tour
Historically August has been viewed as a low period for the garden, due in part, I think, to owners of large estates traditionally moving to Scotland for the grouse season, today it is the main holiday season for everyone with school children. (Except for this year). High temperatures such as the ones we experienced early in the month this year can spell the end of some plants, such as my Sweetpeas.
It does not have to be so. There are a wide choice of plants to fill the borders in August, Phlox, Japanese anemone, roses, if you have deadheaded, dahlias, late sown annuals, pot plants such as pelargoniums, asters are just beginning to flower complimenting ornamental grasses for the late summer look.
The video is of Our Garden@19 filmed towards the end of the month and following the heavy rain and winds. Please select full screen and turn on your sound.
What has survived the August weather in your garden?
10 Monday Aug 2020
Posted in General Interest, Landscapes, Plantlife, The Life of Brian., Wildlife
A favourite walk of ours even before lockdown was St. Wulstan’s Nature Reserve. Before it became a nature reserve, it had a fascinating history as a US army hospital, a TB hospital and a psychiatric hospital, it is managed by Worcestershire county council.
These pictures are from a visit in early July, the open areas around the shrubby were full of colour and insect life
Because of its sweet honey like scent ladies bedstraw was used for bedding
The sap from wild parsnip is toxic. Cultivated parsnip left in the garden for a second year has attractive flowers.
At the end of Matron’s Path, there was the Rowan covered in berries and the wild Clematis with its fluffy seed heads.
In a lane closer to home was this flower, it looks a little like an orchid. it is the Dyer’s Greenweed. historically used to create a yellow dye.
Do you have a favourite walk?
