Hidden Discoveries

A mild January day with barely a breath of wind tempted me out into the garden to cut away some undergrowth and clear up leaves.

As I pruned and cut back shrubs and plants I discovered forgotten planting with delight.

Gathering up decaying leaves revealed these dainty snowdrop heads either bent forward or inclined gracefully towards the sky.

 

As I nipped and clipped at the pyracantha hedge I uncovered this luxurious tropical-looking passion flower just opening amongst its swathes and spirals of vine tendrils. 

 

I was surprised to find these campanula bells flowering under the shelter of the ceanothus tree.

 

The intricate leaf structure of this teeny, tiny dollhouse fern (cotula leptinella) can only be fully appreciated up close.

The glossy leaves of this acanthus plant promise a courtly array of racemes later in the summer.

These deceptively benign hellebore flowers peep out behind hearts tongue ferns.  Its roots are strongly emetic and potentially fatal if ingested.

I brushed against the dried heads of this fennel plant releasing its pungent aniseed scent.  New growth can be seen at the base if its sturdy stems.

 

Chiselled horsetail plants catch the eye with their fluted shoots and sphagnum moss blankets the surface of the boundary wall.

Tired out tools.  Someone left my trowel out in the rain.  It must have been the fairies at the bottom of the garden...

Riverside Terraced Gardens

The approach to the house is via a gate into a large gravelled area.

A line of pots brimming with cyclamens in cheerful reds and pinks leads to a wooden gateway to the right of the house through which a pretty rose courtyard is revealed.

A rambling rose and clematis trained over painted trellis adorn two of the walls.  Standard rose bushes stand in front of them and even in the depths of winter are punctuated by one or two rose flowers.  This outdoor room is framed on one side by a yew hedge with low clipped box hedges dividing the planting from the paved seating area.

The rose courtyard opens out into a much larger garden space with a stone flagged area directly outside the back entrance to the house.  Two ancient yew trees shaped into low-rise cylinder shapes are situated immediately outside the house on either side of the door and underneath snowdrops can be seen just poking their heads into the light.  At a certain point between these two trees a white iron seat at the very far end of the garden comes into view.

 

 

Steps down between the two yews lead to a bifurcation of the pathway into steps downwards in a form reminiscent of a double sweeping staircase.  Spheres of hydrangea flowers embellish the outside curve of the pathway, their preserved flower heads taking on the appearance of having been dusted with gold.  The two paths converge again to make one between two further yew trees which have been clipped into sculpted mounds.

 

 

 

A gravel path follows the same pattern flanked by a framework of pleached-lime trees following the curve of the path.  A central ornamental container is circled by a low box hedge with a mass of misty lavender at its base.

 

 

The pathway leads through an arch in a yew hedge to a further outdoor space.

The main planting challenge in this garden was the steep gradient and where once grew a grassy lawn which required cutting with the mower on a rope!

The grass has now been replaced by large areas of shrubs including low growing laurels, prostrate yew and cotoneaster.  The steps are edged with osmanthus hedging.

The lowest outdoor room of this garden sits alongside the river and can occasionally flood if the waters rise due to excess rain or high tides.  Silt deposits have made this area extremely fertile and plants and shrubs thrive here.  This hamamelis adds a flash of warmth to a chilly afternoon in January.



Formal planting of low box hedges similar to that of an Elizabethan knot garden sits in the middle of this area with a sundial as its centrepiece.  Bricks have been laid in a herringbone pattern and where the frost has shattered them they have been replaced by aromatic thyme plants.  White standard 'Winchester' rose bushes line the pathways with lavenders winding their way underneath.  One can imagine three playing cards from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland painting the roses red with the Queen barking 'off with their heads!' in the distance.

 

 

 

Sunny Saturday

A walk through the village on a sunny Saturday never fails to delight as plants and landscape views spark the imagination.

The soft green of the panelled fencing behind and the red bark of this Cornus Alba complement each other projecting the stems into the foreground and reinforcing the contrast between them.

The splayed leaves of this Chusan Palm form two-dimensional layers, some catching the sun and some in shadow.  A touch of the exotic in the middle of Winter.

The naked branches of tall trees reaching towards the sky take on the appearance of capillaries extending to extremities.

The bright sunshine intensifies the colour of this adornment of ivy to an almost citrus-like luminosity.

Little packages of new growth.  This Hydrangea's waxy buds stand proud alongside tired, brittle blooms; a memory of last summer next to the promise of the year to come.

Prehistoric looking green lichen makes its home on the bark of a tree.

Algae grows where water drips slowly down the walls underneath the railway bridge.

Graffiti, worn away by years of exposure to the elements, is transformed into a blue lichen-like pattern which now barely clings to the wall it once defaced.  Decayed urban art in the countryside.

Dancing barbs tear open the scaly skin of this gate bar to reveal its rust-ridden innards.

A lunchtime walk in Winter

There's nothing like a brisk walk at lunchtime to blow the cobwebs away!  You never know where the next inspiration for design ideas will present itself.

The low sun casts shadows on the mossy tarmac along a length of trimmed lavender plants.

 

 

 A miniature moss garden with flagstone path and rockery.

 

 



 

Lines of winter wheat submerged under surface water with poplars in the background.

 

 

 

Reflection of  the clawing hands of an oak tree.

 

 

 

A crumpled, rust-covered five-bar gate.

 

 

 

A weathered picket fence has difficulty restraining the encroaching brambles.

 

 

 

Deserted farm buildings, half consumed by ivy, peep through cracked windows.

 

 

 

 Rust and reflections on disused farm machinery.

 

 

 

Beech protruding from an old brick wall.

 

 

The first signs of Spring

The run up to Christmas has been wet and windy offering little opportunity to get out into the garden.  The wind has driven the leaves into heaps in the corners of the garden hiding the fact that snowdrops are already pushing up through the soil.

Even at this, the most dreary time of year, the yellow-green of Jasmine and Bamboo contrast prettily against the brown wooden fence.

 

This Ornamental Kale surprises me by continuing to produce its beautiful purple foliage all through the Winter.

 

 

Camellia buds promise abundant blooms in a few weeks' time.

 

 

 

The Fennel plant has flourished in its shady spot growing to a height of about 2 metres.  In this picture the delicate seed heads are silhouetted against a clear blue December sky.

 

 

 

A particularly savage gust of wind blew one of two matching pots housing two small fir trees over with a crash.  I intend to replace them with very large basic terracotta pots which I will paint with some left over emulsion paint from our sitting room.  As the pots weather through the year they will take on a fresco-like appearance.