Norfolk Holiday - Pensthorpe Part II

And now for the 'green' areas of Pensthorpe…

On the wildlife walk:

Cowslips

Clematis Rubens

Rubens and Wisteria

White Wisteria

A view looking back down the garden

A view over to one of the pond/lakes

Piet Oudolf's Millennium Garden:

And that's it!

As I said, I realise I was pushing it and have a feeling they created it to add interest in the late Summer/Autumn where the wildlife and woodland areas provide interest in the spring/early summer.
I guess it's an excuse to go back later in the year sometime providing I have the time/money.

A woodland walk area, leading up towards the Red Squirrel enclosure:

No Red Squirrels to be seen, no surprise there as they generally hide away from 11am until evening - from my experience of them in Scotland where we have them come to feeders in the garden.

I didn't take a great many photos of the green areas, I was mainly focused on getting the birds... Must remember for next time to take along a different lens for landscape shots! :)

Dreary Saturday

I’ve been busy in the garden over the past couple of days… Ok, not so busy but I do feel I've at least got started...

Early in the week I sowed some seeds; Tomato, Cosmos, Sweet Pea and Cupid's Dart... I over wintered some Sweet Peas but they do not look their best, so much for an early show!

Anemone is taking its time developing its flower

Thursday I chopped back the Buddleja and Roses – hard! The Buddleja really needed a serious chop so I hacked away at it with a nice sharp saw… I had planned to completely remove it, but we’ll see, I may leave that job for next year. I wanted to wait for a new seedling to pop up in the garden before I got rid of it, and I’m almost 100% certain I have a baby in the pot where the Irises are flowering.

More Irises have opened, spy the Buddleja seedling in the background

Crocus Tommansinianus

Dicentra Spectabilis is coming up, I was worried I’d killed it – phew! I want to move it (and my Dicentra 'Alba'), must do it soon!

Friday Pete and I got rid of an unknown Laurel and a Portuguese Laurel… I hate getting rid of plants, especially shrubs, but I despise Laurel with a passion but it’s growing in a goblet shape and seems redundant…

The Portuguese Laurel was planted in totally the wrong place, heaven knows why they planted a Cotoneaster, Portuguese Laurel and x Laurel within 3m of each other… I don’t mind it, it’s quite pretty but grows much too large for our garden.

So I need to decide what I’ll put in their place… Pete suggested rock garden because it’s a slope… But it’s too shady for conventional alpine planting, so I was thinking forcing rocks into the mud forming a type of dry stone wall to allow crevices and then getting aubrieta, fleabane and such to grow in the cracks also providing homes for insects/arachnids,

I’ve considered putting a flowering Quince in, but feel the site may not quite be sunny enough for it. Any suggestions?
Perhaps a winter flowering honeysuckle or Witch Hazel, the only problem with that is I would never get to smell the perfume, it isn’t an area of the garden I frequent in the winter, but the flowers should at least bring some colour.

Hybrid Bluebells are coming up… I cut the flowers each year so they don’t hybridise with my English Bluebells… They make lovely cut flowers, the perfume is very strong!

I’m undecided whether to get rid of them…

They seem more than happy to grow anywhere!

Siberian Bugloss (Brunnera marophyllia) How bad is it that I’ve had this plant for years and never realised it was Brunnera??!!!

I bought myself a small bunch of Daffodils after a particularly bad day… Nice and cheerful!

I hope you're all having a good weekend, the weather is dull and drizzly here... But after a week or so with no rain the sun and winds have managed to cause some of my plants actually needed watering... I know, crazy isn't it?!

Almost There...

Tease!

Hebe

First Anemone flower… Won’t be long!

Another tease!!!!

Yes, Carex yet again…

Pheasant’s Grass is growing nicely.

Now for a shock…

Rose bud

I realise a Rosebud is not exactly shocking to you all…

However this little baby is a trimming from one of the roses in the front last winter and used the cut-off as a natural support to some Cosmos in one of the beds. I did not intend for it to root… How on Earth it’s survived I have no idea… If this roots and survives, then I may just fall off my chair.

Plants amaze me.

Gwirrel's Garden - Literally

Since this blog is supposed to be about my garden perhaps it’s time I actually posted something about it??

Let’s have a look at its progression from April to August – haven’t taken any photos more recently, perhaps I should?? Hmmm, not that there’s anything to see anymore since most plants have died away.

First we have April:

Onto May and things are beginning to flower

And onto July

As you can see a great deal hasn’t really changed, but it’s a start and as the plants mature I’m sure things will get better. I plan on extending some of the flower beds and such to allow for more, but these are the more long term plans.

I have a lovely book for planting natural gardens, as I want a garden for wildlife but also something that’s romantic and dreamy. So lots of soft flowing grasses, fluffy seed heads and such. Oooh it’s so exciting.

Finally!

W00t, I've finally moved! Plenty of stress and upset, but I should probably be grateful that it was far quicker than most other people experience.

In total it took almost exactly 10 weeks from getting the solicitor sorted to moving in. So in total it took us 10 weeks and 4 days from seeing the house, putting an offer on and then moving in.

It's just a shame I'm now in 30 year's worth of debt!! Lol

Not to worry quite so much, as I didn't stretch myself so it means there's room for over-payment to help it go down faster.

I haven't moved too far, just to the other side of the area I was already in, so perhaps 5/10 minutes away. Unfortunately I'm now no longer next to the park (not that I'd get much of the birdlife anyway) and I will really miss my Nuthatches ]:

Instead though I now have many, many Sparrows, Blackbirds and the dreaded Pigeons! But this time they're feral Pigeons, but there are still Collared Doves in the area.

The first morning after moving in the first birdie I saw was a Long-Tailed Tit, so happy! Of course I didn't get a good shot, because the camera was on the wrong setting (must've turned the dial by accident during the move) and it all blurred - sods law anyone? I've seen them again but I didn't have my camera at the time and they were silhouetted against the sky.
I've also managed to catch a female Blackcap on camera without even knowing it - It was just a bird in a bush to me. I've never seen a Blackcap before, male or female.

There are plenty of places for the birds to hide, lots of hedges, climbers and such for them to escape into, but I do plan on having my own Hawthorn or Beech hedge to attract the birds, it just means digging out a rather pathetic Privet hedge (Oh how I hate Privet) so I'm unsure whether to have a temporary fence to help the new hedge grow??

Now I just hope we get some of the other Finches, like Chaffinches or Gold, even Green would be nice as I've never had them either. They must be nearby as I'm really not far away from where I was before.

So far I've seen:

Feral Pigeon
Wood Pigeon
Collared Dove
Magpie
Rook
Starlings
Blue Tit
Long Tailed Tit
Blackbird
Sparrow
Wren
Blackcap
Dunnock
Mistle Thrush (Well, I heard its alarm call!)

I think we could do with some Great Tits and other finches really. Does anyone have any ideas on how to attract those birds? (Including good trees/shrubs/plants not only food)

I have seed feeders with mixed peanuts, sunflower seeds, sunflower hearts, grains and dried mealworms. I also scatter ground food which has cereals, sunflower hearts and sultanas etc in. So I already have a wide variety of food, perhaps I need some suet balls too. I'm steering clear of ground feeders/trays in general as I don't fancy having flocks of Pigeons swooping down, shame but there are a lot around! (Unless of course I buy a cage for the feeder so they can't fit in…)

I've ordered some wildlife friendly plants, they should come in the next week or so:

Yarrow
Meadow Clary
Verbena
Ox-eye Daisy
Chocolate Clover
Teasel
Hardy Geranium

And then some more, just because I love them:

Granny's Bonnet (Aguilegia)
Angel's Fishing Rod

I'm feeling somewhat lost with the size of the garden I need to tackle, I've never had something this size before, so I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed even though I love gardening. I don't know where to start and have lots of pots that have come with me that ought to be planted but I'm just lost. Lol

Who'd have thought it?!

Halp!

Just trying to find my way around...

Oooh, this seems rather farty so far, or is that just slow and so it's annoying me??

Anway, the purpose of this is to record some of my life, mainly the plant and wildlife side of it. I should be moving in the next few weeks to a month, so it would be nice to record how the new house - or garden changes over time as I get to grips with owning my own house and having two good sized gardens to deal with. I already have things planned and I'm getting a little worried that there might not be enough space once I have all the plants/trees that I want... Hmmm

[:

Hmmm let's start off with one image...

Now, I have a couple of accounts on Deviantart, one for the more 'commercial' images and one for the more experimental images.

Why do I have two?

Well I found that with my first, and original account if I tried to do anything even remotely experimental or interesting I'd get no response from my watchers and at the same time, those interesting or experimental artists that I watched, and learned from took no interest in my work because of the commercial stuff. So in the end I've had to separate the areas and seriously, the different ways I'm treated by the same people because they don't realise both accounts are me, is evidence enough of people's prejudices.