Inside the gardeners' shed

In their heyday large country houses employed an army of gardeners. Their job was to grow flowers for display in the big house, to grow fruit and vegetables for its table, and to maintain the grounds around the house in a manner befitting a place of high standing. The gardens and grounds at Berrington Hall, Herefordshire, are maintained by volunteers and employees of the National Trust, in whose care the house now rests. In a long garden shed they have placed a collection of old tools that the house's original gardeners would have used. I particularly liked the old wooden wheelbarrow and made sure it was prominent in my photograph.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

A rustic opening

One of the charms of old gardens is the aged walls, gates, buildings, fences and other fixtures that are frequently found giving structure to the planting. Judging by its time-worn condition it will be many decades, or perhaps even a century or two, since this doorway-cum-gate was erected as a way through the enclosing wall. It seems to be still in use, together with the new sign, welcoming visitors to the garden and the house beyond.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Pheasant in the garden

Recently we had a cock pheasant (of the ringed-necked variety) in our garden. It stayed long enough to explore and feed on the fallout from the seed dispensers. It was the first pheasant to visit the back garden since we moved into the house. At our previous house pheasants were reasonably common. One cock bird took to roosting in a conifer in our garden one winter. It would arrive each evening with a loud call as it took up it place in the branches. At the house prior to that one I went out of the front door one day and disturbed a golden pheasant that was rooting about in the shrubbery - a very unusual sight outside of an aviary or specialist collection, and one that makes the sight of a common pheasant seem even commoner.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Weston Hall, Weston under Penyard

 
Most of Weston Hall at Weston under Penyard, Herefordshire, is said to date from around 1600, though it has been suggested it is a later build of c.1650. The arms of the Nourse family and the symmetrical plan, mullioned windows, characteristic doorways, drip moulds and finials all point to the seventeenth century. There are later additions of the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, with the most recent structure (dated 2000) a circular, ornamental gazebo with a tall ogee top. This photograph, that shows one of the formal gardens, was taken through a gate in the roadside wall.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Complementary colours

Gardeners who eschew subtlety, who desire impact, and want colours that look their strongest, plant with complementary colours in mind. Today's photograph is an example of this with the proximity of the yellow sunflowers and the purple verbena rigida seeming to deepen the colour of each and powerfully catching the eye.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Garden table and chairs

In our back garden we have three benches, a table and four chairs. When I summarise the seating in this way it seems somewhat excessive. However, it's good to be able to choose whether to sit in sun or shade as well as have the opportunity to change your viewpoint of the garden. The oldest of the three benches must be around twenty five years old and the newest was bought last year. The table and chairs in the photograph are two years old and often throw interesting shadows on the paving. I had thought to convert this image to black and white but on balance I prefer the subdued colour.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Forget-me-not

The forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica) is a perennial flower that, once resident in your garden, is likely never to depart, hence, I imagine, its name. It is a plant with which I have a love-hate relationship. I like its flowers, a welcome splash of light blue in spring and early summer, and I like the fact that birds benefit from its plentiful seeds. However, those seeds also ensure that the plant spreads itself around your garden and requires too much (albeit not difficult) attention to keep it where you want it. The example in the photograph is from my current garden.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Pavilion revisited

Seven years ago I photographed one of the two garden pavilions that form part of a water feature in the formal gardens of Hampton Court Castle in Herefordshire. On a recent return visit, accompanied by two of our grandchildren and their parents, I photographed the pavilion again, this time in brighter weather and including more of the surroundings which have now matured nicely.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Euphorbia

Over the years I've had a love-hate relationship with the plant, Euphorbia. I like the shapes and colours that have been bred by plantsmen, I like its vigour, the fact that it thrives in semi-shade, and its tolerance of moist conditions. However, that vigour can turn to invasiveness and the plant can squeeze out other species. Moreover, it attracts the sort of pests that are not always welcome in a garden, and every variety has sap that is an irritant on the skin, so careful handling is required. There is definitely a place for some of the more striking varieties in a large garden. In a smaller garden the case isn't as strong. The variety shown above is Euphorbia griffithii "Fireglow": its name says it all.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

The Almonry, Evesham

The site of the Benedictine Evesham Abbey is in the town centre on high ground overlooking the River Severn. Within the abbey precincts are, oddly, the town's two medieval parish churches. Of the abbey itself the only substantial remnant is a sixteenth century bell tower. However, there are plentiful fragmentary structures of which one of the most interesting is the Almonry. This domestic building of stone and timber-framing dates from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries and today is a small museum with a very eclectic collection of exhibits. It was formerly the residence of the abbey's almoner, an official charged with the distribution of alms to the poor. The photograph was taken in the Almonry's enclosed garden.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Redwing

No sooner had I prepared the post of the fieldfare than the other member of the thrush family that visits us in winter made an appearance in the garden - the redwing (Turdus iliacus). Smaller than its associate, and with distinctive red/orange flanks and underwing as well as a distinctive eye stripe, the redwings posed for me just as conveniently as the fieldfares. Both species had been drawn to our garden by the leftovers from a meal we had given to our grandchildren and a dish of water.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Fieldfare

This photograph of a fieldfare in the garden is not the best bird photograph I've taken. It doesn't show all of the features of the species, the background is fussy, the light doesn't model it well - I could go on. However, it pleases me because it says something about this winter visitor to our islands that a technically better shot might not. There was thick snow on the ground, hence the lighting of the lower body, the temperature was -3 Celsius, the birds feathers are fluffed to conserve heat, and it surveys the surroundings for food. It is only in extreme weather that I ever see fieldfares in the garden and my close views of the bird often mirror this photograph.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Garden pavilions

I know a few people with garden pavilions, small, wooden structures, often open at one or more sides, sometimes with a door and windows. They offer somewhere to sit and admire the garden, perhaps have a cup of tea or and alfresco snack. No one I know, however, has one quite as grand as this example at Melford Hall in Suffolk. Built of brick with a tile roof in 1559 it is contemporary with the great house and from its upper floor offers a fine view of that Tudor building as well as the garden by its perimeter wall.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

A rowing boat as eye-catcher

A visit to the gardens of Beth Chatto, near Colchester in Essex, produced the photograph above. The pond is one of a series that have been created on a slope in the garden and it features this rowing boat. I imagine the boat is used with serious intent only occasionally. However, it supplies a semi-permanent focal point in this section of the garden as an eye-catcher. Most garden eye-catchers are on land; statues, pavilions,mock ruins, sun dials, etc are typically used. Where there is water it can be a boat house on the shore, a fountain or perhaps a building on an island. I've never seen a  boat used in this way before, but it works, not only for this section of garden, but also for a photograph.

 photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10