Old School Garden

In readiness for my new monthly visit blog postings for 2017 we have visited Attingham Park our subject for next year a few times during the late autumn and early winter to walk the paths and introduce them to you. Today it is the turn of the World War II Walk, a walk we had […]

via A Walk in the Park – 3 -The WW2 Walk — greenbenchramblings

I got close to a substantial Joshua tree a few miles north of Barstow, California, on October 25. Despite the common designation of “tree” based on the presence of bark and a sturdy trunk, the scientific name Yucca brevifolia tells us that the plant is actually a yucca. Surprise. A closer look at a cluster […]

via A botanical surprise — Portraits of Wildflowers

Petworth, west Sussex 7 January – 12 March 2017 Some of Britain’s greatest watercolours will come to the National Trust’s Petworth in West Sussex for an exhibition that explores JMW Turner’s leading role in shaping this uniquely British art form. The exhibition will display watercolours by Turner himself alongside stunning works by artists who inspired […]

via New exhibition celebrates Turner and the Age of British Watercolour — National Trust Press Office

Last summer was one of great abundance and today I am looking back at the top 5 best crops from 2016. Although the summer was cooler than the year before the kitchen garden produced well. We had just enough rain that we didn’t have to water often. When you have ten raised beds, that’s a…

via The Top 5 Crops From 2016 — That Bloomin’ Garden

Near to us, a mere half hour drive away is situated the parkland of a National Trust Property called Attingham Park, which is a place we often visit for an afternoon walk. The parkland affords us the opportunity of following different lengths of walk depending on the time we have and how fit we feel […]

via A Walk in the Park – Part One – The Walled Garden — greenbenchramblings

Landlife is an organisation that has been promoting the use of wildflowers to enhance urban environments sine 1999. It has been an important trailblazer in creative conservation and has also worked as a wildflower farmer, growing and supplying native seeds that they sell through their Wildflower Shop at http://www.wildflower.org.uk . It is hoped that some…

via National Wildflower Centre to Close — The Enduring Gardener

Botanically, New Zealand is an extraordinary country. Because it drifted off from the rest of the world so early on, its natural flora is very limited and with the exception of the red flowers of the Metrosideros (New Zealand Christmas Tree), flowers tend to be insignificant, with a natural wooded landscape that is predominantly a…

via Land of the Long White Cloud — The Enduring Gardener

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The Guardian has chosen a National Trust ranger’s picture of a dozing dormouse as one of its pictures of the year. James Robbins, a ranger on the Cotehele Estate, Cornwall, was carrying out his final dormouse survey of the year when he stumbled across the sleeping dormouse in late October. James, who is a licensed […]

via Cotehele dormouse among the Guardian’s pictures of the year — National Trust Press Office

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No one knows for sure how moscatel, a white grape from Egypt, arrived in the Setúbal peninsula, near Lisbon. What we know is that moscatel took to the region producing wines that are perfect to start or end a meal. Over the years, the grape mutated into a new varietal—purple moscatel—that only exists in Setúbal. It […]

via Tasting moscatel in Setúbal — Salt of Portugal

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Summer has finally arrived in the Western Cape and that means exploring time for me!! I just love walking around in the sunshine, be it in a city or in the countryside. In the Western Cape there are tons of beautiful gardens and national parks to go and explore. Driving, along the very beautiful coastal […]

via Flower filled Botanical Garden — Janaline’s world journey