Old School Garden

We go for years intending to visit a garden but sometimes circumstances dictate otherwise. This is what happened with Ruthall Manor, a Shropshire Yellow Book Garden. After years we finally visited earlier this year in June. The wait was so worth while! First impressions count for a lot when you visit a garden, and a […]

via Ruthall Manor – well worth the wait. — greenbenchramblings

There’s an elegant 17th century palace in Bairro Alto that once belonged to the grandfather of the Marquis of Pombal. The palace, which remains beautiful despite its decadence, was converted into an art center called Carpe Diem in 2009. Hidden inside the center was a cafeteria that served delicious food designed in collaboration with artists. The […]

via Optimism is the best recipe — Salt of Portugal

When is the best time to start my seeds? I know everyone is getting anxious for spring to arrive but there are only a few things you need to get started this month. First let’s look at what is still growing in the garden. The kitchen garden is full of surprises this month. Winter has…

via When is the Best Time to Start My Seeds? — That Bloomin’ Garden

Graham Lee – Archaeology Officer Further to my last blog post, here are some more examples of enthralling LiDAR imagery from the North York Moors. As mentioned previously, the interpretation of features is not necessarily straight-forward since we are not seeing a photograph per se but a series of points joined together by a computer […]

via Impacts of history — The official blog for the North York Moors National Park

This is the last of four posts telling the story of council housing in Walsall. Beyond any local interest, it reflects the dynamics of a wider national history of council housing. That fuller story will be told in my forthcoming book Municipal Dreams: the Rise and Fall of Council Housing which will be published by […]

via Council Housing in Walsall, Part IV: from 1979 to the present — Municipal Dreams

When I started gardening, all the way back in 2001, I was already interested in looking after our planet, and so it was a no-brainer that I would garden organically. Garden Organic (the HDRA as it was called then) and the Organic Gardening Catalogue were two mainstays for me, helping me to learn all about…

via What’s going on at Garden Organic? — The Unconventional Gardener

When Margaret Nettlefold planned the garden at Winterbourne, daughter Valerie revealed that her mother ‘lived with gardening books for a year or so’. Here, the influence of Gertrude Jekyll is inescapable. Winterbourne is filled with Jekyllian detail inspired by her 1899 classic Wood and Garden. Each month, we follow in Margaret’s footsteps to see how the…

via Now and Then: January — Winterbourne House and Garden

We have held memberships of the National Trust for over 40 years and one of the first we took our two children to was Packwood Hall. Packwood is now a firm favourite and we made a visit again this year. The welcome sign describes Packwood as “a house to dream of, a garden to dream […]

via Packwood – one of the stars of the National Trust. — greenbenchramblings

PlayGroundology’s first eight years have gone by in a flash. By the numbers, it’s over 350 posts, 500+ subscribers and closing in on 600,000 site visits from readers in over 140 countries. It appears that the blog is hitting some of the right notes in its writing about play. This hobby, morphed into an unpaid […]

via Reeling Through The Years — PlayGroundology

My chosen garden f0r my monthly visits in 2018 is so much smaller than Attingham Park which we enjoyed throughout 2017. The Dingle is a Nursery just over the border into Wales situated on the edge of the market town of Welshpool. The garden is accessed through a little wooden gate in the bottom left […]

via The Dingle Gardens Month by Month 2018 — greenbenchramblings