Canopy

After my quick diversion to Derbyshire for Alphabe-Thursday, I'm back posting in Yorkshire with more beech trees, only this time at Harlow Carr. Beautiful!

Sunlight on fern fronds

The first thing I discover when I begin to read up about ferns, is that there is a plethora of Latin vocabulary! I did Latin at school for two whole years and the only phrase I can remember with any clarity is 'Canis est in atrium'. Very useful, if you have a dog. Or a hall. Or a dog and a hall.

Of course, like most of us, I've rubbed shoulders with bits of Latin here and there, but not a lot of it is helpful in the whole scientific classification of the species thing. Maybe I should just stop researching and say that I took this photo because I thought that the light shining through the leaves looked pretty.  It is true! I love the brightness and the shadows with the sun spotlighting the fronds.

Well, ok, maybe a bit more about ferns, because they are quite interesting in their own unique way. It's nice and alliterative, so here are...

 Five Fascinating Facts about Ferns

1. First of all, I'm highly unlikely to be able to tell you what kind of fern this is because there are 64 species native to the British Isles. The largest group of ferns are the leptosporangiate; and when I say they are the largest, I mean that there are about 9000 living species of them worldwide, whereas the other three groups have about 260 between them!

2. Ferns have been around for a while. There are fossils dating back 360 million years, although many of the species we have around today are youngsters at a paltry 145 million years.

3. Ferns do not flower, they reproduce using spores which grow on the underside of the leaves. These are shed, and as they germinate, they grow into small heart shaped plants known as prothalli. Prothalli produce both male and female cells and, after fertilisation, the adult fern begins to develop

4, Ferns have four main habitats; woodlands, crevices in rocks, bogs and swamps and tropical trees; all fairly marginal locations which are less favoured by plants needing softer conditions. One of Britains most invasive ferns is bracken, which can be seen throughout our woodlands and damper hillsides. I like bracken :)

 

5. Final fact! In Victorian times, garden fern collections became extremely popular, to the extent that wealthier garden owners would build specially designed glasshouses known as ferneries in which they housed their collections.

(I so should have saved this for Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday 'F' in about 6 weeks time! RATS!)

The bug bivi

This is a bug bivi; a 'multi-habitat', suitable for a wide variety of insects, plus other small animals.

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and the Wildlife Trusts have teamed up in a drive to encourage more wildlife into our gardens. The partnership supplies information about wildlife habitats and gives ideas for projects. It also sends out a monthly newsletter to interested parties. There are ideas of things to do in two hours (e.g. a bee hotel), or a weekend (e.g. plant a night scented garden), as well as wildlife encouraging habits to develop all year round.

This bug bivi is a simplified version of a weekend project; the Bug Mansion. It is made using a structure of wooden pallets infilled with clay pipes, rocks, bricks, sticks... I love the way they have used an old plastic bat and what looks like a tube for rice cakes. This infilling stuff helps the bivi to keep its structure as it decomposes and settles over time. Into all of the nooks and crannys now goes the 'bedding'; straw, pine cones, hollow plant stems, seed heads; creating all of the damp dark spaces which the bugs and amphibians love to inhabit.

The final step is to cover the pallets with a layer of polythene to keep out the worst of the weather and add a top layer of turf, creating a perfect home for all kinds of bugs and amphibians.

If you want more ideas about how to attract wildlife into your garden, take a look at the Wild about Gardens website, here and see what you can do.

Incidentally, I think this beats all of the sculptures hands down and I'm seriously considering what I can do to attract more wildlife into my garden.

The angel and the fly

These two, I love; although, once my friend had pointed out the resemblance between the body of the angel and a wasp, I do find the lower half of this one a bit sinister. The wings and upper body are beautifully done though.

And this one is brilliant because it is just plain gross!! The feet and the eyes are so lifelike. Imagine this crawling over your barbecue!

I suspect that I would find walking round here in the dark a bit disturbing.

Sculptures

Today and tomorrow, I'm going to post photos of sculptures which were dotted around Harlow Carr. These two were in the modern garden.

One of these I really like. The other I'm not so keen. What are your opinions?

Gardens through time

Near Harrogate in North Yorkshire is Harlow Carr, the most northerly of the four gardens owned by the Royal Horticultural Society. Originally set up by the Northern Horticultural Society, who leased the land from Harrogate Corporation and opened it as a botanical gardens in 1950, it came under the umbrella of the RHS when the two bodies merged in 2001. Although not huge, Harlow Carr has grown from its original size; more than doubling the space available to reach its present size of 27.5 hectares.

Amongst the features added in the gardens since the merger, is the Gardens through Time section, which charts the development of gardening through history and came about as a result of a BBC television programme of the same name (2004). Today's photographs are a couple of samples of what is on offer in these mini gardens.

A shelter from the Regency period.

This was the time when landscape gardening came into its own and visiting gardens became a national pastime. It also saw the birth of the lawn mower; invented by Edwin Budding in 1830 and replacing the rather more labour intensive scythe! (By 1858, more than 7,000 lawn mowers had been sold!) Capability Brown is the most famous name from this time.

I like the way that this shelter blends in with its surroundings, with the bark covered wood and thatched roof. But I also like the geometric patterns of the carvings. They take away the plainness of the structure and make it something more attractive.

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Oriental influences have been evident in English gardens from as long ago as Medieval times, when the crusaders brought back tales of the gardens they had seen. Harlow Carr has a specimen garden dedicated to the influence of the Orient, which includes this eye catching pagoda.

The word pagoda is a generic term used to describe a tiered tower with  multiple eaves. They are common South East Asia; such countries as Japan, China, Korea, Nepal... Often they were built as places of worship; mainly Buddhist, and were located close to temples. It is usual for a pagoda to be constructed with an odd number of layers and topped by a finial, often decorated with Buddhist symbolism. (The finial also acts as a lightning conductor, though I suspect that this one isn't really high enough for lightning to be a problem.)

Bright red pagoda... if memory serves me right, red is meant to be a lucky colour in China.