Golders Hill Park

           I continue my stories about English gardens I've visited this summer. Golders Hill Park adjoins the West Heath and is on the site formerly occupied by a large house which was bombed during World War II. It was opened to the public in 1898 and has been managed as a historically important park by the City of London since 1989. 
Going up the hill I suddenly saw London's houses, churches, towers. Landscaped grounds were around me containing an expanse of grass and ancient oaks.

 

I'd read a lot about the Golders Hill park so went directly to a duck pond and a small humpbacked bridge above the pond. 

Once I crossed the duck pond bridge I saw families with children feeding ducks, ducklings and geese. Then I went to see a water garden. There were water and bog plants those names I didn't know except poppies, water lilies and irises.

 I loved these flowers, they were everywhere decorating meadow around a pond with yellowish water.

There were many plants growing near the pond and in the water, I realized some of them were new to me. 

The next visit was to a recently renovated small zoo to see animal enclosures, that contains a variety of animals and birds, such as donkeys, rheas, maras, pheasants, ring-tailed lemurs, kookaburras, sacred ibis, big and little egrets, Eurasian eagle-owls and others. I took some pictures of birds and animals those I had seen :

Next to a duck pond the Butterfly House was situated. I'd like to take a look of beautiful tropical species of these fascinating insects but unfortunately it was closed when I came there.

I went back to the hill, sat down on grass and began watching the pictures those I've taken to show you.

There I found wonderful Walled garden, I'll tell in my next post. Stay tuned!

What do you think about such public gardens? 
Did you go to any zoo with your children or grandchildren? 
What do you think when you see birds or animals in cages?

Wordless Wednesday - Aster and Astilbe

I love them!

Garden Flowers and Veggies in Mid-August

It seems summer has remembered about our Northern area and decided to treat us. August is much warmer than June and July, night temps are above 15 C. So all my plants are in their best, grow and blossom. Now is the time of gladioli, lilies, roses and asters. Clematis Rouge Cardinal blooms like crazy, lilies open their buds every day. One lily is deep red I do not remember when I bought it, perhaps it didn't bloom for several years and I forgot about.
This year asters unusually rapidly grow and flower. I like asters, grow them from seed. Asters are planted near the pond among the roses, because I forgot to replant them so now I left them at this place.

I bought this Pelargonium on sale in April, it was a plant with one branch and 6 leaves. Look how it liked growing in the garden and it has interesting flowers. In September I will move my Pelargonium to the city.
Rose 'Swany' blooms the second summer, it winters well that is very important in our climate of rain and frost.

Now I will tell you about this year harvest. My apple trees rest after a heavy crop of the last year, but this apple tree still decided to treat me with small red apples. I do not know how many of them will ripen but now they are falling even immature. Also there is a huge amount of red currant in my garden. I decided to freeze them instead of making jam or jelly.

On a raised bed and in my greenhouse tomatoes began to turn yellow and ripen now but I think if nights are cold again, this process will be delayed. These are 'Shuttle' and 'Gardener's Delight' varieties.

I am glad that a lot of sorrel and parsley has grown on raised beds. I often make sorrel soup and want to also freeze it for winter.

I will probably leave some zucchini and courgette to ripe until the autumn, to harden their skins so they take longer to lay in a storage. The very young ones I use in soup and fry with oil.

 

Before I sat down to write this post I had picked black currants. I did a half-bucket and later will pick a full one. Tomorrow I want to make jelly and leave some berries to eat with ice-cream and cake. 

Now surprise! A miracle of the nature: my gladioli was re-pollinated last year (it was red or white one) and this summer it is the ink-blue one! I would I never have bought such variety.

 
Here is my gazebo, where in hot days I rest, write and read your comments. Clematis Jackmanii makes shadow at sunny morning. 
Which flowers you were surprised this year? What harvest has grown in your garden this summer?

Harmony in a Garden

                  RHS Wisley is well known in many countries Garden center. Therefore I was determined to get a closer look at the beauty of Wisley. When I came there at first I saw two parts of RHS Wisley - the Walled Garden and the White garden, and was surprised by the arrangement of shapes, sizes, colors and textures of plants, blending similarities and differences in proportion to one another.

the Walled garden

the White garden

I've read that 'Harmony is the product of likeness' and 'The success of combinations of opposites always works'. So I could see this product working in Wisley Garden center. One of the first things I noticed was the perfect combination of colors. Then I found a rectangular pool with water plants in different shapes and textures, and a round pool with steps coming down.

 the Walled garden

There were some of the many ways to make harmony and contrast within a planting. These principles also relate to plant colors, shapes, sizes and textures. I wanted to take a closer look as they said that 'Confining the hues in this planting gives harmony to highly contrasting combination or likeness combination'.

 the Walled garden

In my garden I always noticed that evergreen shrubs also borne colors. There in Wisley the deep green conifers provided the perfect backdrop for the burgundy color of the maple. Along the paths I saw many flowers as calla, lilies, heuchera that have given additional colors.

The White garden has been planted with white, silvery, light-yellow and pink plants, here you can see how these shades are contrasted with green, that as always, is the unifying color.

 

 the White garden

Around the both gardens there are some paths, benches, vases, perennials, conifers, maples. Look at how nice these paths are.

In my garden I always try to plant shrubs, perennials and bushes in concordance of colors and texture but I realized that it is difficult for various reasons. The Wisley Gardens have given me examples of combinations that work for every purpose, whether in sun or shade, path or meadow, porch or poolside. 

What do you think about harmony and combination in your own garden? 

P.S. RHS Wisley is situated to south of London, near town of Woking.