A Spring Garden

Spring bedding display at Balcarres, Colinsburgh, which was open under Scotland's Garden Scheme.

Daffodils were beginning to fade but it was still a colourful display.

 A display of hellebores.

A patch of primroses in the woodland garden..

 Ferns beginning to uncurl.

My favourite bulb, fritillary.

Fritillary bulbs natualised in the grass.

Ferns on Old Castle Walls

Some ferns find old and crumbling castle walls an excellent habitat. I think that the above fern is the common polypody (Polypodium vulgare)

Common Polypody (on the right) together with maidenhair spleenwort.

Maidenhair spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes) growing in the cracks along the wall. The walls also provide an excellent habitat for mosses and lichens.

Hadrian's Wall III - Chesters Roman Fort

The barracks area at Chesters Fort.
Chesters Fort was built to guard the bridge which carried Hadrian's Wall over the North Tyne.

Part of the the hypocaust heating system.

The Bath House

The niches at the back may have been storage areas or held statues.

A view of the bath house from the trees.

The old Roman walls and stonework provide a habitat for lichen, moss, ferns and other plants.

A lichen covered stone.

Lichen and wall rue in this shady corner.

Acorn Bank Garden and Watermill

Last week visited Acorn Bank a National Trust Property near Temple Sowerby in Cumbria. The gardens and woodland cover an extensive area. They include a watermill and an outstanding herb garden of medicinal and culinary herbs.

Part of the garden at Acorn Bank.

The watermill.

The waterwheel.

Ferns cover the wall at the side of the steps to the mill.

A selection of culinary herbs growing in a trough in the walled herb garden.

It was late in the season so not many plant flowering in the herb garden. This was one of the exceptions poke root (Phytolacca americana).

Sweet Joe Pye. (Eupatorium purpureum)

Bowles mint in flower.

 A small sycamore tree in the woodland. The back spots are caused by the fungus sycamore tar spot (Rhytisma acerinum).

Tiny bantam hens roaming free in the garden.

A coal tit on on of the many bird boxes.

Some Channel Island's Flora

Wall pennywort
As they are both coastal regions many of the wild flowers in Guernsey and Herm were the same as those which grow in Fife. However, this one wall pennywort or navelwort (Umbilicus rupestris), which was growing in profusion, occurs mainly in South West England and the Channel Islands.

Wall pennywort growing on fallen tree trunks on Herm.

A geranium species.

The purple geranium contrasts well with the orange marigold.

Scarlet pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis).

 A stunning wild flower carpet on Herm of thyme, viper's bugloss, birds foot trefoil and hawkweed.

 Sheeep's bit scabious (Jasiona montana). I think that the yellow flowers are hawkweed.

A colourful bank of sea-daisies (Erigeron glaucus) and mesembryanthemums.

St Peter Port daisy (Erigeron karvinskianus). Plants were introduced into Britain in the 1830s from Mexico, as garden plants. The first record of it becoming naturalised comes from St Peter Port in Guernsey in the 1860s. It has spread throughout the island ever since, although is probably seen at its best on the walls in the town. It is quite frequent in the south of England.

 Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

Two small ferns growing in a wall. I think that the one above is wall-rue and the lower one hart's tongue fern.

 Lichen covered rocks together with  mesembryanthemums.