Cheltenham Green Doors gardens (some of them)

This weekend, a number of Cheltenham houses & gardens have opened in order to showcase environmentally-friendly technologies & approaches for houses & gardens. I visited a number of the gardens, all of which were not only attractive but also good for birds & insects through use of appropriate plants & gardening techniques.

In the garden at Cleevelands Avenue, use is made of raised beds for growing vegetables; the soil in this garden is naturally very heavy clay & difficult to work, so creating of a raised bed filled with compost has made growing vegetables easier.

Raised bed with broad beans, peas, lettuces, french beans, chicory etc

Within this garden is a mini-orchard, & among the trees the grass has remained uncut to favour wildflowers; the vigour of the grasses is reduced by use of the hemi-parasite Yellow Rattle, Rhinanthus minor.

Rhinanthus minor growing among grasses

View towards mini-orchard with wildflowers underneath

There were many plants attractive to bees, but the bumblebees seemed to love an Echium best

Echium vulgare or possibly Echium lusitanicum polycaulon

The front garden here was particularly pretty:

Chives, forget me nots & alchemilla will be succeeded by lavender & sage: a succession of flowers is particularly favourable in trying to encourage pollinating insects

The next garden at Fieldway, Ham Road is on the edge of town, adjacent to a very pretty meadow. The wildlife pond is a particular feature of this garden:

Wildlife pond, in front Geranium phaeum, loved by bumblebees

Geranium phaeum 'Lily Lovell'

Other plants which I saw being visited by pollinators:

Nepeta

Aquilegia vulgaris

Allium christophii

Iris sibirica

At Grosmont, Charlton Drive, the emphasis is on permaculture. Here were some fine tomato plants watered by a drip-irrigation system fed by tanks filled with collected rainwater:

Tomatoes watered by rainwater-fed drip-irrigation system

Mixed cropping in the greenhouse with Calendula to encourage pollinators

Comfrey, Symphytum, very good for pollinating insects & also very good for making liquid fertiliser 'comfrey tea'

This was also the garden with its own beehive:

Beehive in a sheltered spot

The final visit was to Garlands on Cudnall Street. Here is a really pretty garden, filled with flowers & buzzing with pollinators.

The main border with many pollinator-friendly plants, including Erysimum 'Bowles' Purple', Euphorbia oblongata, Allium christophii, Anchusa, Nectaroscordum siculum

This might be Ranunculus acris 'Sulphureus', but it was exceedingly pretty

Anchusa variety

A very bad photo of a good plant: Linaria dalmatica, very long-flowering, loved by bees

Euphorbia oblongata

Lavandula stoechas, a dwarf variety