garden photography: urban spaces

December is the month for Urban floral displays

(Flowers found in Urban spaces – a town square, a flower tub, a hanging basket, a floral clock or any floral display including a public park. And as we are approaching Christmas you could even share with me your town’s Christmas lights)

The Green Man of Norwich Cloisters

This is my last post in the Garden Challenge since next Sunday is Christmas Day. Continuing my journey up the east side of Britain in September, I was delighted to discover this pretty little cathedral herb garden in Norwich. The Benedictine monks grew herbs and used them daily for a variety of purposes; brewing, dyeing cloth, to give flavour to their bland diet and for medicinal use. Herbs would have been strewn on the cathedral floor too during worship to mask the odour of the earth floor and enhance an atmosphere of calm and contemplation.

I wasn’t expecting to see much in the way of colour, but it was lovely to see how the garden was laid out and after the rain everything was nice and fresh.

I loved the pottery signs:

Ladys Mantle

Agrimony

Poppy

Mugwort

Wild Strawberry

Sweet Woodruff

The garden has been recreated with herbs matching as closely as possible those which the monks would have grown. In particular, herbs important to Norwich. There is evidence of a tradition ‘physic’ garden in the variety of medicinal plants.

Two box-hedged ‘knot gardens’ reflect the patterns of the stone tracery of the famous Norwich cathedral roof bosses.

And in keeping with the monks’ tradition of including a space for quiet contemplation there is a small area in the Herb Garden with benches where people can sit and rest.

No sitting for us however, for one thing the benches were wet and we had a riverside walk to complete before the day was over.

Do you have a town park to share? Maybe your town has won an award for its public planting?

If you would like to join in with Garden Photography then please take a look at my Garden Photography Page. No complicated rules🙂

• Create your own post and include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
• Add the tag “GardenChallenge” so everyone can find the posts easily in the WP Reader
• Get your post in by the end of the month. This is the final month of the challenge.
• Please visit the sites in the comments to see what others are posting.

This is my final post for the Garden Challenge, but you still have until the end of the month to post your entry. I hope those of you who have been following have enjoyed the various themes each month and I am especially grateful to every one of you who has joined in. Thank you all for the lovely likes and comments throughout the year. It has been a lot of fun for me and an excuse to feature something a little different on the blog. Only trouble now is thinking about what I am going to do with this blog next year. Any ideas?

Meanwhile I hope you have an enjoyable time, however you choose to celebrate this festive season, and I hope to see you all in the new year.