Feathery friends – EDP Newspaper – Aug 23rd 2008
When I moved into my house way back in 1982, apart from the large amount of borage, brambles and couch grass, there were several old clumps of the common Male fern Dryopteris filix-mas and some of those ancient clumps are still in the garden today.
Along with bracken this is the commonest British fern, found in [...]
Exotic giants with a history – EDP Newspaper Aug 16th 2008
Until the latter part of the 20th century prehistoric tree ferns were rare in the British Isles, apart from some of the well-known stands in Cornwall and other southerly parts of England and of course ‘Inverewe Gardens’ in Scotland where they are bathed in the winter by warmth from the Gulf stream and where I [...]
Grassy glories – EDP Newspaper Aug 9th 2008
Grasses are not normally associated with exotic or subtropical style gardens, which is a shame because they add movement and height to the garden with many of them looking exceedingly tropical in nature. As such they make a good substitute for plants that we can’t grow in our temperate gardens such as the more tropical [...]
To Boldly Grow – EDP Newspaper Aug 2nd 2008
There is a plethora of paths that you can take with any kind of gardening, let alone in the exotic style, and especially with the vagaries of our delightful, though rather erratic, British weather. Whatever anyone says to you, there simply are no rules, only those of commonsense and an awareness of your plants’ provenance [...]
