Cool pictures for cold May…
Posted on | May 11, 2010 | 2 Comments
As it is still so bitingly cold outside I thought you might like to see a few close up pictures of plants in my Polytunnel and the garden. As I have said in past blogs – I don’t plant anything out until the third week of May, though unless temperatures warm up considerably, it won’t be until early June that the big plant out takes place. At 5am this morning the garden experienced a rather cool 1C (34F) with a high of 10C (50F) at lunchtime.
If you wonder why I use both Celsius and Fahrenheit – I do this for the benefit of readers in the US who do not use metric! Hi folks…
After such a prolonged cold winter it is rather frustrating that we are experiencing such a prolonged cold spring – the joys of living in England! I must admit I sometimes wonder why I bother growing exotic plants outside when the winter section of the year seems to be so much longer than the summer! I have often been asked why I don’t just sell up and live in the tropics. I suppose the answer has to be that I love the challenge of growing plants on the edge of hardiness with all the heartache and effort required for putting on a show for our rather fickle summer months. When the garden explodes in July, August and September, I then know, it has been worth all the effort and I’m sure most other British exotisists (not sure if that is a real word or not) would agree.
While I am thinking about it, I must give a plug for two exotic forums here in the UK www.hardytropicals.co.uk and www.growingontheedge.net both forums give grass-roots information on just about anything you can think. They are a friendly bunch of enthusiasts who freely share the trials and tribulations of growing exotics in their own gardens, especially through such a hard winter.
Whatever the weather throws at us this coming week, we must make the most of it and get out in the garden…
Cool start for May….
Posted on | May 3, 2010 | 6 Comments
I hope you have enjoyed my foray into the wonderful world of video. As the season goes on more videos will appear and if there is anything that you would especially like me to talk about, please do let me know – as long as it is legal!
Now it’s time to go back to traditional blogging with words and pictures. It’s rather chilly today as we have turned back to a northerly wind flow for the next few days or more – the joys of living in temperate Britain! As promised, I have attached a few pictures of my now deceased Agaves for your delectation, though I don’t wish to dwell on last winter’s losses. I should be out in the garden at the moment; but today’s temperatures feel as though winter is back again and I seem to have become a wimp when it comes to cold weather and unsurprisingly my cats feel the same!
My only heated Polly tunnel is now at bursting point with tender perennials and annuals ready to go out into the garden, in fact it is now difficult to walk through without tendrils rapping around my legs! I will have to use a machete to get through if it doesn’t warm up soon. At lunchtime the outside temperature was a rather frigid 8C (48F) though without heat it is it is a cosy 20C (68F) in the tunnel under cloudy conditions. Last week I pulled some 50% shade netting over the roof as despite the cool outside temperatures the sun is fierce when shining, easily raising the inside temperature beyond the comfort level for most of the plants I grow. One day last week I wasn’t able to open the doors until midday, only to find many plants wilting at an oven-like 41C (105F)
Most of the garden has been cleared ready for the big plant up in a few weeks time, so meanwhile I have been concentrating on the bamboo garden which was planted ten years ago and has grown way beyond my expectations. My idea was to have a bamboo forest – I just didn’t realize how quickly some of them would grow, hence a campaign of removal has been taking place in recent weeks, digging up and reducing some of the more invasive species to a more manageable size. Where they have taken over grass paths and due to drought and shade, there is now only bare soil, hence I spent yesterday re-sowing the paths with fresh seed which should hopefully produce lush green paths by the first garden open day of the season in mid June. Gardening is certainly a labour of love!
Part of the xerophytic garden before the plastic cover was removed...
Liam and Jamey peeling back the polythene covering on a warm sunny day last week...
Jamey removing the last of the polythene without falling off a five foot high wall!
In March all the Agaves that follow looked fine, probably because they were still thawing out and looked good just like freshly thawed frozen vegetables! Now with warmer weather they have totally collapsed and turning to mush...
Jamey pulling one of the leaves off my largest Agave - now diseased...
The remnants of a large Agave Americana ready for removal...
Amazingly some Agave's like this group have survived without a mark!
Enough of death! Here is a plant that is beautiful and alive, one of my tree ferns - Dicksonia Antarctica coming into new seasons growth...
Pieris forrestii 'Forest Flame' in all it's spring glory...
Fresh new growth on a Kiwi vine Actinidia deliciosa Growing over an old Victorian Pergola...
At the other end of my 60ft long pergola is a large clematis armandii covered in thousands of flowers with a divine scent, looking absolutely gorgeous in late evening light...
And finally – a small gargoyle who lives in a knish by one of the entrances to the garden...
Have a great week in the garden - whatever the weather decides to throw at us…
New Video: New growth on the Tree Ferns in the Exotic Garden
Posted on | April 27, 2010 | 2 Comments
Taking a look at the tree ferns growing in the Exotic Garden
Tags: exotic garden > growing > new growth > tree fern > tree ferns > video
New Video: How to protect your Hostas from slugs and snails
Posted on | April 26, 2010 | 5 Comments
Have a look at our latest video for growing Hostas in containers, and protecting them against slugs and snails to get a fantastic show this summer.
Tags: hostas > how to > protect > protecting > slugs > snails > vaseline > video
The first new Exotic Garden videos now online!
Posted on | April 24, 2010 | 4 Comments
This is the first of a series of videos we are going to make here at the Exotic Garden in Norwich that I am producing with Chris Ridley and his new Canon 5D MK2. Please bear with us as we hopefully become more professional in the weeks and months to come. Your views and input will be greatly received and if there is anything you would particularly like me to talk about, please let me know – enjoy…
There are also more of our Exotic Garden videos here.
Click here for more Exotic Garden videos.
Tags: bromeliads > cannas > canon 5dmk2 > chris ridley > Exotic Plants > exotics > gardening > gardening videos > tropical gardening > video > will giles
