Let the sunshine in!

You can see in the above photo the newest leaves on the Tetrapanex Rex unfurling- the reason why the sun is shining so nicely through them is that I have cut down some of the branches of the Sycamore tree that you can see behind it.

The tree is on our boundary on the south side of the plot so casts quite a lot of shade at the back of the garden. The branch actually was about 20ft tall! So when it fell there was a real danger of it it flattening alot of plants in my garden! Luckily while i was on next doors shed roof sawing the branch P was down in the garden to catch the huge branch!

Luckily the branch fell slowly and a Bamboo and Arundo donex took the brunt of the branch.

Now something i didnt see happening after the cutting down the branch was that along with the branch fell literally thousands of Greenfly that covered all the plants and pots below in the garden- however the chickens got a welcome snack of greenfly from the pots- and despite the insects small size the hens were easily able to pick them from the pots.



The mini greenhouse is full of baby vegetables ready for being planted out on the allotment in a few weeks time.


The Persicaria Red Dragon has been moved from the sunny border into the shade and seems to be doing well so far- also in this photo is the Mouse plant, Astillboides tabularis, Bugle and a Schleffera impressa.


The Maiden Hair Spleenwort has pushed up its new leaves- and really glad i chose to plant it up in a pot rather than plant it out. Hopefully it will fill out much more over the summer.

This is one of my Dicksonia antarcticas- this is a potted plant- and sends up a larger set of fronds than any of my treeferns which have been planted out. It is also grown in full sun- its a lovely plant.

The Cyathea cooperii I got from Fibrex has been potted up- and become the central plant in the garden. You can also see to the left of the fern in the blue pot the flowers of the Sarracenia flava var Maxima.

Here is the large Aloe I bought from CGF, and also the Purple Aeonium, Echeveria and Agave attenuata from the plant swap. Now when i bought the Aloe it had a label but its disappeared since getting it home- any ideas what type it is?

The beautiful Adiantum aleuticum 'imbricatum' I got from Fibrex nursery. Trying to decide whether to grow it in a pot or plant it in the fern bed under the Dicksonia antarctica. Im thinking it might be a bit dry in the fern bed.

These Asarum europaeum will be planted out in the shade borders. Ive been looking for the plants for ages after seeing them in the Natural History museum wildlife garden! I love the shiny evergreen leaves.

Akamba!!

Last Saturday I met up with fellow Blogger - Julia (from We're going to need a bigger pot) and we both went to a HTUK forum meet at a brilliant tropical plant nursery in Birmingham called Akamba- Julia had rashly offered me a lift up in her car- but luckily for her she didnt mind my frequent rambling and indeed I think we chattered non stop for about 5 hours there and back!










At Akamba I met up with a lot of friends from around the country who all have a shared interest in growing tropical plants in the UK from the HTUK forum. It was a beautiful day, and was lovely to catch up with many friends who I hadn’t seen for a year or 2! and met many new faces that perhaps I only knew as user name or avatar in cyberspace. I think in all we were at the nursery for 4 hours and I reckon we left early compared with most people!


Can you spot me?- probably not!- there were quite a few of us! We even were given name tags!



Frank and Me engrossed in plant talk


I resisted in buying any plants from Akamba (something not many people managed to do!). However after leaving there was a swap in the car park where people bring their spare plants to give away or swap to others. I was able to get 2 Tetrapanex 'Rex' pups (as mine hasnt pupped yet- one for the sunny side of the garden and one for P's mum), a purple Aeonium, and an Echeveria subrigida.


Frank and Julia

Myself, Julia and Frank decided to go 2 more nurseries on the way home the first was Fibrex- which is a nursery which specialises in Ferns and hold the national collection of Hedera, Pelagonium- and I bought a Cyathea cooperii and some smaller ferns (an Adiantum aleuticum 'imbricatum' and 3 smaller Asplenium scolopendrium muricatum, and once we had our fern fix we headed off to CGF- Cotswold Garden Flowers which has loads (and I mean LOADS!) of gems- i bought an Aloe, a Sanguisorba 'Tanna' for the grass garden, and 2 Asarum europaeum for the shady border.

I will add photos when I can of the visit! I fell in love with a metal crocodile- it was just the price tag that held me back! Thanks to Nick and Lucien for the photos above.

A Hedge in a Box!

So I was up at 6:45 this morning so walk round to my local Post Office depot to pick up my native hedge that I ordered online last week.

It actually arrived yesterday but the postman didn't knock, and when I left for work all I found was the red note on the doormat indicating he had been- how infuriating!! As my bare root trees would now have to sit in the depot for a whole day extra without water- just because the postman didn't knock on the door! I was in!

So I picked up the box about 7 this morning – it was pretty heavy (its times like this i wish i had a car) and took it home to pot up the plants before I headed off to work.

They were very well packaged and no major damage at all to the plants only 1 snapped side branch- even better i dont think i knocked off any buds when unpacking or potting up the plants- which I thought was amazing considering they were all tied together and i manage to knock off my Japanese Acers buds reckless abandon when walking past the pot as im so clumsy! (speaking of Japanese Acers- of my potted plants my autropurpureum on the side of the pond i discovered to my horror is covered in scale insect on its stems and trunk- i must do something baout it this weekend). This hedge is destined to be put up on the allotment- so they would have to be potted up for a few weeks before they can be planted up there. I only had half a bag of compost- so I ended up putting the 33 plants together in 6 pots.

I bought the plants from Danny from Botanica (http://www.botanica.org.uk/), who are based in Suffolk. Was very impressed with the quality of the plants and the customer service received.

So onto the good stuff- what did I get?????

Note the 30 pots of Asparagus to be planted out on the allotment!

Well I figured rather than buy a Hawthorn or Blackthorn based hedge- go for a complete mix of species which should encourage a broader range of wildlife.

So I got:
Field Maple (Acer campestre)
Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)
Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa)
Common Crab Apple (Malus sylvestris)
Guelder Rose (Viburnum opulus)
Spindle Tree (Euonymus europaeus)
Wayfairing Tree (Viburnum lantana)
Dog Rose (Rosa canina)
Field Rose (Rosa arvensis)
Hazel (Corylus avallana)
Common Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica)
Wild Pear (Pyrus communis)
Wild service tree (Sorbus torminalis)
Scots Rose (Rosa spinosissima)
Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris)
Silver Birch Tree (Betula pendula)
Rowan (Sorbus acuparia)

That's 17 species in total and 2 of each species- I think I will let the birch grow into trees but the rest will be grown in the hedge.

Im trying to decide how high the hedge should be- I think I will let it grow to about 4 feet- this should provide some privacy from neighbouring plots but not too tall to block out the light.

Anyhow- am very pleased so far with the delivery and cant wait to get them planted out! Roll on the 4 day weekend!

RHS Greener Gardening Show - 31st March

Forgot to put up some photos of the Greener Gardening show here in London.

Its the last RHS show till the autumn now which seems bizarre as spring has hardly even started yet!

My camera was on some wierd mode so some of the photos have a blue tinge to it- but hope you dont mind!

There was supposed to be a green theme to the show, so along with the main display which was a show of how schools can create wildlife habitat in minimum of space by creating a vertical display, there was a bee keepers stand, a froglife stand and a hedgehog stand.

I couldnt believe myself- i didnt buy a single plant! Not one! I am not sure what was going on- I can normally persuade myself to part with cash so easily for plants! I think ive been thinking about my allotment alot recently so i reckon thats why i decided not to buy any normal garden plants. I was tempted by some Lamiums and a Lathyrus species from Hardy's plants but at £6 a pot i decided to give it a miss!

Columbia Road

I went to Columbia Road Flower Market this morning. My favourite spot in East London!

Its the first time ive been since last summer- and have been looking forward to it- however my bed seemed far to comfy at the hour i intended to wake up- so didnt arrive at the market till 9:30 which meant it was already really busy. But the sun was out and it was good to be out and about so i didnt mind.

You have 2 options really with Columbia road- get there really early (ie 7:30-8am) and get the best bargains and beat the crowds, or go late ie 2pm when the traders are closing up and see if there are any bargains that the stall holders dont want to take home with them. I always opt for the early bird session i cant resist the thought of perhaps missing something 'if only id gone earlier!'

I went looking for some more plants for the different borders and wasnt dissapointed with the choice. However its quite obvious the current trend for exotic plants is still big with palms, orange trees, strelitzia, and treeferns available on most stalls. Primulas and Pansies seemed to be the plants of the moment with most stall holder shouting out deals on these- "6 for a fiver!"

As i'd hoped there would be there were a couple of stalls selling freshly dug up perennials (5 for £5) and bought 3 Echinacea purpurea and 2 Rudbeckia 'Goldsterm'- although after the guy had put them all in a bag i changed one Rudbeckia for another as it only had 2 growth points ("There all the same mate" said the stall holder- err no the're not im not buying an apple here, they may only be £1 each but im not getting a rubbish one just cos you gave it to me!). I walked past the stall later and saw he had Echinacea 'Magnus' next to his E. purpurea and hoped id bought the normal species as 'Magnus' will probably be too tall for the border- never mind though.

I also bought a small Pteris cretica albolineata fern for £1, and then from the bulb stall, hooray i found a plant i thought it was too late in the year to buy as a bulb- Allium spaerocephalon bulbs - 20 for £2 these were just shooting, i know its a little late to be buying these but they were cheap and I hope will catch up soon! these will go in the grass garden.


Then a stall id passed on the way in but decided to come back to it, the guy had a lovely range of plants for sale- i perhaps could have bought more but decided not too today. I got 2 Digitalis ferruginea for the grass garden, Cephalaria gigantea for the butterfly border this is loved by bees, an Angelica with purple leaves (the guy wasnt sure of the species) for the butterfly border, and a large Pteris(?) fern which for the life of me I cant think of its latin or common name (its got a label on the pot but its not the correct name!)- will have to get a photo up to get an id. Its in the large pot on the back left of the group.

Update just got an id for my Fern it is Dryopteris sieboldii its an evergreen Japanese fern. Thanks Steve!

I got my plant buying fix for the month!!

Shopping Expedition!

Went to Crews Hill in Enfield today looking for plants for 3 different parts of the garden.

Crews Hill is a great place to visit as on one road (Cattlegate Road) there must be about 15 garden centres and pet stores one after the other- you can spend hours there if you felt like it (and quite often we do!).

So apart from being a great way to spend a sunday (in my opinion! not the other halfs!) we were looking for plants for:

The Shade Bed
The Butterfly Bed
and the Grass/Prairie Bed

Now I have to say even I was surprised at how many plants I bought today- but in my defence most were in the reduced section for £1 or £2- and all the plant I bought were ones I had pre-written down on my list. Well apart from the Eremurus and the Maidenhair Spleenwort(Asplenium trichomanes) but they were just cool plants!

We first stopped at Woldens where I picked up a couple of Achillea 'Credo's which are a pale lemon yellow colour and some Sea thistles (Eryngium planum) for the Grass garden, and a yellow Eremurus and and 3 small pots of Ox-Eye daisies for the Butterfly border. For the shade border I got 4 Athyrium otophorum 'Okanum' ferns, and Maidenhair Spleenwort. And also a double purple Hellebore for my mum for mothers day.

Onto the 2nd nursery Oz Ferns- here we picked up an Oregano and Chives for the butterfly border, and 2 Dryopteris alata and 1 D. affinis ferns. The best buys were some great Stipa tenuissima grasses for £3.50- i bought 6 pots of this. Also some over flowing pots of Bugle for ground cover the shade border (and its flowers are great for insects).

Last visit was to the Gardening Club next door, you have to be a member to go in here- but its well worth the £5 yearly entry. I made a beeline for the reduced plants trolley by the tills and to my delight found a whole trolley full of grasses and ferns reduced to £1 or £2 a pot. Excellent!

So here I decided to splash out and bought loads of them- they were practically giving them away i told myself! The ferns were £2 each- i got 9 more Athyrium otophorum 'Okanum' (i know this is now 12 in total- as id bought 4 earlier! but they are great plants and i want to go for the block planting look), 2 Lady ferns (Athyrium felix-feminia), 3 Athyrium felix-feminia 'Friselliae' (i dont actually really like this fern but didnt realise what it was until i got it home), and 3 Polystichum setiferum (i love this fern!).

The grasses were £1 each and so I got 3 Carex 'Bowles Gold' for the shade border, 3 Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln', and 3 Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' for the grass border.

I also picked up 2 Sedum 'Herbstrude' aka Autumn Joy, and a Yellow Lupin for the butterfly border too.

Most people were looking in our trolley very curiously- to them it probably looked like we had a load of dead plants in our trolley!

Oh plus 3 bags of manure, 2 bunches of tulips, and a big 20kg bag of Chicken Food.

So it hadnt even got to 11:45 yet so I had done very well I reckoned! So we went home (i doubt anything else would have fitted in the car!

Back at home and unpacked we had about 20 mins before it started to rain so we fixed the last 2 pieces of trellis on the fences and let the chickens out for a run around. Herminone got spooked by something and started squawking alot but couldnt see what she was moaning about- i got everyone back inside though when it started pelting down as didnt fancy staying out in the rain to supervise them!

Planning on a relaxing evening in front of the tv and the Natures Greatest Events program- think its the sardines tonight! :)

The Garden

I thought i'd show you some photos of the garden - we have been in the house 3 years now- the time has gone so quickly- I cant believe it- the house and the garden was a tip when we moved in and its been fun sorting it out.

Heres a photo of what it looked like when we moved in!

And now some taken last summer 2 years on. Everythingyou see had to be carried through the house as there is no side return- we even had to dismantle our new kitchen to manhandle 30 8ft Karri Wood Sleepers through the house to make the beds!

As you can see I love my tropical plants- we have Hardy Bananas (Musa basjoo and Musa sikkimensis), Treeferns (Dicksonia antartica), Palm trees, Bamboos lots of ponds and a lot of plants in pots!

Ive got a couple of favourite plants one is my Grass tree (Xanthorrhoea glauca) a native of Australia in New South Wales and Queensland, and is hardy over here in the UK.


The other is my Black Tree fern (Cyathea medullaris) again another plant from Australia and New Zealand- but sadly not hardy- I have killed many of these plants- but I keep persevering in the hope that one day I will be able to get a plant with a tall trunk as seen here when I was on holiday in Tresco in the Isles of Scilly! In the mean time ive got my baby plant to grow!