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! :)

A day in the garden

Spent the day in the garden today- fixing up some more trellis to the top of the fences, and tidying up the garden.

The chickens got a good run around which i know they really enjoy! I dont know what they are actually eating but they are constantly picking at things from the soil and the plants. Ive had to chase them off a few plants like my Digitalis ferruginea and the Gentiana lutea- and im dreading when the hardy orchids come up in! Do chickens eat emerging fern fronds? I guess i will know soon enough.

Cleo seems completely relaxed around the hens, however India still seems to get excited aorund them so im not completely happy to leave them all alone in the garden.

(left to right) Hermione, Susie, Cilla and Cleo the Chocoloate Point Siamese.

I was tidying up some of the pots on the window sill when i noticed the Echeveria agavoides looked like it was sitting strangely in the pot- when i moved it the whole plant came up in my hand- that could only mean one thing- VINE WEEVILS :( I hadnt treated my pots last year with Provado and obviously these grubs have been eating away at the roots all winter. I doubt the plant will recover which is a real shame as its one of the hardier echerverias available.

However I did feel a feel alot better when i fed the grubs to my wiling helpers!

I've been tidying up my carnivorous plant barrel and was pleased to see some flowers beginning to form. The plants remain pretty much evergreen but by the spring the older traps begin to go a bit brown and its easier to cut them off now before the new leaves emerge in the spring- as trying to cut around new leaves always leads to mistakes and i always seem to cut off new leaves by mistake!

Flower buds just emerging on the Sarracenias

The hens are really settling in which is really good to see, Susy and Hermione are happy to feed from my hand but Flo and Cilla are more reserved and prefer to wait back until you scatter food for them. Cilla the Barred Black Rock, who always seemed to be the underdog is beginning to asert herself over Hermione and Flo, through mock threats and runs and some pecking. I know this is normal behaviour with establishing a heirachy but its not nice to see and I hope things settle down soon- it makes it worse as Hermione and Flo just take the pecks and bullying without retaliating which makes it seem worse!

Oh well this is all part of understanding chicken behaviour! Strange creatures!

Oh and lastly my Tree of Life poster came in the post today! You could order it for free as part of the Darwin season on BBC2. Ive stuck it up on my kitchen door! Really pleased with it! :)

Off to Crews Hill tomorrow and hopefully start picking up some plants for the new beds im planning. I need shade lovers, butterfly plants and some grasses for a prairie bed ive decided upon as the new theme for the main bed this year.

Jimmy Doherty- In Darwins Garden!

I've just finished watching Jimmy Doherty in his new series on BBC2 about the experiments of Charles Darwin which he used to explain the processes of Evolution- i thought it was a really interesting and a great introduction to the subject.

The piece that caught my eye was the Cat/Mice/Clover/Bumblebee experiment part.

Jimmy appeared to be bringing in for the experiment 6 hives of Bumblebees with wooden hives.

My dad is taking a Bee course at the moment in preparation for getting his own hive of Honey bees later this year- but i thought a Bumblebee hive was a lovely idea. As well as helping a declining species.

I am currently doing some research to see if I can find somewhere that sells hives with a bumblebee colony aswell- as I may have missed my chance to get a empty hive colonised this year by a wild bumblebee queen.

Will let you know if I get any response from my emails.

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!

The Sirens Tank

At the start of this year id decided it was time to get a larger fish tank. My current tank is actually only about 5 gallons in size, and was home until very recently to a pair of Lesser Sirens (Siren intermedia) and one plucky Zebra Danio.

Sirens are amphibians that look like a cross between and eel and an axolotl. They breathe through gills which are on the sides of their heads, and only have front legs and no back legs. Id never seen them for sale before- so when i saw them for sale back in early 2008 i jumped at them- but they werent to everyones taste in the house!

But i think they were really cool! :)

They eat blood worm and frozen lance fish and seem to locate their food through smell rather than sight. Unfortunately before I realised what was going on I also discovered that they also are caperble of eating Danios. There were originally 4 Danios in the tank aswell however the Sirens obviously decided they looked too much like a snack to them! The one Danio that remained has lived with the fish for about 7 months now and seems to know he is pretty safe with them as often tries to take food from the sirens mouth once they have grabbed it!

I've always wanted to get a larger tank for the lounge with more fish in it- and decided that the Sirens would have to find a new home as I didn't want them to think they could eat all the new fish! So they went to live with a guy who already had a female Siren and was planning to breed them.

Then the chickens got in the way and I decided to put the larger tank on hold for a while until I could save up for the larger tank.

So now Siren-less and with only 1 Danio in the tank I decided to get a few more fish to keep him company, as Danios are naturally schooling fish- I hadn’t bought any more previously as I didn't want them to get eaten. So I went to Crews Hill in Enfield and bought 6 GlowLight Danios, 4 Pencilfish, 3 Otocinclus and 2 Corydoras. These fish all occupy different levels in the tank so do not crowd each other. The Corydoras live on the bottom hunting around the plants and gravel for food. The Ottocinclus feed on algae so spend all their time on the glass walls or on the plants. The Pencil fish are midwater swimmers, and the Danios are Upper Level swimmers.

I also have in the tank 6 Cherry Shrimp- these small invertebrates would be lunch for larger fish but the fish I have are all peaceful and would not consider an adult shrimp as food. They are bright red in colour and also feed on algae like the Otocinclus and any left over food they find. These are beautiful creatures and I have high hopes they will breed in my tank - most shrimp species have a planktonic larval stage where the young just float around in the currents- in an aquariumt hese would soon be sucked intot he filter and killer- but Cherry Shrimps hatch into miniature adults so imediately cling to plants and wont get sucked into the filter. However the little shrimps will have to be quick witted as the fish in the tank will probably consider them as a snack!

New butterfly border for 09

As much as I love the tropical plants I grow in my garden- one thing ive been frustrated about is the lack of flowers in the garden- and I mean specifically flowers that attract butterflies and bees. I was always torn when I started the garden between having a wildlife garden or a tropical garden as the 2 don't really go hand in hand- and as you may see my garden is tiny- I believe it is about 15ft by 30 ft with a side alley where I grow my ferns so it was hard to do both.

Unfortunately the tropicals won! But its time for some changes!

The tropical plants I grow are mainly large foliage plants like treeferns, bananas, palms and bamboos and the flowers (if any) are not good nectar providers. Ive tried growing Dahlias or annuals every now and then but they don't flower that well as they aren’t in the sun.

This year ive decided to remove some of the tropical plants that haven’t done so well after this winter on the right hand side of the garden which is in full sun most of the day. Im leaving the taller plants at the back like the Fig tree, the Trachycarpus fortuneii and the Robinia frisia to still give me the height and privacy from the neighbours. However I will probably remove a couple of Yucca which are growing at the front of the border.

This has given me a space about 8ft by 2ft in full sun- great! Now last year if I had this space it would have been filled with Cannas, Gingers, Dahlias and other exciting tropical species but this years im going for the best nectar providers I can find! Now these don't have to be natives- but simply good sources of food for butterflies and bees.

After a search on the internet I came up with this list as some of the star performers to look out for this spring when im at the garden centres- i wonder how many of these i can fit in the bed!

Verbena bonariensis
Agastache
Echinops ritro
Hyssop (H officianalis)
Marjoram/Oregano
Aster (Aster novae-anglicae)
Ox Eye daisy
Sedum spectabile
Coneflower (Echinacea)
Ironweed (Veronia)
Mint (Apple/Spear)
Thistles (Cirsium and Centaurea)
Monarda
Marigolds
Knautia arvenis (Field Scabious)
Hemp agrimony
Greater Knapweed

Carnivorous plants!

The winter of 07/08 was a bad one for my Agave bed- it is the main bed in my garden and the one you first see when you come into the garden. In the autumn of 07 i'd dug in a lot of grit to improve the drainage, but this disturbance to the plants roots left them more exposed to the cold so a lot died that winter.

Being disheartened, but also excited by the prospect of trying something new- I decided to move away from the drought tolerant succulent plants in the main bed and grow something wanting completely the opposite- lush leaves and moisture lovers.

I decided to it would be a great place to plant out some of my Carnivorous plants- I love these plants and had been building up a small collection of them. Up till then they had their own bog barrel but this was looking a bit full now so a Carnivorous plant area in the new bed was just what I needed!

My old Carnivorous plant barrel:


Sarracenias have a few basic growing requirements in order to keep them happy:
1) Grown in full sun- bogs are generally devoid of tall vegetation so do not grow in shade.
2) Watered only with Rain water
3) The soil is devoid of nutrients- and prefer a 1:1 mix of Peat Moss:Play Sand

Making the bog garden:

The bed has grown really well this year (to be honest it was stuffed to capacity so it certainly filled out easily) however I found that even the small amount of shading the plants got from some gingers and a fern- caused them to loose a lot of the red colouration I was expecting to see on the leaves- so they just turned a plain green colour instead. I look forward to seeing if I can do better with them this year!

My favourite plant- Sarracenia purpurea purpurea- a beautiful plant and very hardy to the cold!

The frog song "Bom bom bom..."

Last night we had some quite heavy rain- which is really relaxing when your trying to get to sleep- but above the rain I heard for the first time this year the frogs calling in the pond outside.

The pond is right by the bedroom window so its really quite easy to hear the frogs when they get going. Unfortunately they seem to prefer the Goldfishes pond over the 3 smaller wildlife ponds which I built specially for the frogs! So as a result we never get any surviving tadpoles.

Our wildlife ponds we have are below:

Last year I dug the newest wildlife pond which is only 3ft by 3ft which was a great hit with the damselflies but the frogs didn't move in- I think if we get any spawn in the goldfish pond I will transfer it over to the wildlife pond so increase the numbers of little frogs in the area.

Our tabby kitten India loves trying to catch the frogs unfortunately- and several times over the summer we have to rescue frogs which have found themselves out of the water and confronted with an over excited tabby kitten! This probably is the reason for the frogs reluctance to move away from the larger and deeper goldfish pond!

We have introduced other amphibians into the garden but it is are harder to see if they are still around. There should be Common Newts and Common Toads in the garden.

I think 4 ponds in a tiny urban garden is more than enough for most people but- i just love them and am wondering where to put number 5!