Like many gardeners we always have one eye on the weather forecasts, and with sunny weather heading into last weekend we were rather disappointed with the forecast for the weekend itself - rain, rain and more rain.
We had already made plans on the tasks we wanted to complete - block laying, being the main task. Unfortunately block laying and rain just do not mix, so on Friday evening we were thinking up a plan B.
So on Saturday morning, instead of mixing concrete we headed down to Crews Hill, an area just on the northern edge of London filled with various garden centres and nurseries. When we last visited about a month or so ago Mark had spotted in one of the garden centres hundreds of the banana plant Ensete ventricosum 'Maurrelii'. These had probably been there since the previous summer as they were of a good size, much bigger than the typical small plants you see being sold in early spring. We thought it would be a good time to pick two or three up to grow on until they could be planted out. But luck would not be on our side as they had either sold them all or removed them - the area was full of newly arrived fuschias.
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| Gloriosa rothschildiana |
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| A recent delivery of Trachycarpus at Paramount Plants |
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| A selection of exotic plants at Paramount |
So the rest of the morning was spent nursery hopping, although we came back with very little, just a Nandina domestica and two packs of dahlias.
The rain had stopped by the time we got home, and even better the forecast had been revised, we were now expecting a gloomy afternoon but no more rain.
We opted against block laying and decided to tackle one big job that needed to be tackled for some time - trimming the Yew tree (Taxus baccata)!
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| Angry grey clouds and a misshapen Yew |
As you can see from the first picture it had ended up losing its symmetry with a couple of branches getting out of proportion. So up went the ladder and we took the branches down bit by bit. Mark was busy holding the ladder and passing me tools to take any pictures during the big chop, but down it all came safely. This was rather tricky as it would have been easier to cut these branches off at the base and let them fall, but with delicate plants underneath we had to take our time.
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| With the branches trimmed the view was opened up. |
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| Twinkles having a look at what was going on. |
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| Knickers quickly climbed up to see what Twinkles was up to, and then found the branches he usually climbs on had been removed. |
On Sunday we were again expecting an overcast day, although we did get a light drizzle in the morning it wasn't too much to put us off, so we got stuck back into the pond.
The far corner is where the return pipes from the filter house will enter the pond. This had been left outstanding as we had to pick up the correct pipe for this (2" pressure pipe). Each piece of pipe juts through the wall and will be connected into the filter system once it is installed. On the pond side these will eventually be trimmed flush and sealed by fibreglass when the pond is made water proof.
There are still two layers of blocks to lay, but we will do this next weekend. Then the pond will finally reach its final depth (roughly 6'6").
After lunch we got stuck into some spring cleaning in the garden (see Marks blog); cutting, trimming, and leaf blowing, which was topped off with a trip to the recycling centre.
After fitting in so many different activities we both felt this was a most enjoyable weekend in the garden, so diverse and so many different tasks.
Roll on next weekend - the forecast is currently sunny!!
Gaz
This gardening blog follows our journey as we create our Tropical and Exotic themed garden. We hope you'll enjoy the journey as much as we do. We started our Exotic Garden in 2005 and this site will show its development, as well as our travels, both abroad and within the UK to gardens, nurseries and friends.
