The Garden in early June

May was quite a busy month for us with two trips away - updates to follow in due course. But with us away the garden continues to launch into its summer mode.



The bottom patio is looking extremely lush at the moment. We have been thinning out the grape vine and Clematis armandii that cover the pergola to get a little more light down to the ground. 

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April in the Garden

Well Spring seems to have finally turned up after what seems like a much longer break so last weekend we finally got some time in the garden. I can't just blame the weather as we have been away quite a lot recently too, but it has felt too miserable to do much even when we were at home.

 

The patio area almost looks like summer is here, most of the plants have done ok this winter, although the agave in the bottom right hand corner is showing some damage. Hopefully it will just be marked rather than anything more serious.

Feeling like summer on the top patio

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Dinner is Served!

Dinner is served!!!

Who needs real food when you have beautiful plants to visually feast on?

Anyone for a second serving?

Although Twinkles doesn't seem to agree. She didn't look pleased with the substitution to her usual grub...

Meanwhile, busy busy times in the garden with so many things to do and so much to be excited with. One of which is the top patio where I'm busy figuring out the pot display for this year.

I'm on a mission to minimise the use of plastic pots there from this year onwards so lots of repotting are being done, including this Nolina longifolia which looks much better now in a glazed pot.

Pot display in progress

However, I'm happy to keep using them for the rest of the garden. Especially black ones that are much easier to blend in.

Mark :-)

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Less Plastic, More Fantastic

Is my dictum for this year, at least for the top patio...

This Agave geminiflora is looking fabulous. It deserves the the dignity of a nicer looking pot.

Last year I did a sort of 'whimsy' style of displaying potted succulents and was very pleased with the result. And as a bonus it received good feedback too. By going with the anything goes style of displaying pots (but actually carefully displayed) I justified to myself that it's ok to mix in ordinary plastic pots in amongst the ceramic, glazed, and terracotta ones. The end result turned out fine and I was happy with the outcome.

However I can't keep denying to myself that those cheap nursery plastic pots don't bother me. Most of the key plants on display then were in those plastic pots and if I'm going to do a similar display again this year I wouldn't be able to ignore/tolerate them this time.

So why did I keep them in plastic pots when replacing them with glazed ones were easy enough?

Answer: because plastic pots are light.

Plastic pots have there uses and many advantages too, one of which is being light hence easy to move. With most of our succulents and xerophytes not hardy enough to remain outside all year round they will need shifting indoors before winter sets in. The bigger specimens are tricky enough as they are to shift and it'll even be more difficult if they are in heavy pots.

Both Agave geminiflora and Agave ocahui will have new glazed pots this year

But aesthetics will win this year and I'm determined to have less plastic on display at the top patio. It'll be more effort to move them later on but I'll cross that bridge nearer the time.

Work in progress

For the rest of the garden however, I don't mind them quite so much and tolerate them far more.

Mark :-)

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Spring Growth

For all intentions I was hoping to snap a few more photos today for this blog post about some of the exciting spring growth happening in our garden this week. However the weather has turned from gloriously sunny and bright to grey and drizzly, not conducive to taking photos.

Still I'm glad it is rainy. I don't mind it being rainy on weekdays whilst at work. And besides, it's much better for the garden to have bouts of rainy days interspersed with sunny ones.

I'll have to make do with the very few I managed to take last weekend...

Loving the dainty new growth of Acacia pravissima. Mind you the old growth ain't too bad either.

This climber took awhile to get going but this Holboellia coriacea looks like it's set to romp away this year, and put on a spectacular show of blooms too.

All our tree ferns are showing signs of movement as well but the potted ones like this Cyathea cooperi are expectedly ahead. They did overwinter indoors.

And Saxifraga stolonifera seems set to conquer a large area. Easy enough to pull them out where they are not wanted and how could one not love their bright spring colour?

Next weekend is forecast to be sunny again, and better opportunity for taking more photos!

Mark :-)

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Slow Awakening

Just had our first decent weather weekend this spring. So good that it feels like summer already! With the weather being rather unpredictable in this country it could well be 'the' summer of 2016 but we're hoping that won't be the case...

Blue skies and warm weather, bliss!

Anyhow, with so many commitments work wise for the both of us it has been a slow awakening for both us and the garden. Nevertheless, better late than never and we took advantage of the fine weather by going into full swing preparing the garden for the growing season ahead. We have so much to catch up on!

We're behind with tidying up but pace is now ramping up

Loving the blues, both from the sky and the yuccas!

It is notable that the growing season here is rather behind compared to the other side of the pond of similar climate (yes we were still reading blogs despite our absence recently). Speaking of slow awakening, we were away two weeks ago and during that period apparently there was snowfall and the temperatures dipped during the evening, hence spring growth slowed down. It suited us fine though, the last thing we wanted was a warm spell whilst we were away. It was only last week really when the weather turned better and by Friday it has turned into full spring mode.

Jet wash time!

The newest addition to our cat brood, Cotton has started to spend time out in the garden with us

Such a wonderful weekend, shame it had to end. But there's more to look forward!

Mark :-)

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Late December at Alternative Eden

As parts of Northern England suffer from the effects of multiple storms bringing flooding its easy in our part of the world to think we are having a kind winter. We have only had a couple of light frosts and they were back in November, other than that it has been unseasonally warm, with day time temperatures regularly in the mid teens Celsius (high 50s/low 60s Fahrenheit). For our part of the country we have not seen the storms bringing damage but warm temperatures.

As a result the garden seems somewhat confused with hostas poking up from their extremely short winter slumber and neighbouring spring flowering trees showing blooms already.

If the cold does come it may be with quite damaging effects as plants suffer less when dormant but for now its giving us an easy time of it - nicer walk to the station in the morning and not having to put the heating on as much giving our wallet a well earned rest.

Tetrapanax rex pushing out new leaves

Middle patio area... this is honestly how it looks today.

The path past the Jungle Hut, still looking lush

Ensete maurelii planted as summer bedding, pushing out new leaves after November frost

We have added an additional member to our household that many of you will not have met yet.



This is Cotton, she's about 4 months old now and making her presence known with the other two cats. Knickers and her seem quite friendly despite her regularly tormenting him. Twinkles on the other hand does not seem best pleased to have a new kitten in the household and mostly just tolerates Cottons existence.

We haven't let her outside yet, but I'm sure she will have lots of adventures in the garden when she does finally get out!

Gaz

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Autumn Beckons

It's October now and autumn has definitely begun. Although the garden is still looking very lush and only a few plants have just started changing leaf colours and shedding them, preparations have begun for the coming colder months.

First things first, start treating and shifting our pots of succulents. It wasn't easy to break up the display we created for the summer but I took a deep breath and just went on with it.

I really ought to get a potting bench. This squatting malarkey isn't good for my back long term. Still one has to smile...

For the whole of last week it was sunny and dry, albeit with significantly cooler temperatures than the previous month. The week before though we had so much rain which helped most of the succulent to bulk up even more.

But there are lots of pots to shift so one must carry on.

As expected we didn't get to finish moving them all. We weren't expecting to anyway. Autumn preparation usually goes on for weeks but we've had a good head start already.

I'll miss the succulent display we had last summer...

But they don't look too bad under cover either.

They'll keep me company as I spend more time once again, during the colder months in the koi shed.

Mark :-)

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Helping Hand

Some plants looks so lovely in person but are so hard to take photos of that can convey their pleasing character on to images.

I suppose it's not so much of an issue if you have a sophisticated camera and have the time to enhance images using a photo editing software, neither of which we have.

But sometimes all you need to do is to give such plants a helping hand. Like the airy Nandina domestica 'Filamentosa' below:

Nandina domestica 'Filamentosa'

Can't wait for it to get bigger!

And this Mahonia fortunei

Looks unique and distinctive from other mahonias - Mahonia fortunei

Rhododendron roxieanum var. oreonastes

variegated Phyllostachys aurea

Phyllostachys aurea 'Variegata'

Most plants however are complete show-offs, they don't need any helping hand and are ready to be photographed almost anytime like the Fatsia polycarpa below:

But these show-offs still needs the helping hand of a gardener to keep them looking good, in another way of course.

Mark :-)

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Garden Blogger's Bloom Day February 2015

This is going to be a slightly unique Bloom Day for us, we're only featuring one plant...

Walking around a garden centre near us earlier today we spotted one special hellebore in amongst a sea of others. And it's an hellebore that's been on our wishlist for quite some.

Helleborus (Rodney Davey Marbled Group) 'Anna's Red'

Finally we got hold of one after being on our wishlist for several years. We've had some chances before especially on plant fairs but have narrowly missed it. We first saw Annas Red at the 2012 RHS plant and Design show, however we were too late in being able to secure one. The stall holder told us to try next year!

Helleborus 'Annas Red' at the 2012 show

Even the foliage is lovely!

Saying that this sort of thing has happened time and time again. A rare plant that you can get hold of, give it time and you end up spotting them in an ordinary garden centre.

We join Carol of May Dreams Gardens for this months Bloom Day! Click on the link to see what's blooming in the garden of other bloggers this month.

Mark :-)

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