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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Leaves and a Cat Curiosity

A few days ago I featured a few blooms. This time it will be a few leaves and a cat interlude in between...

I love it when Schefflera taiwaniana throws out leaves that is arranged almost in 360 degrees, well almost. Like this one. And the good thing about this particular plant is that almost all of the leaves it produces are like this. Nice clone...

When we saw the mother of this plant a few years ago at a private garden in Cornwall the leaves were almost a meter wide. Yes, a meter! Hopefully its offspring will do the same eventually. The large leaf form of Fatsia polycarpa (this may turn out to be a different species altogether but time and botanists will tell).

A curiosity rather than a thing of beauty, the weedy looking Cordyline 'Karo Kiri'. Ours makes for a comfy home for a spider at the moment.

Now for the cat interlude...

It was a lovely, lazy Saturday and Twinkles had a wonderful day sleeping...

Zzzzz

Yawn

Pose

Yawn again

Then groom

Back to leaves...

Schefflera kornasii with a nice set of new leaves that seems to reach out to the sun.

This one is planted right at the back of a border and I couldn't get a decent photo of it but the leaves are huge and looks so exotic and tropical! The Mexican big leaf Magnolia, Magnolia macrophylla var. dealbata.

A shrubby Euphorbia that gets really tall and has plenty of oomph! Euphorbia x pasteurii

Last but not the least is this Schefflera macrophylla. Shame it's not that hardy but still well worth growing in a for those gorgeous large leaves.

Hope you all had a wonderful, plant filled weekend!

Mark :-)

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October Days

Once you get into early October you really start to notice the evenings drawing in, as well as cooler day time temperatures. We have started to think about winter, by getting one of the greenhouses insulated, the other is still ok from last year. Then there are the leaves, which are all starting to turn, some of which are falling. At the moment it's not too bad, with only a few trees/shrubs dropping their leaves, most notably the Paulonia that Mark mentioned recently and a Chardonnay grape vine. 

Rhus typhina putting on a show

But other parts of the garden are still looking great, with plants putting on the final finale before frosts come. Although hopefully it will still be some time before we do get the first frost, keeping the garden looking good for longer, and also allowing us to keep the potted plants out, rather than putting the more tender ones back into greenhouses for winter.

Twinkles inspecting the Jungle Hut - we will finally reveal the finished new building soon :)

At the Jungle end of the garden the growth has been great this year, plenty of rain and a fairly warm sunny summer has meant many of the plants got carried away. When you consider what this area looked like after the fire last year its really like nothing happened at all.

The middle patio area has also done well with the new plants filling the space superbly. We are amazed how well the Amicia zygomeris has done, responding well to extra light this year.

The new red pergola is also looking as it should now, surrounded by lush growth, in particular from the Schefflera rhododendrifolia to the right hand side.

We have been fairly quiet on another project that is well under way at the moment, the koi quarantine pond and shed. Most of the construction is now complete, although we still need to glaze the windows and complete the insides, but that will feature on a post soon! As part of the construction we are adding a power supply, to power the filters, lights and a small heater. Which will be used to keep the shed above freezing in winter rather than particularly hot, even so we are looking to save energy with more efficient lower wattage heaters, and packing in the insulation into the walls of the shed to minimise heat loss. The filtration set up will ensure we minimise water changes, thus reducing our costs by saving water.

The new quarantine pond, and jungle hut will be revealed soon!

Gaz

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Lazy Summer Days

Ahh Summer! You dream about it all winter and when it actually arrives it's something to savour. I know summer heat can get intense and even oppressive on some parts of the world, which effectively prevents nearly anyone from doing anything outdoors from late morning till late afternoon. Here in the UK it rarely gets that uncomfortably warm even on sunny days where temperatures rarely goes above 30C. Okay, stretches of sunny and dry weather are not guaranteed here either (sometimes we don't get it at all, like in 2012) so when you do get it, it is an extra incentive to enjoy it.

Even Twinkles is enjoying summer in the garden

So far this summer is proving to be a really good one (by British standards).

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Let There be Light

We had been thinking about adding additional lighting to the garden recently - it can feel quite spooky almost after dark. So it was rather fortunate to receive an email from Philips asking us to try out part of their new solar range.

Philips have been investing heavily into solar power research and have street lights run from solar panels. Much of that technology and knowledge has found its way into these smaller scale lights.

Philips myGarden Solar Wall Light

They sent us 4 solar garden lamps, 3 of which had a separate solar panel - allowing this to be placed for maximum exposure to daylight, and with a 7.5m cable to connect to the lamp itself.  I found these very easy to install as it was simply a case of using 2 fixing screws for each item, and then connecting the cable. If anything there was too much cable as I didn't need to fix the panel too far from the lamps themselves. However these could be very useful if you were illuminating a passageway or somewhere else that gets little light during the day.

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A Different View

Have you ever wondered what a cat would look like viewed from below? Have you ever thought what a cat would look like seen through the figurative eyes of whatever it sits on to?

Well I haven't but before I even had the chance to wonder and ask myself these questions I saw this view of Twinkles for the first time this morning, as I looked up whilst having breakfast in the kitchen...

I suppose I can mimic this if I put her on top of a photocopy machine...

Okay, it's not really a gardening topic but since Twinkles is one of the many characters in our gardening blog I thought it would still be appropriate to feature this unusual view of her in here.

Two in One - a cat and a seagull

We had a fabulous weekend. The builders came over on Saturday and they finished off all the little and odd jobs that were still left outstanding.

Yep, that was it, everything that they're supposed to do have been done. The house renovation is over. It's up to us now to finish the decoration but as far as we're concerned, after months of living with them (it felt like that anyway) we finally have the house to ourselves once again.

Big smiles here :)))

Mark :)))

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Home and Garden

Yesterday I found myself deciding whether to start cleaning the double glass doors that used to lead straight on to the patio, or trim and tidy up a few plants in the garden. I chose the former. Normally I would choose the latter or any gardening related task for that matter over any house chore that doesn't need urgency. But not this time.

Macrozamia communis

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From Lawn to Jungle

We call the area at the bottom of our garden "The Jungle", the planting in this area is a little more untamed, plants jostle for position and people have to push past overhanging plants.

The area itself is not huge, but it does feel bigger than it is as you cant see it all and have to explore. It hasn't always been like that of course. When we first moved into the property this area was mostly a lawn, dominated by a huge old sycamore with a few shrubs round the edges, a pig sty on one side, and the remains of a World War II bomb shelter in the far corner. 

View towards what became the Jungle

Same View today after the shed was extended - (see here for the extension blog)

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The Snow has Arrived

Well the snow has arrived this winter, bringing chaos to the roads and a strange serenity to the garden. With temperatures hovering around zero again today we had a look round the white landscape before heading off to do something in doors.

Knickers has been exploring

Following his tracks, lets see where he's been

By the looks of it he has been sheltering under the 'waggy'

We had quite a decent amount of snow, giving quite a thick layer to the table.

Trachycarpus fortunei with a dusting of snow.

Continuing to follow his tracks, hey in the snow I can get good at this!

The new area we refer to as the White Garden, but usually not for this reason.

0C at roughly midday.

Well if Knickers is about, Twinkles sis usually somewhere close by too.

Polygonatum punctatum in the snow.

No its not a giant hedgehog, but a snow covered Aloe polyphylla

Jungle hut or Alpine lodge?

Schefflera taiwaniana

Mark checking on the Koi

Do you remember Loree's photo of our garden from back in the autumn?

Heres almost the same view today...

Our tender plants are all tucked away safely in the greenhouses, and a few that normally stay outside have joined us in the house to keep warm!

Gaz

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