Bananamans Hideout

BM, what's a catalpa? Doesn't scan in Portuguese. Funny, we have a raised deck area also, where our bamboo, palms, nolines, cycads, etc, live. Also like you we have four or five "sections" to the garden which are totally different from each other, each with seating areas. We also have an outside living room (which was the old chicken run) ... the walls are halfway up then bamboo blinds (t'other half's working on windows for the winter) and a roof with the deck on top. We like to make as much use of our small space as we can.

 

Catalpa is the Indian Bean Tree.



Yours sounds lovely too not to mention being in sunny Portugal. I was always a bit dismissive of roomed gardens but it really works to make small garden feel bigger, especially if you use lots of height to separate the areas.

 

Your outside living room and top deck sounds exciting, what are the winters like there then ?

BM

 

Truly amazing BM!! Respect your wish for privacy, but I feel certain Gardener's World would be interested in a visit. You have brought the tropics to a corner of Essex and the plants look so happy too.

 

BM, winters are mild. In January/February we may have a few days with a touch of ground frost as the temps go to about 3-5oC but it soon disappears with the sun, temps rising to 10-12oC. At this point we think we're in Antarctica and will be bundled up in jeans, sweaters and socks!

At 10am today we are 21,7oC; yesterday's high 25,6oC, last night's low 19oC.

Will cobble together a couple of pictures later today. There's already a piccie of the deck on Members Gallery under Favourite Time of Day but now have a Bamboo between the table and the deck chair.

Till later ..

 

Just to show you how small my plot is and how basically I have ripped it up and started again, this is a couple of shots when we moved in in 1998.

Featuring my beloved first car 'Eric' the Metro, and a rather sad and wonky cherry.









Think I prefer it now. I would love the people who sold me the house to see it, unrecognisable.

Lol here is the private patio beyond the steps,



and the view out







BM

 

LoL I never pictured Portugal as having frosts. Thats a good spot for looking out from on your raised deck, I looked in the members gallery, can you see for miles ?

 

Its lovely nearly as nice as a wildflower and herb garden!!what have next door got in their garden ? a lawn and a path?..i bet they couldnt believe their eyes when that lot started to emerge...are you adding anymore to it?

 

that is truely incredible - the kind of garden I dream of creating. I can't believe how neat you keep it!

 

Hi sparkle welcome to the forum. yes I like it to be a tidy garden. With the amount of foliage that the garden puts out you have to keep on top of it or things get squeezed out.

BM

 

wildflower, next doors is abit more traditional as you described and I have had to compromise a bit on some of the things I had growing :rolleyes: As for a wildflower garden i love WF meadows but would couldn't cope with my hayfever. I like the WF meadows that come up, look fab and then pruned with a tractor, job done!

BM

 

That is a work of art. Have you any plants which aren't thriving?
What is the pink tulip shaped flower, please?

 

Beautiful and robust this is a cracking little clematis.

Raised by Barry Fretwell in 1984 and called C. texensis 'Princess of Wales' there was an immediate fuss over the name (there already was a 'Princess of Wales') the end result was the plant being renamed Clematis 'Princess Diana' by Wim Snoeijer in 1996

'Princess Diana'