Garden Update August 2011

Its been a while since I last posted a few photos of the garden, so heres a selection.


















Lots more pictures on our Blog

Gaz

 

Love it Gaz!!! Is that a Tetrapanax Rex in the bottom pic?

 

Yes, thats a small group that have popped up this year.

Glad you liked it!

 

I love the lushness of it. Are you in the UK? I have a tetrapanax and its only now starting to really get going. I think last winter may have caused it to come back so slowly. Fingers crossed we don't have such a harsh one this year!

 

Looks gorgeous! Jealous, your garden looks huge.

 

Hi Catztail - yes im in the UK

kyleleonard - Its a 1930s house - so the garden is long and fairly thin -about 130 feet long, and 20odd wide.

 

Looks as good as ever Gaz.

 

superb garden! ... and definately my sort of style (I lived on the east of of south africa)

this theme of tropical planting is becoming very sought after now in the UK ... most of the new gardening landscaping (new build estates/homes) I do is in this style ...

some people in London are even going so far as to remove all the 'old style cottage' planting and are now opting for the 'tropical' effect with palms, musa, tree ferns, hostas,black bamboo etc ...

I recently drove to Barnet/Hadley in London and was amazed at some of the gardens in some of the areas

even on TV gardening programmes of late we have seen a swing to this type of style

costs a fair bit though for decent sized palms etc, but the rest of the plants compare favourably (cost wise) with the prices of standard 'old fashioned' plants

sadly, we are limited to 2 types of outdoor palms in most of the UK ... the Fortuneii and the smaller Humilis ... (and with the Humilis, if temperatures drop below -10 degrees C, they may suffer badly) ... some say the fortuneii is ok to -15 degrees C but that is debatable

just hoping we don't have another record breaking cold winter this year

 

the palms are the problem ... rest of the plants are ok, but choose wisely and and you plant them in positions they normally thrive in ...

and if you are too afraid to plant palms, a few mahonia is a cheap substitute ... not as nice as the real thing, but does the trick

 

tree ferns are nice, but need lots of care and attention especially during winter

the problem with planting a tropical garden in the UK, is that you need to find a balance by mixing evergreen with those that die down in winter (such as hostas) ... otherwise, you are left with big open bare patches during the cold months, so I tend to plant lots of evergreen ferns etc to keep the space interesting during the colder months

a simple way to plan it is to make a scaled plan of the space and start off planning with the winter months first ...

dot the evergreen plants around the space, then when you are happy that it looks ok, fill in the spaces with the others, and plant thick (lots) to fill all the gaps ...

 

Thanks for all the kind words!

There are many tropical looking plants that are very hardy, and with space to overwinter more tender plants in a conservatory or greenhouse you can have some very tropical flashes.

For the palms, borderline plants such as Phoenix Canariensis can be kept going if you inverst in a little winter protection. Our Phoenix has been in the garden for about 5 years now, and although it did defoliate last winter it is very much alive. One other hardy palm that is reasonably easy to get hold of is Rhapidophyllum hystrix, which is very hardy but slow growing.

We use a lot of traditional plants such as hostas, hydrangeas, acers, rhododendron, magnolia, many of which have unsual and large leaved varieties that are hardy.

On the whole our garden uses pretty tough plants, but often more unusual types, and then of course lots of different bamboos. Its all about creating a combination of different shapes forms etc - which i guess is the same for all gardening styles.

After all most plants in the garden centre have come from overseas so can already be considered "exotic"! Where many people get put off is they buy palms or other plants described as hardy that are just not, some of the big chain garden centres and DIY sheds do this a lot, which is a shame as it puts people off.

I will try and remember to post pictures more often!