Each year, I hope that the Tropical Border will improve on the one before; that it will produce more flower, more stature, more oomph. And mostly that's what it has done over the past five years ... except perhaps this year. Overall, 2016 hasn't been its best. It still looked pretty good though and the unfurling … Continue reading The Tropical Border – 5th Year
Tropical gardening
The Tropical Border – 4th Year
When I started the tropical border in 2012, it was hardly deserving of the name but a year later it looked more the part. And by 2014 many of the plants were enormous and the bed did have a whiff of tropicality about it. This year it has continued to mature and, on the whole, … Continue reading The Tropical Border – 4th Year
The Tropical Border And How I Learned To Hate Soaker Hose
Like last year, I gambled on a fine spring by planting up the tropical border early. In mid-April, to a comb-and-tissue-paper fanfare, I dug up the big red banana (Ensete maurelii) from its winter-greenhouse-home and wheeled it into position. And then I did the same for the 'small' one. Each year I add a deep … Continue reading The Tropical Border And How I Learned To Hate Soaker Hose
The Tropical Border – 3rd Year
Mid September already? It seems just a few short weeks since I lugged a large Musa basjoo out of a greenhouse; since I stripped the straw protection off those I'd left outside. Only a little while since I wheeled out Colocasia esculenta and hefty red bananas (Ensete maurelii). Hardly any time at all since I … Continue reading The Tropical Border – 3rd Year
Beauty And A Beast
The gardens are generally looking fine. Though frankly if they didn't during June, I might as well give up and get a proper job. But the Kidney Beds are in dire need of a major revamp. They were cobbled together five years ago with a few sitting tenants, some plants from my garden, gifts from … Continue reading Beauty And A Beast
A Tidy Up
Now that we've finally had a couple of frosts at the Priory, I feel that I have permission to start tidying away. So I've been carting stuff off to the compost bins or bonfire site. In the topical border, the freezing temperatures have collapsed the tender plants into a soggy, exhausted (and, if you ask … Continue reading A Tidy Up
From Up On High
Scaffolding has gone up at the Priory. Though I don't have a head for heights, I couldn't wait to get up there and see the gardens from a new perspective. At the first (gutter height) level I could look down on to the tropical border. And, after a deep breath, I white-knuckle-climbed the second ladder … Continue reading From Up On High
The Anxious Gardener 