Horizon's Gardening Topic

When making a post, please ensure it complies with this site's Main Rules at all times.
  • And then LW replied by saying:

    The tree fellers are everywhere! We have a number of big trees in our garden. I also have three lemon trees and an apple tree grown from seed. All big now. We have a Canary Island Date Palm, three Stinkwoods, four acacia caffras, a huge monkey thorn tree, a black Karee and a large Silver Oak. And various smaller jobs like bottle brushes and fancy conifers and some privets.

  • And I then said on the old forum:

    ... sounds lovely. You can't live in London with a garden that big!

    We do have tree fellers here employed by the council. But I was more thinking of my neighbours and people who have moved in over the last 20 years...

    People in my area always used to be the same and took great pride in themselves and their neighbourhood. That's all changed and people like my neighbour find things like trees offensive (I'm not kidding) with the result my area doesn't have many now.

  • And then Heero Yuy replied on the old forum by saying:

    Too many front gardens round here have been sacrificed to the car god. I'm not really a keen gardener so it tends to be a once in while major cut back and clear up. Our back garden though is quite small and done as a sunken patio surrounded by raised beds and I do get annuals to go in them. In terms of static plants at the back I have a rather large Canary Island Palm, a cornish palm that has had to regrow from the root due to a fungal infection of the main stem, a jelly palm (Butea Capitata) and a Japanese banana palm that I try to protect from the winter frosts with fleece. Don't always succed so it sometimes has to re-grow from the root.

  • And LW then replied:

    Our trees have changed our garden completely. When we first moved in over 20 years ago it was a wasteland. We grew a lawn, made flower beds and planted trees. Over the years the trees have grown tall and shaded most of the original plants out. Now we have to replant stuff that will go under these big trees. The grass has also largely said goodbye so we are going to pave where the trees have shaded it out and let it grow where it is happy. Quite a lot of work ahead but the shade the trees offer in summer is worth it.

  • And finally I said on the older forum this:

    Sounds nice, would love to have a banana plant but I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to try and grow one and try and overwinter it.

    In my area, the front gardens have all been sacrificed for car parking too (not mine!) but what I was saying the other day, is, that it's the attitude in general to all things green by my lovely neighbours which is the real problem. They hate green, trees, birds, anything natural and I'm in the minority now.

  • And finally I said on the older forum this:

    Sounds nice, would love to have a banana plant but I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to try and grow one and try and overwinter it.

    In my area, the front gardens have all been sacrificed for car parking too (not mine!) but what I was saying the other day, is, that it's the attitude in general to all things green by my lovely neighbours which is the real problem. They hate green, trees, birds, anything natural and I'm in the minority now.

    Here's a picture I took last year, the jelly palm is in the foreground. Unfortuantely the wind last spring had shreaded some of the older fronds. A smaller "pup" is in front of the garage window.
    Photo0240_s.jpg

  • Nice! Looks like Autumn, but I suspect your Autumn might not be "quite" the same as mine.

    It's a rather bad photo of a few years' ago Autumn. Our autumn is similar to yours in that trees go yellow and gold and it gets chilly. But in my region this is when the storms and rain leave and blue sky turns up until the following spring, with maybe a few showers, if we're lucky, during winter. Winter is cold and frosty but the sunshine in the day helps. Nights are freezing. Everything goes brown. Garden becomes still, windless, peaceful place with basking birds and crystal clear air (when the city pollution isn't around, weekends are best). The stars at night are superb, like millions of glittering crystals.

    A decayed cyclone from Mozambique has just passed us by to the north and we are getting rain. It's raining as I write this. Fantastic! The El Nino drought has broken. I love rain. Especially the soft, steady kind. We mostly get wildly electric summer storms where I am, but when something comes this way from Mozambique, we get beautiful rain and it's never laden with industrial stink, so it's pure and gorgeous. The trees and flowers are celebrating. The parrot is burbling in his aviary. He seems to like rain as well. He originates in the Congo and Tanzania and lives in his own aviary in the garden, just outside my study window actually. He can see me writing so he is talking and humming and making all the sounds he knows (he has a very large vocabulary.) His name is Louis.

  • I don't know anything about palms, but I'm pretty sure Monty (BBC Gardeners' World) said to cut them down quite harshly and wrap them in straw or paper, then seal and cover with fleece to protect them from Winter frost and winds. But that may be wrong, so don't touch them without researching it first.

    My most exotic shrub is a Fatsia which I love. It is in a sheltered spot by my house and its rock solid. No disease, no winter damage, no problems, ever. (touch wood)

  • Heero, I'm amazed you can grow a banana plant in England.

    We live on the south coast of the UK about 2 miles from the sea, almost at sea level and we have downland behind to the North. Tends to help keep the Winter frosts from being too harsh. The plant is also in a sun-trap formed by the terrace running North-South that you can see the end of, the garage and our house which is in another terrace running East-West

    The banana is also the hardiest of it's type ( Musa Basjoo) At the moment it's all swaddled in horticultural fleece but is still green inside. Several times I have had it get cut down to the root by frost when I didn't get the fleece on earlier enough and it then has to regrow. Been lucky the last three or four Winters so it's getting quite sturdy now and less frost prone.

  • Heero, I'm amazed you can grow a banana plant in England.

    Is that the taller shrub? I'm almost 100% that in Britain, banana plants should be cut down heavily for winter protection and use the method, I described.

    I've been out in my garden today. Lovely warm weather here in London and sun too!

    (Edit: I typed the post after your already said what the plant is and you give it winter protection)

  • It's a rather bad photo of a few years' ago Autumn. Our autumn is similar to yours in that trees go yellow and gold and it gets chilly. But in my region this is when the storms and rain leave and blue sky turns up until the following spring, with maybe a few showers, if we're lucky, during winter. Winter is cold and frosty but the sunshine in the day helps. Nights are freezing. Everything goes brown. Garden becomes still, windless, peaceful place with basking birds and crystal clear air (when the city pollution isn't around, weekends are best). The stars at night are superb, like millions of glittering crystals.

    A decayed cyclone from Mozambique has just passed us by to the north and we are getting rain. It's raining as I write this. Fantastic! The El Nino drought has broken. I love rain. Especially the soft, steady kind. We mostly get wildly electric summer storms where I am, but when something comes this way from Mozambique, we get beautiful rain and it's never laden with industrial stink, so it's pure and gorgeous. The trees and flowers are celebrating. The parrot is burbling in his aviary. He seems to like rain as well. He originates in the Congo and Tanzania and lives in his own aviary in the garden, just outside my study window actually. He can see me writing so he is talking and humming and making all the sounds he knows (he has a very large vocabulary.) His name is Louis.

    We've had a bit of frost here in London, but overall (touch wood, it ain't over yet!) the weather has been quite mild. It's about 15 degrees c here and sunny today and my plants are starting to wake up.... I hope frost doesn't come. We can still get it here right up until mid April, although overall the weather is far warmer here than most parts of the UK.

  • Is that the taller shrub? I'm almost 100% that in Britain, banana plants should be cut down heavily for winter protection and use the method, I described.

    Quite right, I cut the fronds down to about 6" once they get nipped by the first frost and use the stubs to hold the fleece away from the heart of the crown. I wrap the trunk and than also put bean poles round the trunk about a foot away and put a second shield of fleece held on with pegs.

    Quote

    I've been out in my garden today. Lovely warm weather here in London and sun too!

    Sunny down here, 13°C and quite springlike.

  • I did see a report that you are getting a little whoosh of Caribbean heat and that you'll soon be cold again. :( Still, you're moving toward Spring ... I am moving toward Autumn.

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!