Gardening, Spain and England

Hello fellow gardeners its Gill again,

I was in Spain last week staying with my son and daughter in law. Phew it was hot!!! They have my favourite tree in their garden, a jacaranda, wish I could grow them here. The highlight of my week was going to a garden centre out there and seeing all the exotic things you can buy that you definitely dont see here in Hampshire. They bought a mango tree that had 6 fruits on before we forced it into the car along with several other plants, and had one fruit by the time it got home! Also they bought a paw paw tree for €5.75 what an absolute bargain, thats what the mango cost too, and guess what else, something I thought I would never see, my favourite nut, a macadamia tree also that price. By the next day they werent looking too happy being planted out in all that heat but I have my fingers crossed for their survival. It was a wonderful experience going there.

What a shock to come home to half of that temperature at Gatwick and rain. When I drew up into the drive though, my hydrangea had bloomed whilst I was away. I have a piccy for you, but dont know how to get it onto here, something else I have to learn hehehe! All this technology is fairly new to me, I take a long time to learn.

As soon as I dumped my luggage my first port of call was my girls (chickens), then the greenhouse. Woohoo I have some baby tomatoes, thank goodness for my neighbours watering and looking after for me.

Yesterday I went to Frensham garden centre. I like that place, they make the most delicious shortbreads for only £1 for a huge one. Their plants are healthy and the prices are similar to most centres. There is so much to see there its well worth a visit. They have a good range of acers my second favourite trees (I think I have about 8 in my garden).

I go to a garden centre every Wednesday with two friends of mine, and we always eat out there too, there must be about 18 that we go to regularly. If any have any bargains I will let you know of them although I know that most of you are in Spain. Hopefully we have some English readers too. Guess what, yes its raining again, thank goodness its summer else it would be worse!!!

Okay peeps Im going to love you and leave you, enjoy your gardens, catch you again soon, take care, Gill.

Gardens Are For Everyone

We all need plants, all living things require sugar for energy. Plants manufacture their own sugar, they do this through a process we call photosynthesis. Plants absorb moisture from the soil through their roots and carbon dioxide from the air through pores in their leaves.


Light energy harnessed by the green leaf pigment chlorophyll breaks water molecules down into hydrogen and oxygen, chemically combining the hydrogen with the carbon dioxide to form sugars for the plant and releasing pure oxygen into the air as a by-product. Animals on the other hand - including humans - depend on plants for food, which they convert into sugar, either directly as herbivores or indirectly as carnivores.

Not only do plants feed us, but by producing oxygen and absorbing carbon dioxide they harmonise the earth's atmosphere, balacing out the living processes of animals and mankind who breathe oxygen in and carbon dioxide out.

So much for the science. Long before we knew all this there was one thing early man understood only too well: hunger. It was purely as a source of food that plants were initially put under cultivation. Ground was cleared of unwanted plants to make room for beneficial ones. From being a nomadic hunter-gatherer man came to lead a more sedentary existence, forming communities to nurture and protect fruit, grains and vegetables. Eventually, seed was sown and crops could be relied upon. As civilization flourished, attention could finally be paid to the aesthetic qualities of plants, and the skills which had been developed through farming were put to use in creating the first purely decorative gardens.

Today, with everyone striving to improve their quality of life, gardening has come to the fore as a leisure pursuit - not only as a means of visually improving our surroundings and adding value to our homes, but as a way of relaxing and reattuning ourselves to the natural world. Not only are plants and flowers beautiful to look at and therefore spiritually refreshing, but the process of tending them strengthens our bond with the world and makes us feel needed. (As a last resort in the mental health stakes you could start talking to your plants, but do seek immediate professional help if they ever start talking back!).

We can all close our eyes and visualise our ideal garden. For some people it might be that of a rambling English vicarage with bees humming through jumbles of flowers and ducks running round on the lawn. For others it might be a sophisticated roof terrace for entertaining guests while admiring panoramic city views. Other people might hanker for a lush tropical paradise or the elegant simplicity of a cloistered formal garden with fountains and statues.

But dreaming is one thing and reality is quite another. Many people live in flats or shared houses with no garden to call their own. Others move home so frequently that they never feel it's worth making a start. Yet others think their garden, yard or balcony is so small or has so little promose they they never attempt to make somthing of it in a million years. In our largely urban environment the passing on of gardening skills from generation to generation is a haphazard affair at best, and more and more of us come to gardening as complete innocents. For all sorts of reasons people write themselves off as second class citizens and deprive themselves of the pleasures of a garden.

Well, whatever your abilities, whatever the state of your finances, throw down your chains. If your garden is a constant source of worry to you, lighten up and look at things afresh. After all, plants are the oldest forms of life on earth and they have been looking after themselves in the wild for millions of years without any help from you. True, you might have to wait until you win the lottery to get the garden of your dreams, but until then you can jolly well learn to make the most of what you've got. Even if you don't have a garden, don't worry: there's plenty you can do without one. You can enjoy gardens without doing a stroke of work in parks or by visiting botanical gardens (our local Botanical Gardens are in Malaga) and stately homes. You can work in a garden without owning one by helping the little old lady down the road or a friend, by doing voluntary work, by renting an allotment or becoming involved in a community garden (I have a friend in the USA who does community gardening as they don't have gardens each so once a month they get together and do gardening but in their stree).

The secret to getting started is simple. All you need is a positive attitude and, just so long as you don't try to run before you can walk, everything else will simply fall into place.

Gardening is about having a go at things and embracing the opportunities you're presented with. If you think you've got a problem garden you're not alone, but the chancers are you're really the proud owner of a unique habitat just waiting to be planted up. And if you can't afford to buy many plants, just learn instead how to propogate them from seeds or cuttings - it's more satisfying anyway. Remember, above all else that an ounce of practice is worth a pound of theory, so just get out there and make a start.

One thing leads to another, and just as tending even the most undemanding of houseplants proves to be a useful experience for the neophyte gardener, so the knowledge gained in individual aspects of gardening quickly builds into a fully rounded understanding of gardening as a whole. A little knowledge and experience will enable you to channel your energy directly towards successful outcomes.

Plants for particular situations

To make a successful garden it is crucial to choose plants that are suitable for the prevailling conditions. All plants have preferences; moist or dry soils, acid or limey, warm climates or cold. Traditionally, gardeners have expended energy on making conditions suit particular plants, in places where they would naturally grow, by changing the nature of the soil or using copious quantities of water. However, water shortages, and the pollutant effects of chemicals have compelled people to think in terms of a more natural approach.

Instead of changing conditions to suit plants, today the trend is towards choosing plants to suit the place.

Sympathetic Planting
Damp areas of the garden, in particular water features, need to be planted sympathetically, Moisture-loving plants have large lush foliage at the expense of brilliant flower colour. Use features, such as little bridges, to create accents instead.

Creating a structure

Informal Design
This simple garden has all the ingredients for success; an enclosing structure of trees and hedges, space for relaxation and an impeded view so that the garden appears larger, and more inviting

It is the larger or more upright plants that do most to develop the garden framework, dividing it into sections and serving as a guide as you walk or look round. Trees or shrubs with a narrow, vertical, columnar habit have lots of impact, but are useful in that they take up little space.

Trees, under whose branches you can walk, hedges that act as green walls, or plants with strong shapes, all provide the visual 'bones' for the garden. The softer, more formless shrubs and flowering perennials are the 'flesh'. Some of the most successful gardens are those that balance the formality of clearly designed shapes, such as clipped hedges and topiary, with the informality of burgeoning borders of flowers and shrubs.

Hyacinthus

The sweetly perfumed, colourful flowers of Hyacinths appear in mid Spring - it would appear that in our Andalucian gardens that we get them slightly earlier this year as they have started to grow already!

The plants, with their errect, cylindrical flowerheads and fleshy, strap-like leaves, retain their perfection for two to three weeks. The flower may seem densely packed - carrying up to 60 individual bell-shaped florets - or more loosely spaced as in the "fairy" types - you may also be wise to support the hyacinth with some wood up against the stem (like shown in the image).

Multiflora hyacinths are grown from bulbs that have been specially treated to produce several smaller flower spikes instead of one dense spike. They are sold by colour only.

There are also double-flowered varieties. Hyacinths are full hardy and ideal for planting in containers/pots (as we do), as well as informal borders and formal bedding schemes. For text book results, buy new bulbs every year, however, we are on the second year with the same bulb and all that was required was watering and then every Spring the bulb should grow again.

The once-used bulbs produce fewer flowers per stem and can be replanted in less formal areas of the garden. To flower indoors in mid winter, bulbs specially prepared for forcing can be bought in Autumn.

Recommended Species and Varieties
Hyacinth Orientalis - This parent of all the modern hyacinth cultivars produces sparsely flowered stems, up to 20cm (8in) tall, bearing blue, violet, pink or white flowers. Indoors, prepared bulbs will flower from Christmas to late winter; non-prepared bulbs bloom from late winter to early spring. There are earlier and later varieties - but all flower within a month of one another.

Early flowering varieties include:

• Anna Marie - Light rosy pink flowers


• Ben Nevis - Ivory-white double flowers


• Bismarck - Methyl-violet blooms


• Blue Magic - Purple-violet flowers


• Borah - Fairy type with porcelain-blue flowers


• Delft Blue - Blooms of soft-lilac blue


• Jan Bros - Red Blooms


• L'Innocence - Ivory-white flowers


• Lady Derby - Rose-pink flowers


• Ostara - Deep blue flowers


• Pink Pearl - Deep pink blooms


• Violet Pearl - Mallow-purple flowers

Mid-season flowering varieties include:

• Blue Jacket - Dark blue flowers with a purple stripe


• Gipsy Queen - Dark salmon and apricot flowers

Late flowering varieties include:

• Amethyst - Lilac-violet flowers


• Carnegie - Dense spike of white flowers


• City of Haarlem - Primrose-yellow blooms


• Distinction - Beetroot-purple flowers


• Hollyhock - Crimson flowers


• Peter Stuyvesant - Dark violet blooms

Cultivation
Plant bulbs outside from late summer to late autumn in a sunny position in fairly fertile, well-drained soil. Set 15-24cm (6-9 1/2in) apart and 10cm (4in) deep. Plant bulbs for forcing indoors before mid autumn in bulb-forcing compost. Then keep a cool, dark place for 8-10 weeks, ideally at 7-10ºC (45-50ºF): a shed or garage is ideal. Bring into a light, warm room, where they will flower 3 or 4 weeks later. Bulbs can also be grown in hyacinth vases. Keep the bulb in its vase in a cool, dark place until its roots have developed, making sure that the builb itself does not touch the water, or it may rot.

Propagation
Producing fresh hyacinth bulbs involves specialist techniques: buy new bulbs. Hyacinths take 6 years or more to flower if grown from seed!

Pests and Diseases
Hyacinths may be affected by grey bulb rot, grey mould, soft rot and yellow disease -which is similar to soft rot and should be treated similarly. They may also be attacked by aphids, bulb mites, narcissus flies, slugs and stem eelworms.

Our collection of plants/flowers

We thought we would start with some common ground and list some of the plants that we have documented as growing in our gardens so far - no doubt many of you reading this will have or are about to grow some of the plants/flowers that we are nurturing.

So far we have documented the following to be growing in our gardens:
Fruits/Veg:
Apple
Lemon
Orange
Pomegranate
Grapefruit
Fig
Avocado
Garlic
Asparragus
Olives
Plum
Pear
Raspberry
Strawberry

Herbs:
Thyme
Lemon Thyme
Parsley
Coriander
Marjoram
Oregano
Mint
Dill
Basil
Rosemary
Chives
Lavender

Plants/Flowers:
Camelia
Mimosa
Palm
Sunflowers
Furs
Lantana Camara
Cortaderia Selloana (Pampas Grass)
Daisies (Purple/Yellow/White)
Jasmine
Cestrum Nocturnum (Dama de Noche)
Roses
Daffodils
Callistemon Viminalis (The Bottle Brush)
Brugmansia Arbrorea (Angel's Trumpets)
Bouganvillea
Aloe Arborescens (Red Hot Poker Aloe)
Strelitzia Reginae (Bird of Paradise)
Zantedeschria Aethiopica (Calla Lilly)
Felicia Amelliodes (Swan River Daisy)
Hyacinths
Tulips
Plumbago Capensis (Cape Leadwort)
Euphorbia Pulcherrinia (Poinsettia)
Jacaranda Mimosifolia
Hebe Caledonia
Geraniums
Cyclamen
Callistemon Citrinus 'Splendens'

As we keep documenting more plants we will update our garden of goodies :)

Anyone else growing the above plants/herbs/flowers/fruits/veg and have any special tips for growing, let us know?