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Alpine Vista Mista

Alpine Vista Mista

alpbach 207

Missing posts on this site can be put down to my Alpine holiday in Austria. Mist on the hills was a small problem for my photography but it meant there were fewer walkers around to disturb me and the cattle on the Alpine pastures.

The surprise for me was the volume of Rhododendrons clinging to the mountain side at over 6000 feet. No soil to speak of, so that is one reason Rhododendrons and Azaleas are comparatively shallow rooted I suppose. They also like to get a fair share of water in spring and summer to help next years bud formation, no problem on these hills, (Get out the rainproofs again).
Nature usually has a reason for plants developing the way they have.

In Austria the seasons seem to be compacted together and at the end of June there was a festival of colour in the villages and hillsides to say nothing of the mountain tops.

alpbach 092

Flowers are used extensively in the neat well kept grave yards. However this shrine shown above was on one of the walking routes and the red rose seemed very apposite.

Five Senses For Gardeners

Five Senses For Gardeners

golden acre gardens leeds

If we are lucky to have a full complement of all five senses we are fortunate gardeners. At different times of our life these senses may wax and wain, I for one can no longer read the small print on seed packets nor hear my wife when she asks me to do something other than gardening.

Gardeners would garden just for the sheer pleasure but they also want to take into account and compensate for those with impaired senses. Here are some suggestions to help focus on the five senses one at a time but the pleasure is doubled by combining plants that augment all the senses. I you have focal points for viewing what do you call points for touching, smelling, hearing and tasting?

Himalayan garden Grewelthorpe 144

Five Senses – Sight

  • Bold colours spring to mind and one favourite is the brash Sunflower but in the veg garden Swiss Chard ‘traffic Lights’ is most colourful
  • Different shapes and contrasting leaves can be added via Heuchera or Hostas. Ornaments and statues are good for creating focal points.
  • White and yellow flowers start in spring with Snowdrops and Daffodils and continue through a variety of annuals and perennials. I suggest a range of Marigolds and Roses will give pleasure.
  • Birds and butterflies are natural sights in a well balance garden

Himalayan garden Grewelthorpe 152

Five Senses – Sound

  • Close your eyes and listen to your garden. Birds and insects add a vibrancy to your garden so attract them with appropriate plants.
  • Trees with open canopies like birch and beech are great rustlers in a breeze.
  • Bamboos sway in the breeze and if you can stand the added noise make a wind chime from the dried hollow stems.
  • If you have running water so much the better. I saw a deer scarer run by solar power in a garden this week.

Lincoln 088

Five Senses – Touch

  • Use pathways and lawn edges for the plants you most want to touch and hide away the spiky and prickly devils.
  • Textured leaves like the hairy Lambs tails or Silver Sage are very touchable.
  • Flowering grasses are airy and good for running your hands through.
  • Again an appropriate statue can be stroked and petted.

alpine strawberry

Five Senses – Taste

  • Herbs and vegetable come out strongly in the taste sense. Who would be without strawberries some varieties of which can now be grown in hanging baskets or containers.
  • Mint, Rosemary and Lavender are old fashioned stand-byes for strong taste and the plus of scent.
  • Members of the onion family including chives garlic and shallots have there own appeal.

indian pink

Five Senses – Smell

  • Sweet smelling garden Pinks and Chocolate Cosmos attract more garden visitors than you would imagine.
  • Sweet Peas are my all time favourite and you can pick bunches for indoors throughout the flowering season.
  • Over breeding has reduced the scent of some plants so smell before you buy at your local nursery or scrounge plants from other gardeners where you know the pedigree of the smell.

Sixth Sense

  • This plant was expensive so it will die
  • This nice plant will turn out to be a weed
  • The weather is going to get better
  • The bugs will eat my best veg
How Old Are Your Plants in Geological Epochs

How Old Are Your Plants in Geological Epochs

A Yew tree in Somerset is said to be dying after 4000 years. The rumour may be overstated for tourism reasons as Taxus Yews can regenerate like Doctor Who.

Lepidodendron fossil

Geological Epochs and a view of Plant Age.

  • Some would argue that 3,100 million years have elapsed since the first bacteria (and cynobacteria) inhabited our planet but plants are not quite that old.
  • Algae started in the sea in the Pre-cambrian era when the first animal fossils can be dated. (1,500 million years)
  • Through the Cambrian period, more than 500 million years ago, marine life including sponges and algae were developing until the invasion of land plants in the Silurian times 440 million years ago.
  • Herbaceous ferns, horsetails and the first vascular plants developed on through the Devonian period.
  • Around 300 million years ago ferns were dominant but tall swamp forests, conifers and Cycads were joined by the other gymnosperms.
  • The Triassic and Jurasic periods (130-250 my ago) were still flower free as most angiosperms developed during the Cretaceous and Tertiary period only 65 million years ago! This was at the time when birds, bees, moths and early mammals were developing.

Fossilised part of a giant clubmoss or lycopod tree, Stigmaria ficiodes, GL1239

Focus on Angiosperms Old Flowering Plants

  • Fossil evidence is available for some ferns and the dinosaurs of the plant kingdom.
  • The study of ancient pollen has shown that 49 present day families of plants were represented in rocks 100-200 million years old.
  • Angiosperms represented 85% of the Earths vegetation as they supplanted the then dominance of the slower to adapt gymnosperms.
  • As humans and mammals have a range of life expectancy so do flowering plants. For simplicity gardeners classify these life cycles into perennials, annuals, biennials and ephemerals (several generations from seed in one year like groundsel).

Fossil forest Lulworth Cove Dorset

Some Old Plants

  • Russians have grown plants from fruit stored away in permafrost by squirrels over 30,000 years ago. This is the oldest plant material by far to have been brought to life read more on BBC 20.2.12
  • European Yews or Taxus baccata in Tisbury and Llangernyw Wales are believed to be over 4000 years old.
  • Great Basin Bristlecone pine Pinus longaeva in USA is circa 4800 years old and several Sequoia in California are over 3000 years old.
  • I wouldn’t want to count the rings on these trees but even with their great age they are just specs in the geological time frames we have been considering.

Photo and Other Credits

Lepidodendron fossil by Museum Girl ROM, CC BY 2.0 (Lepidodendron is an extinct genus of primitive tree-like plant. They were the first large land plants, and a major part of the coal forest tropical flora.)
Fossilised part of a giant clubmoss or lycopod tree, Stigmaria ficiodes, GL1239 by Black Country Museums …Part of a fossil lycopod tree called Stigmaria ficoides which is approximatley 310 million years old.CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Fossil forest Lulworth Cove Dorset by lovestruck … The Fossil Forest at Lulworth Cove Dorset . The round large fossils are fossilised rings of algae that grew around tree trunks as the forest, that covered the whole area, was flooded nearly 150 million years ago by the rising sea levels. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Picture of Daffodil in the Snow

Picture of Daffodil in the Snow

daffodilIt is still not too late to get snow says the eternal pessimistic gardener

This daffodil still manages to poke its flower above the snow cover.

Daffodils are a very hardy flower. If they are planted at the correct depths and split every 3-4 years they can give years of excellent, maintenance free, displays. But heavy wet snow can bend or break the flower stems.

Rip Van Winkle Daffodil

This Rip Van Winkle is a special daffodil with the elongated petals but is still one of my winter favourites.

See more of our daffodil photos on Gardeners Tips

Daffodils

Images of Evening Primrose Species

Images of Evening Primrose Species

Evening Primrose Oenothera Biennis is a wonderfully scented flower for summer evenings.

Oenothera elata ssp. hookeri/Hooker's Evening-primrose

Image of Oenothera elata ssp. hookeri/Hooker’s Evening-primrose

bluebonnets, pink evening primrose foreground

Pink Evening Primrose Oenothera speciosa ‘Siskiyou’ photo of a low growing perennial.

evening primrose

Pollination is in the evening air!

Evening Primrose

Oenothera Glazioviana is generally a biennial herb producing an erect stem approaching 3-5 feet in height.

Oenothera cespitosa var. marginata (Tufted Evening Primrose)

Oenothera cespitosa var. marginata (Tufted Evening Primrose) also called Onethera caespitosa

Oenothera macrocarpa - Silver Blade Evening Primrose

Oenothera macrocarpa – Silver Blade Evening Primrose

Evening Primrose


Credits

Oenothera elata ssp. hookeri/Hooker’s Evening-primrose by davidhofmann08, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
bluebonnets, pink evening primrose foreground by milpool79 CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
evening primrose by marc e marc CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Evening Primrose by kh1234567890 CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Oenothera cespitosa var. marginata (Tufted Evening Primrose) by Tony Frates CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Oenothera macrocarpa – Silver Blade Evening Primrose by colorado art studio CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Scented Wild Flowers Evening Primrose Oenothera odorata

Easier Gardening as You Age

Easier Gardening as You Age

Expert gardeners can spend 50 years learning, sometimes just about one species or family and then they die!

You are never to old to start gardening, nor are you too old to learn easier and simpler ways to enjoy your gardening.
Bending and kneeling may get a bit harder as you age but there are ways to overcome these restrictions like padded kneelers with good handles.

Tools as You Age

  • You are not going to double dig acres of ground so get a spade to suit. A small stainless steel blade will not over tax the muscles but still get most jobs done at a steady pace.
  • I have very useful forks and a trowel on long handles. They are easy to obtain and save your back. You can also fashion your own dibbers and gadgets
  • A two wheeled barrow is lighter for pushing than a traditional one wheeler.
  • Use large pots and containers to reduce watering and put them on casters for moving around.

Book Cover
The Illustrated Practical Guide to Gardening for Seniors: How to Maintain Your Outside Space with Ease Into Retirement and Beyond by Patty Cassidy from Amazon

Easier Gardening as You Age

  • This new American book shows how easy it is for seniors to carry on gardening, into and way beyond retirement.
  • It looks at different kinds of homes and the gardens they provide, assessing the location, local climate and soil type and evaluating problems such as arthritis and loss of balance.
  • The book also outlines the importance of taking care of your body, summarizing the safety issues, what to wear, warm-up exercises and equipment to make the garden easy to access for unsteady feet or wheelchairs.
  • Included is a directory that profiles the many planting choices available, each with a difficulty rating and a hardiness category.
  • Gardening for Seniors is packed with projects, garden plans and step-by-step sequences.
  • Easier gardening will appeal to active gardeners in their early retirement through to those with more limited abilities, showing how, by adapting garden activities and the tools employed, the joy of gardening will remain undiminished.

Plants and Planting as You Age

  • Avoid fast growing shrubs that need pruning and regular spraying. I prefer small rhododendrons to roses for this reason.
  • Aim at your senses placing plants where you will get the best reaction from those you have in full working order.
  • Design and implement your gardening to impress others and they will stop and talk. Easier gardening can still recognise you are up for a challenge despite your age
Monkey Puzzle Tree

Monkey Puzzle Tree

monkey-puzzle

This is the end of a branch can you tell what tree it is from? Well not much of a puzzle to monkey around with. With sharp edged and pointed leaves of the Monkey Puzzle Tree would impale and slice the most careful monkey that was trying to climb its branches.

Facts about Monkey Puzzle Trees

  • It grows slowly when young and picks up speed when older. It can reach 120 feet tall and become quite wide so isn’t a long term proposition for a small garden.
  • It can’t be pruned successfully as its sculptural shape is the key reason for growing the tree.

    Read More Read More

Drought or Flood in your Garden

Drought or Flood in your Garden

What sort of summer are you expecting. The probability is that there will be no extremes but the danger of flood or drought is always around for gardeners.

Dry garden

All the weathermen seem to be forecasting further drought conditions for the summer of 2012. Gardeners should therefore be prepared for flood!

Drought Preparations

  • There is a flood of advice from government and the government in exile ie. newspapers and media. eg. plant trees for shade and wait 100 years for them to grow.
  • Val Bourne at the Daily Telegraph suggests ‘puddling in’ when planting out your brassicas and leeks and this strikes me as a good use of water. It just means filling the planting hole with water just before you pop your plant in.
  • Another Val tip is to stand watering cans of tap water around the garden until the sun’s warmth has evaporated the chlorine away.
  • Carrots and parsnips naturally grow in drier sandy soil and grow longer in seeking out water. Try several varieties if you like these vegetables.

Flood

Flood Preparations

  • Be prepared to catch what water you may need in butts, barrels and ponds.
  • If your ground is liable to waterlogging either restrict the plants you grow or improve the drainage.
  • Minor drainage improvements can be achieved with added grit, sand and gravel
  • Major drainage improvements may include a deep soak-away or a perforated drainage system.

The Low-water No-water Garden: Gardening for Drought and Heat the Mediterranean Way – A Practical Guide with 500 Stunning Colour Photographs by Pattie Barron available from amazon

Managing the Wet Garden:
Plants That Flourish in Problem Places by John Simmons available from Amazon
Credits
Dry garden by foliosus CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Flood by itspaulkelly CC BY-NC 2.0

Books you can’t buy from Amazon

Books you can’t buy from Amazon

These gardening books are just crying out to be written so we suggest some titles and authors.

Do not smoke your grass by Mary Wana

Turn your MP into Compost by Pete Substitute

Money saving tips add up by Alice Summ

Trollius, Yaks and other plant transportation by Dick van Bike