Happy New Year 2018

Happy New Year!

I got a camera for Christmas, so I can at long last take some decent photos.

The wind has been very bad today

I don't think I have ever seen the fronds on the palm like this.

Fortunately my protection structures remained upright and in one piece.

The fence panels are finally giving up.

They have been up for near 15 years and should really have been replaced before now, but its not our fence.

So I wedge them, tack chicken wire (as you can see below) so the dog can't get into the neighbours. Come Spring time, we shall invite the neighbours round to have a look!

The Arid bed is looking good

and cover seems to be holding up well to the wind too.

I might have to look at replacing the wood which supports all the gravel. I know the bed wasn't  constructed very long ago, but I used wood that had been the edging of the old veg beds and sadly it is rotting quite badly.

Life in the greenhouse continues

my palm is looking really bad, its a Washingtonia Robusta I have had it a number of years. Each summer I plant it out and it goes mental growing like crazy, then each autumn I dig it up and bring it in, as its not hardy. I usually lose a few fronds but this is the worst ever, it does not smell good either, so it maybe bye, bye time.

 Everything else seems fine

All my cuttings look good.

Just have to watch if the weather gets warmer

Quite fascinating some of the colours of the leaves.

The small Agave middle left is not looking good. I often wonder why some years the plants are fine then others even though you have done nothing different they curl up and die. Its rude!

My sonchus palmensis sees to be coping with greenhouse life, I hope it comes through ok as I am eager to see how it continues once its back out in the garden. I intend to start some more from seed as well as I really love them.

Cyphomandra Betacea is still fruiting and is looking good.

I even took some leaves off one of my succulents and they have rooted already.

All seems rosy in the greenhouse.

If you remember I treated our decking with Osmo Anti slip decking oil. I can highly recommend it. It was not cheap but totally, totally worth it, the patio at the top is like an ice rink, where as this decking is totally none slip!

Skiing across the Patio.

At this time of year you have to take your life in both hands when you cross my patio, its down right lethal!

It always used to be the decking in front of hubbies office, but since I painted it with the OSMO  anti slip decking paint, so far no problems. Just need to do something with the patio.

Finally put up my final structures to protect a couple of my Butias. I was told they where hardy, which they are, to a certain extent, but my large butia has been exceptionally slow, in fact dead slow and stop! So this year I thought I would  protect them from the elements and by covering them and fleecing the growth tip. It might make no difference at all but everyone seems to think we may have a bad winter, so the protection would help anyway!

I am hopeless with sawing wood etc, I cheated and bought 4 Extendable Clothes Props from Wilko's

made a frame using bamboo canes, then a tarpaulin and clips... hey presto!

We shall see.

The greenhouse is looking full

Everything is green and still alive, lol!

Under the arid bed cover, all s looking good.

My tree ferns have done so well this year, I think my neighbours 'huge' Baytree is offering them protection from the sun and the frost!

Wishing anyone who reads this a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. xx

Ensete dig out!

So these are  just three that I have to dig out today. The first is my oldest Maurelli. They don't look big but I can assure you they are heavy.

The reason they are so very heavy is the amount of water they hold. You can understand why when you look at a close up and see the little pockets that hold water.

A slightly smaller Maureli, which I intend to store in a totally different way. It is still relatively small so I am not sure it would get through the winter dry stored.

On the Hardy Tropical site on Facebook someone over wintered a Maurelli in a pot of soil. The art is to keep it slightly damp and not wet! So here we go, first time for everything. It will be interesting to see how this goes. I will keep you posted.

Finally my Hiniba. This really struggled to get going this year and to be honest I thought it would be touch and go as to whether it would grow. As you can see, it did and it did it well.

After following Yorkshire Kris's You tube video on how he propagated his Hiniba, I thought 'well why not give it a go'. So this is where you will follow my journey.

First you have to dig it out! Not easy but just about doable.

Then Yorkshire Kris used a large bread knife to cut through the trunk. Which I just about managed. this is only about 4 inches from the roots.

I then had to cut this in half. I could not do this with a knife, the central bit is really tough so I had to use a saw.

I then had to cut them again, so now have 4 pieces all with a bit of the central corm and all with some roots.

I then dusted all four with yellow sulphur. Then popped them each into a pot of compost.

The compost was then dusted with ground cinnamon, I found this works well against any fungal diseases.

They are now in the back bedroom which is not the warmest in the house, and no the radiator is not on, but it is relatively bright. We shall see. Time will tell.