Hello everyone Grandad is back home working in the garden after enjoying the beautiful summer not only here in the south east of England but on his travels to Scotland, Spain and California.
I came across this little bit of hedgetopping artificial grass in Puerto de Soller in Mallorca; think they might need to call Trulawn for an update!
Whilst in Mallorca Grandad visited one of his favourite gardens …The Gardens of Alfabia in the Coll de Soller about a half an hour’s drive from Palma towards the Serra de Tramuntana.
This crazy looking tree with the conical prickles on the trunk is a silk floss tree or Chorisia
Autumn is here with us and winter is in sight and hopefully your winter gardens views will be better this year if you followed Grandad’s advice from last winter! Don’t forget to keep collecting your leaves to make leaf mould for the future…you can now get jute bags from your garden centre that biograde throughout the year in tandem with the leaves.
For spring flowers you need to get your daffodil bulbs in now and your tulip bulbs before the frosts become regular. Don’t forget to add some bulbs to your winter containers …with winter bedding such as pansies,violas and polyanthus.
You can’t beat the dwarf daffodil called Tete a Tete with bulbs available in most supermarkets… but time is short to get a display next year from late February to April. As a general rule plant your bulbs two or three times their own depth and probably a bit more for tulips, and around two bulbs width apart; don’t forget to plant with the top facing up.
Grandad is keen on his trees and in California he went to the Sequoia National Park to see the world’s largest tree by volume and here it is. It is a Giant Redwood (Sequoia giganteum) and is called ‘General Sherman’.
It’s a half mile steep walk from the car park so Grandad was well puffed especially at an altitude over 7000 feet high. To add to the occasion a black bear was napping on a nearby tree! This tree is 275 feet high with a 100 foot wide base. For those who like statistics the world’s tallest tree is also in California….this is a Coastal Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) standing at 379 feet tall and called the ‘Hyperion’. The best we can do in the UK is a Douglas Fir in Scotland standing at 209 feet.
There are some outstanding autumn tree colours to be seen at the moment but they won’t last long. Good places to visit right now are the Arboretum at Westonbirt (Gloucestershire), Exbury Gardens (Hampshire) and Wakehurst Place (Sussex).
