Organic Fire And Ice

Sometimes the garden throws up beautiful combinations of colour, form, or both. The White Delphiniums were nearly flowering when I took this photo against the Gallardia. The Red and Orange is the fire against the Delphiniums icy white.

When the rest of the garden is starting to flag these two plants inject some colour and wow into the garden. These Gallardias are called Blanket Flowers because they resemble the colours of native American made blankets. They are as tough as old nails. To deadhead you need sacateurs!
The white Delphiniums came from the Walton plant stall in June. My Delphinium Pacific Blue flowered months ago. I do not know if the white Delphinium is a late flowering one.
I have been off work today and it has poured with rain. I watched a program about Prince Charles and Highgrove House in the Cotwolds, presented by Alan Titchmarsh.
http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/personalprofiles/residences/highgrove/
The estates gardens looks amazing, but visitors cannot take photos! I would not want to go without my Camera..
The gardens at Highgrove are gardened organically. The theory is the health of the plants comes from the goodness of the soil. There are no chemicals used at all across the estate. They have a gigantic compost heap that goes through four stages of decomposition and resting. After six months it gets dug back into the soil. It seemed to be thriving with a wildflower meadow, plentiful garden birds and wildlife, lush plants, and trees.
The allotment has a lot of people who use chemicals like weedkiller. I do not use any chemicals up at the allotment or in the garden. I think that if a garden is natural it will flourish.
My healthy flowers in the photo show that just adding compost to the soil can encourage masses of healthy plants. An organic garden will use natural selection to sort out the strong disease resistant plants from the weaker ones.
When we moved here the sunken borders soil was compressed, barren, and had very few insects on it or in it. The nectar rich garden has drawn in the wildlife in a short space of time.
The winter will be a good time to enrich the soil ready for next years growth. I planted mostly perennials so they should come back to flower next year.
I like the unexpected contrasts that work. It is always good to walk around the garden and look at everything that is happening. The changes are perceptible if you keep going out..

Honeysuckle and A New 2008 Challenge

It was a grey overcast day today, with wind and rain. I was out in the dark again, planting the Honeysuckle behind the Camelia. The Lonicera has its own wig wam of canes now to grow up before leaping across to the trellis I want to put up.
The Top photo shows the left border as it is. The lower photo shows the Carex grasses and the Dogwood nestling with the solar lights.
A post thatI read last night before bed was the Hundred Foot Diet blogged on an Alameda Garden.
http://alamedagarden.blogspot.com/2008/01/100-foot-diet-challenge.html
The premise is simple. Try to prepare one meal a week with ingredients grown in your garden or community garden (Allotment here). I did a post before about the Dig for Victory campaign in the Second World War when the British public started to cultivate land en masse to grow fruit and vegetables.
http://snappycrocsgarden.blogspot.com/2007/04/digging-for-victory-britains-new.html
The hundred foot is the average distance from your house! You can source locally grown Organic food if your plot is bare. Thats good because I only have Parsley and Rosemary growing that is edible at the moment.



I did a google search and found this video embedded on an eco website.The garden featured belongs to Jules Dervaes , the man behind the path to freedom journal along with his family.
The idea to me thats the most radical is its in an urban area. They did not move into the country, but altered their own environment. I love their Hellstrip with the Wild flowers, and the fact he dropped six inches of mulch on the lawn. Freedom from mowing and watering. This is their gardeners challenge posted on the sixth of January:
http://www.pathtofreedom.com/journal/archives/2008/01/100_foot_diet_c.html
I am waiting for my vegetable seeds to come from Robinsons and the African bag gardens from Send A Cow.
The right hand side of the garden will be split between a Butterfly garden, and a Kitchen Garden. The raised Pavers will hold the Bag Gardens and hopefully a Grow house too.
In my year without a garden I dreamt of the ideal garden. The plan for 2008 will be trying to grow a four pronged garden:
1) An organic garden that attracts wildlife, birds, animals, and insects. Natural pest control will be used, and picking them off at night.
2) A productive garden growing as much home grown food as is possible on a North east facing site.
3) A beautiful Flower garden that has interest throughout the year.
4) A place to relax, and entertain when it warms up. A people friendly garden to chill out in after the stresses of work.
I have started some of the above especially attracting garden birds, lots more work to be done before it is completed. My garden measures aproximately twenty foot by fourteen foot, faces north east and is shaded by houses and trees.