I got engaged. Then I planned a wedding. And after the honeymoon I sat in my flat and asked myself "What did I do in my free time before I had a wedding to plan?" I suffered bad post-nuptial depression.
About six months after Hubster and I got married, my mum suggested I try container gardening. I went to a garden centre and spent about £100 on plants, pots and compost. I bought a couple of alpines, a juniper, the Wallflowers That Would Not DieTM, an ornamental kale (that very much did die) and a Dicksonia antarctica. And for a long time that was it.
Until the inspiration hit me - I would grow a garden that dinosaurs would have recognised, some 100 million years ago. The Juniperus squamata could stay, and the Dicksonia antarctica assumed pride of place. The alpines (and the rosemary I inherited from the previous tenant) got relegated elsewhere in the garden. I tried desperately to kill off the wallflowers.
We got a composter from the council. This got the Hubster outside at the same time as me.
I bought palms, ferns, basal angiosperms. The highlight of 2007 for me was saving up for a Wollemia nobilis and dragging the Hubster to RHS Wisley to pick it up. After several months of trying, the wallflowers eventually died. There are now perhaps 30 different plants in my container garden, plus a few that are too puny to go outside (give anthropogenic climate change a few years though, chaps!).
Ferns bring me the most joy in the garden, and it's these that I love collecting most of all. Having said that, I do have what a pal calls a "Gondwanan gymnosperm fetish", so expect to see all manner of weird and wonderful plants in the garden eventually.
I'll be going back over the next few weeks to show you how the garden has evolved, and will try to pick a Plant Of The Week to talk about in more detail. I hope you enjoy reading.
About six months after Hubster and I got married, my mum suggested I try container gardening. I went to a garden centre and spent about £100 on plants, pots and compost. I bought a couple of alpines, a juniper, the Wallflowers That Would Not DieTM, an ornamental kale (that very much did die) and a Dicksonia antarctica. And for a long time that was it.
Until the inspiration hit me - I would grow a garden that dinosaurs would have recognised, some 100 million years ago. The Juniperus squamata could stay, and the Dicksonia antarctica assumed pride of place. The alpines (and the rosemary I inherited from the previous tenant) got relegated elsewhere in the garden. I tried desperately to kill off the wallflowers.
We got a composter from the council. This got the Hubster outside at the same time as me.
I bought palms, ferns, basal angiosperms. The highlight of 2007 for me was saving up for a Wollemia nobilis and dragging the Hubster to RHS Wisley to pick it up. After several months of trying, the wallflowers eventually died. There are now perhaps 30 different plants in my container garden, plus a few that are too puny to go outside (give anthropogenic climate change a few years though, chaps!).
Ferns bring me the most joy in the garden, and it's these that I love collecting most of all. Having said that, I do have what a pal calls a "Gondwanan gymnosperm fetish", so expect to see all manner of weird and wonderful plants in the garden eventually.
I'll be going back over the next few weeks to show you how the garden has evolved, and will try to pick a Plant Of The Week to talk about in more detail. I hope you enjoy reading.
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