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MyPottingBench: Down Under - Mount Tomah Botanical Garden

MyPottingBench: Down Under – Mount Tomah Botanical Garden

Blue Mountains Botanical Garden at Mount Tomah. The Mount Tomah Botanical Garden is part of three gardens that make up the botanical gardens in New South Wales. The other two are the Royal Garden, in the CBD of Sydney, and a larger, spreading garden at Mount Annan. The greatest things about these three superb gardens is that they all offer free entry. Blue Mountains Botanical Garden at Mount…

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#australia #Australian #Blue Mountains #botanical #botanical gardens #garden visit #Mount Tomah #natives #plants

MyPottingBench: Down Under - Wildflowers

MyPottingBench: Down Under – Wildflowers

Being in a foreign country affords opportunities for finding plants you would never see growing wild in the UK. I spend a lot of time walking the dogs – however the restrictions on where you can take your dog does limit opportunities for hunting wildflowers. On my usual walk i head north up the coast and pass through parkland and along the beach. There’s a few common Australian natives to be seen…

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#australia #Australian #coastal #dog walks #natives #plants #wildflowers

MyPottingBench: Down Under - Chillies

MyPottingBench: Down Under – Chillies

There have been some gardening successes over the past 18 months. One thing I have really enjoyed is being able to get some proper crops off the peppers and chillies. I think the last few years I was gardening in Devon we had some wet summers with low light levels. My greenhouse only came into it’s own during that year so I haven’t ever felt that I was succeeding in the chilli/pepper stakes. Of…

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#capsicum #Chilli #chilli challenge #chillies #greenhouse #peppers #plants #propagation #Seed saving

MyPottingBench: Down Under

It’s now been 18 months since we arrived in Australia and I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the ‘gardening’ I’ve been able to do on the other side of the world. It doesn’t feel like real gardening for a couple of reasons; The seasons are all wrong – not only am I upside down and the wrong way round with my seasons but even more confusing is that a lot of ‘summer’ crops are grown in…

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#australia #Chilli #citrus #coastal #fruit #nectarine #peach #plants #succulent #tropical

MyPottingBench: Signing Off.

Times are a-changing for MPB.

My wife and I are moving to Australia in the new year for some adventures Down Under. For the first time in our lives we are at a point where all our professional training is over and we are working independently. As of August this year I have been self-employed and looking forward to the next stage of our lives. What this means is that we are leaving behind our…

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Holiday Horticulture : Sorrento and Amalfi

The second holiday we had this summer was to the Sorrento peninsula for a family wedding. I had never been to this part of Italy before and apart from a quick weekend in Venice some years ago I haven’t seen much of this country. Monty Don’s programmes on gardens around the world, specifically Italian Gardens, were my only exposure to the gardens to be seen.

We stayed in a hilltop village called…

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Holiday Horticulture : Marrakech's Top Gardens

Holiday Horticulture : Marrakech’s Top Gardens

Firstly, I must apologise for radio silence on my part. It’s been a busy few months for us in Devon with a change of job (becoming self employed), getting married, a holiday and a Minimoon. The garden has suffered from this neglect and my blog was the worst casualty. So to make up for this I thought I’d brighten the rainy Autumnal weather of late with some sunny pictures.

My new wife and I went…

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#Garden #garden visit #holiday #majorelle #manoumia #marrakech #morocco

Chilli Challenge: Part 3 Flowers!

My reinforcements are starting to produce their first flowers. (Credit must go to the Dartmoor Chilli Farm)

My Lemon Drops are at last starting to look like they might come to something this year.

Others taking part in a chilli challenge; Southbourne Gardens Allotment in my garden

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#Chilli #chilli challenge #dartmoor chilli farm

Storm Damage: Recovery

So this is a reminder of what greeted us back in February after the storms here. I had only just said to the other half how nicely things were coming on and how it looked like this year it was really going to shine. Unfortunately Mother Nature didn’t like how things were going so decided to squash the border with the help of the neighbours’ fence.

After waiting a few months for the neighbours…

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#border #climbers #climbing #climbing rose #fence #posts.#rose #storm #viburnam #wires

Wordless Wednesday: cutting flowering for the first time

#pink #rose #wordless wednesday

Box Balls

It’s time to prune my box balls. These are a really strong feature of our garden where they provide winter structure and a rhythm that bounces through the borders and between the two main areas. I cannot take any credit for them as they were here when we arrived for which I am very grateful. This is the first proper trim they’ve had since we moved in.

I was given some sheep shears for Christmas…

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#box #box balls #buxus #May #pruning #shears

Chilli Challenge: Part 2 Reinforcements

It’s been ages since I’ve posted an update on my efforts to grow some chillies this year. I’m nearly ready to admit defeat with my own chilli plants grown from seed. They’ve been back in intensive care for a few weeks now and apart from putting out 2 true leaves between them they’ve not come along at all.

I think I may have been over-watering them and the nighttime temperature may have been too…

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#Chilli #chilli challenge #dartmoor chilli farm

Toby Buckland's Gardening Festival 2014

Toby Buckland’s Gardening Festival 2014

Yesterday was the first Toby Buckland Gardening Festival held at Powderham Castle in Kenton near Exeter. It’s been widely advertised in the local area and was generating lots of excitement on twitter this week.

Powderham Castle is a beautiful setting looking out onto the estuary and surrounded with acres of parkland. It’s also home to Toby Buckland’s nursery. I took my mum and the other half to…

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#Chilli #devon #festival #gardening #hill house #nursery #powderham #powderham castle #toby buckland

Wordless Wednesday: Devon Bluebells

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#Bluebell #devon #wooodland #wordless wednesday

RHS Wisley Visit

2 weeks ago I popped in to Wisley for a look around. I had an hour to spare before I had to pick the other half up from the train station after attending the crocus open day. Previously when we’ve visited it’s been during the winter months for reasons we don’t really know. So it was nice to see some some different aspects if the garden. I was going to say it’s nice to see some colour in the…

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#Easter #Fritillary #RHS #RHS Garden #RHS Wisley #trillium #Tulips #Wisley

Wordless Wednesday

#blossom #crab apple #crabapple #wordless wednesday

Greenhouse Construction 4 - MyPottingBench has a new home!

Greenhouse Construction 4 – MyPottingBench has a new home!

After a few weeks, several trips to the DIY store and agricultural supplier, the circular saw catching fire and 2 re-designs, the greenhouse is done.

Well almost done; there are a few tinkering jobs that need finishing off, but essentially it’s ready to go. It’s nice to have a potting bench that’s sat at the correct height for me. This evening I pricked out 2 trays of nicotiana and zinnia…

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#building a greenhouse #coldframe #DIY #Glass #glasshouse #greenhouse #greenhouse construction #Greenhouse Construction Update #orangery

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