This page reports the events of 2016. The reports for previous years are appended to "Barum's History".
Thumbnail pictures on this page are for the use of speed-readers, anyone who wants to examine any image in greater detail has only to click on the thumbnail.
The garden has now matured to the state where most of our time is taken up with maintenance − removing the dead plants, and deciding what to replace them with; chopping down the overgrowth; and trying to keep on top of the weeds.
Early in the year we decided that this would be our final year opening the garden for the NGS after 18 years with a couple of years off.
This will enable us to devote all our concentration on considering the pros and cons for moving house, not an easy decision after 25 happy years here.
This is covered in the "Introduction to the Veg Patch", so, in the interest of idleness (and to emphasise Veg's importance), I will not repeat it here − but we had a couple of extremely strong gales one of which (Imogen) felled one of next door's conifers − see Storm Damage below.
A Hibiscus 'Blue Bird' was being engulfed by a Photinia 'Palette', and we considered moving the Hibiscus, but decided it was too big, so bought a new one to plant alongside − strange but true.
The Banksia rose is becoming a menace − I pruned it after flowering, thinking that was enough, but by September it needed doing again.Now, March 2017, it is budding on the Winter's growth.
Only maintenance carried out here, not even a photograph taken, so as a sop here is a picture of Teddy in the garden. At least it shows willing. |
The succulents were, again, planted out. I've included this photo to show off the magnificent Agave americana mediopicta 'Alba'. A photo taken in September 2007 shows a much younger plant The Aeonium collection continues to consider itself too important for this page. But the author still refuses to update , "that page" since there is no point in further glorifying the Headgardener's perfection. |
This wonderful plant had outgrown its apace (a mere 1.5m diameter), as decided by the Headgardener, because there is a small risk of slight inconvenience if it scratches her delicate hands. So the UnderGardener was forced to dig it out, running the real, and serious, risk of hernia. Here is a picture of a segment rescued by the UnderGardener, in a 10cm pot. A picture of it in its prime, together with one showing it's flower, can be found in the Plant List. |
Details of our successes in the realms of food production are reported on the veg pages.
During storm Imogen a mature ash tree in the woods, beyond the bottom fence, fell over to lean against its neighbour. I have no idea how many years it will be before it falls over properly, but there is minimal risk of damage to the garden.
The Dahlias continue to spread, and gave a wonderful show in the Autumn.
No significant changes to the design, only the normal updates. Is this an indication of perfection or author's indolence?
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