August Garden Needs More Colour Less Green

In Yorkshire we are lucky to have several gardens designed using the theme of a Himalayan Garden. The Hut near Ripon at Grewlthorpe is   ‘The Himalayan Garden’ with all the plants you would expect in such a setting including

Dendrology is the the branch of botany and science about trees and other plants that have woody structures. It includes the natural history of trees, species identification, taxonomic classifications and economic significance.

A well maintained green sward with stripes from a lawnmower is the epitome of a British garden. It could be something to do with the amount of rain we get but it also depends on the type and care of the grass.

Edgeworthia is a genus of shrubs that flower in small clusters of scented 4 petaled flowers tightly packed to form a ball shape. The genus is related to the Daphne family and can be grown in the UK with similar treatment and success.

After salad crop failures in Spain and shortages of courgettes, broccoli and other ‘long distance’ vegetables gardeners could to worse than focus on traditional and non-traditional root crops.

Conifer trees and plants are available in a range of colours, shapes and sizes. Sequoia conifers are the largest living thing on the planet. Mature trees reach for the skies but rockery or horizontalis varieties are ground hugging by comparison.

This summer has been damp and the plants have grown lush. In some way this has contributed to a dramatic cut in the number of greenfly on my roses and other plants (perhaps they found other feeding grounds or did not mate as prolifically).

Britain has some of the best gardens in the world. The choice of which to visit is far larger than this selective list but at least it gives you somewhere to start planning this years outings.

In the cold wet winter it is a good time to plan where to visit as the year improves. The South West is the obvious place to start your visiting tour of gardens containing exotic plants.

What colour is the sky? A strange question too a gardener perhaps but there are good gardening reasons for asking.

Magnesian limestone grassland is uncommon in the UK but supports a wide range of plants and invertebrates. The dolomite or limestone has weathered to form thin lime-rich soils on which unique wildflower meadows have developed.

There are many interesting terms that may have uses in our UK gardening. We  have probably all experimented with Bonsai aiming for the perfection of small trees in small pots as a demonstration of bonsiers art. I have used the root restriction technique to get miniature or smaller shrubs for a smaller garden but stopping short of root pruning.