The Coral Plant is a stunning tropical shrub that can add a touch of exotic beauty to any garden or indoor space. It gets its name from its attractive coral-like appearance and unique foliage!
21.08.2023 - 12:02 / theunconventionalgardener.com / Emma Doughty
It has been a difficult spring for gardeners, and their plants, here in the UK. If you’re lucky enough to have the space (and funds) for a greenhouse or a polytunnel then that goes a long way to protecting plants from the vagaries of the weather, but for everyone else cloches are a good solution to the problems it brings.
There has been some expansion in what is called a cloche, but to my mind it is simply a small structure designed to protect a single outdoor plant (or a group of young plants) from the weather or from pests. Planting outside early in the spring can be a bit of a risky business, with plants eager to grow but at risk from frost and chilling winds; a cloche can be the halfway house that allows the weather to improve, or the plants to harden off, before they are fully exposed. A cloche can also protect seedlings from slugs, snails and aphids – all of which will enjoy their succulent stems and behead them before they get much of a chance at life.
Through the summer, a woven cloche (wicker, perhaps) keeps larger critters out and offers a little sun protection to plants like lettuce, whilst allowing air and water to flow.
And as the days start to shorten a cloche extends the autumn, protecting plants from frost as you’re reaping your late-season harvests. You can even use cloches throughout the winter, to protect hardy plants from the worst of the weather. Although they’ll survive on their own, you can harvest cleaner and more tender leaves from plants that have been given a little bit of protection.
Originally, cloches were bell-shaped structures; most people would recognise Victorian glass cloches, which make an attractive addition to a garden – they’re still available, although they might not fit your budget.
The Coral Plant is a stunning tropical shrub that can add a touch of exotic beauty to any garden or indoor space. It gets its name from its attractive coral-like appearance and unique foliage!
Seasonal Houseplants are good for people who are looking forward to having specimen that thrives at their best in different time of the year. Here are the best ones to go for!
Here are some great Houseplants that Look-Like Fiddle Leaf Fig and are going to be an eye-catching alternative with their large foliage!
When I woke up yesterday morning, it was misty. We’re approaching the middle of October, which is the usual time for the first frosts of autumn in my part of the UK. People in different areas are already reporting the arrival of the frosts on Twitter. This means it’s time for me to pop out into the garden and bring in my lemon tree (which I grew from a pip, several years ago). It has been enjoying the summer weather in the garden, but it’s only really hardy down to -10°C. I’ve nearly lost it a couple of times, and it has died right back to nothing, but somehow it always manages to come back.
Buying plants
I’m not a chemist, but I do find plant chemistry (and the links and patterns between different plants) to be a fascinating topic. Fortunately there are chemists out there who can bring these to our attention, and Compound Interest includes some great plant-related infographics amongst a wider spread of chemical topics.
“April showers bring May flowers.” English proverb
At 11 pm on Friday (BST, 18:01 EDT), SpaceX launched an uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft on its way to the International Space Station (ISS). This Dragon capsule has been to the ISS twice before, making it the first to fly in space for a third time. This is the 18th SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract mission for NASA: CRS-18.
The problem with elections, with votes of any kind, is that the process is inherently divisive. Whatever the result, there are winners and losers. The majority picks the direction we will take, for a little while, and everyone else just has to make the best of it. Given human nature, it seems like there’s a constant battle between tradition and progress. We’re all voting for a better world, we just disagree about what that means.
I’m lucky enough to live reasonably close to the Earth Trust, an organisation that aims to offer people life changing experiences that reconnect them to the natural world. They have lots of free and reasonably-priced events for both children and adults, and welcome lots of school and other groups to their HQ alongside Wittenham Clumps (a lovely vantage point from which to get a good view of Didcot!). Over the weekend I went to a workshop they had organised entitled ‘Cordage and Fibres‘, which promised to show interested parties how to make rope and cord from nettle, hemp and flax. It also aimed to explain retting, scutching and heckling.
The latest addition to the garden is a Gardman poppy bird feeder. I’ve popped it in the border and filled it with seed for the moment, but it can be used as a water dish in the summer – it’s made from painted cast iron. I was given mine by Gardman for review purposes, but they’re being sold to raise money for The Royal British Legion, as part of their annual poppy appeal. Gardman want to raise £200,000 for the charity, and 50p from the sale of each feeder will be donated. There’s a special bird food range to go with it, also including a donation to the poppy appeal.
COP21, the United Nations conference on climate change, has ended with a ‘landmark’ agreement that climate change is something we all need to tackle together. Last week I was talking about what gardeners can do to reduce their carbon footprint, and a lot of it is about being thrifty with resources – something that tends to come naturally to us! Over the weekend, Ryan has done his bit by recycling plastic plant pots in my direction. He came across a newly landscaped commercial building, where the unwanted plant pots were being discarded.