Flowering bamboo - dead or alive?

If your bamboo has flowered and looks dead then welcome to this mystical world, the curse of the flowering bamboo. 

This mainly affects the Phyllostachys species, when one flowers, they all flower. Next door, up the road, the next town, across London. Mass hysteria normally follows as to what on earth has happened to all this bamboo, a disease, an visit from outer space, a bamboo hating gorilla team! 

And the reasons why? even when studying for one of my horticulture courses years ago our lecturer insisted, in the style of QI "nobody knows" why it happens. Well as a level headed person it can only be down to the weather that year or the previous year. There is'nt some sort of genetic code imprinted in the living tissue of a bamboo or some scent carried by the wind to tell all bamboos to die in the same season, it stands to reason it has to do with the weather pattern. 

When you look at bamboo you think tough plant, loves the sun, drought tolerant, plant it anywhere. I can't blame people for thinking that either, bamboo just has that look of being a tough plant! Quite the opposite really especially with Phyllostachys, they need the right soil, just the right amount of light each day, some sun, preferably not mid-day, and plenty of water, not a weekly soak but in the heat of summer, everyday. 

So what of my flowering bamboo, is it dead?

No, I do not beleive it is. Sometime ago I cut a  Phyllostachys nigra (black bamboo) back to the ground and never got round to digging up the root ball, a year later it had fully recovered and was sending up plenty of new canes. I have one in a pot now in my own back garden that flowered last year and with the mild spell in November it started to showsome promising interesting leaf growth, small leaves, not many but it's not dead!

My advice is if it is a small garden and the bamboo serves as a focal point plant then of course dig it up and replace it but in a larger garden give it a chance and some tlc, after all Phyllostachys nigra (black bamboo) is the most expensive of bamboos. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kebony - there's a new wood in town

Whilst at the timber merchants yesterday I was introduced to a new type timber, or rather an old type of timber but a new way of treating it, Kebony decking....

In a nutshell Kebony decking it is a softwood treated with liquid from bio-waste which makes it stronger and a very stable timber comparable to hardwood. It contains no chemicals and requires no further treatment. Usual deck maintenance is all thats required. Kebony decking starts of a golden brown colour which will grey as with hardwoods in our climate unless treated. 

The sting in the tail is Kebony is slightly more expensive than hardwood decking (already high and rising), this we hope to drop in price as it becomes more popular as we think it is very good alternative to hardwood decking and much more enviromentally friendly as it is european softwood  and not tropical hardwoods (balau, ipe, massaranduba etc) 

As well as decking Kebony is also available in slats for bespoke trellis work and cladding. 

for more information on Kebony and its products click here

nb: if your intention is to let your deck timber grey naturally then look carefully at the grain of the wood, Kebony or hardwood, as this is what will shine through. For me the more interesting the grain the more attractive the deck will look when it silvers.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garden gifts at Christmas

All serious gardeners need and want are a decent hand fork, hand trowel, border fork, fork, border spade, spade, good loppers and last but the most important secateurs. Forget all that nonsense that the magazines are trying to say is the next best thing, I can't even remember the name of that hand gadget that proposed to revolutionise  gardening, the hand spork or something, the thing with the spokes poking out of it, all you had to do was turn it and it pulled out weeds and everything. If something like that was available and worked don't you think all us gardeners would of invented it a long time ago, believe me, we get alot of time to think of tools that might make our life easier.

If you want to buy a present for a gardener and it's in the budget then i suggest Felco secateurs, they are about £35 and are the professionals choice, I've had mine for about 5 years now, not like that cheap rubbish from DIY stores and every good garden center carries spares for them, new blades, new springs etc. They come in about 7 models I think, large handed, small handed, left handed and there is also a model that's particularly good for arthritis sufferers. I will not post a link to anyone specific for these just google Felco secateurs and find the supplier that suits you but I promise give these to a gardener and they will be ecstatic.

Paving front gardens - planning permission now needed

At last the government have come up trumps. From the 1st October 2008 planning permission is now needed if you wish to pave an area in your front garden 5 square metres or more where the water run off goes straight onto the road.

I  welcome this new requirment, for a long time I've wondered why people block pave their whole front gardens, with no shrubs, trees or plants to provide any interest or soften the space available. From boundary wall to the front door, nothing but 1000's of pre formed concrete blocks that fade to a lovely  pink colour and sink into the ground after time.

More on the exact requirements can be found at

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/england/genpub/en/1115314762582.html

Bees

There is a lot of press about the rapidly disappearing bee colonies - in fact 50 - 60% of bees have died.  Several reasons - the weather (wet and windy conditions are impossible for bees), pests, diseases and viruses, reduction in hive owners but also conditions and locations of crops and even planing in our gardens.

Bee keepers say that if you honey bee disappears, man follows 4 years later - that's a pretty serious claim.

What can you do? Plant your garden with wildlife in mind.  My favourite plants for attracting bees are lavender and verbena but there a huge array of plants that attract pollenating bees:

Agrimony (agrimonia eupatoria)
Angelica (angelica archangelica)
Anise Hyssop (agastache foeniculum)
Aubretia
Bergamot (monarda didyma)
Betony
Bird's Foot Trefoil (lotus corniculatus)
Black Horehound (ballota nigra)
Blackthorn (prunus spinosa)
Bloody Cranesbill
Bluebell (hyacinthoides non-scripta)
Borage (borago officinalis)
Bugle (ajuga repens)
Butterbur
Cardoon (cynara cardunculus)
Catmint (nepeta cataria)
Chicory (cichorium intybus)
Chives (allium schoenprasum)
Columbine (aquilegia)
Cornflower (centaurea cyanus)
Foxglove (digitalis)
Germander Speedwell (veronica chamaedrys)
Globe Flower (trollius europaeus)
Globe Thistle (echinops ritro)
Grape Hyacinth
Greater Knapweed (centaurea scabiosa)
Greater Stitchwort
Gypsywort
Hedge Woundwort (stachys sylvestris)
Herb Robert (geranium robertianum)
Hollyhock (althaea rosea)
Hound's Tongue (Cynoglossum)
Hyssop (hyssopus officinalis)
Ice Plant (sedum)
Lemon Bergamot
Lady's Smock (cardamine pratensis)
Lambs Ears (stachys byzantine)
Lavender (lavendula)
Lemon Balm (melissa officinalis)
Lesser Celandine
Lovage (levisticum officinale)
Marjoram (origanum majorana)
Marsh Marigold
Meadow Clary (salvia pratensis)
Meadowsweet (filipendula ulmaria)
Apple Mint
Mountain Mint
Mullein (verbascum)
Musk Mallow (malva moschata)
Oxlip
Painted sage (slavia horminum)
Pasque Flower (pulsatilla vulgaris)
Penstemon
Poached Egg (limnanthes douglasii)
Poppy (papaver)
Purple Loosestrife (lythrum salicaria)
Ragged Robin (lychnis flos-cuculi)
Red Clover (trifolium pratense)
Red Valerian (centranthus ruber)
Rock Rose (helianthemum mummularium)
Rosemary (rosmarinus officinalis)
Sainfoin (onobrychis vicifolia)
Selfheal (prunella vulgaris)
Small Scabious (scabiosa columbaria)
Spiked Speedwell (veronica spicata)
Sweet Cicely
Sweet William (dianthus barbatus)
Teasel (dipsacus fullonum)
Thyme (thymus)
Tickewwed (coreopsis)
Toadflax (linaria vulgaris)
Valerian (valeriana officinalis)
Viper's Bugloss (echium vulgare)
White Clover
Wild Basil (clinopodium vulgaris)
Wild Clematis (clematis vitalba)
Wild Mignonette (reseda lutea)
Wild Privet (ligustrum vulgare)
Yellow Archangel
Yellow Flag Iris (iris pseudacorus)
Yellow Loosestrife

List from www.englishplants.co.uk

Making the most of food in your fridge

As the credit crunch hits we are becoming increasingly aware as a nation of how wasteful we are.  Not only do we replace rather than fix appliances, buy clothes to last only a season (if that) and replace our furniture when we get bored of looking at it, we throw away a huge amount of food every week.

A lot of this is to do with our disassocation with food, we buy anything we like when we like in supermarkets.  We don't think about how it is grown or where.  We go for 2 for 1 offers even though we don't think through how to use the quantity of food we buy. 

Every allotment worker understands the joy of producing their own fruit and veg.  Adults and children alike should learn or remember this joy.  Not everyone has the time to manage an allotment or a veggie patch in the garden but what you can do is plant some herbs for the window sill.  There is nothing more glorious than adding your own fresh herbs to a dish.  By throwing an bunch of basil into a simple mixture of fresh tomato and onion and dousing with olive oil you have the basis of a perfect bruschetta snack, or by combining some coriander with a very easy carrot soup you have a delicious and very basic meal that uses up the vegetables in the bottom of your vegetable drawer.

Plant some chive, coriander basil, coriander, thyme, rosemary and mint and you will transform the taste of some very simple vegetable dishes.

Plant prices on the up

Recently featured in the news is plant prices are expected to rise this year by approx. 20%. This is due to rising cost in fuel (a big majority of plants are imported from Europe) record low pound to euro rate and an increasing demand in France and Germany to service large commercial projects.  As of yet our suppliers have not yet added the rise but we expect them to shortly.