Coastal Gardening Society: July 2011

Sunday 31 July 2011

The Autumn Kent Garden Show

The Autumn Kent Garden Show will be held on 10 & 11 September 2011 at the Kent County Showground at Detling near Maidstone, Kent.

http://www.kentgardenshow.com

Gardening on the radio.. in Sussex

BBC Sussex has a phone-in gardening show called Dig It, presented by Joe Talbot every Sunday from 0900 -1200 Noon. The local rate number (approx cost 3p per minute from BT landlines) is 08459 570057 or you can text 81333 and start your message "radio".

Radio frequencies are 95.3 FM, 104.5 FM and 104.8 FM. The show can be found on the BBC iplayer at http://www.bbc.co.uk right hand side on Home page.

Gardening on the radio..in Kent

BBC Kent offers the radio phone-in show Sunday Gardening hosted by Andy Garland and Steve Bradley from 0800-1100 am every Sunday. The show uses a local rate number costing approx 3p per minute from a BT landline 08459 81 11 11 or you can email radio.kent.gardening@bbc.co.uk Andy Garland has an email listed in addition to this andy.garland@bbc.co.uk but Steve Bradley doesn't.

In West Kent the frequency is 96.7 FM, in East Kent 104.2 FM and in the Folkestone area 97.6 FM. Alternatively, you can catch the show as a podcast for 7 days after each show, by going to http://www.bbc.co.uk
and finding it on iplayer (right hand side of Home page).

BBC Gardens World Readers Offer

BBC Gardens World Readers Offer

Despite the mis-spelt link put up by the website, the offer is for two clematis for £4.50 from Montrose of Guernsey.

More gardening quotations...

The love of gardening is a seed once sown, that never dies
Gertrude Jekyll

A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

No two gardens are the same. No two days are the same in one garden
Hugh Johnson

How fair is a garden amid the trials and passions of existence
Benjamin Disraeli

Nothing is more the child of art than a garden
Sir Walter Scott

I'm not really a career person, I'm a gardener basically.
George Harrison

Gardening is the purest of human pleasures
Francis Bacon

Many of these quotes came from http://www.gaygardener.com and the guys there have gathered thousands.

Gardening quotations..

Successful gardening is not necessarily a question of wealth but of love, taste and knowledge.
Vita Sackville-West

To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil, is to forget ourselves
Mahatma Gandhi

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need
Cicero

A garden is the best alternative therapy
Germaine Greer

Gardening is a humbling experience
Martha Stewart

We are happier in many ways when we are old than when we were young. The young sow wild oats, the old grow sage.
Sir Winston Churchill

Worldwide coastal plant reports

My stepdaughter Rebecca is considering my plea to take photos for the CGS website. She travels around the world for her job and luckily for me she loves taking photographs of plants and flowers and can write too. I'm not talking blurred photos from a phone camera Rebecca has got some serious kit and takes stunning photos. It would be really interesting to find out how other coastal regions in the world do it.

Getting things moving..

This morning I got my first coastal plant nursery involved. Great news. Looks like CGS will have its first plant sale next year.

Thanks to advice from my hedge-funding friend Jan, now in land-locked Zurich, I bought a domain name and stuck a holding page up. I've disabled social networking and search engines for now though as the website needs to be designed and I want a really cool logo to put on it.

I'm not planning to put a forum on the website as having moderated on forums before including a dating site for adulterers and a careers forum for wannabe investment bankers, I really don't need the hassle. I think it would be more worthwhile to have a YouTube channel with how to videos from experts. I'm also thinking about live chat sessions with experts as well.

Saturday 30 July 2011

More photos

Assorted garden photos

Oleander

Oleander 2004

July 2009

July 2003

Fuchsia 2008 and Hollyhock 2003

The fuchsia grown by my mother died one winter. The hollyhock looked fantastic but I gave up growing them because of the horribly diseased leaves. Evidently the trick is to grow hollyhocks in grass and the garden is lawnless.

Friday 29 July 2011

Door Chain | House of Bath

Door Chain | House of Bath

This on the other hand I remain unconvinced on.

Driveway Alert | Ambrose Wilson

Driveway Alert | Ambrose Wilson

Detects cars or people. Nice little gadget but I worry my postie would have a heart attack and sue.

Baskit Geni - Anti Theft Lock for Hanging Baskets

Baskit Geni - Anti Theft Lock for Hanging Baskets

Personally, I hate hanging baskets. By the sea, they tend to become missiles in strong winds. Maybe this gadget would solve that problem ?

2.5m Wall Gazebo | Isme.com

2.5m Wall Gazebo | Isme.com

Marshall Ward seems to have morphed into Isme..makes me think of the irritating SuperMom Esme in the Twilight series.

The Beechgrove Garden - Produced by Tern Television- Seaside Garden

Rye Arts Festival - Literary Events

Rye Arts Festival - Literary Events
Gardens of Italy talk - bookable online

Coastal Communities Alliance

Thursday 28 July 2011

Days Out

I think it would be possible to do Samphire Hoe, White Cliffs of Dover, South Foreland Lighthouse, Connaught Park Dover, Kearsney Abbey Dover, Walmer Castle and Gardens and The Secret Gardens of Sandwich in a whole day with a coach.. but that would be a long day..

Kearsney Abbey

Kearsney Abbey
Kearsney Abbey, Dover

Connaught Park

Connaught Park
Connaught Park, Dover

Samphire Hoe

Samphire Hoe
Created from millions of tonnes of chalk spoil from the Channel Tunnel
Tours available

Port Lympne Gardens | Port Lympne Animal Park | The Aspinall Foundation

Port Lympne Gardens | Port Lympne Animal Park | The Aspinall Foundation

Tours of the gardens are available

Basil planter kit from National Trust

Basil planter kit from National Trust

Cute, would look lovely on my windowsill BUT £10 for a pot of basil ?

The Lawn Ranger Mug

The Lawn Ranger Mug

Well I think it's cute.. from English Heritage

National Trust | The White Cliffs of Dover

National Trust | The White Cliffs of Dover
The famous chalk cliffs

National Trust | South Foreland Lighthouse

Walmer Castle and Gardens | English Heritage

NGS - Garden

NGS - Garden
The Secret Gardens of Sandwich Lutyens and Jekyll-designed garden open in aid of charity as part of the NGS in October

The Secret Gardens of Sandwich

Interesting looking website, liked it for Facebook. Could be a good place for a visit ? I think Sandwich is a Cinque Port. I know the Romans landed at Richborough Fort nearby.
http://www.the-secretgardens.co.uk

Folkestone Then and Now

Just found this website which has loads of postcards showing all the fantastic looking gardens which Folkestone had
http://bbhilda.topcities.com/Folkestone/FolkestoneThen_Now.html

Sunday morning on The Leas, Folkestone 1901

Not a great photo as I took it with my BlackBerry but I will try to scan the photos of public parks, gardens, promenades and espalanades from the 1929 First Edition book on seaside resorts I just bought.

Wednesday 27 July 2011

More French signs

These came from http://www.distinctivelyfrench.com Banania is a hot chocolate drink made with defatted cocoa and banana flour mmmm... I bought the signs for the garden but I'm wondering whether to use them in the house.

French metal signs

Bought these in the current sale at http://www.allposters.co.uk

Photographs

Husband's daughter from first marriage is keen on photography and loves to take photos of flowers. She travels around the world so I'm hoping to get her to share her coastal plant photos.

Kentia palm 2011

Dr Livingstone I presume ?

Kentia palm and on left Schlumbergera. Pith helmet from Oxfam.

Loveseat, July 2004

Eryngium 2011

Eryngium bought from Merriments, Hurst Green, E Sussex
www.merriments.co.uk

Clematis, Brede, Sussex, July 2011

No idea which variety, sorry !

Sussex, July 2011

Lilies, April 2011

Palm, The Pullman, Folkestone Old Town, 21 September 2010


copyright Coastal Gardening Society 2011

Hanging basket, The Park Inn Hotel, Folkestone 2011

Dover, March 2009

Radnor Park, Folkestone, March 2009

Flowerbed near fountains, Folkestone Harbour, Spring 2011

Phoenix canariensis, Folkestone Garden Centre, April 2011

Kingsnorth Gardens, Folkestone

Nouvelles !

Coastal Gardening Society has a presence on Facebook and Twitter now and I've invited the first expert onto the steering group. I've made contact with two councils re: behind the scenes amenity-horticulture-by-the-sea talks, one in Kent, the other in E Sussex. I've also found a cool venue with WiFi for the steering group meeting. I downloaded a Gardeners' Question Time host request form cos it's a Classic. Rummaging on the Internet, I found lists of speakers for talks, including Fergus Garrett of Great Dixter and the intrepid Tom Dyke Hart of Lullingstone Castle, who was kidnapped while plant-hunting in South America.

Trellis obelisk palaver

It took husband 2.5 hours to assemble ! Many of the pre-drilled holes didn't align properly and it looked really fiddly. Once assembled I realised that the liner is merely a bit of black plastic with punched holes and that I have to try to fidget the plant into this without being able to remove the obelisk part. The wood is preserved FSC and planed so nice and smooth.

Tuesday 26 July 2011

Coastal Gardening Society gets into social networking

Signed Coastal Gardening Society up to Skype so that I can instant message with other steering group people when I need to, as they may be in other parts of the country.

Friend has been trying to get me on Facebook for years and I refused. But Coastal Gardening Society is, as of today.

Ladder shelves

Ladder shelves from The Merchant Chandler http://www.themerchantchandler.co.uk painted in International Paints Exterior Eggshell 'Jet Black'. Ficus benjamina from Lidl. The young plants are cranesbill (hardy geranium) from Mirror Reader Offers. I used to read The Sunday Times but after the News International phone hacking I shall buy Elle instead.

Maroush deli mint

Rewind a few years, to a time when the Maroush deli in London's Edgware Road W2 http://www.maroush.com was more of a deli and less of a cafe. I bought a huge bunch of mint, fresh from Lebanon. So pungent is this mint that the entire Tube carriage smelled minty. Not the reminiscent of cat pee mint smell, the minty toothpaste type smell. People were trying to figure out where it was coming from. Once home, I dunked the entire bunch in a trifle bowl and waited for the roots. The dog loves to sit on it and if he has brushed past the mint, and walks past me, the mint scent follows him as an invisible vapour trail. I have recently added some to a big terracotta pot.

Dracaena

It might be a Janet Craig, I forget. Another Lidl plant. The marbled blue bucket is a proper seaside bucket for kids, from http://www.ifsogo.com used as a cache pot. Best delivery service so far this year.

Oregano about to flower

Madagascan dragon tree

Another plant from Lidl. It seems perkier inside the house but greener outside.

Lonicera 'Hall's Prolific honeysuckle

Spurge

This stuff gets everywhere in my garden..grr..

Oleander

Oh how the mighty are fallen !

First chilli pepper !

Husband's first chilli pepper. I say that, I bought it, repotted it, watered it.. but he will eat it and he's more than welcome to it !

Clever urban idea ???

As suggested by Evening Standard Homes and Property section.. it neglected to mention making drainholes in the guttering, so the first batch of salad leaves drowned. The second lot baked during the brief heatwave, despite moisture retentive compost and twice-daily watering. Null pointes.

Yucca Yucca

Bucket and chair

I nabbed two sage green chairs and matching bistro table by cinnamonhome in the sale at Ancestral Collections http://www.ancestralcollections.co.uk for £99 reduced from £135 and the chairs are quite comfortable even without a cushion.

I bought three of the white metal buckets with brackets from The Great Little Trading Company http://www.gltc.co.uk which is a website aimed at parents. They are really for kids' storage but with holes drilled in the bottom they become planters. Deciding where to put them at the moment.

Eucalyptus gunnii

The eucalyptus was bought for £7.50 earlier this month at a boot fair. I got my husband to drill drainage holes in a galvinised bucket bought from ASDA http://www.asda.com in June - could have been Folkestone or Hastings as I use both. I've got smaller galvanised buckets in very similar style, which came from the Tesco Extra at Hastings http://www.tesco.com