Articles....

Gardening for Penwith, 2006

The Council gardeners' summer report from St Ives

'Here at St Ives and Hayle it's peak season and we are very busy on the run up to Britain in Bloom judging. Although the season got off to a slow start, the plants caught up very quickly and seem to be thriving in the good weather.'
by Chris Bassett

Articles archive

  • Bamboos for all Gardens,
    by Michael Bell
    'It comes as a surprise to many that England, and Cornwall in particular, is one of the best regions in the world for growing temperate bamboos. Temperate bamboos originate from two major climatic conditions, the damp humid mountain areas of the world and the lowland regions of China, Japan and adjacent islands.'

  • Gardening by the sea in Purbeck, Dorset,
    by John Bickerton
    'I have always been lucky to have found myself in 'easy gardening country' in the home counties: so when we arrived in Lulworth I was in for a bit of a shock.'

  • Restios and complementary plants,
    by John Eddy
    'The Restios are still very new to many people in the UK, although this is changing gradually with some varieties such as Chondropetalum tectorum, Rhodocoma capensis and Elegia capensis becoming more readily available.'

  • Growing Succulents in Cornwall,
    by Ian Facey
    'Nowadays, when visiting gardens in Cornwall, one is not surprised to see a number of plants, mainly succulents, which are now grown to form a Mediterranean type of feature. This seems to have happened over the last few years, mainly due to Gardening programmes on the television, and also to the dedication and bravery of our local gardeners to try something new outside.'

  • Trees that impress,
    by Gary Long
    'The trend of using foliage-effect plants with "On the edge" hardiness has become increasingly popular in recent times.'

  • Growing Roses in Cornwall
    by Vicki Marshall
    'New gardeners to Cornwall are often greeted with a head shake, a sharp sucking in of breath through teeth and the solemn declaration 'You can’t grow roses in Cornwall'.

  • Gardening 'On the Brink' at a New Jersey lighthouse, USA
    by Steve Murray
    'I was asked to “do something” with the grounds. The Lighthouse property at this time was just a sandy lot covering less than one acre. It sat right next to the crashing Atlantic Ocean and was almost devoid of plant life.'

  • Gardening on the island of Tresco,
    by Mike Nelhams
    'Drought conditions in the summer, wind and salt gales in the winter! Not the usual recipe for the most ideal of gardening conditions but here at the Abbey Garden on Tresco in the Isles of Scilly the extraordinary collection of plants flourish in these supposedly adverse conditions.'




Yellow Crocuses