Its been such a long time since I wrote anything on the blog, that I had almost forgotten how it works.
Mark posted a while back that other things were occupying our time, rather than the blog or garden. But sometimes its good just to pen ones thoughts, after all a blog is supposed to be a diary of sorts.
So what have we been up to! Well this year has been quite a busy one. Several garden projects (as im sure regular readers will have expected), trips abroad, a landmark birthday for myself (21 again!!), days out and DIY in the house whilst both of us having busy professional lives too have kept us occupied.
The garden has done well this year overall, a couple of surprises with established plants randomly dieing off - Choisya ternata and Aralia elata variegata. Both had been in the garden for a number of years - the Choisya probably about 10, and had shown no signs of problems but suddenly they were gone. We expect to have lots of none-varigated suckers from the Aralia next year as it was a grafted plant.
We also completed the raised bed on the top patio which had been planned for some time.
This was finished in the same sandstone coping we used on the koi pond to tie it into that look, and after some deliberation the brick wall and fence was painted white behind it.
Beyond this and a few smaller projects the garden is pretty much as it was last year. Winter is now fast approaching and the garden has had some frost already, many of the tender plants are already in the greenhouse or jungle hut, although some are still out, trying to keep them out as long as possible but do need to get everything else moved soon.
As I mentioned above we had a number of holidays this year, after a very quiet year for us last year we were determined to make the most of our time off from work, and also make more efforts to take advantage of living fifteen minutes from Luton Airport.
The highlight was a trip to Bali back in October - this was Marks birthday gift to me, and was a fantastic surprise.
Internally we have finally finished renovating the master bedroom, one of the few rooms in our home that was untouched by our major renovation in 2013.
So with 2017 around the corner, we have a number of plans for more travel maybe even a major change in lifestyle, so watch this space.
Gaz
Mark posted a while back that other things were occupying our time, rather than the blog or garden. But sometimes its good just to pen ones thoughts, after all a blog is supposed to be a diary of sorts.
So what have we been up to! Well this year has been quite a busy one. Several garden projects (as im sure regular readers will have expected), trips abroad, a landmark birthday for myself (21 again!!), days out and DIY in the house whilst both of us having busy professional lives too have kept us occupied.
The garden has done well this year overall, a couple of surprises with established plants randomly dieing off - Choisya ternata and Aralia elata variegata. Both had been in the garden for a number of years - the Choisya probably about 10, and had shown no signs of problems but suddenly they were gone. We expect to have lots of none-varigated suckers from the Aralia next year as it was a grafted plant.
We also completed the raised bed on the top patio which had been planned for some time.
This was finished in the same sandstone coping we used on the koi pond to tie it into that look, and after some deliberation the brick wall and fence was painted white behind it.
Beyond this and a few smaller projects the garden is pretty much as it was last year. Winter is now fast approaching and the garden has had some frost already, many of the tender plants are already in the greenhouse or jungle hut, although some are still out, trying to keep them out as long as possible but do need to get everything else moved soon.
As I mentioned above we had a number of holidays this year, after a very quiet year for us last year we were determined to make the most of our time off from work, and also make more efforts to take advantage of living fifteen minutes from Luton Airport.
The highlight was a trip to Bali back in October - this was Marks birthday gift to me, and was a fantastic surprise.
Internally we have finally finished renovating the master bedroom, one of the few rooms in our home that was untouched by our major renovation in 2013.
So with 2017 around the corner, we have a number of plans for more travel maybe even a major change in lifestyle, so watch this space.
Gaz
This gardening blog follows our journey as we create our Tropical and Exotic themed garden. We hope you'll enjoy the journey as much as we do. We started our Exotic Garden in 2005 and this site will show its development, as well as our travels, both abroad and within the UK to gardens, nurseries and friends.
