http://www.startuk.org/eat/seasonal-selector.aspx#url=/eat/seasonal-selector/plants/basil.aspx

.

If your garden is struggling with a lack of water visit these web-sites to find plants that can thrive in drought conditions.

These are specialist nurseries offering quality plants who  can also provide helpful planting advice to make sure that you choose the right plant for your soil and local climate.

CHESHIRE

www.easytropicals.com

www.northernexposureexotics.com

CORNWALL

http://www.eastofedenplants.co.uk

http://www.hardyexotics.co.uk/

www.trebrown.com

DEVON

http://www.thepalmhouse.co.uk/frameset.html

DORSETwww.abbotsburyplantsales.co.uk

EAST SUSSEX

www.athelasplants.co.uk/

Read review at http://www.myglobalgarden.com/blog/athleas-plants-east-sussex-offers-a-unique-service

KENT

www.Davids-Exoticplants.co.uk

LONDON

www.paramountplants.co.uk - see review at http://www.myglobalgarden.com/blog/climate-change-nursery-paramount-plants-crews-hill-north-london

NORFOLK

www.hardybamboo.com

www.junglegardens.co.uk

www.turn-it-tropical.co.uk

www.urbanjungle.uk.com

OXFORD

www.junglegardens.co.uk

www.silktree.co.uk

SURREY

www.thepalmcentre.co.uk  -

SEE REVIEW AT   http://www.myglobalgarden.com/blog/the-palm-centre-ham-near-richmond-su

WEST SUSSEX

www.bigplantnursery.co.uk

www.architecturalplants.com

WORCESTERSHIRE

www.mulu.co.uk

www.palmsandexotics.co.uk

WALES

www.crug-farm.co.uk

 

Traditional gardens with herbaceous borders come to a crescendo in June and early July and then gently wither and fade into their autumn colours. Many years ago I also used the more traditional border planting that goes with this style of gardening. I found it disappointing when August and September arrived to find vast blank areas in the garden with little to spark the imagination, thus the search was on to find plants that would be coming to a peak at these times.

With much experimentation and head scratching, I began researching plants that would look fresh and full of vigour with months of growth ahead of them. Tropical and sub-tropical plants were incorporated with the more traditional perennial plants in the borders at the Exotic Garden, thus creating a more jungle-like world of huge shiny leaves, bold outrageouscolours and ferny textures. It is possible to change the look of a traditional perennial border by skilfully placing just a few tropical plants in the right place for impact. This garden style relies on using traditional tropical plants as well as tropical looking temperate zone plants to create the feel of a more exotic/tropical setting. Many fast growing exotic annuals can also be used to give instant height and colour to the garden.

Using tropicals in the garden is nothing new. Plant collectors have grown and collected them for hundreds of years. Annuals such as pelargoniums,impatiens and begonias are actually tropical in nature. During the Victorian period, tropicals were all the rage, especially in the larger London parks and gardens. Lavish outdoor displays were created during the summer months which gained enormous proportions by high summer. These more tender plants were then moved into “glass houses” to be over-wintered for use in the next season’s garden. This style of gardening was novel and new at the time.

In recent years this style has seen a revival, because it tends to draw attention to the garden in a way no other planting can. If it’s attention you want, just incorporate a few tropical plants into a flower border and wait for the second looks, stares, ooh’s and aha’s from visitors to your garden. Many of these plants are truly jaw-dropping in their proportions and overall appearance. Your guests will be transported to much hotter climes where the planting is lush and the senses over awed.

It is relatively easy to create a unique display of tropical foliage as long as you have some form of protection from the prevailing winds and a tranquil corner of the garden to grow some of these gems. In most cases, we enjoy summers that are relatively sunny, with heat and humidity along with the occasional (or should I say frequent) heavy rain storm, which plants love.These conditions fuel the growth of tropicals into high gear so that even ifyou start out with relatively small specimens, they grow unbelievably fast and turn into large, imposing plants in a matter of weeks if the environment is favourable for good growth and they are well fed – most important!

A border planted with tropicals gets better as the season progresses and can continue through September into October. Many popular houseplants such as the rubber plant, dieffenbachia, Chlorophytum,Spathiphyllum, and croton, when rescued from dark corners of your home, make excellent additions to the exotic border once acclimatised to the stronger light conditions. You can grow these tropical exotics directly in the ground or in containers placed together in imposing groups. Many exotics like cannas, bananas and ferns can be planted outpermanently if correctly sited. Most of these plants are now relatively easy to obtain from garden centres and DIY stores as well as specialist nurseries.

Create an instant garden by moving exotic looking house plants such as Bromeliads, Chlorophytum, Monstera, Tradescantia and Platycerium into the garden for the summer months. Tie them to the branches of trees to create a truly exotic and magical feel.

Plants in containers can be placed by entrances, patios and decks or plunged into the ground in perennial borders or amongst shrubs to brighten up dull areas. This makes it easier to move them inside for the winter. If you do not own a greenhouse, plants will often survive tucked against a house next to a south or west facing wall which will give your cherished plants extra protection on the coldest knights of the year, especially if you use some sacking or fleece to give them a little extra protection. If you do decide to try plants such as the rubber plant outside, these must be brought back in to a cool room in your house for the winter as truly tropical plants will not take frosty conditions at all.

Will explains how climate change affects Exotic Gardens in videos on the Home Page.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMtc15dk9yQ&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.myglobalgarden.com%2Fblog%2Fkeep-your-garden-looking-beautiful-all-summer%3Fpreview%3Dtrue%26preview_id%3D490%26preview&feature=player_embedded

The Exotic Garden is open every Sunday afternoon between 1-5pm from June 13th until October 24th 2010 http://www.exoticgarden.com/opening_times.html

This guest post has been written by Peter Kearney who created and runs the excellent City Food Growers web-sit from Brisbane in Australia.

Peter uses his expert horticultural knowledge and practical experience to explain how vegetable gardens can adapt to changing temperatures and unpredictable weather.

Being in tune with your local climate is one of most important success factors for gardening. Climate change has complicated the picture for vegetable gardeners, but there is a silver lining. With the right knowledge at the right time, food gardeners can actually grow more because of climate change.

Changing climate has in general brought greater extremes of temperatures with warmer and longer summers and often more extreme cold in winter, but on average, higher temperatures throughout the year. Food gardeners are finding that choosing vegetable crops with the methods they have always used is giving them results they don’t expect.

For many gardeners, figuring out when its right to plant vegetables is based on one or more of the following:

1. What they have always done - This is reliable so long as it has worked in the past, but climate change alters the picture.

2. Planting calendars - Most planting calendars use very broad zones for recommendations which do not account for local temperature variances. These zones are based on climate definitions which may be up to 100 years old. So with temperatures changing, the zones are becoming more inaccurate each year.

3. Advice from a nursery - Seedlings are often grown in temperature controlled environments and may come from thousands of kms away, so it very possible they are not in season for your local climate.

4. Emotion - Whenever you do things in the garden without some objective thought, the results will invariably tell you to go back to drawing board.

Vegetables are very sensitive to temperatures at planting and over their growing period. Frost is a killer for many vegetables. If you plant too early or too late in the season you may be hit with frost. If it is hotter earlier in the season, there are many crops you could get underway which you would not normally grow at that time and because of extended warm periods you could be staging your crops for much greater production. There may be crops that you thought would not grow at all, but are actually now very suitable for your climate.

In a changing climate, the biggest opportunities for a healthier and more productive garden include:

1. Extending your cropping time due to more heat and by becoming more aware of protecting your plants from frost and temperature extreme’s.

2. Planting new crops that were not previously suited to your climate.

3. Reducing the potential for crop loss by getting more accurate with your planting times.

Our web site planting calendar has been specifically designed to deal with these three opportunities . We have detailed local climate information and climate profiles for all the food plants in our web site. So you don’t need to know how to work through climate data, our Gardener subscriber planting calendar does it for you at the click of a mouse. It incorporates:

1. Local temperatures - Averages over the last 7-20 years (Australia, NZ and USA) . Its fascinating to see how much average temperatures have changed in Australia over the last 100 years compared to the last 10. Our web site deals with this climate change by you simply choosing your closest weather station to create your climate profile and you can easily fine tune this for your location in relation to the weather station and for micro-climates you may have created in your garden.

2. Frost data - Our site incorporates frost data for all the weather stations (Australia only at this point) so you can see your frost profile and easily manipulate the profile if you can protect your plants from frost, thereby increasing the number of plants you can select and your cropping time

3. Detailed climate profiles on more than 130 vegetables and herbs - These are all matched to your climate profile in the site calendar so when you search by day, by month or by crop and you get a list of ideal or OK crops to work with. This not only gives you the best times to plant the crops you know, but opens up the opportunity find crops you have not worked with before.

4. Climate warnings - Based on averages, the site tell you when there will be frost days, too much heat or cold during the growing period of the crops you have selected, so you can have advance warning to protect your plants.

In these times of climate change, the objective knowledge on planting and climate in our Gardener subscriber site and its ease of use, gives you the power to make timely decisions on managing your vegetable garden. It will help you achieve greater success in your food garden.

Visit:  http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/about.php

This excellent site currently provides gardeners living in Australia, New Zealand and America the opportunity to adapt to climate change by simply choosing their closest weather station to create a local climate profile. This can then be fine tuned for your location in relation to the weather station and for micro-climates you may have created in your garden.

Peter is planning to launch this useful system in the UK during 2011. If you would like to be included in the trial please e-mail at debbie@globalgardening.org.

September is traditionally the month for harvesting grapes.

2010 looks set to be an excellent year for English wine producers.The copious southern sunshine and a climate that continues to warm mean a potentially bumper harvest and a growth in the number of reds and unblended wines being produced here.

It appears that English winemakers are beginning to beat the French at their own game with our sparkling wines, whites and even reds really taking on the world

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/english-winemakers-beat-the-french-at-their-own-game-2058853.html

Growing vines is a wonderful experience - they look beautiful and create a Mediterranean feel to the most english of gardens.Local weather is probably the largest factor to consider when planting grapes but soil and orientation of the land are also important .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/impact/vinyards.shtml

Denbies vineyard on the North Downs in Surrey believes climate change is good news for vineyards in the south of England:

‘All in all, with hotter drier summers I think that it could do nothing but benefit us in the vineyard. This is one thing that has been holding us back in the past. We’ve been held back by frosts and obviously long ripening periods because we’ve had to leave the grapes on the vines for that much longer to catch as much sunlight as possible. So if we do increase the ripening period, with more intense sunlight it can do nothing but benefit the quality and quantity of the wine we are producing.’

http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/impact/vinyards_denbies.shtml

Entitled ” Gardening in the Global Greenhouse, the impact of climate change on our gardens”, it clearly sets out  that our gardens are in trouble and face an uncertain future.It is an impressive document, covering the key issues that will concern anyone who gardens and is well worth the time to read through its impressive and very detailed 17 pages.

The introduction is by one of the UK’s most passionate gardeners , HRH Prince Charles, who poignantly expresses his concerns about the threat of climate change. I remember reading his powerful words for the first time and feeling very moved . Here are just a few lines that I am sure will make you want to read more:

“Almost all scientists now agree that the British climate is likely to  change significantly in years to come. The precise nature of these changes is still uncertain, but it is both an alarming and sobering thought that some of the nation’s best loved gardens might become unsustainable due to changing climatic conditions”. http://www.globalgardening.org/uploads/pdf/climate_summary.pdf

Explore this new site offering discounts and special deals that have been negotiated for the Grow2eat community - members of allotment associations, vegetable societies, garden clubs and individuals who are enthusiastic grow2eaters.

http://grow2eat.com/

On my patch of the Village allotment I have a delicious glut of green and red tomatoes, courgettes, green peppers and chillis that inspired me to try out the River Cottage Glutney recipe.Two hours later and my freshly picked produce is now preserved in a delicious chutney that is filling the house with a delectable aroma.

http://www.rivercottage.net/SeasonalRecipes~August/122/Glutney.aspx

Speaking about River Cottage reminds me to mention Landshare and the clever iPhone App that has been launched to bring together people who have a passion for home-grown food.

The Landshare App allows you to:

* Join the growing Landshare community.
* List or find land to grow on.
* Ask the community questions about growing.
* Find helpers for all kinds of help.
* Apply to the councils for land from the app (they have a legal duty to provide you with land).
* Identify derelict land to help create new spaces.

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/landshare-by-river-cottage/id381256716?mt=8

This amazing project is literally “growing” all the time .They organise regular networking events aimed at bringing together all those involved in community food growing projects across the capital.

It is free to Capital Growth members and £5 for individuals or groups not supported by Capital Growth.To reserve a place contact Seb or Sarah on 020 7837 1228 or email capitalgrowth@sustainweb.org stating your name, number, organisation and whether you are part of a registered Capital Growth project.

GROW YOUR OWN TRAINING

If you need advice with how to grow your own produce there are also practical sessions run by Capital Growth:

GROW YOUR OWN TRAINING

Capital Growth run  practical sessions about how to grow your own produce:

Growing in Containers

Sat 4th Sept 10.30am – 1pm or Wed 8th Sept 5.00 – 7.30pm

The Autumn series will including training on Soft Fruits, Preparing Leaf Mulches and Low Cost Gardening.

Visit http://www.capitalgrowth.org/training/ for a full list of dates or to download a flyer.

Good weather has returned just in time for the Bank Holiday weekend.Here is the view along the sea front this morning - plenty of sunshine and a tropical feel to the view with the beautiful palms by the pier.

Will rainy summers become a thing of the past for the UK?

This  fascinating forecast for the next 100 years suggests that we will have a more Mediterranean climate and vineyards will flourish but that flooding will become an even bigger issue for parts of the country. Challenging times ahead for everyone - especially gardeners?

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/turned-out-nice-by-marek-kohn-1984401.html