hardy cacti

the members of the genus opuntia are commonly known as prickly pears. some species are hardy and tolerate frost til -20 °c/-4 °f which makes them suitable for growing in the garden. they like to be placed sunny the year round and need well drained soil, containing some coarse sand and grit.

there are a lot of cultivars available, blooming from yellow to red. some of them need a winter rain protection.


opuntia humifusa


opuntia cv. rom


opuntia violacea


opuntia violacea

cast iron plant hardy?

the cast iron plant (aspidistra elatior) is known as a houseplant for dark and shady places. it's a slow grower, available in a wide range of cultivars.

at the moment i'm testing if this plant is really hardy because some books are saying that. it's growing on a shady place in our garden. and after the first snow yesterday it's still alive.



i have a small collection of aspidistras with white stripped or spotted leaves. and they are really outgrowing my flat. so if it works, next year i'll put more of them in to the garden.

aspidistra houseplant care -->

the members of the genus aspidistra are native to china, japan or tawain. here in germany they are really hard to get.

rock garden rain protection

in my rock garden i have some south african exotics like ice plants (delosperma) or living rocks (aloinopsis). they are hardy if kept dry during the winter. so untill next march the rock garden ist protected.




delosperma sutherlandii (ice plant)


aloniopsis sphatulata (living rocks)

indoor gardening

encyclia cochleata is commonly known as cockleshell orchid. the easy to care for plant is suitable for bright to light shaded places. during summer some of my orchids are placed light shaded in the garden. this can be helpful for building up its flowers.

my cockleshell orchid is flowering two to three times a year.

chrysanthemum

the genus chrysanthemum belongs to the asteraceae family and contains approx. 30 species. in the garden they like a sunny position and are flowering from september to november.

ice plant (delosperma sutherlandii)

the genus delosperma belongs to the aizoaceae family and is native to south africa. some members are used as houseplants, the frost tolerant species are suitable for a stone garden. they are commonly known as ice plants.

delosperma sutherlandii likes a sunny position and a well drained soil. in the garden it should be protected from rain during winter. in summer a half diluted cactus fertilizer can be given monthly.

japanese toad lily (tricyrtis hirta)

the japanese toad lily (tricyrtis hirta) is available in different colors. it's suitable for a sunny or shaded position and blooming in fall. if placed sunny it needs a bit of extra watering in summer.

dahlia hybrids

our first dahlia was planted really late, in july. there are more than 30 species in the genus dahlia with a lot of cultivars. they are native to mexico and central america. some of the hybrids are a bit frost tolerant, hopefully ours is.

we will cut it back in november and take it off with some leaves during winter.

garden pond

every allotment garden needs a pond! our thoughts about this topic was "let's do it slow" and we planned it for 2009. anyway, 2009 for us was starting 2 weeks later.







excavating the pond was a very hard job, because we did it on the first very hot weekend in may (>30 °c/86 °f). and this is how it looks now:




at the moment we have 3 kois, 1 common carp, 1 goldfish and 10 european bitterlings in our pond.



and this is what we are waiting for:

the first flowers

the first thing we noticed was, that most of the flowers in our new garden are in blue or violet. and there were some plants we had never seen before.


viola


viola


forget-me-nots (myosotis)


unknown iris

what is a schrebergarden?

schrebergarden comes from the german word for allotment gardening "schrebergarten".

allotment gardens are parcels of about 200 to 400 square meters, concentrated in one place. the plots are organized by individual gardeners and can contain a shed for tools and shelter. this type of community garden is very popular over here in germany and also in the uk.

this blog is about our allotment garden in germany.


this is how we got it in may 2008. and we noticed that there will be a lot of work, making it look like our garden ...