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 One of the "rooms" in my UK garden |
 Part of my small patio garden on the island |
| I have hesitated before adding anything to the website about my gardens. I am no expert gardener, but I have always been interested in the construction of garden features such as patios, ponds, rockeries and garden walls - long before "Groundforce" (and other similar TV garden programmes) came on the scene. Excuses made, now to the descriptions and photographs of the gardens. |
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| Climate |
Returning to England, one is made dramatically aware of the effects of climate on the gardening environment. The UK climate bestows our gardens with an intensity and variety of green growth which contrasts starkly with the island's predominately brown landscape. Driving back from the airport, this is the thing which strikes us most forcibly - the ride is always memorable. The advantage of gardening in Lanzarote, on the other hand, is that one can have flowers in bloom all the year round - flowers which we cannot hope to grow outside in the UK. |
| Garden | My wife and I have lived in our present house since it was built in 1954. Our garden covers an area of a little less than 300 square metres - "small" by many standards, but quite large for a town garden. |
| Projects | I am a great believer in gardens being divided into "rooms", so that one cannot see everything at once - it adds a touch of mystery. I have, as already mentioned, always been interested in "hard" landscaping and one of my very first projects (some 40 years ago) was to build a concrete pond. This is still in use today (and is featured in the accompanying photographs). Since those early days, I have embarked upon more hard landscaping, building a low garden wall, laying crazy paving and paving slabs - and constructing rockeries. I have no grass. Whilst I like to see a well kept lawn, it involves too much maintenance work for me. The whole effect is, hopefully, not as bad, or "hard", as it sounds - the areas in between the "rooms" are filled with trees and shrubs and I have ventured skywards, creating arches and covered walkways clothed with climbing plants. |
| Pictures | I alway enjoy looking at the photographs of other people's gardens, rather than reading about them. I find the photographs a source of inspiration. With that in mind, I am including sequences of "virtual" tours and projects. I hope you enjoy them. Virtual Tour Of Our UK Garden. Project 2001 |
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| Climate | One of the great things about gardening here is the weather. The island has a balanced climate with little rain and plenty of sun - it's winters are mild and it's summers are not usually too hot. The island is on the same latitude as Florida. At this latitude, not too far from the Equator, the island could be adversely affected by very, very hot weather. It has the good fortune, however, to be blessed by the cooling effects of the north-east trade wind. I have been interested to read about the reason for the existence of the north-east trade wind. Apparently, the hot air over the landmass at the Equator, being lighter than cold air, rises and flows north at a great height. This air cools on it's northward journey and sinks back once more near the Azores. Some of this cooler air then returns towards the Equator at a lower level. You might think it would simply flow directly south again towards the area it came from. It doesn't - it blows south-westward towards the Canary Islands. Why? Because of a force known as the Coriolis Force. To find out more about this Force, click here to visit a very interesting website about wind and wind turbines. I am sure you will find it interesting, as I did. The average temperature varies between about 25 degrees in August and 17 degrees in January. The average rainfall, being just 5 inches per year, is the real problem. No mountain on the island is higher than 668 metres, and, as a consequence, the moisture in the predominant north-east trade wind is rarely converted into the rain. If water can be provided, everything flourishes and there is no period during the year without flowers. I have been able to overcome the shortfall in rainwater by installing an automatic watering system. This takes care of any water deficiency whilst I am at my other garden (in England). |
| Garden | Our bungalow has a small patio and garden area (roughly 6 metres square). When my wife and I purchased it in 1988, the garden part of this area contained two very large red Hibiscus bushes and a very strong growing Bougainvillea. These were either too big for such a small area, or in the wrong place. My first task, therefore, was to remove these. Various garden arrangements were then tried until I finally decided upon the present layout which is shown in the following photographs. |
| Project | As I have always liked the volcanic stone walls which the local people have erected throughout the island, I decided to try my hand at building low walls of volcanic rock in my own garden. To do this, I collected fist size pieces of the volcanic rock which were lying on the lava fields just outside the estate. I then used these stones to face low walls, made up of concrete blocks, which I built. The result is the low walls appearing in the photographs. I also built a barbeque which I faced with small pieces of volcanic rock. |
| Pictures | Our Patio Garden |
| Links to other related websites | |
| Trees For Sale | |
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