Gardening at The Tropical Paradise

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This past summer I watched the video podcasts of Tatton Park and got a lot of inspiration. If you want to watch them, by the way, they are free podcasts that you can get using iTunes. Just go to iTunes - podcasts, etc. If you don't already know how to do it, my blog post on How to get free video podcasts from iTunes is here.

Anyway, Tatton Park is a stately grand old home of England, which has been been there since the 1700s and the head gardener is Sam Youd. Of course, The Tropical Paradise isn't quite as big as Tatton Park, or as old, but there were a lot of tips that I picked up, and mostly I was inspired to start more seedlings. They, of course, have magnificent greenhouses, but I had the advantage of being in Arizona, so I didn't have to worry about the cold. I am learning a lot! Mostly, that I have should have started the seedlings a month earlier. Oh well, live and learn!

I started gardening in my early twenties as a way to beautify my surroundings. I was a fine art major at ASU, and became a Graphic Designer and illustrator, so the way things look is very important to me. The mechanics, or engineering, is important, too. As a webmaster, it's important that things work as well as they look!

To me, a garden is flowers and trees. But some of the best advice I've gotten over the years has been from people to consider a garden to be a place to grow plants for food. In the nineties, I watched The Victory Garden for tips on growing. Plants are plants, whether you eat them or not.

This year I am really pushing hard for *functional* plants that are also decorative. I am happy with the ferny look of carrot tops, and am enthusiastic about using lettuce as a winter ground cover. The carrot seeds I planted in mid-August, and they are doing fine. The lettuce I planted in September, and where they have been sown directly in the garden, they have all died. The only thing that is really successful (aside from cheating - which you can see in the picture - I bought a lettuce plant already grown), is to start the seeds in a little growing tray. I sprouted the seeds in a shady area and moved the tray out into progressively more light. I moved the tray out to where I want the lettuce to eventually be just this morning, so they can get used to their *new home*. Should look pretty cool once they are planted!

By the way, the little white cup on the left I fill with beer to kill slugs. It works!


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