A Gardener’s Diary ( by John Warrington)
At home in New Providence my own answer to the energy-sapping heat which we get from about 9am is to start work early (at approximately 5.30 am) when the air is like wine and really hard work is not a strain at all. I know that I have some soil cultivation to do in parts of the garden. This of course involves the use of a spade or a fork in order to turn the soil over, and will only be successful if the ground is not bone dry. The whole object is to turn over hard ground and get air into it. The showers over the last few days will have softened things up and we’ll be able to break the soil up as fine as possible and improve the drainage by introducing well-rotted compost into it. Roots therefore have a better chance to survive and grow. Digging up the ground is hard work, so don’t attempt to do it all at once. Your garden should be fun, and it isn’t if you are exhausted.
If you are unlucky enough to have very heavy soil, or even clay ground, then it can be improved by the addition of lime to it. Lime (ground limestone or chalk) has the remarkable ability to improve drainage by flocculating the particles to make them allow water through. There is no substitute really for the addition of compost. Spread it thickly over the surface and fork it in. For those of you that are thinking of propagating your plants, a few words of advice. Select only the strongest shoots from the strongest plants. You’ll find these on the part of the plant on the sunniest side. Also you should select only cuttings from plants with the best colour or leaf form. Prepare and insert cuttings as quickly as you can so that they don’t dry out, and make sure they are not exposed to bright sunshine. Cover them to avoid water loss. They don’t have roots.
In one of the brief spells of ‘dry’ I got out among my plants. Some flower buds are developing on the sunflower; the Christmas tree (Araucaria) has put on three feet of growth in one year, which is really astonishing, and horror of horrors, yet more shoots of Rangoon creeper have arisen just below my bedroom window. I have had this problem now for twenty years, and for twenty years I had thought I had solved it. Not a bit of it.
A dwarf coconut is not so dwarf any more, and the two large ones in the back garden are behaving like things gone mad. The youngest, planted about three years ago has taken off like an Atlas rocket. The older one has taken off like a rocket gone mad only I haven’t got a destruct button. It will have to be taken down in sections when I can get someone to undertake the work.
A few years after I came to live in Guyana I was sent some seeds or seedlings of the Jade vine, which has to be one of the most spectacular climbers on earth. The seeds duly arrived, beautifully packed and all germinating madly. I handled them straight away and then went to the Chelsea Flower Show in England – a longstanding arrangement. When I returned all six seedlings which I expected to thrive were dead. The gardener, seeing I was taking a break also decided that she would have one. The Jade vine is not an impossible plant to grow providing it receives care in its early life. It rewards you with flowers, the like of which you will never have again in your life. If you can’t attempt it, then just buy a full length picture of it and give it a place of honour.
My now large plant of the Travellers tree (Ravenala) is twisting itself into a bit of a knot. Just below it along the southern fence there are quite a few plants of bougainvillea which will have to be pruned and trained to do the job they were planted to do – that is to provide an impenetrable barrier. It is however quite lovely to see the flowers arching in tremendously long sprays. Shortly, the Chelsea Flower show will start and during the third week in May thousands of growers will descend on the grounds of the Chelsea Royal Hospital to set up their displays. If you are fortunate enough to have a ticket you will see the greatest flower show on this planet and spend several hours of extreme discomfort shuffling round this vast area. Whether you are there or at home may your God go with you and keep you safe. If you go, don’t forget to arrange for you plants to be looked after.
