Exotic garden in December and plans for 2026

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Garden tour in December looking at plans for next year and progress made in 2025.

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So, we’re well into December now, and the weather overall has been mild, but very, very wet recently. We’ve had a couple of frosty nights down to minus 2.6, 2.7 on a couple of occasions. So, a few plants have withered away, which we saw in the last garden walkthrough video, and we’ve had another cold night since then. So, we’ll have a quick update on the plants that were just on the edge and also we’ll look at what plans we’ve got for the year ahead and also what have we achieved so far in 2025. So, we start off on the back deck and the first thing we see is the erosene, the very tender subtropical plant that we have as summer bedding. And you can see the cold, the frost has pretty much killed off all the outer foliage, but we’ve still got some growth in the center. So, it’s amazing. We’re, you know, we’re heading towards Christmas and we have a scene still alive in the garden. And this was left out for those that remember bit of a canary down the mine, seeing how cold it really gets in the garden. I’ got plenty of backups in the greenhouse. I’ll have plenty of plants for next year. This was an extra plant left out to see how the cold affects it and how long it can survive. Next to that, I’ve got some raspberries. Still got some raspberries on here that need picking. And we’re going to just have a look around at the very messy messy garden at this time of year because we’re changing it a lot and we’re making a lot of mess. I won’t do a full walk through of the garden. I mean, you’ll see some of the nice plants like the Gemini sectus down there and the area spacer palm up there as well. But if we look around, we’ve still got a big pile of top soil here, which we’re going to be using to level out and do the lawn area and fill out gaps as well. Got my hose pipes to tidy up. Got a big pile of rubbish here. Got some wood from the deck in that we dug up a few weeks ago. And then behind the greenhouse, I’ve got lots of potted plants. Most of these will be sold at the open days next year. So we’ve got some formiums and loads and loads of bamboos, different types and amas. These are all hardy plants. That’s why they’re all outside. So they’re kept behind the greenhouse where it’s pretty sheltered and should be kept I want to say frost free obviously but it’s not super cold there because you got the warmth of the wall and the greenhouse as well. Bamboos in the garden are very prominent, especially around the edges. And as we go further down the garden, but in the first half of the garden, we’ve got the blue bamboo here, the Barinda Paperifra 1046. This will be dug up because it looks fantastic here, but we’re opening up this area. So all this as you can see in frame from left to right will be a big open lawn area once more. So it’s suitable for all the family and it’s a big open jungle clearing with the palms on one side and the other with some palms and also chaflleras and bamboos. So this will be an open area and I’ve started digging away. So all around where the paths were, we’ve got these wooden posts and these are too deep or they were too deep. I’ve started digging them up, but it’s not noticeable they’re too deep. If you look here, you can just see one. You think, okay, so that’s one log on the surface where actually they are two logs deep. So there’s one obviously you can see there. There’s one underground there because that used to be the original ground level and then we’ve built it up with all the wood chip in the center. soil on the other side and it’s meant I’ve got better drainage for these plants because we’re much higher up. And you can see on this side where I’ve took the two levels down there, that’s the original ground level where the lawn originally was and we’ve built it up. Now I’ve pulled up all those posts and exposed some of the roots of this bamboo so it be easier to dig up when I get round to digging it up. But it means I’m going to have to level out all this area once I’ve dug them all up. So, I’ll just go around so you can see a bit better what I’m talking about. Look at this for a mess. So, all these have been dug up and all those have been dug up over there. And you can see we’ve got quite a a big space to work with once we’ve get rid of the bamboo there. We’ve got a nice open lawn area with palm trees around chafera jungle hut and then more evergreen plants on this side which will add some summer color into it’s not going to be completely just lawn and green. There will be some summer color in this area. But my original paths that we zigzagged this way across then back and then up that way. That’s going this big clump of hedikum for STI. That’ll be dug up and moved so we can turn this into a lawn area. But then I’ve like I said I’ve got to sort out my levels cuz it’s higher in some areas than others because where the path was. You can see down here that’s the weed suppressing membrane we had that goes under the path here. This was the original path. So that needs digging up. It shows you how deep this is. All the wood chip pretty much has decomposed. I’ve not replaced it for a few years now. And we sort of mixed it in with soil a bit this year as well. So has decomposed quite nicely. So I don’t need to get rid of it. I can use it as a mulch on the borders. And you can see there, look, look at all that ivy. I did I do like the ivy going up some of the palm trunks is trying to take over the garden. So, we need to cut back all that ivy as well. But I think exposing this area, obviously, I liked having the tropical plants in this area, the big summer color plants. But when I have a lawn here, you’re going to really be able to see these palm trees much better cuz they they were always hidden behind the talliums and the tall canners and all the annual plants. You didn’t really appreciate these unless until we got to winter when all those plants other plants died down. But now if we have lawn in front, you’ll be able to really look at all the palm trees and enjoy them for what they are. make them the stars of the show rather than just the backdrop. Again, the chafller here is getting big now, but that will come more into the fall because you’ll see that better. And again on this side with all the the fats, the various different types, mahonia and the tree ferns still looking green by the way. So, we’ve had frost should comment on that. You know, the minus two nearly minus three on a few occasions has not blackened the leaves at all. It needs to be sustained cold at that period of that temperature or much colder, which we didn’t get thankfully. Got a ginger here that I transplanted not too long ago. That’s obviously wilted back. That’ll be fine for next year. And underneath here, it’s quite dark. The camera’s doing well to to keep this in focus to be honest. We got some nice nice hardy ferns. And I’ll be planting lots more ferns throughout the garden in these areas. So we have some nice interest all year round. So yeah, this is going to be a big job leveling it all up, tidying up all this wood, and actually getting a nice design for the path that’s going to go through the lawn or around the lawn cuz I’ve not decided exactly how that will look. I think I’m going to sort of keep a border going around here of continuing where that wood is there. So, we have a a narrower border and having a path just on this side of it. And then where I’m standing now, making all this the lawn area. So, it’ll open up and you’ll be able to see it from the house cuz that bamboo won’t be there. So, that’s the plan. Got the power supply there if ever needed for lights or anything else, water features in the future perhaps. That was from the the greenhouse. So, we had those installed. So things always change, you know. We’ve had the garden for, like I said, 11 years now. This was all lawn. Then it got redeveloped into tropical area. Now it’s going back to a lawn area and changing the paths as we go. Last year we got the lowquat tree and it fell over. Completely fell over. And I thought that was I going to have to dig it up if it was like rocket at the roots. But actually, I’ve put a post in. Let’s show you the post. Put a post in there at the start of the year, and it’s actually become stable again. I cut it back quite a lot. Got lots of nice regrowth. So, it’s looking good. Just need to cut back that bamboo behind. It can grow towards the light rather than coming out too much. But that’s a really good exotic looking tree. Pretty hardy down to about minus 10 or so without too much damage. and it’ll come back from lower than that as well with damage. So, really nice lush tropical evergreen leaves. A fantastic plant for the exotic garden. And if you’re very lucky, you might get fruit. The jungle hut is basically basically just being used as storage for furniture and other bits and bobs at the moment cuz it’s nice and dry in there. Even though it’s just the roof, there’s no sides. The grasses here will stay as they are for some winter interest and they’ll be cut down in spring. So, they still look nice. They’ll stand tall all winter and it’s nice when they’re covered in frost and it gives that height and structure to this part of the garden. Then we’ll move through over the bridge. The bridge needs some work. I did accidentally drop one of those massive 8ft sleepers against this side here and it has made it a bit wobbly. So I need to sort that out cuz I had to slip and slide across the wooden decking with all those all those big sleepers. And then we come to where we are with the path. So I’ve leveled it out. I’ve put all the subbase down here now. And you can see where it will join with the gravel path. So we’ll put some cutting steel around the edge there. That’ll be a nice big planting area now to put loads of new top soil in there. So plenty of nice nutrition uh for the plants for that area. So I can plant some nice ferns perhaps in a sort of a shady area down there, some evergreens and some summer exotic plants as well. So, there’ll be more on that in upcoming videos. And this way again, it’s same, but obviously this corner will get a lot more sun uh for part of the day before it shades over later on. So, nice planting area down there. Let me show you. It’s bigger than it looks there. So, we’ve got about about two 2 m by about 80 cm of new planting space. So, not huge, but it’s big enough for a few new plants. And then here I’ve compacted this down with the the compacting plate there, but I think it’s not quite level enough in terms of so it’s not high enough. So I do need some more hardcore just to bring it up a bit before we can put that gravel down. Then we’ll have a nice continuous gravel path coming all the way around and down the garden going off this way, which is fantastic. It’s taking a while, but we’re getting there. So obviously it’s dark and dreary today. It’s been raining so much recently. But we’ve got plants still looking good in the ground without any protection like this palm tree here. This is Karop Serifa European fan palam. And look at beautiful blue gloous color on the leaves. Even on this dark dreary day, it still shines out. And if this was a nice sunny day, it would really really be nice and bright and shiny. But that’s spreading out quite a lot actually. It’s coming back over the path. That’s a beautiful plant. Lots of heads on that one. And another beautiful plant what I wouldn’t be without is the yuka here. This is yuka lineifogolia or linearis. And it’s a big plant now. It’s well over a meter across about 1 m 20 1 m 30 something like that from spike to spike. And it’s approaching 2 m tall as well now. So going to have to be careful with the path. But here I need to in spring cut back the hedge a bit so we’ve got more space and then tidy up this area. So this was summer color and obviously it was all selfseeded stuff like amaranths. The collicas were in here zenas and things like that. This needs tidying up and then you’ll that’ll lead onto the big palm the booier here which is doing its thing spreading out rather than going taller. But it’s it is starting to put on some height now. So we’ve got a good trunk there about good meter and a half tall which is great to see. I’ll spin round to my arid bed. You can see the roof. I’ve put on that just to get the worst of the winter wet off the ground and out of the growing points, the rosettes. But they’re looking good and they’ll have the nice air flowing through here. It’s not too sort of close and humid in there because the air will blow through. And you know, if it snows, the snow won’t go in the crowns because we’ve got that shelter above. This side is a bit more exposed than I wanted because it’s really hard to put something around this yucker that’s sticking out at this angle. But I think that should be fine. Got the division of well a splitting of a yucker here. So we had several yuckers growing in this area. I split them and put one there last summer and another one through there in the distance. And they’ve settled in really well, grown away, and they will fill these gaps nicely. Cut down the flowering spike from this desire lar. So that’s down here going off there. Look, the dead spike. And also got a nice little cacti there as well, which I didn’t protect. We’ll see how that goes through winter. Jaba absolutely huge now. two meters of trunk and the leaves coming out about 2 meters long as well. The low ones are dying off, so I could tidy these up, but I’ll leave it till spring before I do so. And that will expose more of that trunk. I don’t want to take off too many leaves because that will mean that um I’ll be taking away energy from the growing point. Right, let’s get to the main path. I just cut across the garden. So here we have still aeoniums untouched by the weather. So this is this is a sympaium this one. So that one’s doing okay. And we’ve got one under a cl there as well. I showed you these in the last video when we looked around the garden. Again we had some more colder nights and they’re still looking good. This one had a cloloch and it’s obviously blown away because I can see it down there. So, I’ll put that back over if it gets cold. But the weather forecast for the next week or so looks mild, but no frost on the forecast. So, don’t need to have these covered at the moment. Now, this is another European fan palm. Another Karophera, but this one’s grown far more upright. Look at that. It’s, you know, it’s it’s putting on some height now compared to the one I showed you earlier, which is over in the distance there, which is more prostrate going outwards. This one is growing upwards. So, it’s the same same species, same variety, but one’s going up and one’s going out. Over here, we’ve got the flowering black bamboo completely in full flower. There’s no leaves left on it at all. So, if your bamboo is looking like this, it is flowering. And in phytoistakus types, they can recover, but not really when it full flowers like this. This will use all its energy to set the seed and then die off. What else can I show you? Well, I can show you my rareris palm tracharus or fileus. Huge trunk on that. Not the super hardiest palm, but it’s still looking pretty good up there. Some nice leaves, but looking quite tatty around the edges now. Could have really done with more water this year cuz it’s been extremely extremely dry over the spring and summer. making up for that now obviously in autumn and winter. Now look at this plant tiscansia ofen often grown as a house plant but as you can see it does well in the garden as well. This is a second 30 in the ground in this spot and it is flourishing. It’s come back. It didn’t actually all die off. Most of it did, but there’s still some parts of this that kept in leaf all winter last year amazingly because it had the cover of all the palms and the bamboos above. But you can see it’s done well there. And I planted another bit down there and that’s still looking nice as we head towards Christmas. So here we’re nearly at the end of the path and this is going to be the next big project which is finally I keep saying this finally tackling this bottom part of the garden underneath the eucalyptus trees which are causing the ground to raise up like this by a substantial amount. So this will be a raised area connecting the end of the two new paths. So we got the path ending here started by the Jaba and we’ve got the other end of it coming around here ending here and the decking path or the decking area will cover this here and we’ll have a roof on so that we have some shelter down here. We’ll have the nice views over the fields this way. We’ll have the shelter from the pigeons and all the mess dropping from the eucalyptus. I’ll have a wall of bamboos on this side. And then as we look back, have a beautiful views down the garden here with the palm trees and the tree ferns in front of us. And then we’ve got another area to plant up. This is where all the tree ferns were before we moved them. I had loads of new top soil and I’ll add more as well in this area. It’s got a nice area here to plant up for drought tolerant shade loving plants. So drupus ferns will be planted here. And finally we got a nice fat sea variegator flowering away which the bees and flies and everything else absolutely adore. But they’re not coming out on a day like this. It’s not quite warm enough and it’s pretty dark and dreary. So, that’s where we are in the garden. As we head through December, you can see there’s lots of mess, but we have got parts of interest and parts of the garden still looking good. You can see the projects I’ve done this year with the paths and clearing different areas, but we can see we’ve still got lots of work to do. So, I’ll be cracking on throughout winter with clearing, doing the ground works, tidying up these paths, tidying up the garden, and then next spring, we can get round to planting and getting the garden ready for the open day in August 2026. So, there’s lots to do and there’s lots of fun to be having in the garden if you like a lot of hard work, but it’s worth it at the end when we get that beautiful view. We can sit down in summer, look back, and enjoy the garden. So, thank you for watching this edition of Exotic Ghana UK with me, your Chris. Join me next week where I’ll be doing more in the garden.