Sussex Exclusive Magazine Issue 6 2023

GARDENING
GARDENING
• Dried fruit and nut garland
Get yourself a large needle and thread
with some garden twine or string.
Purchase some nuts, I find the best to use
are peanuts in shells (monkey nuts) as you
can pass the needle through the shell with
some ease. Check your food cupboard
for dried fruit and you’re away! Thread
the twine with a nut then a piece of dried
fruit and keep going until you have an
edible garland for the birds to hang on the
tree. Make sure children are supervised if
using needles.
• Citrus fruit decorations
Get a few oranges and lemons and create
small hanging baskets in which to place
bird food. Cut the fruit in half, remove
the flesh, leaving the peel. String the
halves up with twine or wire, fill with
bird food and hang on the tree, refill as
needed. You can also use whole oranges,
studded with cloves. Create different
designs with the cloves on the orange
spheres. Use narrow ribbon, secured with
the cloves to hang on the tree too.
• Pine cone treats
See if you can find any pine cones while
out walking and bring them home.
You can push pieces of bird fat food in
between the sections of the cone. Once
complete use some wire, twisted around
the top of the cone and suspend from the
branches on your Christmas tree.
Your creative tree will be a focal point for
your feathered visitors and you and your
family can enjoy watching them feed too.
Possible frosts
The weather has started to turn a good
deal colder at nights now, so I hope
Top: working to put
succulents away for
winter
Bottom: Parrot tulip at
Driftwood
you have taken steps to protect your
tender plants. If you are leaving any frost
tender plants in the ground, it’s a good
idea to spread a thick mulch around
the base to protect the crown from cold
temperatures. That way, even if the top
growth is killed off, the roots have a
better chance of survival and may resprout
fresh growth. If you have alpines
or sempervivum clumps out in the garden
try to ensure that they are not getting
swamped by a topping of soggy leaves
from trees above. Remove them before
they smother the crowns of these delicate
plants and cause them to rot.
I have a vast collection of succulents and
have been working hard to get them
under cover and in the warm for the
winter months. It gets hard every year to
squeeze them all in.
Autumnal container
Why not think about creating a colourful
pot to help brighten those winter days
when you look out into the garden or
onto your patio or balcony? There are
many different plants you can use to
create a wonderfully seasonal hardy
container. All your local garden centres
should have a good range of lovely plants
to choose from. There are many different
containers you can choose from too but
try and ensure it is roomy. Pick a mixture
of evergreen shrubs, conifers, hardy
ferns, bedding or even some hardy herbs
too. Be sure to create good drainage by
adding crocks or gravel to the base of the
container and make sure the container
has holes in the base too. Fill the pot two
thirds full of compost and begin to pack
your plants in. Try and arrange them
with the taller ones at the back or middle.
Make sure you back-fill any gaps between
your plants with compost to make
for tight dense planting and no roots
showing. Don’t forget to water and maybe
raise from the ground, good drainage
usually means less chance of frost damage.
Driftwood By Sea
I’ve had a busy summer in my garden
with over 500 visitors paying to see it
privately, allowing me to raise almost
£6000 for charity, mainly for Macmillan
Cancer Support but also, just over £800
for the National Garden Scheme. The
garden will open again from 1st June to
31st July next year. I mentioned in the
summer issue that the garden would be
filmed for television and broadcast this
autumn. I can confirm that it was filmed
in August, but will now be held over and
broadcast in 2024.
The last few weeks have all been about
putting the garden to bed for the winter.
That said there are areas of the plot that
still look quite spectacular for this time
of the year, like the patio adjacent to the
shed which is my view from the kitchen.
Read more of Geoff’s garden at
www.driftwoodbysea.co.uk
Top left: food garlands
for the outdoor tree
Top right:succulent
planter transferred
to south facing porch
window
Right bottom:
succulents in
the safety of the
greenhouse
62 | sussexexclusive.com 63