Almost a year after that fire, the garden is starting to feel like a jungle again. The plants that were damaged but not killed have in the main shrugged off the damage and are full of vibrant new foliage. The areas that needed replanting have welcomed new plants and in the main have knitted back into the jungle.
One of the original tree ferns sending out lots of new fronds.
Ground cover explosion!
Mark blogged the other day about the new tree ferns which will soon hide the new fence and provide a canopy. That side of the jungle hut almost looks as if nothing has happened. Only a few bamboo canes stil show damage - scorched on the side closest to the heat but still alive. These damaged canes will be removed as the summer progresses and new canes grow to replace them. We didnt cut all of them down to allow the living but damaged canes to still support leaves to give screening as well as photosynthesize to help the whole plant recover.
Jungle pathway, you can still see some of the damaged canes on the bamboo on the left hand side. There are plenty of new canes emerging.
The middle patio area will take longer, our approach to garden design here was to imagine a courtyard in a tropical garden, perhaps a private place in a large home or even a hotel. With low box hedging and then layers of planting, this all used to merge into the background with fence totally hidden. That look will take a little longer to restore, however we have enjoyed selecting the plants to go back here, and it will be good to see the evolution of this part of the garden.
Those fences and shed will disappear eventually!
We sat in the now completed Jungle Hut yesterday evening and contemplated the restoration of the garden, culminating in the jungle hut (we will share the photos soon I promise!). This year should have been an easier gardening year, no major projects had been planned, but events beyond our control changed that. However to be at the start of June and have the garden replanted, Jungle hut, and pergola all back how they should be, feels like quite an achievement.
Generally we are always active in the garden, rarely sitting back and relaxing, we know we should "chillax" a little bit more but particularly when the garden "needed" us we wanted to get it back to normal. It felt last night that we were back at that stage, so i suspect we will spend more time enjoying sitting, relaxing in the garden and not just working.
However there is no point being unrealistic, we both love projects and have a a mental list of a whole bunch of things to do (repair the old shed, finish the quarantine pond, make over for the top patio...... )
Gaz