THE EDIBLE JUNGLE DISPLAY GARDEN

THE UNVEILING OF OUR DESIGN.
If you are or are thinking about growing some produce in your garden you may be interested in our fruit and veg garden design. If not look away now. Don’t worry – we will be updating you soon on new and exciting exotic plants for 2009.
This is the first time we have revealed the design for our new ornamental productive garden.

Just a few words to explain how we arrived at this layout.
We wanted to avoid 'dotting' ornamental plants around and making random allotment style beds so we decided on an overall geometric pattern of 3 interlocking circles where the shapes would have purpose and form the structure of the garden rather than being shapes for arts sake. Vegetables will be planted in the centre of the 3 circles in rows. Our rows align to the centres of our circles - like the spokes of a wheel, instead of from east to west as conventional wisdom dictates. One of the circles forms a path and the other 2 are formed by rosemary and lavender hedges. They delineate the boundary between areas that will be used for vegetables within and those that will be permanently planted with fruit bushes on the outside. There is one wide pathway that leads through the centre of the garden and the three circles that will be the main connection between the new garden and the rest of the nursery.

If you were deciding to make your garden, or part of it, productive its a good idea to decide what your priorities are. Ask yourself; for example, ‘what type of vegetable are we most likely to store after harvest or use regularly on a cut and come again crop?’ Try to visualise the range of produce you need or want most of all - what you can practically manage and use
The next step is to look at the space available and assess it with a clinical eye. The sunniest spot is premium food producing territory as well as Yucca and Agave paradise. You probably know where the ground is most fertile. Your lawn might turn out to be a luxury, and how many pounds of produce would your pond deny you? . If space is limited but you still want to grow some food concentrate on crops that are expensive to buy or hard to obtain like berries or unusual varieties of salads. Most berries will grow well in some shade.

JUNGLE DRUMS - December 2008

Now we are well into December I'm sure most of you are thinking of Christmas. We have lots of beautiful, evergreen plants for gardeners and, may we also remind you of our Gift Vouchers, available from the nursery or web site.
The weather here has been bitterly cold for weeks but all the plants in our borders are doing fantastically well and on a cold sunny day it is a pleasure to work outdoors at the nursery, surrounded by evergreen exotics. If you are in the area over winter please drop in and see us - and the plants.
We look forward to updating you in following newsletters of new stock arriving in spring. In the meantime we are sending you an update of our new project and some of the reasons for embarking on this venture - The Edible Jungle.

URBAN JUNGLE GIFT VOUCHERS AVAILABLE HERE

Edible Jungle Garden Update - Why Grow Your Own?

There is an ever more urgent rush to embrace the organic/local/healthy way of providing food for our families and ourselves.
Supermarkets are demonised, we shop there almost guiltily and we frown on the displacement of small local businesses ever more.
Knowledge of the pollution, contamination and adulteration of our food is becoming more widespread. The ever-advancing technologies used to mass-produce our 'daily bread' are becoming farther removed from nature and common sense.

Adapting to change
All of us have concerns about our own and our family's health. Even if we are not motivated to affect widespread change in society, now is the time to bring real nutrition back into our lives. A major shift in our society has been happening over the last few years. These are rapidly changing times in many ways and some of us are bound to feel that growing our own is an added burden to a busy schedule; some may envisage problems and setbacks and be disheartened - even discouraged from starting. This is where we hope to help by setting an example (of how not to do some things as well probably).

Realistic targets
Having catered for our customers' love of plants - artistic and (sometimes single minded) collecting desires we know that not all of you are happy to rip out your palms and pretties. You may not be ready for the Bob Flowerdew 'gardening out of old tyres' style but we feel that it is possible to maintain an attractive garden in the exotic style and feed yourselves from the self same plot, and we feel that it is not necessary to start off by doing a 'Good Life' and going self sufficient. By combining the pretty and the productive you can start gradually - and realistically for your busy home and work schedule.

Don't Cut off your Nolina to Spite your Fatsia
It is important to be able to envisage this. Not many people are willing to turn the garden they have worked hard to transform into a paradise, into an allotment full of canes, bits of plastic and scarecrows. It's not just about looks either - you can still entertain, dine, bbq and sunbathe in an Edible Jungle without having to don wellies and sit on an upturned bucket!

Having our cake and eating it
Our garden will not compromise on the practical needs of growing fruit and vegetables; in our plan, we have positioned the ornamental plants so that they do not cast shade or create root competition. We have laid out the vegetables, fruit and herbs in as ornamental a way as possible in strong geometrical forms and flowing curves. All the practical aspects of the garden such as paths, compost heaps, arches for supporting vines, benches and seats are laid out according to the 3 interlocking circles of our design. Our three circles represent the three principles of this project:

PRODUCTIVITY - BEAUTY - PRACTICALITY

Inspiration
Some of the inspiration for this new garden has come from a wonderful film called 'The Power Of Community - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil'. It is a case study that has a useful lesson for us all about the rapidly diminishing oil reserves and how much we rely on oil based products to produce our food, but is also a heart warming tale of people learning to live from the land again and rediscover their communities. You can learn more about the film at http://www.powerofcommunity.org/cm/index.php and view it on You tube!

Transition
The situation isn't as desperate as that faced by the Cubans during the missile crisis, when their oil was embargoed, but there can be no doubt that we have had it easy for a long time in the west and things are starting to change. We now have a group in Norwich called Transition Towns who are beginning to work towards community based sustainability - you may have heard of the Totnes branch who have their own currency - the Totnes pound.

Swots
We have done an awful lot of research - spending hours in the library, staring at computer screens and generally making pains of ourselves by asking lots of questions to those 'in the know'. We've unearthed some fascinating and some horrible facts that have motivated us and informed us which we would like to share with you below. The first is an article describing (or rather understating!) the disasters that can come about by using herbicides. The second is a fascinating and thought-provoking talk about meat production. And finally a brilliant and very funny book that might make you rethink everything you thought you knew about nutrition.
Home-grown veg ruined by toxic herbicide
Michael Pollan: The omnivore's next dilemma
Book - 'In Defence of Food: The Myth of Nutrition and the Pleasures of Eating' by Michael Pollan

We are looking forward to revealing the design in our next Blog.

THE EDIBLE JUNGLE

From spring 2009 Urban Jungle will be supplying fruit trees and bushes

Announcing our new project

An organic, exotic, plantation-style garden providing self-sufficiency in fruit, vegetables, cut flowers and eggs.

Our nursery is known for ornamental exotic plants and they will remain our passion and the identity of our business. We’ve had six years at the nursery now, expanding our range and experimenting with different stock, and we are always on the lookout for new developments in horticulture. We’ve been aware of the increase in popularity over the last few years of fruit and vegetable growing, but have resisted the temptation to ‘jump on the bandwagon’ or make a gesture towards the latest trend and simply stock a few packets of seeds and some fruit canes.
Now we feel we can bring our own contribution to productive gardening: an Urban Jungle take on this new and important change in how our customers want to garden. By creating a new architectural and exotic garden that’s highly productive for 365 days a year and that doesn’t look like an allotment, we hope to show by example, how your own garden can be productive without looking like a cross between a farm, recycling centre or ‘hobby patch’. Nor will this be an ornamental garden with a passing nod to food production – a few strategically placed Ruby chard and a hanging gourd do not a self-sufficient garden make!
We’ve been researching and scratching our heads for long enough and are ready to get started now: it’s a bit of an adventure really and we fully expect it to be a learning process with a steep curve (upwards we hope). We invite you to join us on this journey to self-sufficiency ‘the beautiful way’. You can follow this project on our blog and come along and have a laugh at our expense if you like, at what we achieve. We believe it is important to put your neck on the line if you believe in your vision of how something can be done, and whilst this is not some revolutionary concept we feel it is an idea who’s time has come.

We have an area of ground at the nursery ideal for the project. At present the area (approximately 26m x 20m) is home to a large muddy puddle which was once a pond – allegedly, six years worth of plants that have been ‘held in this area until they get better’…..hmmmm, and a ‘compost heap’. The compost would be useful if we could get at it – it’s currently guarded by malice of stinging nettles and a wasp nest. Next to this is another strip of land that will be home to a couple of dozen blissfully happy hens. All surrounded by countryside teeming with rabbits, deer and foxes. Security could be an issue.

On the plus side, the site is reasonably open and sunny and has several productive apple trees, which we are told are old and rare varieties. The ground hasn’t been cultivated in recent history, nor chemicals used, so, although the Soil Association might not certify it, its potential for organic (in our opinion), paradisiacal fecundity is self-evident.
We feel that we have arrived at an exciting design for this new garden that pays as much attention to looking good exotically as it does to tasting good naturally, whilst making it comfortable to sit and relax in, to soak up the regimented rows of food growing and the lush exotics adorning. You will be able to walk into the garden under arches laden with gourds and squash, sit amidst the circles of rosemary and lavender, and stroll by the new pond and under the bananas, out into our adjacent ‘Tree Fern Garden’.

Look out for regular updates.

NEWLY ARRIVED STOCK

The nursery has had a complete transformation and is looking stunning. We are continuing to add display borders and are now stocked to the gunnels with the most sensational plants. Our range and value for money are unbeatable. If you haven't visited for a while, or for that matter have never been to the nursery, then it's about time you honoured us with your company. Our customers really matter to us and unlike large garden centres we offer knowledgeable advice and old-fashioned service as well as fantastic plants. So, if you're fed up with bland monotony, staff who don't know a Daisy from a Dasylirion and who pretend you're invisible if you require assistance, having to walk through acres of non-gardening related merchandising tat before you reach the ever diminishing plant section and that oh so pleasant aroma of micro-waved lasagne and jacket potato., then take a visit to Urban Jungle cause we don't do it like that!

NEWLY ARRIVED STOCK INCLUDES

Trachycarpus fortunei - lots of sizes - beautiful quality from £110 to £310
Chamaerops humulis - as above £23 to £85
Gnarly Grape vines - 1m trunk and very leafy £95
Pittosporum tobira - huge, fat plants 1m tall and nearly as wide £58
Puya coerulea - very silver, multi-headed on 60cm trunks £176
Citrus - oranges and lemons - variegated too - from £55
Agaves and Aloes for conservatory and garden
Accacia dealbata - 2m, fantastic quality and in flower bud(!) £30
Agapanthus - ludicrously large plants - from £7.5 - £12
Erythrina crista-galli - 1.2m thick woody trunks £81
Bay pyramids - 2m - £140

And of course LOTS MORE.

Dicksonia antarctica

TREE FERNS have arrived at the nursery. They are priced at £27 per foot of trunk and we have hundreds available in sizes from 1ft to 6ft (to 5ft for mail order).

New Arrivals

New Arrivals
Cardiocrinum giganteum bulbs in stock.
Flowering or near flowering size.
£8.50 per bulb or 3 for £22

A Very Happy New Year to You.
Thank you to all our customers last year for keeping us afloat and allowing us to indulge our passion for plants. We hope that in the process we offered good plants and good service and we are looking forward to the new season with excitement.

The New Year has kicked off with the arrival of the Cardiocrinum bulbs from India. We have been importing and growing these amazing plants for several years now but still get a huge buzz with their arrival at the nursery. After Christmas and New Year slouching this is our wake up call for the start of the new season.
A flowering Cardiocrinum is a sight to behold. A thick, sturdy stem arises from the centre of the huge, fabulously glossy, heart-shaped leaves and produces numerous, white, heavily scented, trumpet-shaped, lily-like flowers – 12ft tall isn’t unusual! After flowering the seed pods swell like fat Kiwi fruits and split to release hundreds of papery seeds (these take seven years to reach flowering size plants). Even during winter the stems and seed pods give interest and a group of these look like a sculptural installation in the garden.
Plants being plants we can’t guarantee that they will flower in their first season – not always a bad thing. We have found that bulbs that flower in their second season produce the tallest stems and more numerous flowers after having a whole year to establish. The bad news is that after flowering the bulb dies – the good news is that they produce offsets that take a couple of years to reach flowering size. Planting bulbs every year for 3 years ensures flowers ever more. These are extremely hardy plants and provided they are planted in soil that isn’t waterlogged they will survive extremely low temperatures.

Bulbs can be ordered from the website now for £8.50 each or 3 for £22. Potted, rooted bulbs will be available in 3 litre pots later in spring.

The next arrivals should be the container of New Zealand Tree Ferns including Cyathea medullaris, Cyathea dealbata, Dicksonia squarrosa and Dicksonia fibrosa, closely followed by a container of palms from Spain. More news on this later.

Sculpture and new border

We have been working on the new woodland garden, clearing scrub and dead trees and making paths and borders. A new sculpture graces the entrance, moulded onto a reclining tree, and was created by a local chap who goes under the name of ‘Nosey Potter’. It’s been named ‘Lord of the Trees’ and is excellent at scaring young children. A few coats with unmentionable stuff should promote aging and moss growth.

You may have noticed we’ve re-vamped the website and would appreciate any feedback. It functions the same as the old website but after 5 years we got fed up looking at it and felt it needed sprucing up. A bit like redecorating the lounge really.
The acers are looking really smart now and are ready for sale. For details please see website.
End of season clearance sale on grasses – all £3, even those in 7.5 litre pots! (nursery collection only).

Head of vermin control and other things

Monday morning and the main topics of conversation have been rising food prices, the end of easy credit, global warming, predicted petrol price increases, Gordon Brown and who drank most over the weekend. Wind and rain have forced me into the office to write this update. Pip the dog (head of vermin control), who usually doesn’t like to get her hair messed up in this weather, and who, as she gets older tends to prefer lazing on a chair, only becoming animated when the fridge is opened, is instead outside, being driven to distraction by baby squirrels. Having chased one up a tree she seems to be under the impression that if she yelps and yaps long enough it will do the decent thing and surrender itself. Not a chance-when will she learn? Squirrels have been a huge problem at the nursery in the past, digging up bulbs and hiding acorns in pots and, more seriously in the crowns of tree ferns. A germinating oak tree can play havoc with emerging crosiers so don’t forget to regularly check tree fern crowns over autumn and winter. Having caught one a couple of weeks ago she was barred from bringing it into the office so instead, insisted on dragging its bloody corpse around the nursery in full view of customers – not a pretty or welcoming sight.
The weather has reminded us that winter is just around the corner and so our thoughts are turning to dull things like glasshouse repairs and moving tender plants into winter quarters. No need to rush to move tenders at home just yet but we have so many to move, we have to make a start about now.