I don’t write about ornamental gardening as its really a sideline here at the moment.  We have always enjoyed creating ornamental gardens but have more passion for the productive garden plot.

That being said I’m a sucker for anything related to a daisy!  As water is such a scarce commodity for us we have quite a harsh approach to the ornamentals.  If they’ll survive with a weekly water through the summer in the first year, they can stay.  If they need more than that there days are numbered.  Anything which needs special care must be a prize specimen we’ve always lusted after, or be in a pot near the door so they can have waste coffee and veg water.  Everything else needs to fend for itself.  We don’t have the time or the resources to mollycoddle (I love that word) any pretties.

This approach means we don’t have a huge variety of ornamentals – but the one’s we do have are cheap and grow well.  As a rule of thumb cheap plants at the market tend to be easy to propogate by cuttings and they are usually surviviors.  So we’ve now got many drifts of similar things as we take lots of cuttings of anything that copes well and grows here.

The only things we do treat delicately are the succulants.  But their only tender care requirements are to be shoved under the log storage area if snow is forecast – to give them a little protection.  I have been known to allow the Aloe Vera to be brought in if its particularly cold, but then even this plant is pretty productive.   We use the juice to treat burns and insect stings.

I won’t try to write posts about the ornamentals – I don’t even know most of their names but we do enjoy their bright and cheerful company.  I thought it would be nice to prove I’m not a totally food and vegetable obsessed freak…

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