Adam's Garden

As I approached the shed it became apparent that something was not quite right: the building was imbued with a kind of darkness, and peering into the grubby windows - each one streaming with condensation - I found it difficult to make out the shape of the numerous overwintering plants. With great trepidation, and some hesitation stemming from my uncertainty as to what diabolical forces had been at work inside, I took hold of the icy handle and opened the door. Immediately I was engulfed in choking black fumes, a toxic miasma emanating from the paraffin heater on the floor. In an effort to clear the air both sets of doors were quickly opened and the sooty flame of the heater extinguished. As a result of my carelessness in not cutting and cleaning the wick properly, a yellow flame had developed and become a very effective soot producer, and by the looks of things had been churning it out all night.

As the air cleared, I apprehensively surveyed aftermath. A layer of soot covered everything. Close to the heater the particles were largest and the coating thickest, with wispy trails showing the direction taken by the warm air currents circulating the room. Rather like the ash scattered in a volcanic eruption, the soot layer gradually became thinner the further it was from the source. It looked quite aesthetically pleasing really, although the sinking feeling of witnessing the desecration of my precious plants held sway over artistic niceties. Never. Never again was I going to neglect to trim the wick.

The Abutilon 'Souvenir de Bonn', it's leaves with a cream margin and with pleasant large orange flowers, looked surreal with a black mantle. I inspected the undersides of the leaves to see if there were any greenfly and wondered wryly if soot was a good pesticide. I have found in the past, that there are certain plants that are particularly susceptible to greenfly when kept under glass. Abutilons are definitely in this category, so this year, before they were brought indoors for the winter, they were repotted, using compost that comes with insecticide as one of the constituent ingredients. It is expensive and has been available to commercial growers for some time, but is now available to the general public. Having heard good reports about it I had decided to give it a try. The results are impressive. More than half way through the winter and there is no sign of aphids on the Abutilons, even though some of the other plants in the shed have a mild infestation. The compost is claimed to provide protection for a season, so although it is too costly for general use it would appear to be a good bet for special cases. It would be interesting to see how effective it is for roses because a number of my older varieties are prone to bad attacks of greenfly.

I tried to dust off the Norfolk Island Pine, Araucaria heterophylla, the same family as the monkey puzzle tree, which is now too large for the windowsill in the house, where it made an excellent focal point and talking point. At five foot tall the tip had reached the ceiling and was bending over. It lives outside in the summer but during winter the juvenile plants can be vulnerable to frost and I would rather not take the risk of leaving it out. The soot was clinging to the fine needle-like fronds and I soon gave it up as a bad job. It was apparent that it would take an age to clean up all the plants in the shed and I resolved to tackle just a select few. The Phormium 'Sundowner' had escaped relatively unscathed thanks to the upright habit of the leaves. A damp cloth revived the sparkling colours - gold red and cream. The Cannas, which have sustained slow growth, just, since the autumn, were easy to clean thanks to the smooth foliage, but I did notice that one was rotting at the centre, probably because it is just a little cool in the shed.

The temperature inside is kept above freezing during cold snaps, but the more exotic plants do not like it if cold spells last too long. During the day it can get quite warm and a number of geraniums have been flowering so well that they went down into the house for Christmas. I am unsure whether this was wise because once they went back, the return to colder night time temperatures made them look rather pathetic. Their new black coat just enhanced the effect.

Several small Christmas cacti in the corner, blackened but unbowed, soon regained their lustre and reminded me of how quickly they had developed from cuttings taken last year. They are easily rooted using the following method. Remove the top two succulent leaf segments in one piece by either snapping or cutting. You now have a piece of cactus two segments long. Dust each end with hormone rooting powder and leave on a shelf to dry off for a few days. It sounds anathema to leave a perfectly good piece of cactus lying about but I assure you it does work. Finally, insert it about half an inch into almost dry compost and leave for a couple of weeks before watering.

A large tray of onions, stored in the light conditions to prevent shoots forming, were cleaned off and polished with a dry cloth because I didn't really like the idea of paraffin flavoured ratatouille!

All in all this was an experience I would not like to repeat, and it may be wise to install electricity sooner rather than later. As I left the shed, chastened but wiser, my thoughts, and sympathies, turned to all peoples who garden on volcanic slopes.

You can find more articles in the archive under Soiled Hands.

Adam would love to hear from you just email him.