From VIRTUAL to REALITY (BLOG)

[Trudytropics]

Kyle I have just had a look at your Facebook Blog, I enjoyed it very much. What a well documented piece of work, shouldn't be surprised in the least as you clearly are a perfectionist I didn't realise you had been in your property that long, I thought it was in the last 12months or so, you have done so much in that time, hats off to you . I for one can't wait to see your dream realised, you have a great setting and it will be worth the gruelling hard work. I think once the hard landscaping is done and complete it will make such a huge difference and you'll almost be there. Planting up will be so pleasurable and then watching over the years as it matures will be something for your whole family to enjoy

One question, why is it called the Arctic Jungle? Perhaps I have missed something in your blog or is it because its damn cold in Huddersfield?

[Kyle]

Thanks Kristen. You could well be right about it being looked back upon as a godsend year. One thing's for sure, I haven't had to run around with a watering can and hose pipe everyday. The real gripe is the difficulty getting much hard landscaping done. When the rain has let up it's only been for a few hours here, the odd day there. Not enough for the ground to dry out. Being on a steep slope means that water continues to filter downhill for some time after a downpour.


Trudy. Thanks for having a look on the Facebook Blog and I'm glad you enjoyed it. We've been here since 2008 but only turned our attention to the garden a couple of years ago. It's definitely a slow burner this one. Mainly because we don't intend to ever move again, so it's got to be just right.

Arctic Jungle was a name I came up with a couple of years back. It seemed to sum up what exotic gardening is all about; achieving paradise in an impossible climate. Ultimately I want this place to become a visitor attraction in the sense that Will Giles' garden is renowned enough to attract people from far and wide. The angle that I'm going to take here though is that of being within a boundless wild jungle. This will mean taking advantage of the surrounding landscape and using it to creatively sell that illusion by giving some far-reaching views.

The concept as a whole will be for everything to get increasingly wild the further away from the house it gets. So far, the designs and work completed is for the area immediate to the house (Zone 1). This will be highly controlled and immaculately maintained (I hope). The choices of plants will be more what you would expect to see in your typical exotic garden. Lots of man-made varieties intermingling with hard landscaping. Then as you venture further away, the less manicured and influenced it will feel. Each Zone will work to a strict set of rules.

Eventually, it will be downright wild and swampy. Visitors will probably need a pair of wellies and machete to get through. The goal isn't to try to recreate a particular setting such as the Amazon Jungle or Congo Rainforest, but a pastiche of lots of places. Mainly though, just a fun and exciting environment to explore.

Currently there is about 0.8 of an acre to work with (or does a third of an hectare do the marketing bit better?). Looking beyond that there is the potential to put a offer to buy the neighbouring forest which is about 4.7 acres.

[Trudytropics]

I understand exactly the way you are thinking, sounds spot on, easier to maintain whats closest to you and day to day will be more used. The further from the house the less tamed, sounds perfect really Very much look forward to the day when the doors are open for us all to come and explore your Arctic Jungle.

My last house was elevated and our garden was half an acre, big but not as big as yours. We backed on to stunning woodland and overlooked fields for miles around. When we planted our Northumbrian hedge it was with the intention of blending our land successfully with the woodland, after a few years the hedge growing very quickly we ultimately got our wish, it became impossible to know where our garden ended and the wilderness began, it looked so natural unlike the ridiculous people who had either 60m of fence in straight lines running into the woods or dafter still people planting privet and conifer hedges in regimented lines which were so out of context with the local environment. I fully understand your desire to blend with and indeed steal the views around you, I'd be very tempted to buy that extra land if it were available. Good luck Kyle with the next stage

[greendragon]

That forest probably has a protection order on it though.

[Kyle]

That forest probably has a protection order on it though.

It doesn't. It's officially designated as allotment land. If anything, the council might try and claim it's statutory. I've already had discussions with them and established that it can't be under the terms of what constitutes a statutory allotment. For example, it's never been in continuous use and there are lots of better suited vacant plots elsewhere in the area to fulfil any waiting lists they might have. They probably don't even have deeds to it as we discovered they registered it under 'adverse possession' in 2010 after our initial enquiries.

[Kyle]

Greetings fellow exoticists.

I just wanted to pop up and say hi. Haven't been on here for quite a while and noticed a bit of interest surrounding some the recent stuff I've been putting up on facebook

I was out of action for most of 2012 and couldn't return to the garden until late last summer. Anyway, a spark of inspiration and a manic few months got me back on the right course again. Sorry to all the folks who were following my projects and suddenly left in the cold. I've got plenty lined up for this year and well beyond. Hope to share much of the plant stuff on HTUK, but I'll likely be concentrating on my person blog site and facebook for the future garden updates.

Be good to catch up guys and gals.

Kyle

[Kristen]

Nice to see you back Glad to hear you are fighting fit again and good luck with the project

[Yorkshire Kris]

Great to hear you are back on form. I won't bombard you with questions yet I'll wait for more updates first


All the best.

[cordyman]

Greetings fellow exoticists.

I just wanted to pop up and say hi. Haven't been on here for quite a while and noticed a bit of interest surrounding some the recent stuff I've been putting up on facebook

I was out of action for most of 2012 and couldn't return to the garden until late last summer. Anyway, a spark of inspiration and a manic few months got me back on the right course again. Sorry to all the folks who were following my projects and suddenly left in the cold. I've got plenty lined up for this year and well beyond. Hope to share much of the plant stuff on HTUK, but I'll likely be concentrating on my person blog site and facebook for the future garden updates.

Be good to catch up guys and gals.

Kyle

Nice to see you back Kyle, miss your posts

I'm not a lover of facebook, in fact I uninstalled it off my phone a few weeks back So hope you still put some stuff on here!

Any pics of the Ricinus Jungle at the end of season, or did the monsoon summer put ruin to any decent growth?

[Mick C]

Glad to see you posting again Kyle, your videos capture the imagination.

I don't do facebook either, and I'm sure there must be plenty of other dinosaurs like me at HTUK.

[Kyle]

Cheers guys.

I have to admit I've become disillusioned with Facebook myself these days. I've been on there for years and feel it's become corporate Facebook rather than the people's Facebook.

Saying that it's proving to be a pretty efficient blog tool these days and it suits my stuff quite well because it allows family and mates to keep track of everything and they're not really plant folks. No problem doing some updates on here if none FB users are curious. I'm hoping to finish off planting up the front garden the moment the weather improves. Got an interesting take on the tropical theme at the front, everything is planted in bands of individual plants to emphasise the various colours and forms - lots of black, green and white contrasting against each other. It's going to be very regimented compared to the back. Most of the ideas are already on this thread but I've tweaked and improved the planting a bit since then.

Cordy, you're right about the wet summer. The Ricin peaked out at about 4ft for me which I found really pathetic. "Impala' stood out as being the best overall - both colour and rate of growth. Unfortunately I wasn't around to tend to it later in the year but I doubt I could have made much of an improvement considering it never really got that warm.

[flounder]

Another vote for non FB here

[cordyman]

Cheers guys.

I have to admit I've become disillusioned with Facebook myself these days. I've been on there for years and feel it's become corporate Facebook rather than the people's Facebook.

Saying that it's proving to be a pretty efficient blog tool these days and it suits my stuff quite well because it allows family and mates to keep track of everything and they're not really plant folks. No problem doing some updates on here if none FB users are curious. I'm hoping to finish off planting up the front garden the moment the weather improves. Got an interesting take on the tropical theme at the front, everything is planted in bands of individual plants to emphasise the various colours and forms - lots of black, green and white contrasting against each other. It's going to be very regimented compared to the back. Most of the ideas are already on this thread but I've tweaked and improved the planting a bit since then.

Cordy, you're right about the wet summer. The Ricin peaked out at about 4ft for me which I found really pathetic. "Impala' stood out as being the best overall - both colour and rate of growth. Unfortunately I wasn't around to tend to it later in the year but I doubt I could have made much of an improvement considering it never really got that warm.

Cheers Kyle, i'll always check out any update posts your put on HTUK

I love Ricinus Impala, that and zanzi, two i'll be growing again this year I think