Hanging Hosta's of Hampshire

This is incredible! Love the Islamic Garden area.

I also saw the programme, but it's nice to be able to study the photos and get a really good look. Thanks for putting this on here.

Goodness me! How amazing, I did see the program but I didn't realise quite how many plants until I saw your blog.

How long does it take them to water all this?

Hi Lil, yes the Islamic garden was nice. They imported tiles from spain for the water feature,and i couldn't take as many photo's of that part of the garden because my camera died on me, but there may be some on the net...there are good photo's of that part in the magazine.

No problem Frybo though i wish i'd taken a few more. Photo's never seem to do a garden justice though!
John was a tad unhappy they didn't give more time to the garden in the GW episode, apparently the crew where there for 12 hours...but just 5 minutes of air time on GW.

Stickitoffee, that was the first question that came to my mind. I asked and he said he has an irrigation system set up, with timers etc. I had a look and saw some pipes trained up and along the walls with little spray jets that would shower the plants(hardly noticeable unless your looking for it). I expect a fair bit of hand watering is required as well. John said the type of compost mix and the high amount of shade in the garden also helped reduce watering requirements.

Twelve hours of filming?!! Just shows why programs are so expensive!

Did John say what compost mix he uses?

Yes and he also said there where 12 crew members!

The soil mix he said he uses is made up of 50% multipurpose compost 30% composted farm-yard manure(specifically the John Innes version) 10% grit and 10% John Innes soil(JI no3, i think).

Thank you, that is very helpful.

Thats certainly a garden with a difference, instead of weeding and transplanting they just pick out a pot and place in another.
Thankyou for sharing your visit, I`ll see if I can find the prog on iplayer, your photo`s are smashing....

Thank you for such a lovely blog! It's great to see the plants up close and personal! Handy to know his compost recipe too, it's always interesting to see how other people do things! Lovely pics too!

oh fabulous, and they are all in pots, i just love Hostas, this has given me inspiration, fab

I would kill for those hostas. I hope the yard of my new house is slug free. Leaving a garden next to playing fields that is knee deep in the little b€ggars at the first sniff of rain. Hostas come here to commit suicide!