On Tue, 10 Aug 2004 23:22:14 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

I tried several times for two days now, but no response....
(the url I have is http://www.ilsham.demon.co.uk/)
David, if you read this: what's going on?

Given the extraordinarily busy life David leads, a web site is probably
pretty low on his list of 'to-do' priorities. What a shame you can't see it
but it's worth waiting for.

Sorry, I missed this earlier. I decided to ditch Demon earlier this
year since it represented increasingly bad value for money.
Unfortunately, I didn't transfer the site and given my current
commitments, the likelihood of me finding time to write a new one is
pretty remote at the moment.

His garden is an object lesson in how to use a very small space to grow rare
and unusual plants in the southern English climate. And I'm lucky enough to
have seen the garden and not just the web site. It's absolutely
outstanding. The only pity of it is that it's too small to take tours!

Got me blushing again Sasha. I work on the illogical basis that large
and very large plants in small gardens actually give the impression of
space - even when they have coalesced into a jungly mass. It works if
there is one or two of you, but when 3 or more try to navigate around
huge tree fern and date palm fronds, the size limitations become all
too apparent. Since my patch is primarily for my own enjoyment this
poses few problems for most of the time.

However, growing so much together means that it is very high and this
year I've had very little time to spare. I mentioned to Sasha
recently that I think the time has come to renovate the lot, starting
more or less from scratch. When I started, I was experimenting with
sub-tropicals to see exactly what could be grown successfully as
opposed to what could be persuaded to survive. I've now moved out of
that phase and hopefully my manic plant collecting habits have eased
somewhat. This means that I will be looking more closely at making
the garden fit around me in future, rather than me making way for the
plants. It will be a lower maintenance garden with fewer plants, but
those that will be here will be very special indeed.

I hope to get started this autumn and will record progress so it can
go onto a website when I have time to put one together.
Dave Poole
Torquay, Coastal South Devon UK
Winter min -2°C. Summer max 34°C.
Growing season: March - November