Jardinagem em Portugal

Visit information

• Admission: Free
• Dates: 29 April – 10 October 2010
• Location: West Lawn, Museum forecourt, British Museum, London
• Map: How to get there

About the Landscape

Kew’s South Africa Landscape at the British Museum celebrates the two institutions’ shared vision to strengthen cultural understanding and support biodiversity conservation across the world. Our Landscape makes connections between plants, people and objects on display in the Museum’s African galleries.

South Africa Landscape features African lily (Agapanthus africanus), fynbos heather, daisies such as the blue marguerite (Felicia amelloides) and the ‘Star of the Veldt‘ (Osteospermum hyoseroides), the South African geranium (Pelargonium sidoides) and the Lesotho red hot poker(Kniphofia caulescens), with its bright orange rocket-shaped flowers.

Visitors can walk through the Landscape and get a feeling of the desert and experience tumbled rocks and scree and sand, interspersed with strangely shaped quiver trees (Aloe dichotoma), swathes of spectacular plant colour and an understorey of desert annual and perennial plants.

Reproductions of famous examples of rock art which depict men and animals from well-documented sites in South Africa are incised on to a number of rocks in the Landscape. Find out more at the South Africa Landscape website.

ADVANCE NOTICE !!     ADVANCE NOTICE !!    ADVANCE NOTICE !!

Following on from the amazing response to last year’s event, we have already started planning another wonderful gardening bonanza focussed on Mediterranean Gardening on the Algarve. The move to a bigger venue in the central Algarve, near Sta Barbara de Nexe, with good access from the motorway, allows us to build on last year’s success and expand the variety of nurseries and garden related quality exhibitors. La Reserve has a lovely garden setting and may already be known by some of you. It is close to the Algarve Stadium and just ten minutes from Faro. There is a large covered area, huge lawned areas and a large car park with good access onto the site to and from the main road. The owners are experienced event organisers – pictures and further information on their web site http://www.algarservice.com

There will also be the opportunity to have a quiet area dedicated to the informative talks we will be holding on the day. Please help us to make this opportunity a great success and consider volunteering to help out on the day.  We will also need your help publicising the day and your surplus plants to sell on the MGS Plant Stall so, keep watering those pots !

All offers of help, and any queries, to Rosie Peddle    Email -  rosie@thebtf.net    Tel. 289 791 869

Next Saturday morning 17 July there will be an Organic Market in Barril de Alva (near Coja) at Parque de Merendas under the Plane trees. I have kindly been offered a table to represent Beira Gardening Friends and the MGS (www.mediterraneangardensociety.org) . I will be selling some plants and produce and will have some general information available.

Beira Garden Group stall

Seeds I will bring also and perhaps we can start collecting this year’s harvest to swap. Do bring them and any cuttings/bulbs/corms/plants that we could use for a future event. This will be a try-out and if successful, we could be present on a monthly basis (every 3rd Saturday) using the occasion as a meeting point. I will keep you informed.

With best Summer wishes, Marion ter Horst

13 July 2010  Tel. for more info. 917 850 235

List of  (some) Plants to grow from seed recommended for the Algarve (Mediterranean zone)

From the south west of Australia (Mediterranean zone) selected by

Pete Nash, Sales & Purchasing, Nindethana Seed Co. Web site, http://www.nindethana.net.au/ Email. nindseed@gawa.org.au

(wholly owned by not for profit organisation www.greeningaustralia.org.au)

PLEASE ALWAYS CHECK that you are not introducing any plants on the Invasive Plants of Portugal list. Web site with info on invasive Acacias/Eucalyptus advised against planting in Portugal. Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra   www.uc.pt/invasoras

Acacia drummondii ssp affinis

Acacia merinthophora

Acacia redolens (low growing)

Alyogyne huegelii

Banksia ashbyi

Banksia blechnifolia

Banksia speciosa

Crotalaria cunninghamii

Dryandra formosa

Hakea bucculenta

Hakea petiolaris

Hakea platysperma

Hardenbergia comptoniana

Isopogon formosus

Eucalyptus coronata

Eucalyptus erythrocorys

Eucalyptus kruseana

Kennedia beckxiana

Leptospermum sericeum

Swainsona formosa

Templetonia retusa

at DRAPALG,(Direcção de Serviçios de Agricultura e Pescas, Divisão de Apoio à Produção Agrícola) Patacão, FARO.

Web site. www.drapalg.min-agricultura.pt

Our tutor and guide for the day was Enga. Margarida Sofia Jordão Costa. The morning was dedicated to a practical lesson on seed sowing and on taking cuttings.  Enga. Margarida demonstrated a standard method for encouraging germination of many seeds in the legume (pea) family.  She put seed of Caesalpinnia gillesii into a pyrex dish and poured boiling water over them. The seed can be left until cold before sowing in the normal way. The seed should be sown to their own depth in compost and not buried too deeply in the pot. Seed pots can be soaked, drained, and put into a closed plastic bag to aid germination.  This retains moisture on the top level of soil and aids germination.

Cuttings can be taken from non-flowering shoots. Cut stems with approx. three or four leaf nodes, trim excess leaves and bury two leaf nodes in the compost. Hormone rooting powder can be used but Margarida advised storing this in a fridge to prolong storage life. The apical (terminal) bud provides the best chance of a successful rooting. A large heap of lavender cuttings was used to demonstrate the standard method and many were able to take their potential plants home with them.

Lunch was taken in the on site staff canteen. During lunch time there were some books to look at, seed catalogues & seed packets available and the seed box to look through !

In the afternoon we had a guided tour of the gardens and collections of trees on site.  DRAPALG is a working site and has many unusual plants and trees in the grounds, the staff are enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. There is a cacti and succulent garden and also an area laid out showing the Algarve coastline with some typical vegetation.  There is also a small area with native plants, lavender beds and pomegranate varieties. In flower for our visit was a lovely example of Hymenosporum flavum. There is also a small nursery with trees, shrubs and plants for sale to the public. This site has the laboratory where it is possible to have soil and water samples analysed. Visits from the public or gardening groups are encouraged, please use web site contact above.