About Us
Up until about six years ago, my wife Toni and I were not gardeners. We could buy a plant in perfect health, only to have it die on us a short while later! We knew very little about plants, their care etc and found visits to garden centres very un-inspiring. Standard bedding plants did little to fire our imaginations, although we did try.
All this was to change following a visit to Abbotsbury Sub-Tropical gardens in Dorset. It was here that I first saw and fell in love with Gunnera Manicata. I couldn't comprehend that a plant could grow to that size here in England... and I wanted one! After a few weeks of whinging and whining, Toni finally agreed I could have one... as long as she could have a summer house built at the end of our garden. Knowing I had a poor deal, but desperate for the plant of my dreams, I agreed and our garden, as it is now, was born.
When we first moved to our current house in 2002 we had an immaculate lawn. The previous owner was a keen golfer, and used it to practice his putting. We wanted initially to keep the majority of this, as the garden was one of the main reasons we bought the house. However, we decided to dig up a portion at the top end of the garden to make way for the summer house, a small patio area, and to put in some boarders with various plants, including my Gunnera.
So during the spring of 2003 the work started. During construction we decided to partition this part of the garden of with a small trellis fence with an arch way for access. During visits to various garden centres and nurseries to get the bits we required, we started to notice more tropical-looking plants we thought would go with the Gunnera. Things like Cordylines, Fatsia, Cannas, some small palms, the names of which I couldn't pronounce, and... bananas! Could they grow outside? Would they survive? Could they produce fruit you could eat? Our imaginations were now well and truly fired up. We had found the plants to inspire us and we wanted to know more; hence a period of extensive research ensued.
I don't think we really discussed it with each other, but we both knew that the top part of the garden would be all 'jungle style'.
It took just over a week of solid hard work to complete the building work and planting and we were pleased with the results. We had our own little piece of jungle to relax in. My Gunnera was still small, but I could see the potential in it. At this point our intentions were to keep the rest of the lawn in place so the kids had somewhere to play. However, our research into exotic plants had us finding more and more unusual things, and as selfish as it may sound... we wanted them. So one warm night that summer, while relaxing in the garden with a glass or two of something nice, we decided to convert the whole garden! The kids were happy with this. They would have somewhere new and exiting to play and they couldn't wait to pitch in with the work.
The work took place over the rest of the summer, throughout autumn and winter and we finally finished the following spring. First job was to remove the rest of the lawn. This was dug up by hand and nearly killed me, but the turf was stored and left to break down. I had to keep it as we had already discussed the idea of having raised beds, and the broken down turf was going to be used to help fill these. The idea behind raising the beds was due to the fact we are on clay soil and we thought this would help with the drainage.
The next step was to define where the beds and pathways were to go. We initially tried marking this out with powdered chalk, but this kept getting washed away in the rain, so we resorted to the little known 'plastic spoon' method! 35 new railway sleepers had been ordered, cut to length and treated with wood preservative. The idea was to cut them to 3-4ft lengths, up-end them and concrete them in place at different heights to keep things interesting.
Once this was completed, the beds were then partially filled with the broken down turf, to which we added a load of compost from our local DIY store, plus a load of gravel, again to assist with drainage. This was all dug together and then left for a while. Work then commenced on removing some of the slabs from the patio near the house and a hole for the pond was dug. We were getting close to being ready for planting out, and as our research continued, we were finding still more and more plants that we wanted, but very few places that could supply them.
Over the course of that spring, we were not adverse to driving two to three hundred mile round trips just to get a few items. We must have visited just about every nursery and garden centre in Hampshire, Dorset and beyond. The cry of 'Dad, not another garden centre, please!' was a perpetual sound from the back of the car.
Eventually, we had the 'big stuff' we wanted and it was time to start planting out. The plants were positioned in their pots on the raised beds and juggled many times until we found the right combination.
The smaller exotics were then placed around the rest of the beds. Once complete, additional compost and a thick layer of mulch was added to complete the planting. Next came 3 tonnes of 10mm gravel that was spread around the path area. We were now really pleased with what we had created and the kids loved it. It still looked a little bare in places, but we thought after a couple of years it would fill out.
During the rest of the spring and summer, more plants were added, and those that we had initially planted started to grow... in some cases at a faster rate than we expected, so by the end of the summer, the garden was looking like a proper jungle.
The reactions from friends, family and neighbours were very encouraging and people started asking us what particular plants were and where they could get them. They didn't, however, want to travel the miles we were doing. So, because we were now twiddling our thumbs because we had finished, we started to propagate plants from our own stock. We also started to find seed suppliers for some of the plants, and while not professing that growing these plants is easy (it's not), we started to have a lot more plants than we actually needed. The problem was that we were now addicted to sowing and growing but had no space left to put the resulting plants. It was at that point that someone suggested we should start a small business and start selling some of our surplus stock... hence BEAST PLANTS was born.
We know that to some people what we have done with are garden is too extreme. However, one or two good size architectural plants can compliment a more traditional style of gardening.
Give it a go... you may be amazed at how good it can look!
Even now our garden is still evolving, things change, and plants come and go. We are always adding new things as and when we find them, and offer many of these for sale. Some unusual, some rare and some just completely weird.
We have had some great successes, but we have also had our share of fatalities and challenges with planting positions, (including my first Gunnera. It was too dry and sunny where I first placed him so he now resides next to the pond and is an 8ft beast). Some plants have died on us because we hadn't put them in the right place, or had over wintered them incorrectly. But we have learnt from this, and continue to do so now. When conducting our research, we found differences of opinions on many subjects including over wintering, positioning, hardiness, feeding etc. Therefore, when comparing what you see here, you may find it different to what you see elsewhere. What we have done is taken the most commonly found opinions and added them with our own experiences.
With regard to hardiness, we have erred more on the side of caution with the information on the plants we sell. However, we have taken a few risks in our own garden and these have paid off. It appears that some plants are tougher than first thought, and may be worth trying out all year round in some gardens. However, as with all styles of gardening, many factors come into play as how best to look after the plants you love. Therefore, we are always on hand to offer advice to anyone who requires it.
Good luck and happy gardening.
Steve and Toni.