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Alan Down

@alanedown

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Garden writer/blogger/app content/radio/horticultural consultant.
Plants, wildlife, travel. MHort. NSch.
@alanedown - X

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HONEY BADGER🦡 VS ELEPHANT 🐘 watch until the end!
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Yesterday our guests watched this crazy sighting unfold in front of Sable Valley as this cheeky honey badger just kept going back for more!
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After that nasty blow by the elephant, the badger still continued to terrorize any animal that came down for a drink 💦
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This sighting left us questioning “who really is king of the jungle?”

Thanks so our valued guest, @alanedown , for this footage 🎥 taken in Hwange National Park by @alanedown

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12k

a year ago

Mahonia nitens Cabaret PBR (Kalmthout?)
Striking orange red flower buds in autumn that open to yellow. Extremely attractive new shoots also orange-red appear in spring.
#gardeninspiration #inmygarden #gardentips #mahonia #gardening taken in Tintinhull by @alanedown

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6 days ago

I might have just officially identified and witnessed the measuring of a new Guinness Book of Records Echium pininana (tree echium)!
The current record for this La Palma (Canary Isles) endemic species for Britain stands at 6m.
This one measured more!
Odd the things you get asked to do but then today also in Somerset there is the mangelwurzel competition which @shegrowsveg is the judge!
Perhaps it’s the cider down here that accounts for this glorious eccentricity?
Now when is the Turnip Prize competition?

#gardening #guinessbookofworldrecords #echium #gardeninspiration #vipersbugloss taken in Bower Hinton by @alanedown

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18 days ago

It’s the last day today of the glorious Yeo Valley Garden Festival - go if you can! It’s just so refreshing and well….organic!
I met so many old friends and made many new ones!
Lara of @skoolbeanz introduced me to @plantie_coral and @foraged.by.fern and we discussed my beech noyau hooch!

I kept bumping into @dhgardening @hortitrainer (nice useful new book Nigel!).

Listened to a highly entertaining @jamesasinclair and @joe_swifty podcast recording and marvelled at how they kept it together 😳. Nice one boys!

I caught a snippet of @kategbradbury - well you just couldn’t be everywhere at this amazing event.

Feasted on my friend Jame’s delicious @hiddenpizzauk , loved the Pony Bus project taking growing and cooking to schools, caught up with the Yeo Mead family and was fascinated by their grazing cattle in the woods 👏👏🐄🐄.

Oh and yes stopped in my tracks by Kniphofia - rooperi I think and so many great take home ideas.

Wow, what a day!

#yeoorganicgarden #gardeninspiration #gardentips #gardening #festival taken in Blagdon Lake by @alanedown

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19 days ago

One of my favourite parts of @yeoorganicgarden still remains this simple but clever planting of Himalayan birch (a Betula utilis white stemmed clone) underplanted with shield fern (Polystichum - possibly Herrenhausen).
Other underplanting companions are blue Scilla in spring, white foxgloves, white Persicaria and Cyclamen hederifolium- but just white flowered- and keep a look out for the much less common Heuchera villosa in the last pic!

#gardeninspiration #gardentips #gardening #woodland #yeoorganicgarden taken in Blagdon Lake by @alanedown

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20 days ago

Bit of a mouthful but its full name is Mahonia eurybracteata subsp. ganpinensis ‘Soft Caress’. Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue does it!
RHS Chelsea Flower Show best new plant 2013 but watch out for more similarly exciting mahonia that will be available soon!

#inmygarden #gardentips #garden #gardeninspiration #mahonia taken in Tintinhull by @alanedown

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21 days ago

Welcome new followers!
Ask me gardening questions!
Pop your question in the comments feed and I’ll do my best to answer them!
#gardeninspiration #gardening #inmygarden #gardentips #garden taken in Tintinhull by @alanedown

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24 days ago

Just a few of wonderful sculptures @stoberryhouseandgarden that you can see in the amazing setting and fabulous plant woman’s #garden open 6 days a week until October 4th.
The garden has magnificent views over Wells, Wells cathedral, Somerset and Glastonbury Tor and I hope the sun shines for you to take in this spectacular location! It is filled with many uncommon plants and demonstrates great planting combinations that could be easily replicated in your own patch!
The sculptures are mostly from the South West and Wales and are all very thought provoking in this garden setting!
#gardeninspiration #sculpture #art #wells taken in Stoberry House by @alanedown

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a month ago

Just the perfect way to spend a Saturday @somersetciderbrandy for great food, live music and fabulous drinks.

Got to sample their new Plum Negroni Cocktail and the Botanicals - both of which are excellent!

A little wobbly with the BBC (#brompton bike club) on the way home!

#somersetcider #cider #burrowhillcider #ciderbus taken in Burrow Hill Cider Farm by @alanedown

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a month ago

A juvenile sparrow hawk takes a leisurely bath in our pond!

The pond was created by @du_waterscapes.

This is a short clip of a 7 minute video I recorded through our window.

#gardeninspiration #inmygarden #birdsofprey #wildlife #wildlifegardening taken in Tintinhull by @alanedown

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2 months ago

Off to the pub in style!

Cool way to travel with my eldest granddaughter @p.matthews.x to the @princeofwaleshamhill.

She lives in USA and a) they don’t have proper pubs like we do and b) she doesn’t get around this way there! But she already has a full driving license of which I’m very proud!

Just a few squeals along the way as I opened the big Arctic Cat 650 up! 🤣🤣

#pub #quad #local #summerfun #familytime taken in South West England by @alanedown

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2 months ago

Three years on and this @the_rhs Chelsea Flower Show best new plant winner just gets better and better! I am honoured to be one of the judges of this annual award.

No surprises as it won best new plant awards around the world that year!

Darkest of all Agapanthus ( I do have an A. inapartus variety as dark but not with this volume of flowers ) it is a great plant for a large container in sun.

This variety was bred by the De Wet Nursery in South Africa which is where Agapanthus are native plants. It is widely available in the Uk now and although still at a premium price it’s worth every penny!

#agapanthus #garden #gardeninspiration #gardening taken in Tintinhull by @alanedown

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2 months ago