A couple of weeks ago, when the remnants of hurricane Katia came back across the Atlantic and ran over the top of Scotland, here in the south we experienced blustery winds. One of the gusts knocked over the young Phoenix Canariensis (Canary Island Date Palm, or just CIDP), that was growing in a tall but narrow pot. The pot was terracotta and being on the patio, broke when it hit the ground – that was irritating.

Fast forward to this weekend and I’ve finally got round to re-potting the palm. A quick trip to the garden centre and we came back with a pretty large plastic pot and it’s gone in that. I’ve also “recycled” the some of the stones from the rubble that came out when a new border was dug and that has gone on the soil surface and does several useful things:

1. It looks quite nice
2. It stops the soil from drying out as much as it otherwise would
3. It stops birds from digging in the soil or using it as a dust bath
4. It deters weeds from landing and growing on the soil

A good dose of bonemeal and a bucket of water later and it seems to be happy, in fact, it’s been positively glowing in the unusually hot autumn sunshine.