The Shanghai Greenhouse Garden at Expo Culture Park

Shanghai Greenhouse Garden opened very recently in September 2024, in the centre of the Shanghai World Expo Culture Park in Pudong New Area. Situated in glass domes somewhat similar to the Eden Project in the UK or Gardens by the Bay in Singapore, there are three themed glass pavilions - Sand Mirage (tropical and arid), Cloud Forest (tropical wet shade) and Cloud Canyons (tropical wet sun).

We found it easiest to travel to the Shanghai Greenhouse by taxi as it was a little way from where we were staying. The website states that advance booking is required - we didn't realise this, however we were easily able to purchase tickets on arrival. 

When we visited Shanghai in July it was very hot, and although the greenhouses were still warm insdie it was a perfect escape from the sun, and would also make a great place to visit on a rainy day. We visited on a weekday morning and it wasn't at all busy. It was a really pleasant way to escape the noise and bustle of the city centre on our final day.

The gardens are beautifully laid out, lovely, clean and relaxing. Unusually for some of the other tourist spots in Shanghai there were excellent English translations throughout, it definitely felt like a modern attraction. If you can't quite read the sign below it says 'Civilised garden do not littering' which I loved.

Your route takes you through the three domes in turn, which are linked by underwater corridors and walkways. You can also wander about at your leisure, and there are places to sit for a while and enjoy your surroundings. Although there are quite a few steps, it's reasonably suitable for wheelchairs and buggies. There is a marked accessible route, and there are plenty of toilets.

 

There are several suspended walkways which give you lovely views across the gardens. It was so peaceful with the sound of running water from the waterfall and the streams.

I loved walking slowly around the gardens, enjoying the peace, and taking it all in.

I have a newly developed interest in gardening, and so I loved admiring all the beautiful plants. I'm always drawn to flowers, and I particularly loved the tall pillars which were packed with orchids in the Clouds Canyon zone. There are lots of great locations for taking beautiful photographs.

At the base of the orchid pillars is a long shallow pool where small children are allowed to paddle, which I thought was lovely. I can imagine locals coming here to entertain small children away from the heat and crowds. 

I felt that being so new, the Greenhouse Gardens are a little bit off the tourist radar when it comes to places to visit in Shanghai. Although the greenhouses feel set up to deal with larger crowds, it was very quiet when we visited and there was none of the hectic bustle that we found elsewhere in Shanghai. If you are looking for somewhere pleasant to spend a few hours away from the crowds, or if you are travelling with young children that would enjoy a paddle, I would really recommend a visit.

Furthermore, there is also plenty to see in the surrounding park areas. It was a little too hot when we visited to explore outside, but at a cooler time of year I think you could easily spend a day here. In fact you might find that the free outdoor areas are just as lovely as the greenhouses!

A typical adult entry fee to the greenhouses is ¥98-128, and opening hours are 9am to 5pm with last entry at 4.30pm. The greenhouse is closed on Mondays except for Chinese statutory holidays. Tickets can be booked in advance using WeChat. You can find more details and visitor information here - Buying tickets to Expo Park Greenhouse. 

How I'm learning about gardening

Although I've had a garden for many years, this is the first year that I've really paid any attention to gardening, and it's become a bit of an obsession! We had quite a nice garden in our first house, but I never did anything with it. I think that it had been landscaped at some point in the past but it had become overgrown, and with a newborn I just didn't have the time to do anything with it apart from chopping things back to make a bit more space.

The garden in our current house was pretty much all laid to grass apart from a vegetable patch and a couple of small borders. I always hated the long boring fence across the back, but I lacked the confidence to do anything with it, and we only really wanted a garden that was suitable for small children to run around in.

But since we had an extension built and our garden properly landscaped I have learned so much. I've used my new found knowledge to shop at garden centres and plant lots of things - and so far everything has thrived and looks amazing! It makes me so happy to go out into the garden and admire all my beautiful plants.

Canna lilies

Here are some of the ways that I've increased my gardening knowledge:

* I'm addicted to r/GardeningUK on Reddit. I've picked up so much useful information, like ideas for what to plant, how to care for the things that I've planted, and just general inspiration when it comes to making the garden look how I want it to. I'm not a poster, I only lurk, but I find that often people are asking something I want to know the answer to, and it's really good for seasonal information.

* I've started watching Gardener's World and am seriously considering subscribing to the magazine. I love the slow format of the show, and there always seems to be a segment on something which is relevant to me.

* I've been using the RHS website to look up information about the plants that I've bought and I've also purchased a couple of their books - one on pruning and one on cut flowers - which are excellent.

* I take a lot of walks and runs around our estate, so I've been paying particular attention to what people have growing in their gardens (and judging the scruffy ones - even though ours was worse a year ago!) I'm really proud of myself when I can identify a plant.

* I've been taking much more interest in the gardens of people that I know, and asking them questions about what they've got growing there. Especially my Mum who has been digging out various things from hers to give to me!

* I do some volunteering work for a local community group that maintain the floral displays in the village and this has given me so much confidence when it comes to planting. There are also lots of lovely other volunteers that are happy to help with my questions!

I'm so proud of my garden, and I can't believe that I didn't start caring about it sooner!

Our transformed front garden

A couple of weeks ago I shared our back garden, and today I'm sharing our front garden transformation! Before it was very boring, just grass which was mainly weeds, always shaded because of the overgrown hedge.

We decided to take some inspiration from a neighbour's recent landscaping and open it all up with a pebbled garden inspired by our local beaches. Although we have removed the old hedge, we have left a marked out bed to replant it later in the year, perhaps with something a little lower in height. The apple tree remains, although it's definitely ready for a good prune this Autumn!

We needed to create a new gate to the other side of the house so we extended the path. The slabs are the same as those that we used in the back garden and they also match the indoor tiles. We added a deep new flower bed in front of each window and have planted those with hydrangeas. I'm trying to keep them blue so I've been using ericaceous compost and fertiliser which is supposed to enhance the blue colour! They are doing really well considering they had no flowers when we planted them a month ago. I'm constantly watering them! I chose blue petunias to match for this year.

We had the garden designed for us which really helped as I wouldn't have known where to start. The landscaper came up with the pebble arrangement and then my designer helped with buying the plants and where to place them. Me and Harry planted them and it was such a difficult job, the ground underneath was really compacted and full of gravel, stones and sand. Luckily despite the poor soil they all seem to be growing well.

We have a mixture of different grasses and also some different types of euphorbia. (I'm not very good with identifying plants!) If the garden opposite is anything to go by, in a few years they will have grown up quite a lot and it will look a little less sparse.

I really like the different mix of colours and textures. I'll be planting some bulbs in the Autumn for next year, and I'm hoping that the hydrangeas will grow to fill the borders.

It makes such a difference to the front of our house and although I do miss some of the privacy that we had from the hedge I've got used to it now. It's nice to be a bit more open, and the front of the house feels much lighter. Now I just need to come up with a plan for the front hedge area.

How our back garden is looking now

A couple of months ago I shared some photos of our poor garden, which had never been that exciting to begin with and was looking very sad after our building work. It was pretty much a blank slate, mainly some tired grass and dominated by a dull fence across the back.

So here are some photos after it has undergone an amazing transformation!

When we were planning the garden, I knew that I wanted a pretty garden with lots of flowers. We wanted areas around the garden to sit and relax as a family, and I was keen to have something attractive to look at while I prepared food in the kitchen.

I've always loved my secret vegetable patch and so we now have this amazing arch which creates a lovely entrance to the area. I have a clematis planted on one side which will hopefully grow up and over the arch, and I may also add something else to the trellis next year. We added a wooden bench so it is now a really private place to sit, watch the bees buzzing around the lavender and admire my tomatoes, courgettes and strawberries.

We've been making regular visits to the garden centre and picking up things that catch our eye. These cannas were suggested by our garden designer and I love the bold colours, they also add some height to the bed.

I'm gradually filling up the beds with flowers and hoping that they will last through the winter as the cost is adding up! I'll be much more organised next year and plant from seeds which will save some money.

I've always disliked the long boring fence across the back which dominates the view from the house. It will take a few years for things to get going, but we've planted some shrubs which will grow up a bit, and also two trees. We already have an apple tree at the front so we are trying a pear tree and a cherry tree, so hopefully I can keep them under control and thy will provide us with some fruit over the years! We also have two smaller trees around the pergola - a photinia and an acer.

I want to create a garden that attracts wildlife. We are lucky that our regular hedgehog visitor has returned - when we had new fencing installed we asked them to cut a hole so that hedgehogs could get into the garden and as soon as we started putting food out they appeared. It has even spent a night or two in our hedgehog house. There are plenty of bees around the flowers but I'm struggling a bit with the aphids at the moment, I need to work out how to attract the ladybirds!

I'm so in love with our garden now. I'm always wandering about deadheading and pulling up weeds and just enjoying the beautiful space. I can't wait to see how it changes over the years when things start to take off!

As a reminder, here's what we had done:

Our garden project - before

At the end of last year we completed our fantastic orangery extension to the back of our house. We are so pleased with it, we spend so much time in there now and feel really fortunate that we were able to make such a lovely addition to our home. The only thing that isn't so lovely is our poor garden! It was never exciting to begin with, and after all the work it has been pretty much destroyed. 

We wanted to wait a few months before getting started, to make sure that we knew exactly what we wanted and also to get the finances in place. I know a lady who works as a garden designer, and so we commissioned her to come up with a design for our blank canvas garden. She has produced a beautiful design which really makes the most of the space, and I'm so excited to see how it looks when it's finished!

We are going to have a large patio at the back which will come out at the same level as indoors and uses matching tiles, so when the weather is warm we can open the bifold doors and it will feel like one space. There will a second paved area in the back corner for some seating, our fire pit, or hopefully a place to get our hot tub out again and a small lawn in the middle, surrounded by lots of plants and trees.

When it comes to planting I'm a bit hopeless, but I think if we can get a planting plan designed and set up then I'll be able to maintain it. We just need advice on what to plant and where to plant it!

The front garden has always been a bit of a mess. The grass doesn't get any sun, so it's mainly weeds, and the hedge is old and overgrown and looking very scruffy. I love my apple tree but it needs a bit of attention, and it's too tall now for me to easily prune it. We are going to use the same patio slabs to make more of a feature of the front entrance and to make a path leading around to the back, then use pebbles to make a beach themed planting area which should bring to mind our local pebbly beaches.

We are using the same landscaping company that we used to build our extension as we were so pleased with them. The work started with the first of several massive deliveries of building materials, I do feel sorry for our poor neighbours that have put up with all our disruption for a little while now. At least once this project is done we won't be doing any more work like this to the house for years - probably not ever!

Introducing Lily the Lemon Tree

We are really pleased with our new orangery, and we've slowly been adding the finishing touches. The one thing missing is some greenery, and my husband was very keen on the idea of an orange or lemon tree. I wasn't sure at first because we aren't the most green-fingered people, and because we go away a lot I was a bit worried about how we would look after it. But a friend recommended a local citrus nursery, The Citrus Centre in Pulborough, and so we decided to go along and take a look.

We were really impressed! They had a huge selection of trees in all shapes and sizes, and the lady was really helpful. She could see that we were beginners and so she recommended that we start with a lemon tree. It's a four season tree, so there will fruit and buds all year round, and they are the easiest type of citrus tree to start with. We agonised over a few that were a similar size and shape before settling on an Amalfi lemon tree.

We transported our tree home like a newborn baby, going slowly around the bends, gently over the bumps, and with me sat in the back to look after it.

The tree will live inside over the winter and then move outside over the summer when the orangery will be too hot. It's almost time to move it outside, but we are having work done on the garden over the next few weeks so it will live inside until that is finished. I was surprised to learn that they only need to be watered every couple of months or so, and then when you do water them you give them lots all at once along with some feed.

We've bought her a pot and have named her Lily. We will be leaving most of the fruit on the tree for decoration, but as it had six lemons when we bought it we did harvest one which I used to make a delicious lemon drizzle cake. 

I really hope that Lily is with us for a long time to come!

The flowers in my garden

I've mentioned before that we are having some building work due to start shortly. It's very exciting! But it meant that when I was starting to think about my garden earlier in the year I wasn't sure how much access we would have to the garden over the summer. I planted my vegetable patch a little later than usual, and so unfortunately my tomatoes aren't doing that well this year. There will be a few but not as many as usual. 

When I had more idea as to timescales I did a trip to the garden centre and bought lots of bedding plants which I planted out in pots. I decided that pots can be moved around whatever is left of our garden! At the moment they are mainly lined up along my back fence, and they make a beautiful splash of colour.

Petunias look beautiful once they get going! I also love poppies and we have some growing in our new 'wildlife area' which has been created by the temporary removal of our hot tub. I planted some poppies from seed a few years back, and since then they pop up from time to time over the summer.

My favourite flowers are sunflowers, and I always make sure to plant some. They are in full bloom in the vegetable patch at the moment.

And my final flowers aren't mine at all, they are borrowed from our neighbour and growing over the fence. This is the kind of plant that I want to grow across our back fence, something that grows quickly, covers up the bare fence, and produces lovely flowers. I need to find out what it is and how to grow it!

Now I'm just hoping that summer grants us a few more warm and sunny days so that I can sit out in the garden and enjoy all this loveliness!

The usual end of term anxiety

It's the last week of term, and I'm really looking forward to the summer holidays. But I always find the countdown stressful, even though now that the children are older there are fewer things to worry about (no more sports day! not quite so much new uniform to buy!) But the children are on edge, with worries about new classes for next year and keeping in touch with friends over the summer, and my husband is away for a little longer than usual this week which sometimes leaves me unsettled. I'm finding myself constantly repeating 'we just need to get these last few days over with'!

I'm clinging on to the last few days of my routine before everything changes for a couple of months. I always find it harder to get out for an early run when I'm not forced out of bed to get everyone ready for school. I know that the housework will fall by the wayside, and it will feel as though I'm spending most of my time preparing food and clearing up afterwards. I'm hoping to sneak out for a couple of hours every week to continue my volunteering work - I'm really enjoying being part of a team of local people that get out and about making the flowerbeds around the village look lovely. I'm learning a lot, and it's given me some confidence to make more of my own garden.

I'm really hoping that the weather improves a little over the holidays. I've been working on making my secluded vegetable patch into a little sanctuary, and yesterday I installed one of our garden chairs so that I can sit and hide around the corner and listen to the bees buzzing. But it just hasn't been warm enough to sit outside!

We don't have very much planned over the summer holidays but we always seem to keep busy. There are people to keep in touch with, and the children enjoy peaceful time at home to work on their own projects without the pressure of homework and early starts. I'm intending to have a clear out in the kids rooms - we have lots of books that have been outgrown and toys that are no longer played with. I love a break from the school run and the packed lunches, and the long evenings are perfect for a walk around the village or sitting out in the garden.

If you have little ones in school I hope that the countdown to the summer holidays goes well!

My 'secret' vegetable patch

I've shared lots of photos of my vegetable patch over the years, but I'm not sure that I've every included a photo that gives a proper look at the space. Because I think it's a special space, and with planned building work in our garden this summer I'm working hard to make it a little sanctuary hidden away when I want to spend time in the garden without builders watching my every move!

Our garden extends out from the back of the house like most gardens, but we also have a separate double garage next to the house. The vegetable patch is behind the garage, so it's joined to the garden but off to one side and it can't really be seen from the house. The previous owners put up the trellis sides. Originally there were some flimsy gates but they have broken so I've been training some ivy over the top to make an archway. It's quite low, but luckily I'm short so I can easily fit underneath!

To the left of the entrance you can find Beowulf. I found him hidden behind overgrown vegetation in the garden of our old house and I brought him along with us. I named him after the Old English poem that I studied at university and I call him the guardian of the garden that makes sure everything grows well. If I accidently cut some flowers, I'll leave them by his feet as an offering! 

Also around the entrance I have a couple of decorations that I've made using stones with holes in from the beach - they are really common on our local beaches. Some people call them hag stones and think that they have magical properties. The lovely birdhouse was made by my husband at a team building event, although we've not actually had any birds in it yet!

My vegetable patch was a little delayed this year as we don't have a set start date for our building works. So last week I made a trip to the garden centre and picked up some bedding plants to put out into my planters - hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll have some more colour to enjoy.

At the back of the vegetable patch I just have a few pots and some plants which are probably technically weeds but have some pretty orange flowers and nicely cover a bare patch of ground. This is where I'll be putting my chair when I want to hide away and enjoy my plants and listen to the bees buzzing around the lavender bush.

The rest of our garden is really boring and is in a bit of a state as the summer house is falling down and the old wooden swing set is looking a little dicey. We are hoping to be able to do some work in the garden next summer, until then this is definitely my favourite part of the garden!

My early summer garden

My gardening this summer has been delayed. We are planning an extension project at some point this year, and I wasn't sure how much of our garden I would be able to easily access. But we won't be starting until later in the year, so a few weeks ago I planted out seeds for the two things that I'm always successful at growing - tomatoes and sunflowers.

One part of my garden that gets more beautiful every year is my lavender bush. When it was planted a few years ago the young plant was confused with a rosemary bush, and so it ended up in my vegetable patch instead of a pot (the rosemary bush that was put in the pot has sadly long since died). This means that it has the space to grow and grow, and it certainly has. I do cut it back every year but I don't over prune as I don't want to kill it!

It's not quite at peak flowering yet but there isn't long to go. The bees love it!

Last week I planted out my tomato and sunflower seedlings into the vegetable patch. Hopefully it won't get any colder, and although they are small I think that they are hardy enough to survive outside. Due to the late start they aren't as impressive as they usually are at this time of year, but I'm hoping that there will be plenty of time for them to pick up and get going.

I've also done the first cut of our large hedge at the front of the house. It takes so long - all the clearing up afterwards! Over the years both me and my husband have sliced through the cord on different electric trimmers, so recently I've been hacking at it using a low powered battery trimmer which means I've had to cut in stages and then recharge. It was a struggle, so we've treated ourselves to a new corded electrical strimmer. It's already had a very narrow escape but fortunately the blades only slightly damaged the plastic cord coating and so it's still fine to use - I hope that it can make it through this year at least!

Now I'm looking at my borders and they are very bare so I think I'll be doing a trip to the garden centre to pick up some bedding plants to try and add a bit more colour.

It's been a slow start, but hopefully this week's sunshine is here to stay and we'll be able to enjoy the garden this summer!

Waiting impatiently for Spring

At this time of year, every time the sun comes out I turn my face towards it and bask in the anticipation of warmer days ahead. Winter thankfully didn't feel too cold this year, but I'm starting to tire of wearing so many extra layers around the house and keeping myself warm with a constant supply of hot drinks.

I keep looking out into the garden and seeing all the jobs that need doing. There are dead leaves from the autumn that still need to be swept up, the gravel needs weeding, it's time to think about jet washing the patios and I want to plan my vegetable patch planting. But when it's cold outside I just can't face it!

This morning I went for my run wearing a thinner jumper for the first time this year and I really felt the cold before I had warmed up. I'm still putting a hat on when I go out for a walk and although we haven't had a frost for a few weeks now there has still been some freezing rain. 

I'm so looking forward to getting out the garden furniture and enjoying a cup of tea outside. I'm determined to spend as much time in the garden as I can this summer, I might even roll out the yoga mat for some exercise or borrow a laptop from another family member so that I can do some work.

I am eagerly watching out for each and any sign of spring - the first crocuses and daffodils have put in an appearance so I'm hoping that it won't be too much longer before the warmth that I'm longing for comes along!

Photo credit Shishir Pandey via Unsplash

End of June garden update

I'm not much of a gardener but I do like to try and make an effort, so I thought I'd do a quick update on how my garden is looking as we get to the end of June!

I was late planting out my seedlings this year, and I was starting to get a bit worried about them. We had over a month of sunshine with no rain which was glorious, but even though I watered my plants every day they just weren't growing. I think it was just too hot. But we've had a couple of cooler days now along with some rain, and almost overnight everything in the garden recovered and started growing like mad!

I love my vegetable patch, it's a separate area from the main garden with a large raised bed and paving slabs around the outside for pots. It has a trellis fence with a gap in the middle and I've been growing ivy over it to try and make it look a little more mysterious. The focal point of my vegetable patch is the enormous lavender bush that ended up there by mistake. I need to do something about it really otherwise the whole vegetable patch will become a lavender patch! It's recently come into flower and is attracting plenty of bees which is really good to see.

I currently have twenty-two tomato plants spread over the vegetable patch and in pots. That is what happens when you plant plenty of seeds in case some don't germinate and then they all do, and you can't bear to get rid of any tiny seedlings! I did lose a couple along the way to slugs, but I probably did over-compensate. I also have about seven broccoli plants although they are looking a bit spindly at the moment.

The tomato plants in pots usually do just as well as the ones that are planted out in the soil, and one of them is enormous already! I love working through the vegetable patch picking out the side shoots, it's a really peaceful and satisfying job.

I planted lots of sunflowers this year but they are taking a while to get going, and the slugs did get a few. The seedlings around the bottom are not weeds, they are a wildflower mix that I planted for some colour, I hope that they pick up a bit!

My garden is all very green at the moment so I'm appreciating the colour from these lovely nasturtiums which my mum gave me a few weeks ago. 

I also have a wild section to the garden around the side of the house where I've had some nice poppies, as well as nettles and enormous dandelions. I'm hoping to attract back the hedgehogs that we used to have living in our hedgehog house!

I'm looking forward to a bumper tomato harvest this year!

What I've planted for the summer

I was a bit late planting my seeds this year because we were away over Easter and then the weather was still so cold that I didn't fancy going out in the garden and digging out all the seed trays and pots! But now summer seems to have come overnight, and my sunny windowsill is full of seedlings that are nearly ready to be moved outside.

When I plant seeds I always end up planting too many in case some don't germinate, and then I can never bear to get rid of any of the seedlings! So I now have twelve broccoli plants on the go and I'm not sure where I'm going to put them. I've never grown broccoli before but we do eat a lot of it so I hope that it turns out well.

My two garden favourites are tomatoes and sunflowers, both of which are always successful. This year I bought a mixed pack of sunflowers which are coming on very nicely and I'll be planting outside this week, I have a couple of sunny spots in mind. The tomatoes have a way to go but they are doing well, again I planted a few different varieties and I have loads of seedlings. The plants are going to keep me very busy this summer!

I'm also keeping a close eye on the gorgeous lavender bush in my vegetable patch. A few years ago my parents bought me a rosemary plant and a lavender plant, with the intention of putting the rosemary in the vegetable patch and the lavender in a separate planter. However they got them muddled up, so I now have a beautiful lavender plant in my vegetable patch! I prune it every year but it keeps getting bigger and bigger and is threatening to take the whole thing over! I really love it, it's beautiful when it's in full bloom and it attracts lots of bees to the garden. I save the lavender to make lavender bags.

The vegetable patch is now mostly weeded and ready for planting, I'm just waiting for the fallen blossom to disappear and then I'll be raking it over and planning where to put everything. I also have some flower seeds which I'm going to sprinkle here and there, I've not been very successful with flower seeds in the past so I'll have to see how they go. 

What are you growing this year?

Ready for some warmer weather

This year it feels as though it has been such a cold winter. I don't know if it's because we've tried to be a bit more sparing with heating the house, or because I've lost a little bit of weight and I'm feeling it more, but I seem to spend most of the day searching for the warmest place in the house, and going to bed early in my fleecy pyjamas with a hot water bottle.

We have had quite a bit of sunshine over the last couple of months (we recently had solar panels fitted so we've been monitoring it closely!) but it doesn't seem to have translated into any warmer temperatures and I've found it a real struggle to drag myself out of the house for anything. The garden is looking sadly neglected because I just can't bear to be out there for long doing the sweeping and clearing up leaves, let alone get on with jet washing the patio which really needs doing!

I did manage to get myself down to the garden centre this week to pick up some seeds for the spring planting. I knew that I needed some tomato seeds, and I was a bit worried that the tomato shortage might have spread to seeds as people considered being a bit more self sufficient this summer. It turned out that it was actually a legitimate worry as there were definitely gaps on the shelves, but luckily I was able to get some suitable varieties! I also got some easy flower mixes and some unusual varieties of sunflower to try out.

Now I need to decide when to actually get on and plant them, I don't want to get them started too early or else they will be enormous before it's warm enough to put them outside!