Month: September 2012

Sitting at the dining table this morning when the sun reached the garden. Noticed what looked like unusual flowers from my Deadly Nightshade in the greenhouse pond. Went to investigate further and felt such an idiot. I mean, the flowers appeared in early summer, so why did I think it was producing flowers (and way bigger than earlier in the year, and even a different colour!!! ). It was just a trick of light with the sun shining on it. Looks cool, though.

Hi all. I grew this Brugmansia from seed last year and planned to put it in the Poison Garden this summer. As summer never came it was kept indoors and is now showing me it’s appreciation for that! 

We are running out of space in our glasshouse. I think it’s nearly time to be bringing in our citrus trees…….may have to rethink and reorganise.

With a morning like this ,  it is so good to be alive, get out there and enjoy .

Took these today in an idle moment. All common enough but hey.

Isn’t it interesting that now is the time when we may be planting the bulbs mentioned above and  with the great weather that these pollinating insects are frequenting our gardens. There has been mention by Martin and Heather of the butterflies. Yesterday I noticed a few butterflies but plenty of honey bees in my garden. Most of them were enjoying nectar and pollen in Solidago at the back of the house. The Solidago is doing very well but not only that but hosting all these busy honey bees. While I don’t keep bees, other people in the neighbourhood should benefit from these plants with the yellow flowers and of course the pollination will benefit my plants. To day I got more done than yesterday. Testerday was very warm and suitable for the light work in the garden. To day was also a lovely day, not quite as warm but suitable for mowing the lawn. I got a lot of grass cut and took it to the compost heap. The lawn is looking quite good now. I plan to give it some fertilizer and spray it as quite a lot of weeds have appeared.

I love cacti so decided to try and grow them from seed. I sowed them a good few weeks ago, and the germination takes something from a few days to a few hundred days according to the package! Anyway, a few of them started growing and seem to be doing reasonably welll, I’ll see if more appear. Im not too sure when I should take the little seedlings and put them in their own pot, if anybody has got experience on this, I’m happy to hear! The photos are not great as they are still tiny and my camera does not work on such close close-ups! 

…….perhaps we should look to our furry friends to keep the grass under control!!

I took this picture one morning about a week ago, this hare was really enjoying the grass in the orchard!! And I’m sure he will enjoy some of the apples too when they start falling.

Don’t half sound posh ……………….

but it is far from it.

Last January I picked up lots of Cyclamen plants, a tray of four plants was 50c. GracedieuLass suggested they would do well in a dry spot.

So I planted them along the crazy paving beside the Laylandii hedge in Angela’s corner. They seem to like the  spot as the first flowers are appearing and lots of buds are showing also.

Hopefully they will spread over time.

Thanks Mary for the suggestion.

The time for my ‘new planting area’ is drawing ever closer. I got this plant from Liga last year and can’t remember what it is? I’m wondering will it be suitable for an area that will get sun for at least half of the day, and will be in well-drained soil.

I had a good day today and got much of the grass cutting and hedge trimming done.  The place looks a lot nicer after just one day.  I still can’t cut the marshy bits as it’s still a pond down there.  Hmm will have to re think that area; it’s very unpleasant to walk through.  Tomorrow more cutting and trimming but I hope to get a start on my bulb planting too.  I bought a big bag of Barrenwyn daffodillyesterday which I’m told is a very early one.  I’m still broken hearted about my box getting blighted but noticed in Fota yesterday that they’ve got it too now in the last few weeks so I’m in good company.

I took some shots of the newly tidy garden and I’m also putting up a pic of a persicaria which divides opinion.  Hazel saw it somewhere recently and mentioned it in a journal.  I am a fan.  It is very vigorous but is easy to pull out and makes a nice background for example this rose. 

A number of kind people have asked scrubber what he would do when there were no more rocks to be found in his garden. I think in the words of Blanche de Bois ‘iwill ‘have to rely on the kindness of strangers!’. Today though as he came out of our local supermarket he noticed a granite stone over in a corner so went back in and asked the owner could he please have it! He will collect it tomorrow as its not too heavy to load.

But a few days ago while cleaning the rockery Scrubber became a little perturbed as the big stones overlooking the rockery seemed to be in danger of shifting if little feet started to climb on them. He needed two good stones to anchor them all. Even though his memory is not as good as it used be he did remember a fine mound of stones near a friends house so again on asking for two they were graciously given and Scrubber was allowed pick them out and even offered more.

Today he spend the morning fitting them in with the others and redoing the cement around the basis and he is so delighted that they fitted in so well. ’Made for the place’ said Cherub approvingly over Scrubber’s shoulder.

Then he spent the afternoon mixing more cement and filling in gaps on the steps beside Statue Scrubber. This took ages as  he had to find suitable small stones to fit in and there was quite a bit of juggling to be done but six o clock saw all complete and he was very happy. Gardening isn’t always about weeding and planting and thinning, theres a time for matching and hauling and setting and cementing, but it all comes together hopefully at the end!

Cut back my self-sown sweet pea this evening. Oooh, now the neighbours can see us. 🙂 Top-dressed my Camellias and watered them well, then gave them a good feed.

Planning my jobs for tomorrow, and even though there is still lots in flower, I will be cutting back stuff in a desperate attempt to make things look tidier. The cave is taking over the garden right now and I need a bit of order in my life.

It’s now time for Potentilla ‘Monarch’s Velvet’ to steal the show.

you volunteer to wash a few teddies for the shoebox charity 🙂 We round these up from people attics, garden fetes and charity shops then give them a whirl in the washing machine to make them nice and fresh. If you have any spare soft toys or small toys I’ll bet your local shoebox team would love to hear from you!

I’ve an idea for building a sandpit surrounded by plants for the young ‘uns to play in. However due to the nature of what I’m planning it doesn’t really lend itself to being covered.

Soo cat people, am I just asking for trouble and potentially creating a giant litter tray for all the local cats (there are many) to use? 

Fairly recently I was in Caher Bridge Garden, near Fanore, Co Clare (https://www.discoverireland.ie/Arts-Culture-Heritage/caher-bridge-garden/76427).

Even on a very rainy day it looked brilliant, and it was made with great care and hard work. A thousand tonnes of soil were brought in, riddled and had weeds and stones removed before being spread on the Burren rock.

If you ever have a chance I would suggest a visit to this garden.

It’s nice to have some late-flowering pond plants. Got this one last year, but it’s flowering for the first time now. Cute little plant, and is a lot more well-behaved than its land-loving cousin. Supposed to be hardy too!

A huge THANK YOU to whoever bought the gift that I received in Kris Kindle at our Johnstown get together last January,  I got a very handy garden notebook and two types of bulbs. Beautiful dark wine cactus dahlias whose name I have mislaid and bulbs of Acidanthera ‘Gladiolus callianthus’. 

I had never heard or seen Acidanthera but I absolutely love them now that I have found them, for weeks I thought they wouldnt flower this year but lo and behold in the last few days they are blooming, beautiful.

I was trying all Summer to try and get the decking stained. But the weather was aginst me all the way. I would relly liked to have allowed it dry a bit prior to the staining but had to get it done.

Managed to get 3 coats on over the weekend, really pleased with the result, 

but the poor bones are telling me I pushed it a bit ;-))

The auld black stuff is a great cure for sore bones LOL

This aeonium was not looking too good a few months back, after an attack by some tiny insects and winter spent outside, but it recovered really well after a little TLC. It looks much better now!

Clara called in over the weekend, always great to see her and as Aoife says she’s always in great form and laughing.

I was presented with a teracotta head planter, and to boot it was one I had my eye on as I had seen it around different places.

Well, you should have seen me here yesterday. Carrying it here, there and everywhere about the place.

I even have a perfect grass that will go in it,

but where to put it? that is the question.

Clare, many thanks.

PS we’ll make a gardener of Greg yet !!!!

On Sunday we visited Brendan’s daughter-in-law and had a lovely time with her and her four lovely daughters. She is an “occasional” gardener and this summer she invested in some plants from Aldi but didn’t get around to planting them. 

She decided the plants would have more chance of survival in my garden so I was delighted to get a present of some plants. One was a variegated Pieris but the rest are a mystery to me. She says they are climbers so I’d really appreciate any suggestions as to which they might be so that I can plant them in the right place! I know some of you have Aldi nearby and may even have bought the same plants!

Today was a bit busy with other stuff, but I did get a couple of hours outside in the lovely weather. I finally planted the wallflower seeds I bought earlier. Yes, I know! They are over a month late but I reckon that if I didn’t plant them I DEFINITELY wouldn’t have any walllowers next year, but this way I may be lucky!

I am gradually working my way through the weeding of all the beds in the back garden so that I don’t have to face the front 🙁 

I hope we can get agreement on the cattle question soon so that I can move on.

Two different flowers on the one plant.  I like it.

I have never seen so many cobwebs in my garden as this year. This evening while picking blueberries for tomorrow’s breakfast, I was startled by the speed of this massive spider in his web amongst the blueberry bushes when I obviously disturbed him. I mean, he was bigger than a euro coin. 

-Don’t laff! Two people have advised him to do so, three if one includes Dooley! It will be entitled,  ‘Gardening in all Humility’ and in the planning section there will be one word banned-that is ‘AND ’- as in ‘Today I shall go and weed the rockery and…’. No ‘Today I shall go and weed the Rockery’ That’s it. Because ‘Ands’ get one into complications and its to be a simple book. E.g. the first chapter might be entitled ‘I  too have mixed up Docks and dahlias’ and this would encourage people to do what they can-without ands.

All this played on what passes for my mind today as I planned to weed the rockery and—. Just before I began I thought I would strim a little bit left over from last time and ended up strimming a bank, another bank, the terraces, some of the Scrub, Elizabeth’s corner and under all the hedges! Strim ran out and I had to go into town to buy some. In the book Ill tell people to have everything ready before they begin!

Then I remembered Elizabeth 11 ie. (The second Elizabeth to visit my Garden).Both Elizabeths are wonderful people of course. –suggested that I make an archway between the big junipers/cypresses on the left on the way in ‘to make it an inviting way in’. So out came the loppers and shears and Elizabeth 11’s arch came into being.

Then?  Oh yes the Rockery. Back and spent the rest of the time getting about three what I call rock pools (no water) cleared of acres of creeper, bindweed, old day lilies that never did well, Vetch, forget me nots and acres of Herb Robert. There were two full tarpaulin loads went down to the Scrub and six o clock saw me with about 1/8^th of the rockery cleaned. So much for ‘and’! However tomorrow is another day so ill probably finish it and…

 it is misty and breezy here this evening in galway or should i say YUCK,thankfully i the postman brought me a pressie,i cant believe how fast plant world sent my seeds, they were ordered late wednesday night and arrived today

primula alpicola, primula alpicola alba, primula bessiana, primula candleabra “harlow car”, primual heucherifolia,primula pulverulenta. and a free seeds of leycesteria formosa ” gold leaf”. i was over the moon, they have a brilliant selection of seeds have a few more that i want to order over the next couple of weeks.

i had great plans to harvest cabbage plants and blanch and freeze them but was too tired after cleaning the house. my neighbours grand child came over to us and asked “what are them things on the cabbage? low and behold they are riddled with bloody catapillers, i ran for the hose and jetted them off for now, i have no catapillar spray as i hadnt need ed it all year till now. i did manage to pot the achillea that i got a few weeks ago and the shatsa daisey and crocosmia into larger pots so that will keep them happy for now as they were drying out too often. the front wall project is on a standstill for now.

i made a list of jobs needing doing for september. front, spray the front where the spreading low growing bamboo was. then i will leave it to die off and  wash down the inside of the tunnel and disinfect it and wash and disinfect the pots, also get some more potatoes to sow in the tubs in the tunnel, the ones i sowed in the bags are up and doing well. and buy and sow some bulbs in pots and then if i have energy after all that  and the weather is with me i will do another bit with the and sort out my stumpery