Month: September 2012
Our first ‘proper’ crop of grapes from our seedless ‘Flame’. It’s only it’s third summer, and considering the poor weather we are very pleased with the results. It’s a lovely small and sweet grape.
Now we are waiting for our Black Hamburg to ripen, so a few more sunny days would be appreciated. 🙂 Adam
My garden must be a lot more exposed than Frans on the Southside. My Kniphofia ‘Bee’s Lemon’ has decided it will flower after all. The year before last, the emerging flowers were chewed to bits by snails. So last year I wrapped the copper tape around the flower stems and it worked a treat. Did just that yesterday evening. This one is too pretty for snails to include on their menu. 🙂
i put this up before but i think its an amazing plant and i am sold on it totally.
I just love these flowers
I had to travel to Ratoath, Co. Meath last Thursday, so while there I took the opportunity to visit Ratoath Garden Centre – as one does! I think it was Jacinta who put up a journal about visiting there sometime last year. I had the pleasure of meeting John, the owner, and he was very generous with his time, giving me advice and cuttings. He has incorporated a show garden into the garden centre, which I think is very clever – Im always on the look out for some new viburnums and I dont think I would have bought Viburnum Rhytidophyllum but for I saw it growing in one of the borders. Its not one that I was familiar with but having seen an established one growing, I just had to get it. I took some photos so will put up an album later. Well worth a visit if anyone is in the area.
Need I say more
We have an old stone cottage at the back of our house. The end of the house is east facing and is a very old mud wall. We have put in a small flower bed at the bottom of this wall and we are looking for advice on climbers that would like this position. The soil is heavy but we will add in lots of well rotted manure and compost. Any ideas please
This is a nice sedum coming into flower right now.
One of our ier’s Doreen brought me this plant last year when she came to visit. I saved the seed and grew it this year. This is an annul although to me it looks like a perennial. It grows about 3 ft High and has a beautiful flower but I think the nicest part is the Seed Capsule. The proper name is Nicandra Physaloides (may not be spelt correct)
Well.. been a week of mixed emotions…. Kids back to school, summer is over, family cat went to cats heaven….. nothing good really…. But today I get up early and decided that the best healer is my garden- with the mix of colours, scents, textures… and sunshine…
Did a lot of clearing and deadheading… so many plants still flowering.
this is My very first agaphantus, and its white.. very happy.
happy gardening to you all.
Growing melons in Galway!!!!
A new plant in the garden this year is this Angelica gigas, bought a while back in Mount Venus.
Even before the flower opens the buds are the same colour as the flower, which adds to the interest this plant provides.
Bees of all kinds seem to like it as well.
Well, last year when Steve came up with this brainwave of making a ‘cave’ within our final pond, I must admit having doubts as to whether he would be able to ‘come up with the goods’. It was October before any work was actually done on this project. I knew it would be the wrong time, as the fibreglass needed heat for the layers to ‘go off’. However, Steve plodded on with his idea. The weather this year has been so crap that he hadn’t been able to devote much time to his project. But over the last few weeks, he clutched the odd good day and made the most of it. This last week, in particular, has been most suitable for work on same. He even took time off work at the end of the week to progress further.
I got in from work this evening and he had completed three full coats of fibreglass, AND removed the original Chicken Wire and copper tubing that formed the template of the cave. Looking at it this evening, it looked magical. It gave the impression almost of an Ice Cave. But la creme de la creme was when Steve proved to me the strength of the structure. This cave will eventually have the soil ,that has been dug out to form the pond, placed on top of it. And it has to be strong enough to withstand the weight of that, PLUS my weight, so I can plant into it. He is surely a genius. He is now taking next week off so he can complete it. Steve ‘ticks ALL my boxes’. And he’s NOT for hire!!! He’s all mine!!
Today Scrubber got out his new ( well three- year- old present , he is only recently able to manage it), I- pod, an old carpet, a garden magazine, a book, and lay down on the carpet and read the book and listened to music and didnt do A STROKE OF WORK today in the garden. The sun was shining down, the birds singing and the roses nodding in the EDGED border!
Sr Josephine would have given up on me. ‘The divil finds work for idle hands etc.’ but the newly contrite Cherub Lute (c.f. last journal) kept quite quiet. I only got two ant stings (God bless Anthisan) and most wonderful of all a butterfly fluttered by and landed on Scrubbers shoulder! And stayed there for a short time. Scrubber was honoured!
Tomorrow theres to be an all out assault on the old rockery as weeds and tangle and creeper and sally bindweed’s sisters are all combined. But today was , as it should be , a day of rest. Hope it was as nice for all garden.iers!
beautiful autumn fruits. red with orange insides. leaves will be lovely in a couple of weeks too. its about 5 foot tall.
Our front porch faces north and is not used that often so it is an ideal place to do some cuttings as its nice and bright but doesn’t get direct sunlight. I’ve my Lidl propagator set up here since I got it and have something on it all summer. Seeds of Lychnis chalcedonica and Agastache anisata have germinated in it now and I have some cuttings on it as well. I have transplanted buddleja seedlings into the covered cell tray on the middle shelf and having seen Sallys journal on the cuttings in water, I’m trying that as well. I should have lots of different bits to share around at the next few get togethers!
I took some weigela cuttings from a friends garden last April and they all seem to have taken. This one had flowered in the plastic bag. I potted it on yesterday.
may enjoy this article by Anne Wareham, author of ‘The Bad Tempered Gardener’. By the way apologies to anyone in the South East, I’ve just sprayed the garden so it’s inevitable that there will be a downpour in the next half hour. I’ve been told I’m wasted here and should be sent to a drought stricken country; send me out with my backpack and voila!
I posted a photo of this the other evening. This photo shows all the flower spikes at different stages of opening. I like the effect and hoping as some people have said for an even better display next year.
I’m way too focussed on tasks in hand in work. Half of the time I don’t see the beauty that is around me. Thanks to Frans recent journal, I witnessed firsthand the stripey stems of Bamboos in the garden centre. And yesterday also, I noticed the beauty in the delicate flowers of Nandina domestica, which Andy spoke about. Mine only got planted out last year and I’m still waiting for it to flower. But now I know what I have to look forward to. Thanks Andy, and Fran.
What a brilliant day. Lots accomplished in work. Delighted that it remained dry enough for long enough, so I could apply Mossgo to the whole Garden Centre. This is my third time this year to apply it. But rain fell shortly afterwards on each occasion, and washed it all away. By the time I was clocking out, I could see the results. Tomorrow I’ll just use a good stiff brush to sweep away the residue. Job satisfaction.
I also was more observant with our bamboos and noticed similar stripes to Fran’s, on Phyllostachys aureosulcata ‘Spectabilis’. I don’t know why I never took the time to notice this before.
Laughed at Steve when I got home. His gloved hands were sticking to everything he touched with resin. He took time off work yesterday and Thursday to do more work on the cave. Tomorrow he hopes to be able to remove the chicken wire that formed the template. And over the next week or two will put on at least 6 more full coats of fibreglass. It looks like I might have an Open Day next year after all. 🙂
Here are three different butterflies feeding beside each other today in the garden
This plant may have been in the garden prior to our arrival or may be a gift from Mother Nature as have no recollection of having planted it.
It is at the base of a holly tree and is a shaded area with house to south and boundary wall to west and so gets limited sun. I always thought it was everygreen ground cover but this year it has climbed over 8feet through the top of the holly tree.
Knowing my history, we could have been accepting (even welcoming or admiring) of an invasive weed.
Ihave no recollection of it flowering.
Every Saturday I always look at the on-line gardening pages of the Daily Telegraph. If you google ‘telegraph gardening’ you’ll see lots of interesting articles – one on buddleias and another on the ’10 of the best perennials’, just to mention two.
I am out of tomato fertiliser – but does it matter at the end of season?
Most of the trusses have set, and I am reducing watering too. I think that might be a way of reducing the number of tomatos that split.
Should just report:-
1. Mexico Midget – tiny, tiny tomatoes great flavour, but a lot, a lot of foliage. I tried growing this as a cordon, but maybe should have let it wondered around.
2. Harbinger – Taking an age to ripen off, I think I might give up on this next year, it’s supposed to be an early, but I find it’s later than everything else year on year.
3. Gardener’s Delight – Grand.
4. The overall winner is Sweet Baby, massive amount of tomatoes on each truss, I reckon on average 50 cherry tomatoes.
