Month: September 2012

Well, I was soooo envious of Myrtle a couple of weeks ago when I saw her Eccremocarpus in full flower outside, up against a wall. Mine was/is flowering in the greenhouse alright. But not the one planted in a big pot with a climbing rose outside. Well, that was……until today! Love it!

I have this plant a few years growing in a pot, it completely dies down in winter. I have no idea where I got it from or what it is called. On the open day nobody knew what it was either.  This is what it looks like right now, I love the colour of the stems. 

Well ok, it’s not actually in France, but Rachels fancy holiday is making my 3 day trip north look a bit tame 😉 Any northern gardeners recognise this place? As an aside, if anybody is interested I’m giving a talk in Kanturk, Co. Cork this Wednesday. “Terra Nova – Full of Little Surprises & Deboradations” This is my forth time talking to the Kanturk club and yet  I remember thinking that I made a very poor impression on them the first time! I’ll be giving this talk to the Tuam Flower and Garden Club and the Irish Garden Plant Society in Belfast laterin the year.

Friday last was a day off, the sun was shining and the kids were in School so I decided very last minute that I would take a trip to the Botanic Gardens. It was mainly the grass garden that I wanted to see and I was not disappointed. It is the perfect time to see it with all the grasses in flower Molinas, Stipas, Carex and Miscantus. I have always thought the idea of a whole grass bed would be a bit boring but it was beautiful all the different colours, textures and heights well worth a visit if you get a chance.There is also an outdoor sculpture exhibition ongoing there at the moment so another reason to visit.

 With a few hours still to myself I decided following a recommendation from Nuala that I would visit Ratoath Garden centre which was kinda of on the route home. It is a lovely garden centre jam packed with very healthy plants and very knowledgable staff. They as Nuala said have a lovely garden planted up which gives lots of ideas of planting combinations. Of course I could not leave without a few plants and I am really pleased with what I got

Hydrangea Aspera Macrophyllla,Viburnum Rhytidophyllum,Verbena Rigida Polaris, and Eupatorium Baby Joe

Really enjoyable day. 

One of my rare successes from seed

What wonderful ferns are the Polypodiums. Will tollerate dry and sun and spread a bit. A bit late to come into frond but will see you through the winter.

thats all i have been up to the last two days and i still have loads to do, the small pots are taking more time once these are done the bigger ones will take less time.it is a very laxy daisey job really, because it is cooler and wetter i am using the old method of the barrel in the tunnel where it is cosier and listening to the radio what more could you ask for????. i am trying to get hubby to make a frame for my sink and then i can put it in the tunnel at the back door and a pipe to take the water out, he said he will so fingers crossed. 

there is definately a chill in the air these days brrrr, went out to check on the front to see was anything else flowering but quickly came in again.

 thinking of galavanting to a few garden centres on friday was supposed to do it on sunday but had no money so didn t bother

I had a few days in Paris last week and we went out to Monet’s garden in Giverny one day. It is absolutely beautiful. I don’t know if it’s one of Rachel’s Seven or not!

Can you help me with the the Id of this please – it came in the same pot as another plant from Huntingbrook so i repotted it and it has really come on – A Euphorbia of some kind ?

I got this sedum in Mount Venus at the end of March, and it has turned out to be a really nice one, with dark green leaves and white flowers and red stems. It only produced 4 stems this year (it was tiny when I got it) but hopefully it will be bigger next year. The only problem is that I have forgotten its name and cannot find the label… I have a spreadsheet with plants names, and I must keep it updated! 

I thought you might all be saturated with French gardens so I’d give it a break tonight.

But check out this cool idea I saw in a French Garden Centre.

Okay, imagine vertical wall planting (all the rage now)!

But imagine, you don’t have to go to that much trouble!

Here is the solution.

It’s like a picture that you hang on your wall. But it’s made of plants!

The frame is a few inches deep (to allow for watering, moisture retention etc) and the plants are easy ones. I saw many common house plants, Tillandsia and Saxifraga stolonifera used.

Okay, there are lots of questions. Like, how often are you going to have to adjust that artistic arrangement! But I thought it was dead cool and a great idea.

I’ll wait for the price to come down though before I buy a small one at €70!

Today is a day for deadheading. I’ve hurt my wrist so no “real” gardening is allowed at present. At this time of year there is just such a variety of plants all begging to be tidied up so they can give us their last burst of colour. 

My Cosmos have gone totally ape this year with all the rain – they are in the new bed near the Coffee Corner and are truly the best value for a packet of seeds with oodles of flower buds still to open. they got bashed about a bit so lots of the stems are lying over but once they are stilll attached they just keep on flowering! I actually had to thin them out a bit because they are smothering everything else in that bed!

the sweetpeas are also still giving of their best but need to be deadheaded every day at this stage …

And then there are the Dahlias!!! I am so proud of them this year as they are plants I grew from seed last year and kept over the winter. deadheading them is a pure joy with the bees and butterflies keeping me company. This little beauty seems to have taken on a faint pinkish hue that I didn’t notice earlier….

Rain is stopped now so back out with the secateurs again …. 🙂

I’ve tried growing these from seed several times before, but never had success with them until now.

If they are on a rockery they are fine for a few years but then they get very big-Im talking about your normal bog ordinary fern that looks magical in the scrub. Today as i was laboriously weeding the rockery I felt they had taken over. More a fernery than a rockery so I took them out-not an easy task. There are few things as stubborn as a fern that has spent four or five or more years getting in under a rock. It refuses to be budged. But budged it was or most of it!

Then again the danger of a rockery is that Scrubber is tempted to reset a stone here or there! Or hollow out a little cave so that he can set something, not a fern- into it. However today there was very little resetting done but lots of weeding and deferning.

I did feel a bit guilty cutting back the lavender as there were still bees and butterflies coming to it but i think theres enough other flowers for them at present and the Rockery was wild. I couldnt see the rocks for  growth. Ive put up my three pictures. They are not good as there was no sunshine to lift them but they show how it has been cleared. And the ferns are not missed!

Like Dick I also enjoyed a good day in the garden today. The morning was changeable so i was ducking in and out between the showers, but the afternoon was brilliant! The sun brought the butterfly population out in force and one of the unexpected benefits from my new Sedum Bed is the huge increase in the numbers of these beautiful visitors to my garden! Passing that bed i was surrounded by a virtual cloud of them!

I got the Cosmos all deadheaded and tidied up, and then moved on to the “Inspiration” bed – the one full of gifts from my .ie friends! This bed had pretty awful soil to start with, and I dug in my entire compost heap when it was being planted up. Subsequently I gave it a bit of a top dressing of peat compost. A few weeks ago I spread some fresh shreddings on it but they dried out too much. 

I have a tool that I find very useful – see photo – called a “stand up tiller” that is great for lightly turning over the top of beds so I used it to tackle that bed.  (It is ideal because I could use it without straining the poor wrist) It worked very well to start digging in the shreddings. I was surprised to see how the soil in that bed has improved and I’m hoping that when the worms do their stuff it will finally be decent soil! 

I’m having visitors this weekend and since the front garden is still a mess, I’d like to have the back looking as neat as possible!

Greetings from the sunny south east.  We’re having another lovely week.  I’ve taken some pics of the ‘Hot Chocolate’ roses I purchased in the Arboretum on my day trip to Carlow.  Hot Choclolate is a lovely deep redish brown rose and I’ve planted them beside other reds.  One will be growing up beside Cotinus Grace, the other is surrounded by my favorite grass Imperiata Cylndrica and the persicaria red dragon I got recently in Cosy Meadows.  I love my reds.

Yesterday evening Jurgita and I visited Clare’s (Clara’s) garden and oh what a delight.  In a normal sized suburban space Clare has created separate gardens on different levels, features that please the eye wherever you turn, a secluded seating area, beautiful planting, so much interest that speaks of her artistic talent.  Everything she plants seems to grow so well.

And we had a delicious meal, great chat and a lovely evening among garden friends.  Thank you so much Clare and Greg.

I love white and ble flowers together and today I noticed that I have some white cosmos beside some blue flowers!

I must remember to save some cosmos seed and not keep dead heading maybe I should tie a ribbon on one stem to remind me not to dead head it and give the seed a chance to ripen, sometimes the weather can change before we get a chance to save seed.

I got a belated birthday present today.  Was given a very nice Colocasia ‘Black Stem’ and also a really nice pot for it.  I was delighted to see it is going to flower, I’ve never seen one in flower before so looking forward to that  🙂

Garden looks much nicer in the sun… even if i only had few hours in the garden today, i realy enjoyed it. Working on my new project- will post photos tomorrow.

Yesterday Joan and i have visited Clares Garden and was so great to spend time with the gardening friends. so much to talk about… Clare did so much this summer- her main garden borders been extended and the front garden was transformed in to lovely rockery.. Greg and Clare really put a lot of time and energy to change a look of the front. fab. Thank you for lovely dinner.. yummy. and all the plants you always deliver with the smile to my garden… 

hope its will be nice tomorrow so i can spend all day gardening..

September is organic month on Europe – Organic Week this week in Ireland.

The National Museum of Country Life kindly offered to host an afternoon of talks and demonstrations from a couple of us in the Mayo Organic Group. So to demonstrate seed-saviing for food crops,  I have been squirrelling away pods from landrace kale and a tall mangetout  pea.

Enough in hand to plant up half the townland, which means I will be offering a seed-saving activity as part of Frogswell’s open weekend afternoons for the

Mayo Organic Group Garden Trail

September 15th – 23rd

Frogswell’s Open Days – Saturday 22nd, Sunday 23rd
Garden tours  – new potager, heritage vegetables,
colour themed perennial and woodland plantings,
Teas for charity, plants for sale

Meanwhile, elsewhere  . . .

Marking Organic Week in Dublin, a funeral procession for Irish home-grown food makes its way to the Department of Agriculture to protest Teagasc’s open field trials of GM potatoes – photo courtesy of Dotty, a community gardener from Dublin.

It was worth a day out of the garden… We need to preserve the right to determine what food plants we grow and eat.

Last week i found meself unexpectedly free on Thursday morning in the neighbourhood of Mt Congreve! So in I toddled and the walled garden display was really inspiring. It even conquered my not very warm relationship with Eupatorium.Joe pie Weed Sorry Fran!

I always associated it with the riverside weed, lovely as it is in its own place, but yesterday’s viwing had me waiting to purchase same! The Eucryphia was in ful bloom as was the Abelia. And the gardeners there are always so helpful and willing to name names etc. I also realised that its a good idea to divide even the commonest things one has to make a plenty. One man was working away on a bed of stachys lanata and i realised ‘I could do that! 

It was a lovelysunny morning and I enjoyed it but the last time i had rachel anne Paddy and Mary to name things for me and guide around the very spacious grounds. Still I didnt get lost!

Then on the way in I had spotted large acers Senka for sale at half price! I spent a lot of time as i wandered, wondering where i could best fit in one of them-I had to justify my purchase after all. I remembered a place and when I came back i asked the man to pick out the best of the three for me. He did so and a voice behind me said’And now can you pick out the next best for me!’ It was a man I had been chatting to earlier.

I went out this morning and  put it in position and to me it was just perfect-Not often that it happens. So I dug the hole and added compost and bone meal and set it in and am so happy with it. After that I put four sedges into four blue pots that had bamboo in them which failed but i put what was left of the bamboo down in the scrub among rocks so although I didnt do an awful lot it was very satisfying. Ill try to put up photos of acer. I still have to finish the rockery!

Last Sunday we walked along the Liffey between Lucan and Leixlip. It is a busy stretch of river and a heron at Lucan weir seemed happy to pose for a while. Lots of wildlife, Highland cattle and a whole canoeing class on the water.

In the garden I am making some new raised beds and getting them planted. I am also moving some existing beds and so disturbing existing plants.It is also time to get the new bulbs and roots for next years show. At the moment Rudbeckia are providing the colour with some late roses. “Easy Going” is a favourite with its apricot colour and it appears trouble free. But it does not seem to be available this year. It is looking well with the late crocosmias such as “Dusky Lady” and “Star of the East”. All those lovely yellow, orange, apricot colours.

Gardening: satisfaction; dissatisfaction; moving; reworking; replanting and satisfaction for a while again!

I will post some pictures as the project developes.

Well this is new project not sure what i am doing but have to clear this hedge… after cutting it too low i have to remove all the dead branches…. looks so opened.. what i like it is an old fencing done 50 years ago , just a peace of history but i will keep it…I wonder what will grow in between hedge and fence#’???maybe foxgloves?? anemones? easy part was to clear – now have to fill it somehow?…

Finally have reached an agreement with the farmer over the damage to our garden when the cattle came calling …. so now it will be all systems go! 

Watch this space!!!!