Month: September 2012

 Eat that Frog is a book by Brian (?) Tracy. It is a self-help book of sorts – to help procrtastinating with work projects.

I was discussing with a friend one day about my creating a daily list of tasks but regularly carrying forward the less attractive tasks at the expense of new tasks. He referred these non-attractive tasks as Frogs and said the attitude every morning had to be to identify the worst/longest Frog and then

EAT THAT FROG

I smiled at LadyGardeners recent post Timber when she attacked a new project rather than those on the list – I am not alone

The very back section of our rear garden had been where everything had been dumped/stored/pushed as the other areas were finished. This frog is very mature as have been tipping away for ages (or more stop and odd start)

But a head of steam is up now and for those who requested update mason will probably be back next week for two days at which time wall will be finished. in interim, I can clear out; dump in the bags of rotting seaweed and horsesh1te and covered with a tonne of topsoil which I need to order

And then it might look as if it was always there with not a tadpole in sight

8 Hippeastrums were planted on 5th Sept. This one has just opened. Seven more different ones to come.

 The walls at the back of the house are generally built of purple cork sandstone. Most of the walls that we had built used stone that came out of te ground when side section was rebuilt – bar a small load that came compliments of local friendly demolition contractor.

I had kept a few piles of stone for  the final wall at the back (that frog). When the mason started, he thought that we might not have enogh stone. Now, having seen the depth of the pile of stones, mason is cnvinced that we have enough stone.

Cue – creative thought process

Cue – miserly process

Cue – reuse rather than landfill

I have had the thought to place the leftover smaller pieces of stone between plants. Creating  scree type effect (I think that is the term).

Benefits –

– creates a sandstone oasis from the first wall back o the third wall both horizontally ad vertically

– probably will help suppress weeds

– probably easier to collect fallen leaves

Negatives

– possibly not suitable for bulbs and perennials which may not pop up in exactly the same spot every year and so may try to push a stone aside unsuccessfully

– possibly overkill in one finish material

Well – what say you?

Typically less than 24 hours after my Timber journal where I said I’d leave the Laylandii alone for another year I’d gone and attacked them.

I had an old arch through them but it was more like a secret passage to the fruit trees as I was the only one who knew about it or used it so my new arch will be a much grander pathway (two well dresed ladies…… etc.)

In making it I came across the surprise bonus of a side branch which I hope will mature into a fine seat for me to sit while munching my apples.  Now to attack that stump Uggh.

Sheltering in my greenhouse this morning, from the ungodly deluge, I noticed something untoward.

In the roof of my greenhouse, there seem to be some small creatures.

It is a mystery as to where this infestation has come from but it looks as if it is very happy and here to stay 🙂

To cheer myself up, I took a few photos of plants in flower in the greenhouse today.

Well, I was hardly going to step out into the garden to take photos!

Rachel kindly sent me trailing Streptocarpus which has bloomed all summer in greenhouse.  Leaves going yellow, probably due to ‘end of season’ – too late to feed?

I have quite a few Streps indoors and here’s two of them.

Gosh, off all week and with this blasted weather I haven’t been able to get anything of note done in the garden since Sunday. Running errands most of today and called in to see Dad. He has a terrific display of passiflora caerulea in his front garden, growing as ground cover. Don’t know why I have never tried this from seed before. Lots of seeds pods available for me to collect tomorrow. Will have plenty to share around.

His nerines are also starting to open. No sign on mine at all and I only live 2 minutes away in the car. Hmmmm!!!

Need I say more.

I have a little gentian plant which I think I bought in B&Q about 5 years ago for very little. It got  sadly neglected and this spring I decided that I would get rid of it as it was covered with moss. But there was a little bit left and I just thought I’d give it a chance and it was worth it just to see these beautiful blue flowers today.

Today was a big day in the saga of the front gardens. I went to Timahoe to my newly found Garden Centre “Tree World” where I took delivery of two replacement Thujas, several laurel hedging plants, a Cornus Kousa ‘White dream’ and a Rhus ‘Tiger Eyes’ – all fitted in to the boot of the car! Made for an interesting drive home as the two Thujas were trying to get out  through the fron window !!!! – and I’d forgotten that being too close to conifers makes my nose run – so by the time I got home eyes and nose were both streaming 🙂

Started to unload the car but had to admit defeat when it came to the Thujas! Fortunately Kevin was able to come over to rescue me – so while I was waiting for him I dug out planting holes for the thujas (which are far too shallow so he will have to rescue me again by planting them!) but I also planted the Cornus, the Rhus, and the contorted Hazels and Robinia (thanks Hazel Lodge) that have been waiting patiently for their new homes!

The re-working of this part of my gardens is a major task and I’m really grateful for the help I’m getting from Kevin – and his girls who were sent to load up stones for me !!! – it is finally feeling like a real opportunity instead of the disaster it was a couple of weeks ago.

Another couple of days and it will be largely completed – all that will be left is to plant out the spring bulbs and other bits and pieces of ‘plants in waiting’ from my Nursery bed. That part doesn;t feel like work! Its the fun part!

The gunnera was planted about 12 years ago and has not developed much. It might be a small variety, I don’t know, or the location is wrong. I had a close look and discovered that it had grown daughters, so I separated two and added them to my current project which is the Bank by the stream. (Srutháin)

Finally! A little bit of sunshine….better late than never I suppose.

There does seem to be a pattern forming of better weather in September. We definitely deserved it this year and it gave a much needed boost to the gardens as well as our spirits.

This month’s jobs include: finishing hedge cutting, tidying the vegetable garden, tying in growth on climbers, harvesting fruit, planting of shrubs and moving tender plants indoors to protect from early frosts.

Bulb planting season is coming up and we have a large range of bulbs ready to be planted throughout the estate. This will enhance what is already a pretty impressive spring show and includes crocus, tulips, iris, anemones and a large variety of alliums (ornamental onions) to be planted on one of our islands in the river.

The dropping night temperatures will soon put an end to our hanging baskets and bedding displays and it will be time to replace them with something for the winter. From my experiences with winter’s harsh conditions I would recommend Pansies over everything else. They can take a real beating and still continue flowering into the spring when all else has given up.

Our Friday morning volunteers have taken on the Himalayan Walk project and will be working on this on a gradual basis over the next few months. We are planting varieties of magnolia, camellia, rhododendron and azalea along a sloping bank in the shadow of our walled garden. It should develop into a wonderful spring walk in years to come. Any readers who are interested in joining our happy team of volunteers would be very welcome. We meet every Friday from 9 to 1. Email blarneygardens@blarneycastle.ie for more info.

Recent visitors to the castle will have noticed a lot of work going on in our Poison Garden. Unfortunately our box hedges developed box blight and had to be removed to prevent further spread. We have replaced them with a variety of Holly called Ilex crenata ‘convexa’ which is similar in appearance and will not be at risk from the blight. My advice for the moment would be to avoid introducing new box plants where you already have established ones, and keep a close eye on them for signs of infection, such as browning and dieback.

This year has been pretty bad for fruit in general, but if you are lucky enough to have them, pick apples and pears as they ripen, and store them in trays with shredded newspaper, straw or cardboard liners (as used in the greengrocers). For storage the temperature needs to be cool but not frosty. Most homes will be too warm so it’s better to store them in a shed or garage, as long as they are rodent-proof. Windfall or bruised fruit is better used in desserts, jams or wine making. Speaking of which….my wine has been a great success and two batches of apple and blackberry are just going into production. There is a lot of satisfaction to be had from making something yourself (and it working).

Autumn is a wonderful time here in the gardens. Watch out for the trees starting to colour up and come to see our Lime tree avenue, which turns bright gold. Adam

I mean the wall. 🙂  First two of five ovals going up.

The top of the pergola is level but the wall is sloping. Grrrr! Quite a few adjustments needed.

This morning I took cuttings of Fremontodendron. Liga had taken a few some weeks ago and informed me that nothing was happening. So they are now on heat inside the propagator. It’s usually not in operation until March here. But, c’est la vie. Fingers crossed that I will have a few to share around.

While the weather was reasonably ok this morning, I gave a few sheets of Marine Ply some Creocote. These will be used tomorrow, weather permitting, to position over some of the cave soil to prevent a possible landslide. I had just got these done when Steve arrived home, skiving from work early, it being a Friday and all that. lol 

While they were drying, I donned the waders and uprooted my Atropa belladonna (Deadly Nightshade) from the Island in the pond. It needs to recuperate over the winter months after such a dastardly summer with rain and high winds. While in the pond, I took this opportunity to weed in at the greenhouse border, and observe.

I prepared a lot of Begonia tubers for the winter, drying off all the existing soil. But lots of them are still flowering. So that remains for another day. Also dried off some Hymenocallis bulbs.

In the greenhouse, I removed all tomato plants that have stopped producing, and cucumber plants. 

Dug up a few perennials that were totally in the wrong place, too tall, and potted them up.

I 

It has been lovely to see so many bees around the garden in the last week or ten days. 

Nice to be able to provide them with some food  🙂

Harry’s my new pet hawk.

I have him tied to a pole so he can’t fly away and he’s brilliant. He’s scared away all the nuisance birds out of my garden but he doesn’t bother nice birds like wrens.

He got rid of the swallows, sparrows and blackbirds. Harry’s brill.

You can buy a hawk from Cappoquin Co-Op. 

I must put a September album up. Might do it on Sunday.

This is the other scabiosa that appeared in my garden.  A creamy pinkish that is tying in with the red Aster.  Aster really in the wrong place so will take pieces from it next Spring.  Like Rachel’s gorgeous blue Aster no mildew!!

At the beginning of the summer I had to resort to putting netting over the Lower Pond as the visiting heron was lurking on a regular basis. Not about to lose any more fish, I put up with the pond looking ugly with the net over it. I didn’t see the heron since then.

On Thursday, I removed the net, and was loving my Lower Pond again. But……

He’s back!!!

The net goes back on today, regardless.

This is a clematis montana which I had to cut nearly all the way to the ground today. It was growing on a trellis against the wall, and a few weeks ago the trellis was broken while we were cutting large branches of the tree above. The trellis needed replacing, but it was impossible to do so unless we removed the clematis parts that were tangled into it. in the meantime the whole overgrown plant had collapsed so it was a bit of a mess. So today we got a new trelllis but had to cut most of the plant to replace it. I’m not sure it was a good idea but there wasn’t much choice, so I gave it a go and we will see if the clematis survives. If it does, I will prune it more often! 

OMG I tried soooo hard to get out to the garden today. Sometimes family commitments can really get in the way. But where would we be without them. 

We were finally free at about 5.00. And it would have been all too easy to just vegetate indoors and put gardening on hold till tomorrow. But no, time is of the essence right now as the temps are starting to get cooler. And fibre-glass won’t set in the cold. I know this from last year. Ok, we didn’t do any fibre-glassing today, but got more soil onto the cave. Steve is happy to date. So next weekend he will apply just two more layers into the inside while I can hopefully get stuff planted. And while he is busy doing what he does best, it’s giving me lots of time to decide what and where to plant things. 

We can not help ourselves – We have been talking about extending our woodland area for a few years now but had put it off for lots of reasons. But Gerry was determined as it is quite wet end of the garden and he hated having to mow it. So he skinned it last weekend. My main concern was financing the purchase of plants to to stock it so I started thinking what have I got in the garden that can be divided and planted in to this new bed.

I had loads of different primulas / cowlslips that had grown very big in our Bog garden so these were first target – out of eight clumps of Primula we made 50 smaller plants and these were all planted in today, I had loads of daffodils bulbs that I had dug up in the spring so in they went. I have quite a few Hellebores some from my own seed and some from Huntingbrook so they will go in. We had an Acuba Japonica that was in the wrong place and was getting crowded out so that has been moved and replanted.

In the area already was a cercis & 2 flowering cherry’s only planted last year A Genistia (not sure of spelling) and a Mahonia Charity. With the budget I had for this bed I bought the following after a lot of consideration. Viburnum Rhytidophyllum, Hydrangea Aspera Macrophylla, 2 White Lacecap Hydrangea & 2 Hydrangea Quer Burgundy. I think the hydrangeas should do well here as there is some shade and the ground reamins fairly moist as the bed lies at the bottom of our garden and there fore the bottom of the hill.

We are leaving a path through the middle of the bed which will go into the existing woodland and at the end of this short path will be a bench. When you sit here it gives a nice view back up the garden and the house.

I am hoping to buy a nice tulip that will fit in with the planting and am considering what edging plant to use – the following are all on the list , Bergenia (small leaved one) Brunnera, Persciaria, forget me nots what do you think?

Nice to see something that we have talked about for so long finally come to fruition.

I will post photos as it develops .

I bought this Sedum for a coulpe of €, last year. It was not looking great after the bad winter.

But beady eyes spotted lots of new buds appearing.

After the bad winter, I just cut the worst of damaged growth off it, and left it alone.

It has come on great and will be divided next year. 

Some of the leaves are taking on great colours at the moment.

Been a very busy few weeks here but glad to say all is getting a bit better and we are all well.

I seem to be coming and going in the garden house etc not getting anything finished  so now we are going to just take one day at a time ….. Rome was not built in a day..

Looks like a good day but I have the feeling rain is on its way we are off to Gorey again so hopefully not to bad ..

I was in a Garden Center last week and got a few things ….as I have been off the fags for 8 weeks now and had a few bob to spend I got a beautiful Acer and Melianthus major as I have seen Frans Melianthus and I loved it .

We  also finished the front garden nearly…

Will take a few more photos and put them up during the week hopefully.

Happy Gardening to all.