Ballycarbery garden's Garden

The weeping willow 5 years after planting it.

Facing SW this is where the severest winds come fr

Shelter Belt of Trees beside Privet hedge.

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Ballycarbery garden's Garden

This garden will become better over time...but, a long time. I will firstly get the shelter belts effective, right now only half the potential has been realised. BUT sometime in the next 5-10 years there will definately be a very noteworthy large garden.

The location is suberb, great view of Balycarbery Castle ruins, also a view of an old stone fort, mountains and close to the ocean. BUT!!! The wind, the wind is this garden's biggest enemy.

Over time, I hope to bring possibly a couple of acres into my "Great Garden" plan. But for now I must exercise enormous patience and slowly create that much needed shelter. What I will lose in external scenery, I hope to make up for within the garden itself.

APRIL 2009. Got a chance to check out on how the shelter is progressing and unfortunately, I had to plant numerous pines to fill in the huge gaps left by failures. This is a big setback. Although there are several individual pines and some alders growing well, there is not enough consistency to privide an adequate filter of shelter from the prevailing South-West winds.

In the area where there is established shelter at the rear of the house there is now a great stand of birches, ash (fraxinus) mountain ash and sycamore. These trees are looking terrific and pretty soon will cover this area of ground with a full canopy. The outside row of pines are now getting bare at the base so I will have to add a hedge (probably Hebe) atthe lawn side of this in order to provide a nicer finish.

Journal

Using a Lawnmower to keep weeds down!

13 July 2012 21:36:25

Rough ground - Before & After

Some of you may find this tip useful/encouraging. I cut back a heavy growth of weeds (docks, nettles, thistles & grass) with a strimmer. Then raked away the dried debris. I combed the ground for stones & rubble etc and then raised my lawnmower to full height and mowed the area (after about 2 weeks of re-growth. Of course the ground is bumpy, but with the lawnmower at full height, it created a neat finish to an otherwise rough piece of ground. Has made a huge difference!!

andyf7 13 July 2012 22:41:08

looking a lot better for sure.

Rachel 13 July 2012 23:07:01

Yep, we did that years ago with the back of the garden that was covered in brambles and weeds. It had never been put to grass. Each mow we reclaimed a little bit more territory.

Jacinta 14 July 2012 05:37:20

Steve hates daisies in the lawn (I love them), so I just ask him to cut the grass and he's a happy camper once again. It's amazing how well a lawn can look after the mower has been over it.

Ballycarbery garden 14 July 2012 08:06:36

When you look at how some of the large scale public places, such as town parks or the sides of motorways, and see how they're kept and then apply that principal to some of the more rough areas of our gardens, it makes sense to try the same in our own gardens. Nice to hear that Rachel has had a similar experience. I'm just delighted with the ability of an ordinary lawnmower to cut through some very strong weeds as well as roll through some rather rough ground! Now, my lawnmower has become a valuable weed suppressant!

mcdonald 19 July 2012 00:14:33

The only lawn we planted was at the front of the house, the rest of the garden was reclaimed by the means your are using, now the grass looks great. We kept an old lawnmower for this purpose.

Shelter - Not pretty but essential.

06 July 2012 23:34:01

The long wait for Shelter to develope!

Still working onmy shelter belts. Mix of Pines, Alders and Sycamores. Briars are a problem coming though!!

Moya 07 July 2012 02:07:06

Hope they grow up fast for you.

Before and After.

03 July 2012 03:29:36

Before and After.

Now it's nice and clean!!

andyf7 03 July 2012 11:36:11

big difference their.

Hoeys 03 July 2012 14:11:43

wow looks much much better.

Myrtle 03 July 2012 17:01:46

One looks Australian, other looks Irish! Rain is good sometimes!

Ballycarbery garden 03 July 2012 20:17:22

Thanks for the comments. Looking forward to having a tree canopy keeping the rain off or more importantly, keeping the south-westerly gales at bay.

From Copse to Grove contd.

30 June 2012 19:17:34

Re-seeded floor and trimmed trunks of the trees.

Very clean look now that the ground has been cleared and seeded.

Elizabeth7 30 June 2012 20:12:28

What a lovely area will you grow Bluebells and other woodland plants there?

andyf7 30 June 2012 20:33:29

good dapled shade their for the right planting scheme.

fran m 30 June 2012 20:51:32

Great planting possibilities in that area.

Ballycarbery garden 30 June 2012 22:01:04

Thanks for your comments. I'm planning on leaving this area just grassy for now. I will probably only mow it 3 or 4 times per year. I have to devote my energies on other areas first, notably my pre-occcupation with developing shelter belts.

andyf7 30 June 2012 22:03:32

well when we see a space we just want to fill it with plants! best of luck with all you do.

Clara 03 July 2012 08:23:47

You have done a great job and so nice now , after seeing both photos well done.

From Copse to Grove!

30 June 2012 19:12:31

The Stonehenge effect.

I looked up the definition of Copse and it's a thicket of underwood and small trees; the underwood of a wood or forest. Technically this may be true of what I used to call my little copse of trees as there was a lot of sallies growing among the birches, alders, ash (both mountain & common) sycamore and pine. However, I got all the underbrush removed including the roots; brought in top soil and seeded the place. Now I have a Grove!! Again, I looked up its meaning which is a small wood or group of trees for providing shade, forming avenues, etc. To my surprise, my helper found these great slabs of sandstone lying around and added a Stonehenge effect. Very often its best to allow the creativity of someone else run wild on your garden and create a brand new look.

fraoch 30 June 2012 19:56:37

Very nice too!

corktony 30 June 2012 20:21:04

like that effect

andyf7 30 June 2012 20:35:08

that creates an interesting look to the area and gets the interest going, well done.

Sullys Place 30 June 2012 20:53:45

Love it:)

MaryJoe 30 June 2012 21:08:08

Wow! a Stonehenge of your own ....What a great idea?

Ballycarbery garden 30 June 2012 22:05:45

I wish I could take credit for this but it's my pal Hugh, who's not even a gardening buff, who came up with the idea. Yeah, I 'm pleasantly surprised on how well it looks.