Last Post 688 days 18 hours ago
30 June 2011 17:26:15
Acer at Gash Gardens
Yesterday to celebrate my Mammy's 81st BirthdaY and 53rd Wedding anniversary we went to Gash Gardens in Laois for the day - It was super, beautiful gardens on 4 acres (2 acres planted with ornamental planting ) the remainder is a walkway towards a river which is very pleasent.
The entrance fee is €5 and there is a good variety of plants for sale at the gardens - we did not get to visit the adjacent nursery which was a shame but hunger kicked in. The only drawback is that there is no coffee shop but Mary the owner advised us that we would have been welcome to bring a picnic ( which I would certainly do next time). The introduction of a coffee shop is the project for this coming Winter.
The garden was started by Mary;s late father 25 years ago and it has a beautiful array of mature trees and conifers. The planting is done en masse (loads of the same plant together which is very effective) and lots of nice seating areas and features throughout the garden . Mary particularly likes foliage plants and this is very obvious in the planting schemes with loads of hostas, Gunneras and Dalmeras along with other favourite perennials Astibles, Iris's Phlox, phlomis and many more that I do not know the names of.
I hope you enjoy the pictures which i did not have time to title but may get to in the coming days. A garden well worth visiting in my unexperienced opinion.
A
23 June 2011 23:17:41
Harvest time
Today was my first day off as I finished up work yesterday. The plan to spend the day in the garden for the day and that is just what we did - we had a long listdrawn up and as usual there was several deviations but overall we got loads done - strange to be off but after day one I could get used to it.
I cooked dinner for all ( a rare event for me ) and we had cabbage, cauliflower and carrots all from the tunnell very satisfying and very tasty
16 June 2011 23:48:54
Gash Gardens Castletown
I was wondering if any of you have been to the above gardens. It is my mam's birthday the week after next and we were going to visit - any feedback appreciated
15 June 2011 23:35:02
Anemone Rivularis?
Bill I have finally found my camera and have taken a picture of the full plant and also one of the back of the flower - (This journal follows on from one I Posted a couple of days ago trying to ID a plant - I think Bill has it sorted for me)
14 June 2011 22:41:32
Dalmera Peltata
I got this plant ( among others ) from Margaret at our get together in Johnston early in the year - I had given up on it as there was not a sign of it - Margaret commented on one of the journals that she would be very surprised if if did not come and as always she was right - I am so pleased with it and it is particularly lovely when the sun shines on the leaves - Thanks again Margaret
14 June 2011 17:10:23
Corydalis
Just wanted to bring this to the attention of those of you who are looking for a nice plant for dry shade - this is doing really well for me in my woodland garden and has been flowering for the past 3-4 weeks - it is very pretty with lovely red veins through the leaves.
13 June 2011 12:49:33
Wood anemone?
I bought this two years ago but this is the first time it has bloomed - It was used beautifully in the Mount Venus garden at Bloom this year the flower is very pretty does anyone have a name for it ? If I had to guess I would say Wood Anemone
10 June 2011 23:01:16
iris - no name but love them
Before i joined this website i had neither lily's or Iris's in my garden - I have gradually introduced both this year and am really pleased with the results so thanks to all of you who have inspired me over the past 4 years with the pictures from your gardens
10 June 2011 15:30:51
Geranium Johnstons Blue
I am not going to Bills get together :( but I have a friend who is :) so I have a few plants listed below that I have some extra if anyone would like some. Be warned in most cases the reason I have extra is that these are pretty good plants at spreading themselves around but most are easy to curtail and are worth having (in my opinion !)
Geranium Johnsons Blue
Geranium Endresii
Geranium name unknown (Pale pink flowers above normal Geranium leaf lovely but self seeds around the place)
Sorbaria
Schizostylis Red ( Kaffir Lily )
Centaurea Montana
yellow grass name unknown
Aster (Michealmas Daisy )
First come first served
I will post some pictures of these over the next few journals if I can find them!!
enjoy tomorrow everyone
08 June 2011 16:56:30
Close up of cottage garden
I went mad with the Camera last night and took loads of photos - I mean to take some every month to have a record of the garden changing but never seem to get around to it - missed April and May
07 June 2011 22:50:41
My Cottage garden
Some of you may recall that I decided to convert the bed behind our house (outside the kitchen window) from a vegetable patch to a cottage garden. I planted this up in April with a combination of plants from friends, seeds I had grown myself and some purchases - this is how it looked this evening in the sunshine
07 June 2011 15:36:56
Planting from Mount Venus garden
I particularly liked the foliage of the leaf in this planting scheme from the Mount Venus gardens can anyone tell me what the name of the plant is?
02 June 2011 23:04:48
Planting in VW Blue garden
Gerry and I got away by ourselves (without the gang ) for the first day of Bloom what a treat - we had a wonderful day and the weather of course made it - The show gardens were much anticipated but i found a lot of the planiting similar in a lot of the gardens. I loved the planting however in the Mount Venus garden - beautiful combination of plants all so lush and natural. My favourite gardens in no particular order was the Focus garden , Mount Venus garden and the VW Blue garden some great colour in this garden. Gerry loved the Kells garden with all the ferns - Looking forward to hearing other peoples comments.
We ate al fresco - and then I spent the rest of my time in the floral marquee - picked up a few plants but my main focus was the Irish Water plants stand as I wanted to stock up on plants for our ponds was very pleased with the help and advice we got.
I was delighted to meet Kate ( Kate and Graham) her son and his wife. It was Kate who spotted me and she was after spending the morning volunteering and was just off duty. I thought I may have spotted Hazel but having accosted a lady earlier in the day who I thought was Ladybird but wasn't !! I was not about to make the same mistake again (the lady who was not ladybird was very nice about it)
We stopped off on the way home for some liquid refreshments ( just the one) at a pub by a lake on the way into Virginia it was so beautiful with the sun shining and home to see the gang before they went to bed End of a perfect day