kitty's Journal

grass bed

grass bed

weeded and planted this bed up with some prunella, verbena bonariensis and one of the festucas i will put up pick of this grass tomorrow 

cannas have a new home

cannas have a new home

decided to move some heucheras that were in the wrong place to new home and put canas in instead as this get loads of sun some of the greenleafed ones are showing signs of flowering cant wait to see them. i gave it a good weed and  i also put coreopsis, geum cooky,lobelia that i got in lidl last week, will have to check label.looking forward to seeing it in full bloom

area tackled and planted now

one part of new area

this is the area that i was working on for the last week or so now it is all planted and very pleased with it so far. had planned to get out and finsh weeding and planting but too tired and weather not helping, goin to sit down with hot choc and irish garden mag and been on site for the evening and tomorrow will be a better day i hope 

hopefully tomorrow

hopefully tomorrow

i willl get out and finish planting and weeding. picked up some paving slabs for a small area which will have a bench when finished. all will be revealed when done. i will be able to sit and enjoy the garden for a change. it will look better when finished promise

uplaoding photos

last area to do

last area to do

one last area to plant,spent the whole day planting and weeding and by 6 o clock was shattered. i have loads of photos to put up but cant as soon as i can i will put them up.. still a days work to do and then i am taking a few weeks off to enjoy it. tunnel looks really bare but it is nice for a change. putting down some slabs at front to finish off an area and weeding and planting to be done definately by sunday it will be all done that will be it all weeded and planted yippeee and just gather up all my pots and i am finished just watering to be done then, first time off in months. will sow wallflowers at end of july and bellis perenisis and sweet williams for spring colour

progress been made and ready for planting tomorrow

feelin very lazy today

more to do yet

got up late and have found it a struggle to really get goin today. done the dinner and laundry with alot of groans and moans and even managed to plant the last bits of veg lying around ie brocolli, cauliflower and cabbage are now in the last raised bed hubby. put down loads of slug pellets as the bloody slugs have shredded my lovely cabbage arggggggggggggh wouldnt mind they were looking so healthy, i had slug pellets down but with all the rain it has washed them away.

 i had planned on doing some gardening but that didnt happen, wont get to upset about it theres always tomorrow instead. i have stuff that is seriously pot bound so will have to be potted up as i am a good bit away from been ready to plant them and if i am doing this i want to do it right first time so it will buy me time and will be able to enjoy doing it instead of doing and been under presure to finishing it and loosing plants 

hens settling in well thankfully with very little fighting so far. 

its windy out there keep having to go out and pick up stuff thats blowing of the line .

we may  have just adopted a cat, this place is offically a zoo LOL not sure is it a he or a she but her/his name is smudge 

putting up shoots

putting up shoots

my bamboo is putting up shoots so quick it almost growing a little everyday 

yellow beauty

yellow beauty

this yellow lilly was almost hidden, these are new ones i got this year and loving them

orange tiger lilly

orange tiger lilly

love the colour of this one so tangy i call it tiger lilly. its actually more orange than that 

tattered and torn

tattered and torn

my poor ox eye daiseys the wind from last week played hell and tattered my daisies, i tried to fix them up but they actually looked worse up so i just left them there as they were, they are too nice to cut down poking in and out of other plants.

my attitude has changed as far as plants are concerned. i am packing in plants so that it will give plenty of ground cover and then there will be less weeding and things can self seed freely without me pulling stuff by accident. got lovely geum cooky, coreopsis and lobelia something i cant remember great bargain at just under 3 euro for six large perennials. 

soes anyone know what plant this is

soes anyone know what plant this is

this plant is in the next door neighbours garden, it has a really red stem and a light pink bell shaped flower and dark green veined leaves hope this description helps 

my family is now complete

coco, snowy and tweaty and cupcake and penny and goldie hiding in the hutch

i went and got 2 more hens today susex ponte, their names are cupcake and tweaty pie. i also changed the names of the other two to snowy and coco, i hated the names that chris put on them

a great use for scratched cds

new raised bed

these cds are all scratched so i used them to keep the crows away from my peas so far they are working well 

for jacinta

for jacinta

jacinta this is the geranium you gave to me along time ago was so dielighted when i found still going strong and now its is in flower, is that johnstons blue or is it roxanne?

progress been made

yesturdays work

well sort of anyway, got some work done yesturday but a pathetic piece done today, there is alot of work to it so i am going to take my time with it. 

all will be revealed when finished  

i have just uploaded a new album mid june  

my new arrivals

my new arrivals

hubby and christopher went off yesturday evening and came back an hour later with two lovely new hens, chris has already named them chocolate and vanilla very strange names for hens they are at the point of lay so should have eggs in a small while,  the white one is white or coral star and the brown one is copper star. they are al little camera shy and people shy. i will try and get a better one later if they just stop moving for one minute, chocolate is camera shy but vanilia is happy to pose for a second 

turned out to be a good day

turned out to be a good day

this morning was wet and dull but then this evening it turned out to be a brill one with lovely sun. after dinner i got out to the garden, i planted one of my blueberries, the other isnt doing good so i didnt plant it in case there are vine weevel that i cant see. then i sowed carrots, swedes, and peas in the new raised bed hubby put it, he has now added a second raised bed so i can work on that when it is filled (  photos to follow tomorrow ), i used CDs to keep the crows away from my peas hopin it will work. 

i took out the nettle tea and boy was it rank, i thought i would be sick, well i drained it and bottled it, and after corrie i went out and fed my tomatoes and hanging baskets with it, i diluted it down to half and half according to one of my books thats what they said.

i also marked out the new beds out the front, thats where i will be working tomorrow hopefully 

a broken bleeding heart

a broken bleeding heart

i went out on my daily walk about in the garden when i discovered my bleeding heart broken,the root is still in the ground so hopefully i will have it for next year, i left the label in situ so that i wont dig it up. it is so annoying i know it was too young for flowers this year but next year should show something it was either the dog or the wind im not sure but what a pain. i think i would be more upset if my paeonie broke so could be worse and the root is still in the ground there is hope .

well heres hoping for a dry day to get stuff done, if its raining i can work on stuff in the tunnel either way i am covered. it was a lovely day though and definatley lifted the spirits.  the paeony in the picture has opened more and the smell is divine, i have a picture of it more open on my camera but i want to take more pics before i upload them as there is only three in it yet 

a fautly towers day

vialli looking good

and boy it was, i feel like i was on the beer all night (which i wasnt) went out to the tunnel and started potting up stuff that was in mushroom trays as it was starting to really annoying me, things kept falling, i made up a small watering can of ONE fertiliser to put on the plants after potting them and kicked it by acident and put it all over my socks and trousers and everywhere else, my french words were coming thick and fast, it seemed everything i did went wrong. well i now have just the asters to pot up from trays and that will be everytbing in pots. even hubby was having a bad one, he made up one of the raised beds for the bed below the tunnel.

it is cold and miserable here this evening. tina i hope you are right about the weather from tuesday. i want to get more of the new bed started if it isnt wet and take out stuff to be planted out in the new beds when i get to dig and finish them. 

one of the paoey blooms has opened and it is beautiful, thankfully the wind had cause too much damage.

hopefully the sun will come out next week and make life a little brighter for us all. the rose in the previous journal was one i got in aldi or lidl about three years or more ago. 

is it march or june

is it march or june

my god the winds are howling here it is so not like june, had to pull the bamboo to the house for shelter as it was been battered, hate to think what damage will be done tomorrow i am dreading seen what state my paeonie is going to be in. its hard to believe that you have to batten down the hatches in june CRAZY

it will all come together eventually

it will all come together eventually

after the lads finished the insulation and left and the dinner was done i got out to do something, i fixed up the area for the blueberries in front of the tunnel, i have the raised bed half filled, i will get some brown gold tomorrow and mix it with the eiracaeus compost just to fill it up. i then went out and started taking stone from one of the areas that i need to fix up and plant stuff out and started to put stone around the raised bed for the blueberries and although it is not finished it is started to look better. 

hubby is making some more raised beds for below the potatoes and tunnel, carrots and turnips will be put in one of these the other will be filled later as the cabbages are there at the moment. the stone taken from the front will be put between the beds. where the potatoes are now there will be raised beds in place for that area for next year  and stone between the beds making it alot easier to keep up with. alot of plans made hopefully it will go to plan. all beds will be covered with black plastic to keep weeds down 

loving this one

loving this one

love this little cosmos, love them all but this one is really cute

uploading photos

cosmos double click

i have finally got the photos uploaded in one go, at last a bit of comfort and time saving

carrots and marigolds

carrots and marigolds

got 2 rows of turnips sown in this bed and also some african marigolds and thinned out the carrots on saturday. god help the dogs if i catch them rooting in it again

flowers among the veg

rudbeckias and cosmos and gazinias among the onions

spent yesturday planting flowers among the veg, love this idea and there was loads of annuals left. hopefuly it will look good and keep insects coming and weeds and pests away and of course look good.

got nothing done today, we are having the house insulated today so the garden took a back seat for today and tomorrow as we had to strip the attic last night and boy was there a load of rubbish that should have seen the dumped long ago. thats what i will be doing tomorrow as well and get the stuff that is been kept back up once the lads are finished in the morning, will be glad to get it done as it has been put on the long finger.

i did get out and take photos this evening and thankfully craig sorted the photo problem with loading my photos. must thank craig. all thats left gardening wise is repotting so that can be done during the week or towards the weekend.

a veggie day

a veggie day

spent the day sorting out the raised veg beds near the house. i got them all weeded and the strawberries covered with net, hubbie filled the last two barrels and i put in the leeks and celery. i also staked and tidied the tomatoes as they had taken on a life of their own with sideshoots now strong branches. there is loads to do potting wise of pelargoniums and fuchsias these will go on the patio and i will also been planting up odds and ends in the veg beds which will give great colour in the veg beds. that will be mondays work.an evening of relaxing on the cards

seeds to sow

seeds to sow

poppies that i picked up today and primroses and forget me nots 

washing pots and planning to sow poppies

mums paeonia

well i got the pots filled and ready for the poppies that will go in the fridge for 6weeks, dont expect to get any flower this year but next year should be good i also have verbascum to sow and go in the fridge also. i will read up and organise them ready to sow tomorrrow or sunday, picked up a few new poppies poppy hensol violet,poppy fruit punch, i also picked up forget me not seeds in woodies for 99 cent each and primroses the wild ones love their smell and always remind me when i was younger going to get the cows for milking and the smell up the old boreen was divine. i was looking in woodies for the tradecanthia but no luck then i came out to horkans and got a beautiful paeonia huo lian chl jin  for mums birthday.it is a beautiful cerise one, hope she likes it 

wild iris

wild iris

this is a picture takin from the web of the wild iris to look forward to

oh yuck what a day

love this rose

it is unreal out there today. i picked up 3 dahlia for the border today will hopefully get it planted on saturday when it has stopped raining. 

my track record of cutting success is very small but i actually managed to take cuttings of my hardy fuchsias and they rooted in water last year so i now have three hardy ones for the bed that needs redoing. i also found 2 coral pink poppy seedlings happy with that. i also potted up some bits and pieces still more to do but its a start.

potted on

honey bush x1,wild irisx2 these were from last years sowing,hosta mix,poppy coral pinkx2 also potted on dahlias that had been stored for the winter, cyclemen perisicum giganteum scentsatum, grew these from seed last year also. more verbena bonariensis, salvia farinacea "victoria blue" echinacea white pelargonium mix and echinacea magic box. still plenty to do.

i think saturday is promised good so i want to finish off the planting of the stuff in the waiting area (jsut fuchsia and pelargoniums to do for patio and the other stuff to be put in the garden and the last of the veg to be put in that will be it then for a while apart from potting on and watering and weeding that is all i will be doing for a while and of course the enjoying and photographing 

what a lovely day

what a lovely day

i spent a very pleasureable afternoon in the garden potting on stuff that was in desperate need of potting on, still lots to do but ran out of smaller pots so i need to go washing some, there is also some that need to be potted to bigger pots, maybe tomorrow after i come from shopping. 

 i need to find something really yellow for one of my borders as my son pointed out he other day that the garden is really nice but that part of the border needs something yellow they never cease to amaze do they!!!!!!!!!.

i went for a stroll around the garden about half an hour ago to check on my peony and all the other stuff and to water my hanging baskets as they are so dry, i know self praise is no praise but it looks good even the bad parts look good

down pours promised tomorrow and friday so i will get pots ready for the next day and i want to tie in my tomatoes as they are becoming crazy. it was thirty degrees in the tunnel at 6 o clock this evening  

problem adding photos

no work today

no work today

well i need compost and to be honest not really feeling up to it so today will be a day for irsh garden magazine and a big mug of hot choclate mmmm, tomorrow is another day

waiting for this

waiting to burst

i am watching this peony like a hawk as this is hopefully the first year it is going to flower fingers crossed, last year the buds fell off so heres hoping it is ready to burst

and on this side

and on this side

the cordylines and verbena and rudbekia i also have some pelargonium 

a mix of rudbekia and verbena bonariensis

a mix of rudbekia and verbena bonariensis

i put in cordyline and a mix of rudbeckia godlilocks ( annuals)and verbena bonariensis on one side of the back door and on the patio side i have sennettii and heuchera, cannas, oriental lillies  and other bits to be added yet

love these lilies

love these lilies

orange lillies are my favourite of all the lillies, the colour orange is one of my favourite colours. my neighbour gave me the harp pot that was orignally a ice bucket but it had had a crack in it so it was perfect for me, decided to pot it up with orange and white lillies, i put them on the patio for a while but they are now back in the tunnel for safe keeping untill this rotten weather passes and the sun shines again

patio so far

patio so far

so far i have some of the patio done, holding off putting out the cannas as the weather we are promised this week will not be good for them.

spent the day at the wheelbarrow potting up all the stuff for the patio and what a lovely day it was and relaxing more stuff to be done in the tunnel for the rest of the week, this wet week will give me a chance to catch up on much needed work inside the tunnel  

one area left to do

one area left to do, it is longer than that running around to left of photo to near front door

i have one area left to do, but i wont be touching it for a while as i have loads of seedlings to pot on and patio to finish, its area that is going to take ages and may not be tackled until the autumn but that will have to do, i almost drove myself to a stay in hospital pushing myself to get it all done, my doctor told me about 2 weeks ago that the day i landed in A&E, they found i had pneumonia and not a chest infection as first thought, they had sent a letter to her. i almost landed myself in again with stress so i have to stop pushing myself so far or i will end up there, i just wanted the garden to be done nut it was costing me my health.

i have some planting to do at my mum in laws tomorrow weather permitting, i am dying to get it finished.

hopefully the patio will get finished on monday and then it is in the tunnel for a week of potting which is relaxing as i will be sitting at the wheelbarrow. looking forward to the relaxing time in the tunnel with the plants  

gardeners world

the flowering cherry is in this corner

is it just me or was gardeners world very disappointing last night, so far i have found that most of it is very mediocure, very didappointed. i got the strangest comment from my son yesturday, i didnt think he noticed the garden at all but he said yesturday the garden looks really lovely except when the daiseys are in the grass, he asked me a while back how long a tree was in that corner,( the ornamental cherry that i put in last year they notice the strangest things at the strangest times 

ijune in the garden

ijune in the garden

i got the camera so delighted with it. went out after i came from town and started taking the photos. i will have more when i get the patio planted up 

planting continues

planting continues

found today very heavy and hard to get the energy to do stuff, but at least it was dry, but i forced myself to do stuff by thinking of tomorrows day out. i got some of the pots filled at least, this year i am using half garden soil and half compost as i found i couldnt keep stuff watered last year and dont like using just compost in the containers for the patio. i got some pots done for my next door neighbour( not the one with the husky dog) the other one on the other side, she was thrilled with them.

decided at half four enough was enough since 10 this morning, an evening of tv ( corrie) and gardeners world and in between on blighty is the nations favourit blooms at 8.

i will be like a child on christmas morning when i get my camera tomorrow, i feel a big june album brewing, all to be revealed on sunday or monday when i get the hang of it, might even have it on saturday eve if it is not raining too hard for me to get to snap happy.this is really perking me up today