Drumanagh's Journal

Mount Stewart

Mount Stewart

The first garden we visited this week was Mount Stewart on the shores of Strangford Lough, up north. In hindsight, it would have been better to leave this one until the end as it would be hard for any other garden to live up to this one. Absolutely fabulous. The Italian gardens in front of the house were my favourite part with the beds surrounding a lily pond on either side. The beds are edged in knee height hedges of berberis, thuja and hebe and many had a purple leaved tree in the centre surrounded by fabulous planting. The Dodo terrace was a big hit with the kids with the all the stone animals. We had a lovely walk around the lake but I was devastated to find that the plant sales area was closed by the time we got back to the house. Oh well, I'll just have to go back.

7 Gardens in less than 7 days.

Geese at Listoke

I'm hoping to visit at least 7 gardens in the next few days. I was promised a week of garden visits a while back as himself went off to Bob Dylan in Limerick and has had numerous days out for the Dubs matches since so this is my week and I don't feel guilty dragging the whole family all around the country.. Well maybe a little bit, but I am including the Zoological Gardens! But afterall as they say, What's good for the Goose is good for the Gander.

Aloe aristata

Aloe aristata

Last week at the herb garden I divided up pots of this Aloe, Aloe aristata. Aloe is well known for being good for burns and skin complaints but it is usually the larger, better known, less prickly Aloe vera that is used. However this little gem, Denise tells me, is just as good and having smaller leaves there is less wastage and when you pull a leaf it will not ruin the look of the plant. You can just slice a leaf open and place it juicy side down on a burn. Worthwhile keeping a pot of it on the kitchen windowsill.

Japanese Buckler Fern

Japanese Buckler Fern

I cut all the old leaves off this in the spring and it responded by putting out lots of fresh fronds in the most amazing coppery colour.

Mercury - annual and dogs

Annual mercury

When I first started work in this garden a couple of months ago I dug out all the weeds and planted a few things. In a matter of weeks a rash of seedlings came up and I couldn't figure out what they were. I thought maybe they were violas as I had pulled a few out that were past their best. But then these seedlings flowered and I got a bit of a shock. Initially I thought they were Dogs mercury, Mercurialis perennis which is extremely poisonous - as Culpepper said 'There is not a more fatal plant than this'. But on closer inspection I saw that the stems were not hairy and so I believe it is Annual mercury, Mercurialis annua, which is also poisonous, but less so. My book says it is often found as a garden weed but I had never come face to face with it before and like most weeds once the seeds are in the soil it re-appears annually for several years.

Smokey Smoke Bush

Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple'

I never really got why Cotinus is sometimes called the smoke bush. But then I saw this one in the new garden covered with raindrops the other day and it definitely has a smokiness to it.

Congrats to Chris Mc Aleer

Congrats to Chirs Mc Aleer

I hope I'm not stealing thunder here but we had a quick visit to the Rush Horticultural show today - quick because I had two ankle biters with me who were not as impressed as I was with all the lovely blooms - but I couldn't mention the show without mentioning Garden.ie member Chris Mc Aleer's great achievements. I'll let him tell you exactly what he won as I couldn't stick around for the prizegiving but suffice it to say he did very well, and got 'Best Vase of Sweetpea in Show' for the variety 'Bridget Mc Aleer' (pictured) which he bred himself.

The boys were impressed with the kids entries in the show and are already planning what they will enter next year as we didn't get around to it this year - fruit and veg sculpture, dressed-up hard boiled eggs, or maybe a mini garden in a biscuit tin -the possibilities are endless!

Two Little Dickie birds

Two Little Dickie birds

:-)

Busy Bee

Bee on Musk Mallow (Malva moschata)

I've been so busy this week with the kids off school and finishing Wedding Invitations for a friend that there has been very little time for gardening. But I'm still getting my fix at the herb garden (where I took this photo with my NEW camera - Yay!) so at least I'm not suffering withdrawal symtoms!

Balbriggan Rose show - 'Red Devil'

Rose 'Red Devil' and Sweetpea

Had the unexpected pleasure of going to the Balbriggan Horticultural Society Rose Show today. I met garden.ie member Chris Mcaleer who won a couple of prizes and best in show for his beautiful Sweetpea display - hopefully he will put up an entry about it. Congrats!

At the end of the show they were selling off the exhibits and Brian Kirk from Dundalk gave me these gorgeous roses. He said they are called 'Red Devil', and I think they are absolutely fabulous. The scent is lovely and the petals are a lighter shade of pink on the back, and they are so tightly packed. I also came away with a stunning bunch from the garden of Chistopher White (I think) which my poor daughter had to carry home on the bus. They were nearly as big as her - thank you Eimhin. 

Chris told me there is a show on in Rush on Saturday next and the Dublin 5 show is on sunday 11th in Coolock. I hope to make it to one if not both. Will put up some photos from the show and I'm going to see where I can get a 'Red Devil' for myself. Some would say I already have one as himself is red-haired!

The full suite

The full suite

Add this to Permaculture blog's unique alpine planter and you would have a full suite! I saw it at the garden center the other day and you can see they have the empty ones for sale behind. I have been thinking about a little alpine garden as my garden now is more suitable for containers so I might invest.

Mr goose

Mr goose

I got this wooden goose from a friend as a present a few years ago now. Until recently he has been sitting by the fireplace but then I decided to let him have a waddle around the garden and he found this place. I think he's at home here, for now anyway!