Last Post 1300 days 9 hours ago
30 October 2009 02:21:01
Had come home from work tonight full of ideas to post in a journal entry, but after reading about that sad news i just don't have the heart or the interest to do so, have been really knocked for six by that news, our thoughts are with Bobby and family, really lost for words!
28 October 2009 13:15:40
Echium pininana
Gismo, here is a photo of the Echium pininana, growing in the back garden, grew it from seed last Autumn, we have 3 of them in the garden, they should flower next year, friend of mine has one in his front garden for the last 5/6 years and it self seeds prolifically!!!
27 October 2009 17:29:23
Scotch bonnet chillies
Picked some more of the scotch bonnet chillies this morning, it was our first year to grow this type of chili and we are well pleased with the returns! we have picked about 40 chillies from the plant so far with about the same again on the plant! will monitor it closely and if need be will pick the remainder green and let them ripen in the kitchen, although small this chili packs a seriously HOT punch!! it is a compact plant about 2ft x 2ft and sturdy, no need for staking, if you like your chillies HOT this one is the one to grow!!!!
27 October 2009 14:51:05
Amish paste
Picked the last of the Amish paste tomatoes this morning, just under 3lb, these were off the 2 plants we had grown from the side-shoots taken from the original plants in June i think, well they provided us with a nice late crop, they will be left on the plate with the banana to ripen! lovely fresh home grown tomatoes for November!!!
19 October 2009 18:26:29
Move over Versace!
Here you have a preview of the stylish evening wear from the Chilipepper Autumn range 2009, as modeled by Maggie, sure to be a hit on catwalks the world over this Autumn!!!
19 October 2009 14:18:07
Late Bloomer
Got a surprise this morning in the garden, an oriental poppy in bloom!! have often got them to flower a second time in one year but never as late as the third week of October! the poppy is partly shaded by the large leafs of a Guinea which would give it some protection from the weather, was a welcome splash of colour on a gray Monday morning...............
17 October 2009 13:08:53
Autumn King & Queen!!
Went to check the tomatoes this morning to make sure all was well, still a lot of heat in that sun! had a look at the winter veg beds and decided to pick 1 or 2 carrots to see how they are doing, delighted with the results and the flavour, they are so sweet! will have them all through the winter months and will be a welcome addition to the kitchen larder............
16 October 2009 02:43:38
CLEMATIS NAPAULENSIS
Have had a few enquires about this clematis from members as to where they could purchase it, i came across it from a friend of mine in the UK who i had bought rare veg seed off, he sells his seed on ebay and had listed some of this clematis seed for sale, he reckons it is easy to grow from seed!! have googled this clematis and found a couple of nurseries in the UK that bred this one, only one i found exported to Ireland and were charging £12 for the plant and £22.50 for p&p!!!! so if it was me i would go for the seed option! his sellers name on ebay is elfskins_edibles or you could google it and maybe find some one else that sells the seed! if i remember correctly i think he had sold 5 seeds for €7, so be as well to check if there are other sellers out there! hope this helps and let me know how you get on! Kt8zBKzk)yHdUw~~_35.JPG)
15 October 2009 18:13:23
Autumn seedlings
The seeds that i have sown have started to germinate on mass! there are plenty of basil, foxgloves, potentilla and oriental poppies, some of the gaillardia, and more importantly some of the lilium seedlings are starting to push through, am quiet happy with their progress so far!!
08 October 2009 11:25:52
Oriental poppy & Potentilla
Went for a long walk this morning, what a beautiful day! will just make a mug of tea and then out to the garden!! some of the seeds i planted last week have started to germinate, its the oriental poppies and the potentilla! both from Secret seeds (thanks Gismo) also the basil seed has germinated, got those seeds from a friend of mine in the UK, its a bush type that is quiet hardy! apparently he has overwintered this type in his garden!! so it will be interesting to see how it gets on, will confine ours to the greenhouse for the winter! i managed to source and purchase seed from 2 rare chillies last Tuesday, one is a pubescen chili from Bolivia that can grow up to 3 meters in height!! and the other is a Brazilian chili that grows to about 2ft looks like a cayenne chili but has no heat!! just a sweet smokey taste!! will go into more detail about these in a later post, also got some Lupino bean seed from a seed collector in the UK, have wanted to try this bean for some time and look forward to germinating it next year, probably the most versatile bean you will come across, don't know why its not more popular, well i plan to champion its cause so you will be hearing more about this bean!! well don't want to waste this beautiful day, so till next time, enjoy your garden.................
06 October 2009 20:38:52
Heirloom tomatoes
Had a very successful year this year with the Heirloom tomatoes that we have grown, and i have been thinking ahead to next year with regards to trying a few different types to the ones we grew this year, this year we grew Amish paste from the Amish community in America, Aurora from Siberia and Urbikany from the Ukraine, and for next year after much conversation with like minded tomato enthusiasts and plenty of research on the net i have narrowed the original list of 20 down to just 3!! so the 3 new (to us!) varieties for next year are Marglobe, an American determinate type, Cherokee Purple, indeterminate type from the Cherokee people of America, and Black Prince, indeterminate type originally from Siberia, would hope to grow 2 or 3 of each type and see how they preform, so hopefully next year we will be growing about 9 or 10 different types of tomato and 2 to 3 plants of each variety, plenty of information to record!!!!
04 October 2009 17:55:59
Scotch bonnet chili
Picked about a dozen Scotch bonnet chillies this morning, first time we have grown this chili, very compact plant, grows to just over 30cm and has a compact and sturdy habit, produces loads of small marble sized fruits, don't let this fool you these are seriously seriously HOT, and should be treated with care!
02 October 2009 17:52:03
Bull Island
Lovely day today but you can feel a change starting to come! working today and for the weekend so no gardening till Tuesday! went for a long walk this morning on the Bull island, beautiful there this time of year, we are so lucky to have it on our doorstep...................
01 October 2009 18:18:01
I was just wondering has anybody had a problem obtaining the October edition of The Irish Garden? i get mine on subscription each month, but there is no sign of the October edition, would have normally arrived over a week ago! have noticed that is not on the shelves of our local newsagent either! can anyone shed any light on this?
01 October 2009 13:11:42
Secret seeds!
Well i got a good bit of work done yesterday, but not it all! but i was happy enough, got the winter veg beds weeded and tidied up, picked some more of the cayenne chillies and also the lemon drops, hope to cut back these plants and over-winter them when they finish producing chilies, as you would a perennial! will deal with that in a later post! picked some more beans and composted the spent plants and cleaned out the pots and containers, cleaned up the geraniums and brought them into the greenhouse, a few of them were showing signs of rust and went straight into the bin! thinned out the winter carrots (Autumn King) thinnings are large enough to use so they were cleaned and went into the fridge! planted some garlic bulbs into the ground, still a bit early but we will see, spent an hour or so in the evening sowing seed, got most of the Autumn seed from Secret seeds in! took your advice Gismo and only planted half of each packet!