Last Post 813 days 10 hours ago
29 March 2011 00:16:19
Wish List Plants
Its been a busy day as I think by the look of the weather I cant garentee I'd get clear weather so was mad busy trying to sort things out. Today muself and Gabriel sorted out the veg beds proper and dug up our weed infested strawberry bed which was way too small and got them ready for replanting (hopefully tomorrow morning). I also sowed my 2nd Early potatoes and sowed a load of other veg.
However on Saturday we all (less Faith) headed off to Red Stables at St Annes Park for the Irish small nurseries assoc plant sale the sun was splitting the trees in wexford so I stupidly left my jacket at home! It was freezing so it focussed the mind and meant we did'nt hang about too long as we had to get back sharpish to collect Faith who came first in the U8 SE Gymnastic tournament.
Anyway there was some great value with a local nursery doing 2L pot Herb perennial for €3 each (he's in the Farmers market every sat if your up there) and another stall Caherhurley Plants doing great sales. Some of the other stall were more expensive and I was very tempted by a Trillium but at €20 decided against it in the end I bought mostly woodland plants as a lot of those were on sale given the time of year.
Gabriel as always bought about 10 HP I had given her a list of what we already had and told her not to buy anything on the list, but she bought two things we had a lready anyway.. oh and another Potentilla she's working up to a national collecttion at this stage! My plan to try and stick to my wish list did'nt quite work out but i did'nt go mad I bought a lovely bulb scopolia carniolica, also Anemone nermosa, Mukdenia rossii, Stylophorium diphyllum and a Ranunculus ficaria 'Brazen Hussy' (love that name). Having though I'd done well and been quite reserved I went and bought six ferns for my new fernery all for dry shade. I wont list them here as I'm sure people are'nt that intrested in the names anyway. The will look nothing for a while especially in the large fernery I'm curently building but I'm quite pleased
We brought some beautiful French Bread and some double chocolate brownies..mmmmm I will put some pics up of a few things and ofsome of the new beds etc.
28 March 2011 12:17:52
I had a lovely weekend and even fitted in a trip to St. Annes Park and bought some plants (of course) it's all been tainted a bit by yesterdays experience of digging up some poorly Heucera to find vine weevil grubs underneath. following lines of investigation every single heucera I dug up had weevil grubs, I'm assuming they like Heucera then!! I saw on Claire journal she has a problem with her bergenia which I knew weevils liked, and Liga said they ate all her heucera too so I know others are having similar problems.
My problem is however is how to treat them especially in open ground? I removed as many plants as looked poorly and as many of the weevils as I could but I found a few this morning in my strawberry patch as I was moving them. I had treated all my pots last year with Supernemos, icluding pots in the greenhouse at the time. My dilemma is three fold firstly what do I treat them with especially as the organic nematodes seem to have varying degrees of usefulness depending on the weather and the chemical ones I'm concerned about there effect on beneficial insects. In any event I certainly need to deal with the problem sooner rather than later!
Organic options mean Supernemos can't be used till the summer as it needs soil tempretures of 10c Nemasys operates at 5c but were currently at 6c which is borderline really. Chemically I've used Provado before but not on open ground and I'm wondering how much of my garden I would need to treat? just the border which has the problem or all of them (if all of them I'll have to remorgage the house!).
Anyway I'd really appreciate if anyone has had the same problem especially in open ground and has managed to sort it out. My thinking is perhaps having to go chemical now and then organic in the summer, againongoing care advise would be useful. Just had a quick look at what Gerry says about it onthe site and a quick flick through the Irish Garden that just arrived but nothing on it.
21 March 2011 11:40:07
After the chop
Sometimes in the pursuit of perfection you just have to be brave, I had two rescued Aoniums that I have been growing on now for almost a year, there both single stem but what I really want is a multistem. However to get a multistem drastic action is needed I must cut the trunk and hopefully from that cut three or four new shoots will emerge, it has it's risks but if it works out I'll have a lovely multibranched Aonium next year and with the off cut I should have another Aonium.
The say fortune favours the brave lets hope so..
17 March 2011 09:16:13
Begorrah tis Saint Patricks Day
To all my gardening friends and contributors to the site I'd like to wish you all a very Happy St. Patricks Day. I hope all of you find a Leprechaun in your garden the one opposite is what I'm hoping for :-) We got off lightly this year with only one parade in Bunclody to attend.
and I realise I have been pretty much missing since the gathering, I have spent my time digging, planting, moving, sowing, weeding, fixing, clearing etc... and I'm still not half way done yet!! The good weather of course has helped and Gabriel was anxious to get the new back borders planted and sorted so they can grow on and hopfully have something to show come the Communions in May.
Now this has taken its told as my shoulder, legs and back ache, my two thumbs have cracked (have this every year when I plant without gloves any remedies greatly accepted). But starting to feel now like things are coming together a bit, it's a bit like Fianna Fails slogan of 'a lot done a lot more to do' worringly however we all know what happened there!!
If I have time later I will take some pics from the garden and put up a albumn they wont be very exciting I'm afraid as everything is quite small, but like last year it's good to take pictures at different stages of a border to see it's progress over a year.
As a footnote, thank God Monty Dons back on Gardeners World and Toby Buckland is nowhere in sight, and the lovely Rachel De Thame is back too :-) I've been taping a program with Tom Petherick called Finest Gardens on Blighty on Sky 534 (thanks Drumanagh) its covered Heligan (Veg mostly) and Tresco gardens (exotic garden on isles of scilly) among others and is worth a look if it is repeated again.
05 March 2011 22:59:55
Oh the stress of the Kris Kindle
I think other people have said it better but just a big thank you to everyone I met today and for all the wonderful plants I got. To thank Rachel for organising it and i know everytime she looks at her new Euonymous alata she'll think of the day, and to Myrtle, Maureen, Linda and Rachel for organising the raffle (bet ye wont be volunteering yourselves for that job again). My wife is trilled with the big teacup planter so thank you for that, someone told me it was from them but I can't remember, and sadly that bribe I gave Rachel was gazumpted by Fran and other so I did'nt win those Johnston voucher!! :-)
Now I need to take a deep breath and thank AilAliann (great wormery), Periwinkle (Rudbekia, candleabra primulas, purple primula, rodgersia and michelmas daisy), Hosta (for hostas of course and rogersia I will have to mail you about those naming those small plants you gave me), Linda B (Achantherum calamagrotis), Clara (Bergenia and unsuccessful toiling on a quince), Keego (Rudbekia and Arum italicum), Romneya (primulas), Fran (Rhodochiton seeds), Jacinta (Bergenia 'rose'), Drumanagh (in abstensia lily of the valley), Una (foxgloves), Myrtle (numerous saxifragas, anaphalis and the little alpine in the butter tray, Bruno (impatien glandulifera which I will no doubt be cursing him in 5 years time :-)) Yellow Rose (for the Malva and creeping ivy (Glechoma hederacea 'varigata')) and last but by no mean least Rachel (Strioblanthes to add to the legion of other plants shes given me)
all for a few Salix alba 'Chermesina' and some small Agave americana varigata.. THANK YOU ALL..
Sadly as is always the case I did not get to talk to everyone so apologies for that and maybe next time. But I was hoping to have as many garden.ie'r as wanted to come to visit my garden in June (likely the 11th or 12th as bloom is on the weekend before and the donegal mafia got to me about the third week in June being unavailable :-))
02 March 2011 14:09:03
A BIG Viburnum rhytidophyllum
Never one to miss an opportunity I had a nice lunchtime walk through the botanic gardens last Saturday during my course there. I think a notebook and a good knowledge of what plants you want in the garden is always useful as seeing mature plants can save you lots of time, money and hassle in the long run.
During the course one of the contributors said that the RHS survey of the biggest mistakes people make in the garden had putting plants too close together or not knowing how big a tree or shrub would grow was No. 1. I think we've all seen trees especially the monkey puzzles or Eucalyptus grown way too near a house.
As I was strolling back to my course I spotted a shrub I have and one which I know Rachel has purchased recently and for those at the Christmas get together in 2009 in the Arboretum Eamonn Wall showed us it, it was a Viburnum Rhytidophyllum. Now this plant says it can grow to 12ft eventually but if you look at the picture to the right thats a 9ft wall.
Needless to say I might now have to review where I put it or at least see if it can take a bit of pruning and control. I have tried in my own garden to be diciplined about giving shrubs lots of space however I know there will be mistakes.
Forewarned is forarmed :-)
01 March 2011 10:34:58
New Border at Back of House
What another glorious day here in Wexford, it's cold but dry and sunny and with a prospect of a week of this there really is no excuse but to work outside. Although I'm trying not to injure my arm again so I digging over soil in short bursts.
Finally yesterday we had our man with a digger in who did a brilliant job and in seven hours had dug over all our beds, so there are now soft and beautifully easy to plant. Thankfully we removed all the sod beforehand and that proved to be a Godsend. Of course now the problem is what to plant and where, my wife has claimed the beds at the back of the house (pictured) but can't seem to make up her mind about what she wants in the borders so I haven't been able to produce a planting plan for her.
A similar problem occurs with the extension of three other border, the exotic will have to wait till annual can fill them up perhaps later in the year, however this may not get properly planted up till next year. The extension of the shady border will have to wait too as we still have to dig out bog areas as my wife wants to grow primulas (who don't like drying out at all) and I also only have a few plants for here. Thirdly there a new extension to what I call the messy border it was meant to be a shrub border but in fact seems to be a dumping ground for plants before they move on.
Lastly I have a small area to build a shady area at the back of the house with a sort of Fernery (a rockery with ferns). But I caluated that in total our new borders cover 230 sq metre so that's going to take a long time to fill. The race now starts for who is going to get there border finished first and get there hands on the remaining mulch, my exotic bed is in trouble as it was last year as it's planted so late, it is now rank with grass and weed which I have only tackled superficially.
But it just goes to show with an experienced digger driver and determination what can be done in a day,