Month: June 2008

my garden is a rented old courtyard garden, private with high walls and by the coast

Finding out how it all works.  Gonna have to learn the names of plants now.  Frightening.

Lupins in flower.  Indian blanket coming out. Lavender looking brilliant.

 

Our stream-fed pond…

Tea tree in full flower and little white flowers on gold grass.  must find the name of it.

  The  Banana shallots that  I kept are now sprouting happily and there is one growing in England, in the cotswolds ,another  in a garden right on the coast here and again another with a friend who has a garden centre in mullagh. I  have been busy painting as I have actually taken a space at an Arts and Crafts fair in Enistymon  taking place on seven Sundays throughout the summer,starting on June 8th  it will be fun to do, as I enjoy painting , I find it a pleasure to put paint on canvas though I am trying other materials as well !!! the tomatoes in the greenhouse are still doing well and I hope to see the first ones in the hanging basket start changing colour soon , there is already  one strawberry changing colour, again in a hanging basket. I will try and see if I can get a decent photo to include on another occasion. The other hanging basket in the greenhouse  is full of sweet peas, one of them in flower, they are a variety that is supposed to hang down but they have decided to climb up the chains instead!!. Most of the plants I have raised from seed have now been planted out , in amongst shrubs and trees and even gooseberries and currants peek up next to shrubs , montana  clematis and everything I can fit in,! there are even some new potatoes in part of the border that runs round the garden.I have some cigar plants to try and find space for, they should hang but all my pots are brimming over, an excuse perhaps for buying some more, but that means more watering! if we get a good summer and however long my hose is it never seems long enough, I was pleased to have a winning letter in The Irish garden magazine,  sadly I do not think my son  managed to gather any seed from the plants but I will hunt in August to see if there are any signs of growth!!!!I took some friends up to the edge of the Burren in that lovely patch of good weather, they were amazed at the numberof wild flowers , I wish I could persuade some orchids to head into my wild garden, but I think it is too wet  to make it possible. though we certainly get enough wind to bring them here!!!  

can anyone believe this weather …its so cold ..Aint no sunshine  etc ..so found a delightful man to deal with the weeds ….and Im hopeful its the start of garden preparations for JULY..boxes and pots and that elusive Budda….and my silver birch has to go ..(so the same man says).too  near the house ..and Ilove it its foiliage providing me with privacy…this gardening is at times quite stressful !

For the first time in about six weeks it is raining…actually pouring down as I sit here.   Of course this is great for the garden and I don’t need to drag a hose around this evening to keep my strawberry bed and the runner beans supplied.

The dryness has been wonderful for the roses, iris and paeonies – virtually no black spot but I suppose that will now come after to-day’s steady downpour.

 The lawn looks incredible.  It was a mass of moss and broad leaf weeds and a few days ago I spread  weedkill plus fertilizer.  The result is a tapestry of different greens and occasional lushness with an embroidery of white daisies and yellow buttercups.  Some of the moss has blackened but the daisies and buttercups are undeterred!

hi my garden is on a half acre. it is very exposed and windy but has fabulous views over the Slaney estuary.I enjoy growing plants from cuttings and seeds especially exotic plants

have spent most of the week weeding ! you would think i was rearing them. also did some hedge cutting . roses  foxgloves snapdragons ,first flush of lillies  looking well now. eating strawberries from greenhouse, taste superb. peppers melons etc doing well, harvested first crop of new potatoes today. worried about magnolia planted last year ,not doing well new bed i planted where we removed huge sycamore ,doing well. have uploaded some new photos ,hope you like them..

I live in Cork city suburbs.I have put gravel on my front ‘patch’  with a shrub bed.Its facing south east and gets the sun only in the morning which it is blocked by large trees growing outside on a green. In the bed I have a Choisia, a weeping willow and a Contorted Hazel. I have just moved a Spirea and I have to find a spot for a Mahonia still in situ. These were all small shrubs 2 years ago but now need more space.

The back is surrounded by Leylandii which I keep cut into a hedge albeit 7 feet high. I have tried over the years to grow various plants but even grass is a struggle as there is shale and rock just under the surface. This year I am extending the gravel to take in the whole back with just one central bed for flowers and shrubs. I will have to bring in quite a lot of topsoil to build up the bed.

Due to all of this I have an allotment out in Tower.I started it last year with one of my daughters and grandchildren. We are doing our best to grow organically and learning as we go. I have started doing a blog about it on www.organicgrowingpains.blogspot.com

Any and all advice would be very welcome, there are about 20 plots, all taken this year and we all try to help each  other out. There are lots of photos on there too but I have to take some of my own garden at home and dig out any taken over the years.

 

This summer I am anxiously waiting for three large pots of sweet pea to bloom.  I have provided a bamboo tee-pee as support and while they are growing extremely well no flowers  have yet appeared.  However, some beautiful lucious red roses are in full bloom at the moment which amazes me as I don’t lavish that much care and attention on them, and yet they reward my indifference with the most stunning blooms.  I particularly look forward to the weekends because I sit outside in the mornings with a coffee and the newspapers and I enjoy the solace and the peace.

When we bought our house many years ago we decided on a plan for the garden. It consisted of dividing it into several different areas including a pond ,a sunken garden,a small vegetable and fruit area and a large lawn. We bought a quantity of red sandstone from a quarry near Ardmore. My late husband was not very interested in gardening but he enjoyed laying paths, paving, and walls etc. so he did all of the work himself.We bought some cordon apples and pears and planted a row on both sides of the sunken garden However I don’t think there was much attention given to dwarf stock . They were cordons alright but not on the correct stock . They are still here but I have to keep cutting them. One on the edge of the row grew into a tree. It still bears a good crop of nice apples- Laxton Superb but the birds enjoy most of them as they are too high However  we enjoy the b1lossom.

13/5/08

At that time the only nursery nearby was one owned by the Cork County Council so the choice of plants was not very great. I bought a number of C. macrocarpa trees and planted them inside the front wall . Sometime after a friend who had more experience than I had came to visit us and advised us to remove them which we did and replaced them later with two Cherry trees, one of which we removed last year as it was crowded out by an Acer Osasuki . The other we cut back a little but it still gives me great pleasure every Spring. My next mistake was to buy a Magnolia tree and to plant it in a very windy and draughty spot so of course it died . I tried another  but that also died . By this time Mr Nangle had opened his nursery and many of the first plants which I  bought from him are still in good condition . One in particular comes to mind .It is a lovely red Chaenomeles, which I think is Rowallane .It appeared to have died once but it came to life again . It has been in flower since Jan. and slill has buds on it.

 

I’ve included a mix of photos, some of our 13 goldfish in the natural pond at the bottom of the garden…. our vegetable plot…which is coming along fine at the moment…we are looking forward to eating some new potatoes soon….the gravel beds which have replaced weed !!! beds and are much easier to keep tidy……our front lawn is much improved also. Practically every plant has changed place since we first planted them 18 months ago as we get to know the wind directions etc.

I have a sizeable vegetable plot (30m X 10m) plus a fruit cage which I have just built and is awaiting a suitable net and some apple trees. It has taken three years and the layout is beginning to look like it had some planning. I have built a compost bin also this year.

I have four varieties of potatoes in (Red Duke of York, British Queens, Records and Leaguers). The latter may not be recogniseable and is a potatoe I get from West Clare and my father used to sow there. It is a purple skinned early with a purple marbled effect in the flesh when raw. The colour cooks out and they are much sought after in the West Clare area.

I also have the usual vegetables: Carrot, Parsnip, Turnip, Cabbage, Brocolli, along with Beans, Peas, Garlic, Beetroot, Lettuce, Spiing Onion, Leek, Bell Peppers, Chilli.

I’m finding the spring onions dificult to grow and the very dry spell has not helped I presume.

Gardeners world live 08 here i come.  i cant wait to get there and esp. to meet with the fantastic monty don.  this will be my first time there.  i am really looking forward to the meeting times i have booked with monty and joe. i am devestated that monty has had to give up gardeners world because of illness.  i hope he gets better soon and gets to enjoy his time in the garden for many years to come- monty you will be missed. 

 

 

I have recently built a new house so my garden is a blank canvas at the moment. I would love suggestions and ideas for my garden.

hi my garden is on a half acre. it is very exposed and windy but has fabulous views over the Slaney estuary.I enjoy growing plants from cuttings and seeds especially exotic plants

have spent most of the week weeding ! you would think i was rearing them. also did some hedge cutting . roses  foxgloves snapdragons ,first flush of lillies  looking well now. eating strawberries from greenhouse, taste superb. peppers melons etc doing well, harvested first crop of new potatoes today. worried about magnolia planted last year ,not doing well new bed i planted where we removed huge sycamore ,doing well. have uploaded some new photos ,hope you like them..

I’ve decided to seriously weed underneath two of the bedroom windows, and level it out, and put some sort of paving in, which hopefully will make it alot tidier. Hopefully by the end of this week, i will have the weeds out and leveled off, for putting down my paving. The only thing at the moment is deciding which sort of paving i would like, i’ll have to look around, i’m not expecting to be done for a while, but as long as i have the main ground work done, i’ll be very happy. It’s no easy thing doing the garden. Well at least i’m making a start on it now.

Hi All,

I live in Rathlumber Edenderry, on an acre on land. When we first moved there it was like a site. We have spent a lot of money getting the garden into some shape. I love the garden but am useless at knowing what to put in, I am very good at weeding, I know more about the weeds than the plants, I put in two beautiful "Flamingo" they were lovely that year, but now only part of the pink leaves are there, I put some plant feed in but this didn’t make any difference.

The first bud swelling is there on the plants along the wall.