Month: September 2008
Snaily Garden
Yesterday, being one of the very few good days this summer, saw me out early to redo the red bed on the north side. It had become overtaken by crocosmia lucifer and only that and the cordilyne battled for supremacy. I decided that the lucifer must be transferred to a place were it can be coralled in the future and where it can prevent little feet from faling off the upper garden! So out it all came and got rebedded in its new home. It has been replaced by a second photina, which seems to tolerate Sherkin climate, a pieris and a cotinus. I also planted some grasses and replanted the lilies which seem to lurk below ground for most of the time. I think two of the five appeared this year. I also planted some nice frilly tulips and resurrected the tulips which were already in the bed. I hope the result will be a well balanced bed.
This morning saw me up bright and early before work to mow the grass as I knew it would get wet later and there wodl be no possibility after work. Just as well I did as we had a force 6 gusting 8 and the rain to accompany it.
red bed rejuvination
The many geraniums in the garden that gave great colour and ground-cover since June are beginning to look sad, so i started cutting them back today.It’s not a difficult job but the poor snails and slugs, exposed on the bare wet soil underneath, are not too happy! Elsewhere in the garden, birch leaves have been falling and in one shaded area, where there must be some buried organic material, we have the annual growth of the fungus, Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria). It looks great but is poisonous!
Fly agaric.
Such a great time of year, I love it.Have been busy through out the Autumn adding and subtracting….soil, stones, boulders, weeds shrubs etc etc.
At the moment I’m taking great pleasure in walking around and watching whats budding, fruiting and generally coming back to me this year and guess what ?? I’m doing really well. Considering my base was so bad I’ve lost very little.
Should have a nice crop of blackcurrants, gooseberries and rasberries providing I get to them before the birds! .. ha ha, apples and plums looking good too, the smell of the appleblossom is heavenly.
Alot of digging done over the last week or two and 2 new beds added not sure for what yet but I had ran out of space in my existing ones and I had nowhere to plant newbies.
Will try and add some new pics shortly.
my view
hi i am Declan and i am a avid gardener my garden is new this is my 2nd year so it’s a new garden, i spend as much time as i can in the garden i am as mad about flower , shrubs an veg. from my photo,s u see i am big into old cottage type flowers as they need less looking after when established and the scents from them are much better than the new flowers. also i am very wildlife friendly no sprays i also grow a lot of veg and fruits. i am trying a lot of unusual veg an fruits, peaches, apricots, kiwi, olives, oranges along with apples ,plums, cherries and pears. also i have yellow carrots and tomato’s this year and have asparagus set which i hope to crop next year along with all other type of veg am i a bit ambitious for a garden in north east Donegal.
My garden consists of three levels. The site is east-facing and overlooks the river Lee. It has an acid,sandy soil over shale and in parts is quite stony. On account of the slope it is very free-draining but this year I didn’t need to water!!
I started gardening here nearly 30 years ago. It was already laid out on three levels but consisted in the main of three large grassy areas (I couldn’t call them lawns) and some shrubs.
Over the years I introduced some trees my favourite being Acer Griseum which is a fine specimen with peeling bark that catches the late winter sun with spectacular results.
I have a large koi collection, I started with 4 about twenty five years ago and mother nature did the rest. There are now 40 plus in the pond.
For the past few years I am trying out very tender plants to see if the can withstand out wet winters. I have proteas, bananas, mondia, erythrina, datura and other tender specimens. So far so good!
I know that standing on damp soil compresses it and doesn’t help drainage or aeration but weeding must be done! I try to minimise the harm done by reaching back and "ruffling" the area i’ve been kneeling or standing on. It’s difficult to weed in such conditions- the soil is wet and sticky and adheres to the roots-I garden on a heavy clay soil. Lots of organic material like mushroom compost added to it would help and a few really good frosts in winter. Then it might resemble what I call the "tv" soil we see on the gardening programmes.
September is so far very disappointing, weatherwise. A week or two of sunny dry weather would be so welcome! In the garden this evening I just spotted this beautiful white water lily flower in the pond. One of the joys of gardening is these little surprises the garden throws up from day to day!
water-lily.
Well, it’s high time this attempt at aubergines found its way into the dinner!
Aubergines
sept 15
at last a fine day mowed lawn and did edgings. am planting out lots of bulbs and doing up winter baskets
the raspberries are wonderful this year at least some good came from all the rain!looking good now: dahlias, passion flower lillies, abelia, solidago, jasmine,garaniums and grasses
What a nice day it’s been! I tried out my new strimmer on the roadside grass verge outside my perimeter. I’d never used one before and its not easy work! Then I planted two Clematis under two apple trees-planted deep in the soil with some compost, so I hope they will climb to accompany the climbing roses already there. My experience with Clematis is mixed to say the least. I plant them deeply and follow the maxim "head in the sun, feet in the shade" but they still succumb to clematis wilt and sometimes die on me. I have two or three successful ones so hopefully this pair will join the club!
Later I did some weeding and dead-heading of dahlias and Cosmos-all my Cosmos this year are the Purity (white) variety -they combine well with everything and are brilliant at the moment. It’s a bit late maybe for dead-heading but it’s a pleasing and relaxing task at the end of the day.It was great to hear the neighbourhood alive today with the sound of lawn-mowers etc-really felt like summer!
Won’t have my camera ’til Monday so I’ll now search my "archives" for a photo. Bye.
Garden view. July 2007.
I think this is a lovely and unusual gladiolus, it grows quite happily through the cotoneaster.
Gladiolus papilio
AT LAST. The sun is shining. Am racing around the house to make it look like I have been here so I can get out in the garden. Got the back grass cut yesterday. Had been too wet for the last week. Also emptied the pool !! What a job!!!!!. Had pumped out as much as I could, but with the rain filling it up again there was still loads to remove by hand- "Feeling it this morning". But at least it is all put away for next year – hopefully. Am now left with about a fourteen foot circle of builders sand. Looks horrible. It is fenced off in the kids area, there was a swing set and slides down there and there are lots of big plants around the fence so I dont have to look at it from kitchen or deck. Dont know what to do with it for the Winter as the pool will go up there again next year. Any ideas ????
My Thalia is looking quite nice at the moment. I always put this plant under glass for the winter just in case I lose it.
Fuchsia Thalia
Sedum and Spirea
It seems so long since it was possible to actually get out in the garden with any degree of enjoyment. At last, a few days of sunshine and no showers. But what a mess – what should be verticle is horizontal, and there is moss everywhere.
But it is the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and the surrounding fields and the river look amazing first thing in the morning shrouded in mist and dew. At the end of the garden my one apple tree looks from a distance like a small Christmas tree with his bright red apples looking just like decorations. Not only pretty but wonderful to eat too, crisp and sweet and completely unblemished.
But where to start? Wandering around eating an apple and deciding what to move, what to rip out. Best to sit for a while and think about things perhaps. The forecast says no more rain for a while so really there is no hurry!!
Although there are still gaps (from when the lawnmower broke off branches) my buxus hedge trimmed up a treat.
Buxus
