Month: January 2009

Happy New Year to everyone…..It was lovely to meet ‘Shelser’, Bob, Katie, Eadie and Frodo who called to visit last Friday. I enjoyed showing you around the garden and hearing about your own garden…………….. Today I dug up some parsnips and one carrot! I only got 3 carrots to grow out of the whole packet. I have already dug and eaten some of the turnips. I know they are small but that was because I didnt plant the seed until July. But I am really encouraged to set more veg this year. Someone said I should put fleece over the cabbage. I can’t even remember what variety it is!

Small veg.

I have to admit that I’ve done absolutely nothing garden related over the Christmas period and I know I’ll really suffer for that over the coming weeks. I am delighted that the garden was featured in the Irish Garden edition for Jan/Feb and my son and nephew want to know if I’m now famous!! Gerry watch out !! I seriously have to sit down and start planning for the coming year. I also have to prepare to get my greenhouse heated as a cold greenhouse this year has been of limited use over this cold snap as I’ve had to move plants out to warmer areas in the garage.

I still have to weed the shade bed and spread mulch as well as manure the veg beds but it’s been so cold it’s impossible to do this at the minute. I also have to replace 4 trees and some hedging that did not make it through this year.My grass is also in need of fertilizing but I’ll wait till march to do this.

I will also plan to create another bed or two but will have to consult my financial director to access funding levels in this difficult financial times!!

Self Portrait for Irish Garden !

Look to my albums! In album Winter Vologda last 3 pictures were made by my friend, but I am an author of compositions :))

Christmas Eve

I went out in the cold today and there were some lovely sights in the garden, these Juniper trees look so graceful touched by frost.

Frosted Junipers

There are still a lot of berries on the cotoneaster. Quite often I have seen a couple of mistlethrushes eating the berries. They are very attractive looking birds. Ive also put a photo on the album page of the agapanthus leaves.

Plenty of berries left

Create a pocket rockery.

That is my ‘special project’, landscaping in miniature.

I want to make a little rockery in pot, just for 2-3 plants. I will publish all process and results in my journal.

Possible view of future rockery

You can see it on the picture 🙂 It was made at 12 o’clock today. Night temperatures are a bit lower (-26 or so, I guess).

The name of my city Vologda is in first 7 letters in poster inscription.

And this is not a limit!

I returned from Sardinia last night and was so depressed to see the garden looking mournful in the dark. It can be hard to muster enthusiasm at this time of year. This morning I went out the back to shake out the tablecloth and got such a delightful surprise! The frame of my greenhouse is already up!

The company doing it for me said they wouldn’t be able to do the job until the end of January. What a wonderful lift to see my garden’s "engine room" emerge unexpectedly from nowhere.

My husband and eldest son had noticed the greenhouse earlier in the day but decided to let me discover it myself.

12 Jan 2009

Some nuts and bolts got broken during assembly so I’ve had to contact Lenehans (who supplied the greenhouse) and they’ve contacted Elite (the supplier) in UK and I should have my nuts and bolts by Wednesday free of charge. So hopefully I will have my greenhouse soon.

Surprise

These are the stems of the ‘whitewashed bramble’, this is their winter ghostly colour. They have to be cut in early spring. I forgot to show this to Michele when she visited.

Rubus

I can’t believe I actually did some gardening yesterday, it was such a beautiful day I bit the bullet and went to a Coillte nursery and bought 7 conifers, a Holly Oak and a Hankerchief Tree. I came back and did some internet research on my Hankerchief Tree and it should flower in about 10 years! (If I’m lucky).

I came back and then went out in the garden to plant some very sad looking tulip bulbs which I bought in November!! Shame on me! Then I did some weeding, I couldn’t believe I was actually out there getting dirty after 3 months hibernating! It felt great.

And now that I have the gardening bug I look out the window today and it is pouring. I haven’t even sent the dogs out in it.

Well it is a new year and this is the first page (hopefully of many) in my journal.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

My new Christmas Trees

What a change in the weather. Got up this morning to find everywhere covered in snow. I found this poor little cyclamen struggling in these cold conditions.

cyclamen

Let me introduce my homecity, where I was born. Vladivostok is one of the biggest cities on the Far East of Russia. This is a sea port, that always was and still is the gate to Asiatic sea countries. It was founded in 1860.

This port was a close area for foreign ships till 1990th. First foreign ship in our port was from Canada, and I visited that ship with my class.

One of the city symbols is Rhododendron Mucronulatum Turcz. We call this flower ‘bagul’nik’ (my dictionary gives me these names in English – wild rosemary, Labrador tea).

Find more pictures in my albums.

Rhododendron Mucronulatum Turcz

It has been a long winter waiting for seed sowing time to come around again but it is finally here and yesterday I started by sowing some Onions and Hollyhocks. Admittedly I’ll have to wait another month at least for the real seed sowing marathon to begin but its great to get started. The window sills will soon be taken over again, bursting with life and pure potential! And in a green move I used vegetable trays from the supermarket as seed trays and cut the labels from bottles of bleach – they make perfect colourful and durable labels.

Eco and Recession friendly seed sowing!

I’m new to the seed swapping thing – some people seem to be gurus and measure what they get against what they give, others just swap out of generosity and the will to share what they have. I’m just hoping that what I swap will be of some use to someone and what I get in return is a bonus. I have a box of seeds that is overflowing and as time marches on they are less and less useful so as I will never get around to sowing them all I am delighted to find interested parties who might appreciate them. And it also gives me the chance to try out something new for the cost of a postage stamp, and lets face it, its human nature to want to try new things! These seeds are winging their way to Rachel at the moment in return for a lovely package that arrived this morning. And along with the seeds from Nadine in the autumn I will be sowing the seeds of exchange for a long time to come!

Sowing the seeds of Exchange!

Today I decided to move my No 1 compost heap, which is at the end of the narrow path up against the boundary wall. I have chicken wire on two sides supported by metal bars, the cut-up remains of old window frames. However, the chicken wire has seen better days and needs replacing.

The new location I have in mind is the corner to the left of the present location of the compost heap. The rear boundary wall meets the party wall between my neighbour’s garden and mine just there, which means that I will only have to wire off one side. Firstly, I dug out an old fern which has been there for many years and is hidden behind and under a large Hebe, which flowers profusely year after year.

Then I marked out the front and side of the new heap with blocks and covered the soil with Cordyline leaves, tied into bundles, to form a base and provide some air for the composting process. All that remained to be done then was fork the composting material from the old heap onto the new one.

It was getting dark by the time I finished so I covered the new heap with old carpets and put back some of the old chicken wire, which was in fairly good shape, along one side.

hi everyone this weather is not very intising to go out in this freezzzzzzzzzzing weather any gardening that i am doing is on my kitchen table. the tunnel is to cold so i bring in anything i want to do, i do in the kitchen, nice and cosy. and watch a good movie. thats what i call HEAVEN.

We’ve only been in our house (built in the 1930’s) about 2 years now. Our garden space is a little on the wild side as the house was empty for a few years. You literally don’t know what you’re going to find when you lift a bit of sod and start digging.

Last year we focused mainly on putting in a better veggie patch and planting fruit trees and berry bushes to make a start on what we’ve dubbed our mini orchard.

This year’s plan is to further expand the veggie patch, tackle the wild and overgrown hedge at the front and build ourselves a skoo-cum set of compost boxes out the back for all the garden waste.

Nothing much happening since , still have to get back to finish lawn dranage.

hi everyone, dying with flu at mo. still looking forward to getting out into the garden and getting organised for seed sowing.hate when i cant get things done. hoping to start a veg garden this year,may not happen if i am to busy with flower garden and seed sowing, we will see. need to get rid of this flu firsr

I have been very busy in my garden clearing away weeds and dead growth in order to find where I planted the daffolil bulbs. I have located loads of green spikes and should get a great show come Spring. I have also been doing the odd bit of pruning( yes I know it’s Winter,but I cant wait).

My garden is going through a transition period at the moment as I have lost a wonderful California liliac. (It died of old age) It took up a large space and now I’m looking for something to replace it.

I have a large tall laurel in the garden that is great for screening but a thug and needs to keep under control, I think I will clip one of its wings (branches) this Spring.

Got to go now as meeting friend for coffee in the local garden centre.

With some grandiose inspiration from Capability Brown, I have great hopes of some day accomplishing my goal of planting enough trees and also creating enough shelter on my property to eventually create a very large and extensive garden. The location is suberb, great view of Balycarbery Castle ruins, also a view of an old stone fort Caher Geal, mountain views and close to the ocean. BUT!!! The wind, the wind, my friend!! The gardner’s biggest enemy.

Over time, I hope to bring a couple of acres into my "Great Garden" plan. But for now I must exercise great patience and slowly creat that much needed shelter. What I will lose in external scenery, I hope to make up for with internal beauty.

Today I opened up my account with Garden.ie.

Ready to make plans for this year’s planting of trees. Must add more pines and possibly some Leylandii.

Started digging in my polytunnel today, time to start getting it in order for spring .

Gardening Work in Exchange for a Free Cottage Vacation.
I would entertain a viable exchange of work to be done to my garden, just off the Ring of Kerry (web site is www.irishcottagerentals.com) for a vacation in my cottage.
Details such as, work to be done, as well as time and length of vacation etc., are flexible and can be worked out mutually.
This should be attractive to avid gardners who may wish to execise their creative skills and gardening industry in return for a vacation in a beautiful location.

As i have jUst gone part time in my job i have decided to dedicate my time to my garden, i love summer time and want plenty of colour in my garden, it is very bland at the moment, but with time and tender loving care i hope to get my goal of summer didplays and with the help of this site.

Month: January 2009

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