Month: February 2009

 

We built a snowman.

My gardening gloves have at least had some use so far this year!

Woke up this morning to a couple of inches of snow, mind you our weather men got it right this time. London was worse hit and around Derbyshire.  The side roads were bad and we actually saw a grit van in our street which is rare indeed. I did venture out in my wellies to move the snow off the path and feed the birds lots of fattening food the poor things.  I also removed the ice from the bird baths and drinking areas.  I have placed some photos in my album.  I had to go out today for some essentials, milk, bread and bought a Peony Sarah Bernhardt, a lovely pink shade, from our local Wilkinson’s store, it has some young growth so should be ok £2. May stay in tomorrow as the weather is not letting up for a few days.

 

We made a complete onslaught on  the garden in the week of 24th January. We pruned the fuchsia hedge, hacked down the berberis and the hebe and removed huge branches from the elms. These were all taking light from the beds so now I am hoping for great things. I moved a crinodendron from the south side which is alkaline to the north side which is acid. I can see it from the kitchen so I await the lovely red lanterns. The stream is thundering down the garden and the pond is about twice its natural size. Removing stones that had fallen in and blocked the flow, helped. 

The owl box had fallen down with the wind so it was replaced. A great tit is visiting the other nest with the camera so we are confident that we will have another family this year.

This is the ‘lemon geranium’ houseplant. When touched it gives off the strongest lemon fragrance! It only gets a very tiny lilac flower on it.

I found this photo from my garden, taken 30 June 2008, of the peony Sarah Bernhardt.

I thought it is apt as I just recently planted the root of one such peony in a pot indoors. The one in the photo also originated in this way a few years back.

The arm behind the flower is mine (not a child’s) so you can appreciate how big the beautiful flowers are.

Had a brief look out at the garden shortly after five this evening when i got home.All we have are garden beds frozen like solid lumps of clay in places.Some other seeds for vegetables sown app three weeks ago inside, are coming on well.We have seen enough of frozen temp,here.Time for some good weather lets hope,not to far away. 

I decided to try to force dahlias as I can now overwinter the cuttings in my greenhouse. It would be wonderful to be able to double my stock.

I bought 5 tubers of dahlia "fascination" – lovely deep pink flowers with dark foliage.

I put the five tubers in two free draining containers, covering the tuber "fingers" but leaving the top uncovered. I watered them well and popped them on the lizard mats.

I also sowed some pepper seeds I’d forgotten (sweet chocolate) and the monkshood I collected from my own garden last year.

By the way, the black & white hollyhock and the perennial cornflower all germinated this morning. I was surprised at the perennial cornflower since the packet had said 1-3 months for gernimation! All thanks to my reptile mats!

 

My only snowdrops. Taken from my mother’s garden last spring.

This cute rosebud is ‘Compassion’ it is a climbing rose with a lovely scent. Its on a south facing wall so that may be the reason it is still putting up buds.  I managed to get a slip of this rose to grow and that flowered last year also.

 

At last, I have a fully assembled and bolted down greenhouse!!!

Hurray! It’s a couple of drinks for me tonight…

The paving isn’t done yet but one step at a time!

Happy St. Valentine’s Day to all Garden.ie members!

All good wishes for you and people you love!

I’ve been wishing to visit Brigit’s garden in Galway for a long time and finally got the chance this weekend. The timing was perfect as St. Brigit’s day is not long passed and the saint has great significance in the gardens.  The sign on the way into the gardens says "Discover the magic" and indeed it is hard to put in to words how magical the atmosphere of the place is. It is very special, my spirit feels refreshed.  The little ones absolutely loved it and really enjoyed discovering the different gardens, climbing the grassy hills, having a go on the basket swings and examining the sculptures.  The little stone house in the centre of the four seasonal gardens really captured their imagination.  I can’t wait to go back when the trees are in leaf and the flowers are blooming. (More photos on my photo page)

Glad to see the weather has picked up and we can go outside without the insulation needed like last weekend!!! Nice and mild now.

My little helper was busy with me Thursday to Sunday. Great help flinging dung around the place!? Got to dig out the foundation for the outside wall of the greenhouse. Don’t know if its deep enough yet = call in the hubby now for expert opinion.

Dug in the dung from November in the raised veg beds and took out the weeds that were lurking below, bloody butterup and dandelions!

Sheeted out our new chicken run with mesh, painted the hen house and placed the whole thing in its final destination, beside the composters. Pics to follow, check out the album. Painted some of it, lovely Oxide Green, to blend into the background. Will get to finish it Monday evening, when my little helper is in bed. Oil paint and kids do not mix!

Got my first Raspberry canes in the post on Friday, delighted. Ordered them from UK, they’re are 2 Autumn varieties, heeled them in for now. Layed out markers on fruit bed for plants, now, just go and get the rest of them.

J

I picked up a lovely while flowered lilac in the garden centre and got my other half to dig a hole for it and help plant it on Valentines Day. How romantic!  I’m hoping to have bunches to pick for years to come, or even better – bunches picked for me! It doesn’t look like much right now but I hope to have flowers this year, even if you’re not supposed to let lilacs flower the first year they are planted, I just couldn’t bring myself to cut the flower buds off.

 

Here is one of the double snowdrops that came from my Granny’s garden.  As it turns out quite a few of them flowered this year so they seem to be settling in after all! I’d love to know the proper name for them.

This one has two green markings on the inner petals.  I’m not sure where it came from, it doesn’t look like Glanthus nivalis to me.

Just had a walk around the garden seeing as temperature said 10oC. The first daffodil is open. I noticed a bit of slug damage on the daffodil buds so I had to put out the slug pellets. There is  a big slug population around here even though there are quite a few frogs also.

I finished pruning my roses today. More about that later. I love roses but I don’t think they love me.

I started cutting back and weeding in the first border (the easiest one). I got such a surprise to see the unknown plant in the photo popping up all over the border.

I couldn’t think what on earth it was until finally I remembered the Allium bulbs I had planted last autumn. 

I got another hour out weeding today, the temperature was definitely colder, I was so intent on clearing all the old stems I didn’t feel it ! I got a wheelbarrow full for the compost bin. There was this lovely little blue flower on the Periwinkle.

We made a gardening investment today that may save our marriage 😉

Every time it comes to planting a tree, I and my husband have serious disagreement.

The scene can be imagined with me, holding the stake, and my husband, belting the stake with something heavy. The exchange goes along the lines of …"it’s not going in at all. There’s a rock down there." The reply follows …"no, it’s definitely going in. I can feel it going down". 

The stake usually gets pulled out a few times and re-inserted a few inches over, with the whole process starting over. On a really bad day, the task gets abandoned altogether.

Anyway, the newly-bought "driver" that you see in the picture is a great yoke.  We managed, in a few minutes, to hammer the mother-of-all stakes into the ground and re-erect the birch tree that was knocked down in the storm of 17 January. We had unsucessfully tried this task a few times since the storm toppled my poor tree over a month ago. Amazingly there was no rock under the stake 😉

Hope the tree survivies.

 

Found this sad looking little Hellebore hidden away. What a waste!

 There is also a white one and a few more like this in the same borders. They really are planted in the wrong place as you might not notice them at all.

Last week we had our worst snow time since 1982 and it lasted for a few days. Our grandchildren, some of whom had never seen snow in Ireland, were delighted. I must say that our enthusiasm for it was more muted.   The icy paths and roads made walking that much more hazardous for older people.   I shoveled the snow off the driveway and made a walkway through the snow on the path in front of the house and the following day I was glad I had done so.   The snow had frozen overnight into ice and many old people were confined to their homes for a couple of days.

This week we got a mild spell and yesterday I loosened the soil around the plants in the borders and cleared away most of the loose leaves and small grass seedlings alongside the lawn.   While I was doing so I was accompanied by two robins who spent the afternoon gobbling tiny worms which my work had turned up.   The robins, Mr. and Mrs. robin I presume, are setting up home in the bushes around my garden. One of them has been here all year and is very tame. His mate is a bit wary of me.

I also sowed a large plant saucer with Cosmos seeds left over from last years packet and also some I saved from last years plants.   This plant saucer was used for a Bonzai tree, which has since died, and has drainage holes in it. I placed it in the greenhouse and hope seedlings appear in due course.   I must admit I am not too successful at growing plants from seed. 

We had some Mandarin oranges, each of which had about ten small pips so I collected the pips and sowed them in yogurt cartons, five to a carton and placed them in the greenhouse alongside the plant saucer containing the Cosmos seeds. 

Most of my Bonzai trees survived the hard winter.   I usually cover the soil in their containers with compost and grass cuttings during the late Autumn and Winter.   I do not twist their branches into contorted shapes but I do prune their roots and allow them to grow into the shapes of their larger relatives.  

Hello, it has been a bit drizzly today but it has done the plants and soil good and is much better than the snow which seemed to take forever to go.  I have been cleaning up round the back of the house, with a cute little curious robin to keep me company and put all my pots in a bag as I am getting my Mini Greenhouse tomorrow for my birthday which is on 1st March, I am getting my present early as I have potted up all my bargains and the porch is looking a little too full now. I have started a new job which will also take alot more time, so I need to get things sorted in the next few days. I have been out in the garden and my hellebores are now flowering which is lovely I have photos in my album.

I have planted some tomato seeds, moneymaker which are in my mini propagator on my bedroom windowsill they have been there 3 days and seedlings have already appeared.  Hopefully we will get some more light so they will not go leggy.  Some are for friends too which is nice.

Enjoy your gardening everyone.

I bought a good few Dahlia tubers in Lidl yesterday. They are such good value that I couldn’t resist. I also "encouraged" my daughter to buy her Mother’s Day present for me at the same counter!

I really like the look of the Eucomis Bicolor bulbs I got – will try them in a pot and  over winter in my greenhouse.

 

Welcome to the view from the front door of my greenhouse. It’s not very pretty, as you can see.

Straight ahead is the roof of next door’s enormous shed. There is a small bank in front of that, on the boundary of our garden, which has a Hypericum Hidcote hedge on it.

To the right, just past the Chestnut tree and the lamp-post is the dump. It is unsightly and holds soil, removed grass sods, weeds, cut perennials etc.

To the left, out of view, is a Rosa Rugosa hedge with a small Ginko tree and a small Contorted Red Hazel tree.