Month: February 2009

Today I’ve got the envelope with seeds from Rachel. Thank you very much!

I’ve got echinacea purpurea, geum, helenium, liquidambar styraciflua, lupin and (lovely surprise!) – pansy! Lupin is one of my favourite and I have red lupin for this year sowing. The set of lupin seeds of the same colours I sent to my granny last year. 

I’m happy to try all these seeds, so I’m going to put them into the fridge. I plan to sow all this seeds in March.

Thanx, Rachel! Good gardening to you too!

I’ve just discovered that on website www.visitdublin.com you can see new project – Dublin Webcam.

As it said on site, ‘This live view of Dublin means that you can watch major events, such as the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, pass by, or just spend a little time watching the people of the Fair City of Dublin going about their business!’

I think it’s a great idea! It’s inexpressible feeling – to see again those places I visited last summer. 🙂 

 

I’m very pleased with what I got done today.

I dug the 15 holes for the Copper Beech hedging in the semi-circle, I widened the strip for the Lonicera hedging and dug the 14 holes necessary for that too. The holes are at 18" intervals.

When I started out I only thought that I would get a bit done today but the soil was easy to dig – a lot easier than other places in the garden – and I did have my little helper!

However, my muscles started to atrophy over a cup of tea when I sat down with my sons for an outdoor picnic. So that’s enough for today.

By the way, I know that the best method for hedging is to dig a trench but that is double the work and I do need to consider self preservation – no point in callapsing from exhaustion when the gardening season is only kicking off!

I got another 2 hours weeding this morning. As I was pulling out the weeds and the moss I was pulling up roots of plants. I had to run to find pots, then soil to keep them from dying. (Making more work for myself). I have now run out of decent sized pots. This is the ‘spare plant area’. These are ready to go to good ‘foster homes’.

Yesterday I planted first part of my seeds – lobelia pendula ‘Pink cascade’, lobelia pendula ‘Cascade mix’ and Astilbe arendsii ‘Grand’.

Astilbe,  cultivated from seeds, can produce flowers just in its third year, and I hope I still will have some land for it. I like this plant and ready to wait for flowers.

 

 

My husband just dug up the Jerusalem Artichokes.

What a nice surprise as we forgot about them.

I finished cutting back and weeding the first flower bed of the season.

It is the easiest to weed because it is in the main part of hte garden we use most (West Garden) so it gets the most attention. However, it is quite a long border so it’s good to get it done.

I am so pleased with how well my Yucca Gloriosa is doing. I bought it at Bloom two years ago and the snow doesn’t seem to have bothered it. I wonder will it flower for me this year! The slugs have already been busy, however, on my poor Arums.

I will have to put some compost or manure on the end of the bed that you see. The soil is very poor and stoney. Whenever I weed it I take out great handfuls of stones. I also need to get rid of the wiggly bit in the middle – it annoys my husband no end when he mows the grass.

My husband started weeding and digging our six raised vegetable beds. He finished the first one. The raised beds are in the unkempt part of our garden.

As this first bed already has Jerusalem Artichokes in it, and they’re practically impossible to get rid of, my husband has decided to give the bed over to Jerusalem Artichokes. I think he said he was going to plant radishes there early on in the season (my sons love radishes as they love Fraggle Rock).

Note our Laurel and Olive trees in the centre of the raised bed area. I wonder will the poor Olive tree survive after that dreadful winter! Gerry Daly said I had no hope with an Olive tree outdoors in Ireland. I don’t think he believed me when I said I’d had one for three years outdoors. But this part of the garden is quite sheltered by a native hedge.

I am now a fan of gardening gloves.

I always swore against them before, claiming that I need to feel the weeds to know what to pull. I went to my doctor recently, however, as I have a patch of persistent psoriasis on the heel of my right hand. She strongly recommended gardening gloves so I decided to give them a try.

All I can say is, so far so good. I have managed to weed sucessfully with the gloves and my hands need a whole lot less scrubbing when I comein from the garden. The psoriasis is still there but it’s not being aggravated by the soil, as it normally is.

All thoughts are now turning to getting the garden in shape. There is plenty of clearing up to do.The leaves off the Cordyline are very tough!  I have trimmed quite a few bushes now. Plenty for the compost bins and left overs.

Its a pity she couldn’t push it for me!

Here are some lovely Eucalyptus branches I trimmed yesterday.  Anyone want them for flower arranging? I like to keep the Eucalyptus as a bush as I have seen the trees blown down quite easily.

Hello everyone, built my early birthday present today, my mini walk in greenhouse, put my plants in out of the porch and mam now happy that it will be tidy soon, then into the garden to see what needs doing, did some digging around my snowdrops which are looking so sweet and white at the moment.  Hellebores coming into full force (see photos).  I have also started to get rid of overgrown plants and done some cutting back, major renovation at the bottom of the garden which is somewhat neglected and need to get the saw out to old buddleia bushes and cut down overhanging trees. My tomatoes are coming on on my bedroom windowsill too. The weather today has been sunny here and quite warm out of the wind which makes you feel better and want to get out in the garden.  Worked at the garden centre yesterday and we have had a delivery of new plants which is exciting the only problem is I want to bring them all home expecially the windflowers with their pretty blue flowers and the pale yellow primroses are looking particularly lovely now.

Well finally I’m just about well enough to get out and garden, it’s hard to know where to start as there is so much to do. March is by far my busiest month, and I’ve made two lists the need to do list and the long finger list which has had very little done with it over the past 6 months.

I have prepared my raised beds and given one over to my kids this year to grow, whatever eclectic mix of plants the decide. I have started to dig further down my potatoe bed to create more space to be able to rotate next year. This I had hoped to do earlier but alas… it means I may have to plant on the same ground as last year which will mean a higher risk of blight. 

I finally got to sow seeds this week gone and I’m way behind others but I’ll keep plugging away I planted tomatos, chilli, carrots and peas so far. In flowers I’ve experimented with zantadecia, agapanthus, ricinus, aconitum and carex all collected seed from my own garden. I’ve also planted a pletorah of other seed that frankly I have no energy to dig a bed for yet!!

I’m replacing 4 of my trees that did’nt make it last year, I’m really at the edge of bare root season end and will have to look after them well. I’m also for my sins hoping to plant 6 fruit trees and some dogwood on my hill (since the wildflowers washout last year)

Today I spread some of the remaining bark mulch on my shade bed and around my raised beds and veg patch but still have to weed around the shade bed. I also did a basic cleanout of my greenhouse and installed one of two water butts at the end of the greenhouse to catch all the water that had been running into the greenhouse on downpours.

Just another 23 jobs to go and I’m finished!!!!

I sowed some more seeds – a tray each of Corn Flower (blue), Morning Glory & Larkspur (thank you, Lorraine).

I also sowed some more Sweet Pea – a named variety – Melody Rose.

Do you like my Sweet Pea pots, made from toilet roll cores?