Month: April 2009

And another vivid recollection of last summer – Forest Park in Co. Wexford.

It was a very next day after we wisited  Irish National Heritage Park. The weather was very moist and much more rainy. Sometimes it was dangerous to walk – the soil was damp and slippery. We walkes with the baby in buggy and tried to be very careful.

I loved those high strong trees. Here trees are much smaller and not so branchy cause of north climate.

A nice cup of black tea from Ceylon, and apple pie with cream – that’s what I like after such walks on the fresh air.  ;)))

 

My conscience had been bugging me about a Rambling Rector Rose I bought last year and planted against the native hedge on our property boundary. It was bothering me because I plan on getting rid of the hedge this autumn/spring and the Rector needed rescuing.

But where to put him? Such a vigorous climber would not be suitable for my new pergolas. In the end I decided to plant him to grow up the largest tree in our garden. It is a Cherry Tree, which is beautiful for about a week in spring but unnoticeable the rest of the year. It is about 15ft tall and strong. I dug a hole about 5ft away from the tree trunk and put farmyard manure, rose fertiliser and general purpose compost in the hole.

The rose was quite long and I managed to extract it from the native hedge without breakage although I did have to cut one of its roots. The rose stems reached to the tree and could be wound around it. I tied them all in securely just before the rain and wind came down in earnest. I hope it will take well and that I will have white roses to look at from my greenhouse this summer.

Another cool day along with more of that rain,rain,rain.I kept the greenhouse and polytunnell closed with the weather.Got home around 2pm.Inside in the house i sowed some more  Veg,beans,purple queen. cauli,all the year round. b.sprouts.Had some time to sow some more pansy,petunia,spilanthes[first time to sow,present from New Zealand] also some Herbs, thyme,chives,peppermint,and commen comfrey.Gave another quick tidy up to the room and washed some used trays. 

Today I was trimming the Cotoneaster that had rooted into the tarmac!  I wanted this shrub to grow over the wall so that it would be one less wall to paint. I think I made more work for myself. Ive made an album of the work in progress but will have to leave the final photo till later as this will take some time.

Well the seed factory has started to mature and I desperately needed bigger pots like many people here, finally got them and potted on yesterday. Thanks to Rachel for putting me onto Carley Bridge and saving me time and money, I bought enough pots to keep me going for a while. I have now started sowing more seed and I’m not sure if I’ll have the energy or space to plant them all!!

My Ricinis have not performed and I’m pretty dissappointed to be honest, not sure what I did wrong but maybe I should have stored the seeds better is my only guess I think it’d be too late to get seeds now and retry, will try get my hand on some plants agan this year, if not I’ll have to wait till next year.

I should have cleaned out my greenhouse during the good spell of weather we had but I had so much to do, I need to spray it with armillitox as soon as I can. I really hope to set up my timed watering system soon as it is a pain to have to water most days. Was ttempted to buy auto window openers but I find opening the greenhouse every day is very theraputic (remembering to close them is the problem).

I planted some more stuff but not much just some dwarf spreading bamboo’s that hopefully will cover the last patch of my hill. I need to do some work on my wildflower area but I’m afraid rabbits have dug so many holes in it if  plant more seed it won’t take. Unfortunilty my kids were horrified when I spoke of death to the Easter bunny’s the other day (if I had one I culd live with it, but hoards of them!).

Was just wondering does anyone recognise this plant. I took babies from my brother in Laws garden last year and they are about to flower with yellow flowers. It is a succulent Aonium like with flowers like sedum. I hope to put up other photos in my photo section to aid it’s identity. It’s obviously hardy and I have’nt been able to identify it which for someone as pedantic as me is frustrating!

I also hope to add some pictures on seedling progress if this wind does’nt blow my door off in the meantime!! I have to stick my mobile internet dongel out the door of the kitchen to get a decent signal you see.

There’s no gardening to be done today. It’s horrible outside. The wind even blew over some of my potted plants outside the back door. I nearly lost a big Rhododendron. An inspection of the garden revealed one of the disadvantages of living in the country.

The sceptic tank has overflowed, spewing sewage onto the lawn. Lovely! My husband has a trick to unblock it, using a stick, so he was out in the wind and rain to do this. Yuck! New photos of the garden in the rain (not the sceptic tank) in my April 2009 album.

I wanted to try the new Flymo garden vac on all the mess and pine needles on the tarmac today but didn’t get the chance. We get loads of pine needles and I have been known in moods of madness to get the yard brush out to sweep the whole area and get hands full of blisters for my troubles. Under the cut cotoneaster was lots of nice black mulch which I spread around the roses bushes that are just on the other side of the wall. This lovely bright Philadelphus ‘aureus is also on the other side.

 

Planted tomatoes today and carrying out a little experiment. When I was buying growbags I came across two different types this year. Last year I grew all the tomatoes in an all purpose growbag and had a good harvest. This year I came across an organic tomatoe growbag which is not as bulkier or as heavy in weight and volume. Both are made by the same company so I am interested to see if there is any difference in harvest quanties. I have planted the growbags with exactly the same tomatoe plants and I will water and feed them equally the same. I am curios to see what the results will be. 

… I continue to recall my Irish vacation last summer.

Little town Rush not far from Dublin (railway station ‘Rush & Lusk’).

Not much sights, but some pretty little front gardens and harbour. I was there twice, the second time I was alone – just walked to stretch my legs.

Pictures are in album ‘Rush’.

 

This is the main ‘Crotonifolia’ in a nice sheltered corner. Mostly they are male but some have produced berries.

I found this most gorgeous Daffodil! Its called Rosy Cloud.

I managed a bit of weeding this evening and removed the "skirt" from my palm tree.

The skirt was composed of dead leaves from previous years’ growth. I imagine they need to be removed in the same way as a Yucca’s leaves need to be removed.I just pulled them off as it was quite moist in at the trunk.

Strangely the trucnk is narrower where I have just removed the dead leaves. Anyone got any thoughts on this?

For a few years i have been looking to get a green house, i had been using mini green houses for a couple of years. The price and the time it took to build one was what kept me from getting one. This year i bought one from B&Q for about €315 which is 8×6 which included Frame, base and polycarbonate glazing. I was very surprised how easy it was to put together. I got the frame and base up,which took half a day but due to the weather i had to wait few days before doing the Glazing for this you need two people and no wind. this took about 3 hours including tightening up all bolts. The green house once together was layed on a block base. which  involved some digging  to level the ground and then drilling the blocks and bolting the greenhouse to the blocks. my advice is make sure you read all the instructions before you start and wear gloves.

If the instructions say dont tighten bolts till the glazing is done make sure you do this it, it makes glazing easier and the green house parts need to move to get into the right shape when glazing.

Make sure the bolts are put in from the proper side as per instructions.

The green house is finished. all that is left is to prepare the beds for planting.

More photos in my greenhouse album

 

 

 

 

While we get lots of blue tits, sparrows,thrushes and starlings visiting our wild bird feeding station each day today saw our first gold finch of the year. I only caught a sparrow on film but I will keep trying.

My friend has just had a garden makeover. She couldn’t find a place for this seat so she gave it to me!!!!!~~~I WAS THRILLED~~~ By the way she said its called a ‘love seat’ ~~~!

Last Saturday I cut back the flowering stems of my Helleborus plants, which were going to seed. this should enable the new shoots to grow more quickly and stronger. I loosely tied these new shoots with pieces of Cordyline Australis leaves to keep them in an upright position.

Then I used my moss-eater machine to collect the moss growing in my lawn. I had done this not too long ago but the recent damp weather had brought it all back again. This time I collected a vast amount of moss and the lawn looks very unkempt with patches of bare soil all over. I will have to buy some grass seed and grass fertiliser with moss killer. The latter should eliminate what moss remains, at least until next year.  

I noticed that some of my Cosmos seedlings, especially at the end of the lawn, have been eaten, possibly by slugs or snails. I may replace them with spares later. Some of the others are beginning to grow a flower bud and I have nipped these flower buds to encourage the plant into growing a bushy shape. 

Belated Easter Wishes to everyone!

Back to the construction again, no gardening done, not even a weed pulled!

Pieced together the frame of the very GREEN house with the recycled windows. Looking good so far, its goin to be massive!!?

Now to put a roof on and hang a door, I reckon it will look fab painted white. keep watching !

 J

Hi to all,

Well, Easter finaly got here – as we know it marks the whole gardening season from here on in.

I would like to wish you all a happy easter (a little belated though)

The Potatoes are in now a week and a half.  The boss had designed a new garden structure for his Veg. beds and its so manageable and i cant wait to try it out.  Its so practical and manageable that we are going to be out day and night now gardening.

The front borders have been neglected and yesterday in the rain – I got a bit of a chance to weed – I love to wee din the rain – they pop out so easily – definitely its a way to beat the blues.

Mind you – from the photos – you can see the weeds are not stopping the growth from coming through.  There is a nice bit of colour finally in the garden.

The greenhouse is bursting – but we need a little moew sun for the melons and peppers to do well.  I found my sweet pea did not do well, one whole tray went onto the compost bin several days ago – slugs and failure to germinate – the ones that did gerninate are slow to grow so i bought a tray to prop up what i have already.

Tomatoes are doing really well, lettuces, pak choi etc, all growing well.

This is our season – from here on in its just gardening and working with the occasional bit of sleep thrown in.

Also finally got the cold frame back up and running – thanks to John – he is a star for fixing it for me – a couple of cattle came into the garden last year when i had taken the frame off and they walked on it and broke it.  once you use one – they are hard to get used to living without.  So mega brownie points there 🙂

John has all his veg in modules ready to go when the last of the frosts have finished.  I have also started to collect kitchen waste in buckets ready to throw in the pit for the peas/beans. 

The dogs continue to help us and in particular – they bury everything in the newly dug potato patches.

Thats all for now – hopefully you were all out enjoying the dry weather over the weekend – (except fofr yesterday that is – but the rain is good).

Lorraine

I worked it out watching the rain yesterday. To cut the grass on a 50 x 50M site with a 500mm mower you must walk 5000M (5Km) which goes a long way towards explaining the state I was in on Saturday night. A long winter has taken it’s toll but I’m sure I will get my summer legs soon.

ITS GETTING WORSE. I CAN ACTUALLY HEAR IT GROWING BEHIND ME AS I MOW IT.

Over the last few days I have potted on all my tomato, courgette, aubergine & sweet pepper plants into much larger pots.

As danger of frost in the greenhouse has not passed, I need to keep these plants indoors. But where on earth am I to put them!?! The photo shows some of the plants on my kitchen table!

I do have tomaotes and courgettes planted in the greenhouse border but I think I need to keep the rest indoors as back-up, just in case I loose the ones in the border to frost. I’m new to greenhousing so still finding my feet. I note that the greenhouse information on this site states "If not already done, greenhouse tomato plants, raised or purchased, can be planted in the greenhouse soil, also cucumbers, chillies, aubergines, sweet peppers and melons". I wonder is it true or does it just refer to a heated greenhouse???

Got a great present of another rhubarb plant from my niece-in-law over Easter.

I noticed today that my smaller Amelanchier is in full flower. This one is called Amelanchier Ballerina and is a lovely little tree. I think the common name is Snowy Mespil.

I have added photos of the tree to my April 2009 photo album and have also added a new album showing the process involved in putting up my new greenhouse.

This is muy current favourite tree, a multi-stemmed Silver Birch.  There is a mature stand of pines sheltering this tree.  Birch does not tolerate the strong winds that hit the Kerry coast, but once there is adequate shelter, you can get nice rewards just like this tree. 

Its another pouring wet day and that means sitting at computer nosing around other people’s gardens. Rain is an excuse to do this .  No qualms of conscience for wasting time that could be spent  weeding, potting etc, 

I was delighted to note this morning that the mixed tulips in the bed seen from the back kitchen window have gained their candy colours. It’s funny how such things can seem to happen overnight. Photos are in the April 2009 album.

Just managed to do a little bit of weeding, between the rain drops.

My kitchen is getting very crowded as you can see from the photo!