Month: May 2009

My hubby did Verdone the lawn three weeks ago – aren’t these beautiful?

The weeds have really shot up in the last few days – heartbreaking when I had all my beds weeded 10 days ago!  I can see why some gardeners give in!  But not me!

About 4 years ago, I went to the garden show in the RDS with a friend who loves gardening too, and one of our purchases were a 2 or 3 allium bulbs. They have been very reliable, and every year produce more flowers. This year I’m counting seven (cannot see them all on the photo!) 

After a miserable start, beautiful day outside now! I hope this is a taste of what the next few days will look like…

Enjoy the long week-end!

On 1-st of May we celebrate holiday, which is known abroad as May Day.

This is a holiday with long history. In USSR it was called ‘Day of  International Solidarity of Working People’. It was celebrated always with public demonstrations and meetings with flags, flowers and air-balloons. I remember joyous atmosphere of this holiday.

One of things I always regret that I never took part in such meetings – I was a baby,  too small. It was really funny.

In 1992 this holiday was renamed to ‘Holiday of Spring and Labour’. 

The weather is lovely, sunny and warm, +15 C without wind.  Holiday weather!

 

Happy May Day everyone. How lovely to find the ‘May flowers ‘ on your doorstep. Last year at the Museum of Country Life Turlough we were shown the old custom of decorating the ‘May Bush’. Next Sunday we are going on a walk around the grounds and then we are going to make a ‘May Posy’.  This is my first Marigold to flower for May Day.

This is the toughest weed that I have ever tried so hard to kill. I have tried everything thats out there and theres no stopping it. We recently done up our garden and had machines and mini diggers moving soil nd so on and now they are growing in the lawn so we have spot sprayed them which just seems to be killing the grass. Does anyone out there know what i can use to kill this nuisance weed?

Took a dead heading stroll around the garden this afternoon.

Some years ago I remember Gardener’s World saying that you should only cut off the dead mop heads on Hydrangeas on 1st May as only then would you be certain not to cut off the newly developing flower heads. As a result I always leave the mummified flower heads until 1 May – or 2 May this year! Mind you, there are various schools of thought on Hydrangeas. Some people cut them back completely every year. I love Hydrangeas, especially the lace cap varieties, yet I remember not too long ago my husband saying that he would move out if I planted those"granny bushes" in the garden. He’s still here and so are the Hydrangeas : )

Dead headed the last of my daffodils and some tulips, taking great care not to mistake Allium heads for de-petalled tulips. Now that would be a dreadful yet easy mistake to make! It’s great to see the new leaves coming on my newly planted hedging.

I got a pleasant surprise to note that my Paulownia tree is not dead. I planted it last year and it really looked dead this spring. Yet, as you can see from the picture, it has new leaves and is ready to go.

Spotted some wilting strawberry plants in my tower,  investigation found the dreaded vine weevil…  roots eaten off plants  and probably more infected… darn, darn, darn.

 better news..  extended my guerilla garden,  Starting to invade building site beside me.  More to go .  had better keep out of sight of builder..

Today I got little done around the plants in the garden, even though I had lots of plans this morning. The day just seemed to…disappear. I went to take a look at the growing marigolds and hosta, and tried another type of slug repellent as quite a few marigolds have already be eaten by slugs. Let’s hope this one works better than the previous one!

I popped into Woodies garden centre late in the afternoon and got some house plant compost as one of my plant is desperately in need of repotting and I keep postponing it. Now I have the compost so no excuse. I might even try and do it later if I have a minute. Also got some orchid compost, to attempt to divide a phalenopsis. This will be a first for me so let’s hope the plant survives the experience! And I also got a fan trellis for the part of the wall beside the little playhouse. There is a blue clematis growing on that wall, and it is finding it hard to hang on to anything, so this trellis was urgently needed!

Some of the steps in the back garden were getting loose, and quite dangerous especially for the kids, who always run up and down these steps at high speed. My partner fixed them today and they look definitely better now, and they are definitely much safer too!

Another good spell of weather today with no hold up in getting some jobs done in the garden.Some of the tubs were moved into place in the first small garden with just a few little touch ups left to be done there with them.Outside the polytunnell the remaining three large tubs along with the six mini ones were filled with manure, compost,clay etc,and are all ready now for some cabbages and some of their companions.The usual evening watering was completed also.Over all a slight difference to the plans made for today,but good to have some more of the new big tubs in the garden area, along with some more in veg plot,prepared now and ready for action. 

Thank goodness I don’t have this weed in my garden – not yet anyway. It is growing in the ditches just down the road so I’ll have to keep an eye out – if it moves in, I’m moving out!

A picture of Spring in the country.

Look what I got in Tesco when I for the Sunday papers!

Shortly after noon i attacked the garden with some more seeds.The day had nice sunshine at times,but the showers did not forget to pay a visit in either.First to go down was some more  parsnip White Gem,next the carrots Nantes 2,along with some more Spring onion Ishikura,then some  swedes Best of All,then on to the Brass,cabbage Greyhound,and finally on to plant some more herbs,Mint,Parsley,Coriander,Thyme, Oregano,and  last of all some Sweet Basil.Happy with what was done today, especially with it being a Sunday and all to that but im sure the sun will be let shine down a lot more,and sooner, rather than later.Some of the ridges had a very slight crack in the clay [only just some] so i wont complain.   

I spent most of the afternoon under the trees sheltering from the showers. When they stopped I was digging out all the Kaffir lilies from this very moist area. The lilies and soil(good quality) were dumped in a heap and covered with plastic and next year this should be good soil material. i replanted the Astilbe and also put in the orange Dahlia hoping that this site will not be too wet.

never tried this before and am delighted to see a bit of growth popping up. i planted the pot about a month ago and look forward to tasting them later on in the summer. i have 4 tubers in htis pot-maybe too many but we’ll learn from it if it is too many

4 years old and 1st time to flower. huge dark pink flowers. i was thrilled to see the buds on it this year as i know they can be planted many years before they bloom at all. i don’t think there is a fragrance but the sight of it is alone is something to behold. i really look forward to seeing it continue to grow and show off its blooms over the coming years

i bought a nine pack of cabbage in feb and planted them out. they are growing well, i think, but they dont look like cabbage. there doesn’t seeem to be any heart forming. to my eye they look more like brocoli. some of them have yellow flowers on them-could they be bolting?

bought these in the bargain bin long after they should have been planted but i couldn’t resist…not sure if i have the right name but i think they are Golden Ducat. they are beautiful and the blooms are huge, so heavy in fact that the stems bend over under the weight

huge leaves. lovely green colour with purplish underleaf. only in its 2nd season and already it is making itself a presence to take note of

this flower fills the garden or kitchen with a perfume that is intoxicating.. its the most beautiful sweet smell that just draws you to it time after time..the number of people who have commented on it is huge…you have to love it!!!

strange thing though…i can’t see how such a beautiful looking and smelling flower can be named after such a grumpy looking man who smoked a cigar

i have 3 of these. 2 are doing very well. this one however is struggling. i was going to dig it up and get rid of it last autumn but to be honest i forgot. spring sprung and i noticed it was budding.. however i cant but be concerned about its size and a lichen-like moss growing on the upper part of it. because i was going to get rid of it i planted a cotoneaster beside it to take its place, however now i am confused. i will let it grow this year i think and will decide on its future later on

i love the different colours here..bluebells, bleeding heart, grape hyacinths and daffodils

no matter their colour they are fantastic aren’t they? i have hundreds of seedlings at the base. i might keep some and see how they fare out. never had any seedlings from these before, they’re sown about 3 years