Month: May 2009

Promised to report on flora of France but not sure I am qualified.  This is just my impression.  We were staying in my sister’s house in Recey sur Ource in the Burgundy region or Cote d’or.  The house is a very old one and was originally the village post office.  The walls are stripped stone inside and are three feet thick so is always cool inside.  It is situated in the main "place" or Square.  about 400 inhabitants mostly rural and farming area.  Markets come to the square weekly.  NO  PUB.. can you imagine that in Ireland. Did not matter to us.

Was delighted to see  lots of container gardens.  very few gardens as such.  Houses on narrow roadsides no footpaths,  flowers in every crevice.  saw the most beautiful red climbing rose ever.  It was growing on many houses and plucked up courage to knock on a door and in halting  school french ask for a cutting.  This was gladly given so had to sneak them in (not easy).  Now its down to nature to see what happens.  It had the most glorious perfume.

The towns and villages had lots of flowers in public places but each house had very little space for growing.  Was consoled with my tiny garden.   Ireland certainly leads the way in meticulous gardens.  those that had any were not the neat lush gardens of Ireland.  Have to agree with Olga  Ireland is the Mecca of gardens.

Photo is one of my own cacti as airlines dictate luggage and I had to leave my camera at home so no french or german photos.  Only stayed in germany arrival night and departure night 

I never normally do hanging baskets but last summer my youngest, Sammy, pointed out a hanging basket at his school and demanded to know why "we haven’t got any of them". So, just to please him but also to try out tender Fuchsias, I ordered a set of three Giant Fuchsias by mail order this January.

The Fuchsias arrived in April and looked very measly. I immediately took three cuttings as I wanted two hanging baskets and thought I should have three plants in each. Following instructions in my book, I potted on the original plants and continued to pinch out the new stems to make the plants bush.

Unfortunately one of my cuttings died but the other two did well, although they haven’t caught up with the original plants. I removed the plastic some time ago and pinched them out once.  Today I finally planted up my two hanging baskets – one with 2 bigger plants and the other with one bigger plant and the two cuttings. I put in water containing gel and a small pot in each basket to make a watering hole right to the plants’ roots. They are hung on brackets in the greenhouse, where I will probably leave them. Can’t wait to see the giant flowers. I believe they come in six weeks from when you stop pinching out so that means the second week in July!

There were no starving slugs or snails in Westport!…

I was so furious I forgot to stop adding the dreaded slug pellets.  of course it was too late.

Today the weather has improved cardinally. Our crazy thermometer on indicator panel showed +27. I’m inclined to believe that, cause it was really warm and dry and sunny.

But! Weather forecasts say this heaven will last till weekend only 🙁 The only consolation is that this weekend is not summer weekend yet.

I put all summer flowers to the balcony and sure they will enjoy these warm days. 

The chiidren were taking a look at their recently planted little patch of garden tonight (see album ‘First steps’). They were disappointed to find one of the Gerberas looking a bit damaged. Has big munch holes, but also a number of leaf stems are bent and flower stem is snapped off.

It’s appearance reminded me of my recently planted rhubarb. In the first few weeks, it also seemed to have damaged leaves, which looked like they had been sat on and snapped. Also holes in leaves. I thought it was slug damage, and so set a beer trap. Caught a few, but not sure it was a big problem. New leaves are growing now and it looks much better, but I just wonder if something bigger thatn a slug was having a nibble? Could be the dog, but I am not convinced (she wouldn’t be eating the leaves anyway!) We are in a very rural area, so I wondered if it may be a rabbit? Any ideas anyone?

Not much done in the garden in the last 3 days; I just took a few pictures and looked at things growing… 

Went in Woodies this afternoon to get some more pots, and I bought basil, coriander seeds, and also radishes. I’ll sow the radishes outside, but will keep the basil inside. Not sure about the coriander. I might have some indoors and some outdoors. I made sure this time to get the "leaves" coriander, because a few years ago I bought the wrong coriander and got very tall herbs, and eventually seeds, but that’s not what I was looking for at all! Anyway, we use both these herbs quite a lot in cooking, so it’s worth the while and more fun to grow them (and less expensive also…)

All of the seeds I sowed are now out (not outside) and looking fine, I’m wondering if they will have enough time to flower this year though! I hope they do. I’m not used to growing things from seeds though so I’m a bit unsure as to what to do next with them. I suppose I will put the seedlings into larger pots when they are a bit bigger. The poppies seedlings are so tiny and thin that I don’t think I will be able to take them one by one…

The photo is of my blue clematis, it has more petals opening all of the time. The actual plant is not very big (only 6 flowers at the moment). The label I got for it only said blue clematis, but it looks similar to Vyvyan Pennell.

Now I am off preparing my picnic for Blooms tomorrow (assuming it will be as sunny and warm as the forecast says!)

What a gorgeous day…is it really Summer? Did lots of catch up work in the garden today. You can see by the new photos what I mean about the veggie beds bursting with growth…does anyone remember that film ‘Day of the Trifids’ well as you can see the calabrese are gone mad mad mad…and so dont know if I did the right thing but I cut off all the large leaves…there is no sign of any centres coming on…so into the compost with the leaves and will see how they do….

Planted 12 tomatoe plants out in grow bags and staked them…have decided that I will only allow them to have 1 truss each…so hope that works ok too…. also planted out the hydrangeas at last…they have survived and I’ve given them a good start….Hubby cut the grass so it looks like a lawn now…no buttercups…well not for another few days anyhow….placed all the potted up containers in their final resting place for the summer….Hubby also potted up his leeks and some purple sprouting brocolli!

Eating lots of  salad…think I’ll be sharing some with the neighbours…sharing is caring!!! Hope everyones been enjoying the sunshine.

 

Great day at Bloom today, not least because the weather was wonderful. It looks like the temperature went up to 22ºC at some point, incredible, this is summer!

My friend and I arrived at around 11:30, and I was amazed to see the amount of cars and people already there by then. The car park looked nearly full already at that time (not counting all of the cars parked along the roads in the Phoenix park). In spite of that, it didn’t feel crowded once we were in the actual show, so that was good.

We headed straight for the show gardens, and decided to shop last, to avoid having to carry too much around for too long. I liked most of the show gardens, but did not feel very confortable looking at the Keelings Naturally Fresh garden (ES10). The colours in that garden were really bright and happy and mad, but I couldn’t help thinking of these 100’s of beautiful fruit and vegetables roasting in the hot sun and possibly going to waste? (I hope not).

Some of my favourite gardens: the Honest 2 Goodness vegetable garden, the Secluded Water garden, the Edible classroom (I loved the herb boxes), and Ag Cur Baisti. Hard to remember it all now!

I liked the big walled garden also, although it has a lot of empty spaces still. 

I didn’t buy much at all in the end, just a few geraniums, a burgundy astrantia and a small lilac scented primula. There were a few really beautiful peonies, but they were expensive enough, and I’m always scared of buying a really expensive plant in case something awful happens to it, like it gets devoured by slugs within a few days!! I noticed quite a few really nice poppies around; didn’t get any as I am not sure where would be the best place for them in the garden at the moment, considering they were very tall. Another time may be!

I uploaded some photos of today in the Bloom 2009 album…

 

 

Feeling a little frustrated today as I can’t go to Bloom til Monday and I don’t know how I’m going to get through the weekend.  I feel like I’m walking through a desert with a burgeoning Oasis in sight, but 3 days walk away!!!  Well, maybe that is a little over dramatic, but you get the idea!

Not much gardening going on here at the moment as there is so much work to be done indoors – like painting, which I have been doing all week, and will probably be doing for most of Saturday and Sunday.  I did manage to replant my strawberry pot with a fresh crop of alpine strawberries that I grew from seed last year.  They were very overcrowded so hopefullly they will appreciate their new home and do me proud.  I’m also planning to dig up some of the area in front of the house as it is imposible to keep on top of the weeds there and the soil is terrible as it used to be coverd in tarmac.  I’m going to put down some gravel and put a bench there as it gets the evening sun. 

Looking forward to keeping up with everyone’s reports of Bloom.  Enjoy! It looks like it will be a great show with lots and lots of inspiration, and if you’re like me and won’t be going until the last day, I hope you make it through the desert and your horticultural thirst is well and truly quenched on Monday!

What a busy day!

I got notification of a closing down sale at a local Garden Centre yesterday. It promised great deals so I just had to head off there this morning before going up to Bloom in Dublin. It was the Garden Centre where I recently got good bargains on large Buxus. Well, I got more good bargains on large Buxus this morning as well as a few other odds and ends.

So, made it to Bloom around 12.30 and had a look around the gardens first. The picture shows my favourite one, The Secluded Water Garden. The plant pavillion was more fun and I was delighted to get my hands on a Sarracenia ‘Juthatip Soper’ and Nepenthes ‘Rebecca Soper’. I nearly had to fight someone to get the last Nepenthes of that colour! I saw fabulous giant Nepenthes there – ones which could digest a mouse. But 50 quid was a bit beyond my means.

Didn’t see anyone at the Irish Garden stand at 2pm but I guess we all had stuff we needed to see. By the way, I would recommend anyone to bring children this year. there was lots for them to do. I had been in two minds about bringing my youngest and didn’t in the end. But it would have been grand to have brought him.

Isn’t this the most beautiful colour. These trees were growing all over Portugal.

hi everybody

                    well what can i say its beeeaauuuttiiful the summer as arrived ?????? (for how long???) been out playing with macey and her new toy today,enjoying my garden.have posted picys.

Another perfect day today with the weather.The hose was the most wanted item in the garden today.Put down another selection of seed,also some more tomato plants [outside].Grass got a trim and some of the hedge also.Collected any more pots and trays around the garden that were not in use.Washed the exit area with the power hose.The rose bed had a new layer of compost added to it.Had a quick look around for any places that enemies [slugs,snails etc] could be hidden.Time to close up all for the night.The annual cemetery evening mass was  being held this evening, so no more time to work after 6 o clock.Covered lots of ground today so all went well.

 

In the city we have almost all spring flowers still in bloom – irises, tulips, muscari, daffodils and primroses (in my album). And summer flowers also start to bloom – petunias, violas and so on.