Month: June 2009

beginning to use the veg that have grown for us. fingers crossed!

Couldnt sleep last night it was so hot. So I got up at 5.00am.

The first thing to greet me when I went out to the garden was a broken pot. I had 4 small buxus in 4 identical pots. And during the night I heard cats fighting. One of them was my own. So they must have knocked them over and one broke. I was devastated. I loved them because they were so simple and unfussy. And the buxus were great in them. But I bought the pots years ago so the chance of me getting one replacement is rather slim. I was going to buy 4 new ones. But there were no nice ones in work. I can wait. So out comes the superglue until then.

The lilies in work are beginning to flower so when that happens I usually reduce them to half price. And lilies are one flower I just cannot resist. So I bought them. 3 bulbs in one pot for €5.99. So I got 6 lilies for €6. Not bad.

When I got home I watered everything. And potted  up my lilies. They’re gorgeous. I also potted up seedlings of Lychnis coronaria that had self-seeded in my small white agapanthus. They would have been handy to bring to Mullingar, IF I WAS GOING. So if any local members would be interested in taking them off my hands, please feel free to let me know.

Oh and by the way, what colour are snails eggs? My vine is covered in transparent pinhead things that I think might be snails eggs. Somebody please let me know. I have posted a bad pic on my latest album ‘hot hot hot’. The best I could do. Hope you can make them out.

This is the spreading Alstroemeria, so you can see why I don’t like getting anymore orange ones!

For Rita D….this is the orchid…its a deeper pink than this…hope you can identify it!

hi everyone didnt do much this eve was to hot to do any weeding so i mowed the lawn and watered the flowers. have new project on pipeline. decided the hedge at the front looked so bad it has to go so i am going to take it out and put in an escaonia hedge the pink evergreen one.and put a bamboo screen behind it as a wind breaker. the hedge that is there now is very hollow and doesnt look good anymore. hope i can get some weeding done tomorrow if it is not to hot. goodnight all and happy gardening

This site (facing south with wall to the north)was cleared of an ‘ Albertine ‘ rose last year, so I thought put the propagated Tree Lupin there. I very carefully moved Sallysarah’s Evening Primrose(as its the only one I have), then dug out loads of Bluebells(they were replanted down in the Bluebell Wood). I was standing on the clump of Artemisia and it was giving off the most wonderful smell. The large spiky plant to the right is a Angel’s Fishing rod about to come into flower, to the left is Crocosmia ‘Citronella’, a baby ‘Katsura’ bush and pink flowered Malva(this seeds like mad). Ive put in a before and after shot.

This year is more or less our first time to be committed to growing vegetables in our back garden. Lots of vegetables are getting ready at the same time, so we need to organise our dinner menu to make the most of them as we’re just two of us.

Green chili peppers in the glass house are big enough to eat, so I’m thinking of cooking Thai style chicken with coconut milk by Delia Smith tonight, using the chilis and spring onions from the garden.

It’s a pity corianders are not ready yet as we have just sowed them a week ago, (and we are not growing coconuts for the milk!!).

I decided to tackle the area I call the herb garden over the weekend.  It had been ignored for a long time and was completely taken over by vetch.  Most of the mediteranean herbs such as sage, lavender and thyme had rotted due to the poor drainage so I was happy to leave it for a while as the bees loved the purple flowers of the vetch.  But the time came when something had to be done, as we had just finished working on the room overlooking it and it was more of an eyesore than the sight for sore eyes that I had envisaged.  It is made up of four box-edged beds with a large metal pot (which was originally the top of a boiler) in the centre with a nice big bay in it. However, over the winter the drainage hole became blocked and the bay I’m afraid drowned, and seemed to go as rusty as the pot it was in.  But this inspired me  – seeing the pot full of water I thought maybe I could make a water feature out of it.  It is very rusty so I’m not sure if it is a runner but more about that later.  Back to weeding.  Well, I noticed this unusual looking plant growing at the side of one of the beds.  I had never seen it before – even though I have always been interested in wild flowers.  It was exotic looking and I thought maybe birds had deposited the seeds there from another garden.  I eventually identified the mystery plant with the aid of my ‘Wild Flowers of Britain’ book and it turned out to be Common Figwort, Scrophularia nodosa.  What struck me is that it is not unlike some of the plants being introduced these days that are actually just wild plants from farflung corners of the world.  So I am tempted to leave it where it is, at least until it sets seed as apparently it was called ‘the Queen of Herbs’ here in the past because of its medicinal properties and what better place for the Queen of Herbs than in a herb garden?

Have been dreaming of  "White Garden" for ages. Looking at the back lawn longingly for ages now, thinking, wishing, planing, scheming……mmmm… will I, won’t I start digging???

I suppose I have lots to maintain at the minute! no need to go making "more work" for myself. Have my eye on some lovely cast iron garden benches lately in Mullingar Auction Rooms, really victorian in style, romantic & ornate!

Sissinghurst’s famous White Garden didn’t live up to expectations in May when I was there, it was too early in the season, but it hasn’t dampened my hopes.

Rachaels’ white Cosmos and Shasta Daisy pictures I seen today has reinforced my enthuasiam……

Hmmmm, we’ll see what happens, funds and time permitting, PG!

J*

 

So, today is the last day of June but what a bumper month it was for the garden!

Did a bit of planting and weeding today.

The big thing though was re-finding a sundial I had placed on the hill some years ago. It had become completely covered over with persicaria. I cut the persicaria away but need to cut a bit more away.

The sundial says ‘tempus fugit’, which is ‘time flies’ in Latin. And it seems to have done since I placed the sundial up there. It seems that my perception of the centre point, as seen from the kitchen, has not changed in the last while because I placed the Easter Island heads in roughly the same position as the sundial although the sundial was no longer visible at that stage.

More garden photos in the June album.

Hoping to get to the Dillon garden in Dublin tomorrow. However, this is my third year trying to get there so I’ll believe it only when I’m actually there : )

Where has the last month gone to? It just flew by. But we all got a lot done in our gardens. When I got home from work I set to planting some of the plants I got for my enlarged border, Astrantia, Rudbekia, geranium, heuchera ‘stoplight’, Lysimachia, Dryopteris, Astilbe and Liatris. I spread bark mulch all over. But behind the pond, I have a mulch of shells and cobbles to emulate a nautical theme. Steve will connect the electricity of the lighthouse later this evening. We have an anchor, and lifebelt, and a salvaged lamp. I also left a small bank of clay as I am undecided what to plant there. Plenty of time for that. For once I haven’t overloaded on plants. I’m going to give these plants time to grow and fill out before I decide on any more. We are pleased with the result.

Now we have to get matching edging blocks for the other 2 circles. Should be done by the weekend.

I harvested shallots this evening. I should have planted more. We’ll consume them in a very short space of time. I’ll plant at least 3 times that amount next year.

 

After all my efforts some plants have not delivered for various reasons by seed and some have done wonderful, my Cerinthe have all but died after a severe drought while on holidays, while my Mexican sunflowers have done really well, I always think its worthwhile sowing or trying to propogate stuff because you never know what will grow and you get plants for next to nothing or nothing at all.

Another amazing thing is how the garden suprises in ways that you never expect it to, take some plants for example that through all the odds survive our cold winters. I grew Ricinus (caster oil plant) last year and got loads of seeds which I mollycoddled and planted with zeal following specific internet advise, the result was nothing not a single seedling. however I forgot as an experiment I planted 4 seed around where the plants had been last year and low and behold I’ve got 4 baby ricinus! Now they are severely behind where the should be but I hope togrow on to produce more seed that I will have more sucess with.

I also dig up my dead plants and hold onto them for a least 3 months, just in case, and so far I’ve had 2 sucess, my Sauromatum venosum (Voodoo lily) and a bush I forgot to life in winter called the Brazilian Spider Flower (Tibouchina urvilleana) the little garden shop in bunclody told me it can be hardy with protection, but did’nt tell me it was hardy with no protection!! Mind you it might not flower this year, but I’m delighted there back.

Having said that the a building graveyard at the back of the greenhouse for winter casualties, most difficult to take were all my Aoniums died. But I’m already marking the Chiltern Seed catalogue for next year, better start saving!

While it’s great to see plants grow during the long days, it’s shocking to see how weeds can be so aggressive in my shelter belt. 

I could not believe how quickly after spraying, that the tenacious ferns, brambles and grass forced their way and now challenge the yourg lines I planted in March to fill the gaps in between the more established trees.

Getting a shelter belt established is a real challenge, fighting the elenemts as well as the heavily populated hedgerows that are bountiful with wilf flora.