Month: June 2009
Went to Dublin for a few days, told my husband (himself who seems to be always outside) to water containers if it didn’t rain. It rained, some of the rain must have been slugs and snails as opposed to cats and dogs, had to go on safari upon my return.
Feeling virtuous (and a bit stiff!) – did some necessary tidying in garden this weekend and tied up peas, beans, tomatos etc. That is fiddly work and hard on the knees!! Removed a load of ginormous snails which I deposited outside the garden – they will make a nice little buffet lunch for passing birds (I cant kill things – very squeamish – but find that the natural hierarchy takes care of snailicide, ie bigger things eat smaller things). Enjoyed the last of the early lettuces and am hoping the second crop will come along quickly. Potatos are a bit of a mystery to me – not sure when they will be ready for harvesting – there are some small flowers. Did not get around to planing out some cornflowers I have been growing from seed, or the last of the godetia also grown from seed; will have to wait for next weekend. Lovely atmosphere of growth and fragrance in the garden, love this time of year!
Well its been a while since I’ve had the time to sit down to Garden.ie, as I’ve been so busy helping friends and family develope their vegetable plots. Vegetable growing is one of my many gardening loves, I’ve studied organic horticulture in both Portumna Castle garden and Dromcollagher organic college and the fruit and veggies have always won my favour! There is something special about growing a plant that has the added benifit of feeding the grower! And there has been such an interest and revival in homegrown food,FANTASTIC!!!
So far the weather has been the gardeners friend, even if sometimes causing us to jump the gun seasonally! 😀 But I guess that’s one of the many joys of gardening….’going with the flow’ and of course learning to listen when nature is telling us something!
What a lovely day, I was lucky as I had today off work and I stayed outside in the garden as much as I could. We had the first iceberg lettuce from the garden today, in the ground one minute and on the plate the next. I made a lovely salad, it tasted great, , what more could you ask for. one of my blueberries looks very sick, all the leaves have gone rust brown and the berries, though many, are very small. I also had another disaster recently, my fully in bloom laburnum just fell over, it was over twenty years old and I was very sad to lose it however, I won’t lose heart and I will just keep trying.
Had a good weekend in the garden. Most of the plants that I thought I lost came back to life after drowning them with water. Nearly on top of the weed problem, I got a loan of a torch and burned a fair few that were out in the open. The veg patch is flying along, tried the first of the spuds over the weekend and they were fab, a little small but I had to try them. Plenty of cut and come again lettuce and radishes. The fish in the the pond are eating like mad and to my suprise I was watching then over the weekend and I saw at least 20 baby ones swiming around. I bought some aquatic plants about four weeks ago and there must have been some fish spawn in them and hey presto I end up with loads of babys. I hope they make it and not be gobbled up by the bigger ones.
weather was fine today and lots of jobs to be done in the garden
wonders will never cease !! i mowed the lawn for tony today ,he is supervising the exams and thought it it might rain before he got home . i nearly melted away with the heat and the rain still has not come.!!!! oh well i will live off this for a month.
while i was wiping the sweat from my brow i noticed a lot of weeds that need to be dealt with ……..and more rain forecast for tomorrow!!!
would have taken some photos but camera needs recharging
soon , i hope bye for now
Havent done much lately and it shows. was stupid enough to scatter some annual seeds in my raised bed and now i dont know what are flowers and what are weeds! At least the slugs havent discovered my cabbages yet, or my hostas. bought some rejects for €1 in B&Q at the weekend, so will nurse them back to health at the weekend if the sun comes out. My pear tree has two tiny pears, and my apple tree is flowering again, must be the strange weather. The wind really burned them, especially the plum, which has never flowered, and is looking the worse for wear. Have decided that everywhere i go from now on, i am bringing my secateurs. i am forever seeing bushes growing at the side of the road id like to grow.
i WAS HOPING TO GET THE LAWNS CUT TODAY ALSO THE HEDGE BUT AFTER LAST NIGHTS RAIN THE GROUND IS TOO WET. i’LL HAVE TO LEAVE IT TILL TOMORROW. i NOTICED THE FLOWERS ON MY ANTIRRHINUMS FELL OFF LAST NIGHT DUE TO THE HEAVY RAIN, AND OF COURSE PLENTY OF WEEDS UP!!!
I’m an amateur gardener, that’s for sure! Although I have been "big into" gardening for 10 years now and grow as much as I can from seed I still have a problem with throwing away extra seedlings. I feel that it is a sin – hence the more than 300 verbascums this year.
This evening I was very strict on myself and I threw away about 10 kale seedlings. I have about 20 brassicas to go into the brassica bed and there simply isn’t room. Nobody else needed them around here. There were also far too many nicotianas – the seed is really tiny. I don’t know if I’ll sleep tonight. Well thats an exaggeration.
I saved some plant seedlings from a big container but there were far too many to be potting on. After I planted a big box for the tidy towns and a few pots for Belvedere I had to relegate the rest to the compost bin. I’m still torn with conflicting emotions about that
There are a few more cells available for the next batch of seeds to be sown. I’ll get on with that tomorrow.
have put up some photos but have a tale to tell about the roses around balcony.
my parents married 58 years ago and she visited some relatives in the country.
she fell in love with a rambling rose in their garden and stole a cutting, she put i t
in her handbag and every time she moved house she took another cutting. when i married i took a cutting for my first house and then again or this house. it is gorgeous , but no one can name it . can anyone help??
but what goes around comes around . mum forget to take a cutting when she moved to be nearer to me so i grew her one and it is romping away.
this rose according to my mum is over 60 years old !!! is nt that lovely
Can anyone tell me if Mullingar is on or off, and if it is what are the details. I seem to have computer problems and am recieving no information from headquarters. This is a good Meath computer and is refusing to talk to Dublin computers now that the football championship is on. Before ye all start giving out to me its not me its the computer. So if anyone can help me with details, much obliged.
Have revisited site after a long absence and really surprised at the number of active members and all the good stuff available. I only get to spend a half hour each evening in the garden but try and get out on Saturdays and Sundays really having a good go at fruit and Veg this year and so far have had a few very tasty raspberries (hard to catch them before what i can only presume are the birds that get to them! should i cover them with netting? , cherries are coming on really well and were really lovely last year which was our first year with the tree. I have rocket and lettuce from seed and scallions although these are very slow but coming. Cabbage and potatoes doing well but peas really slow this yeaer but I am sure will come I have also tomato plants for the first time and we are minding them like babies how in a home made green house! Now that we have blossoms finally shoud I remove all the branches from below the branches with the blossoms I thought I read that somewhere.
In the plants department I have fount myself getting more and more interested in perennials although I think you need a good mixture of shrubs and trees as well to get the year round balance right. Looking good in the garden at the moment is geum, knautica, Hardy Geraniums and on the shrub side of things the spireara bride, not good at proper names! I am also very fond of Vibernums as very reliable and my wedding cake one jsut gone out of bloom.
I am on my lunch break so better get a bit to eat to keep up my strength for the garden!
My name is mary and im the gardener at Rothe house gardens in kilkenny. The Gardens have only been open since April 2008 but there are noticable changes since then. The gardens date back to the 17th centuary and as you can imagine its not very easy to source plants that date back to this era but we have some little treasures that are well worth seeing. We have a plant sale on saturday the 11th of July. In this sale we will have the plants that have been propogated through the winter. These are mainly rare varieties.
I believe there will be an announcement regarding the Mullingar Get Together soon.
It will possibly be on the TALK forum.
hubby presented me with a holiday in puerto banous am leaving tomorrow to spend night in dublin before flight on sat . shopped till i dropped today , visited beauty salon and now going to pack . will talk to you all when i get home .
hope all my plants survive . weather forecast good !!
bought some lawn fertiliser today. myself and blaithin spread it just in time for the deluge which lasted about 10 minutes about 8pm. i really just wanted it greened up. its not a croquet lawn so i dont mind the buttercups and cowslips. i’d say the difference will be noticeable this weekend. fingers crossed anyway!
Hi all hope the weather is good this weekend as I am going to try to spend some time on the allotmeny. Put the last of the seeds down.
Will take some pictures aswell to upload if there isn’t too many weeds 🙂
Finshed work early today-fed up with all moaning and thought I’d banish all negative thoughts by spending a bit of time in my garden, gazing at its lush wonders (i.e. the weeds-the Round-up didn’t work!). The courgettes have slowed down since we had the really hot weather last week. No harm, really, as I was fed up having courgettes with everything. The spuds are behaving strangely-one group have shot up and are looking alarmingly lucsious, whereas the others-same species and planted on the same day, in the same type of soil- are still small and bushy, though I have to say, more normal looking. What’s going on?
I have decided to ignore the clematis-I don’t care whether they live or die now as I gave them all I could and have turned my attention to the raspberries-after strawberries, my favourite fruit. I’m watching them like a hungry cat watches a well-fed mouse and they still haven’t changed colour- still green even though it’s been a week or more. I’m beginning to feel like the tourist at the zoo in the old KitKat ad-where he’s watching all day and nothing happens and when he takes a break for 5 minutes to enjoy his KitKat, the dancing panda struts his stuff while the poor man’s back is turned.
Maybe there’e a message in that.
I’ve also decided to plant up the rest of the garden with trees-I was thinking hazel and birch and maybe a couple of fruit trees. Or hornbeam? If I don’t, then I will have to sow grass and keep it as a lawn, which I don’t want to do as you would need time and patience to maintain it-I suffer from lack of both. I also love trees and like that woodland feel. I could scatter some wildflower seeds around the place and just let it evolve naturally. I’m also planning to make a stone circle tomorrow with some of the old cut stone thrown around the place. I think it would be nice, given that the solstice is nearly here.
With all those plans, it must be time for a Kitkat and cup of tea, as recommended by Weightwatchers……
Guess what!! The grass is still not cut. Had every intention of doing it this afternoon but my son arrived with his two boys aged 4 and 2 so that put a stop to everything. One of my clamatis died and I bought a new one and I was hoping to plant that today also but tomorrow is another day. At least I got to do my photos. Hope you like them. As you can see my garden is small but I enjoy it.
Some body changed my chosen prifile name of Romneya, I tried to change it back but could only do it by miss spelling it Ramneya, it will do for the present. Time to watch Criminall minds now.
Can anybody explain to me about the entering of numbers when sending a message to friends on this site. I sent two messages tonite and it asked me to type in a six digit number displayed above the send box. This is the first time I have come across this or is my computer playing silly buggers.
hi everyone at last i have more photos. at problems with it for awhile but it is sorted now. got more work done to day and hope to get alot of pot washing and start made on propagating. pinned down strawberry runners to make new plants tidied up around trees i have tyres around them my daughter rebecca planted some pansies and asylum when i had them done. pulled the few weeds in the fruit in fruit patch and tied in the blackberrys. have a major build up of pots to wash in the morning and do some propagating in the afternoon. i bought a blue and purple hydarangea yesturday and some lovely ferns in lidl. will put the hydrangeas in bigger pots tomorrow have alot planned in the tunnel so it wont matter if its raining will be nice if it isnt. well thats it for now. happy gardening
My garden is small I have fruit growing in it. There is gooseberries blackcurrants strawberries and rheubarb in it. I also put onion sets and leeks in, beetroot and white turnips. I have made a wheel with a tractor tube, and in it is scallions and lettuce . I also have a glasshouse and in it is grapes tomatoes strawberries.
I have much to learn still but I will enjoy the experience.
The strawberries are nearl y finished in the glasshouse, I did not have alot this year,The box Martin made has helped I don’t have to bend to reach the fruit.
I put in cane support today for the tomatoes. The first blossoms are beginning to appear. I am going on holidays next week, so Frank will keep them watered.
I picked the gooseberries today and made 8 pound of jam, from 3.5 pound of gooseberries.
Got the grass cut today also the hedges HURRAY.!!!! Spent hours in the garden today mowing, clipping digging and repotting. Putting the feet up now.
