Month: September 2009

We went out do get some bits done last night but it was frezzing so hid in my greenhouse had a little potter round.  Hubby picked some more runnerbeans for the frezzer.  They have been very sucessful this year all that rain I expect helped.  Cut some more rubbarb for the freezer as well.

Hoping weekend will have better weather for the garden.

I see this is the plant for today on the home page, when we were driving over the Pettigo mountains on our way back from Donegal, we saw lots of purple heather, in an other week I’d say it will be at its best, really lovely. This would be the time to see it on the Highlands of Scotland, take note Periwinkle!

Yesterday (Sept. 3rd) a little Goldfinch fell out of its nest which is in a varigated maple tree,  My husband put it back in the nest.

Got very little gardening done today as I was too busy with work. But went out for just over an hour when I got home and did some weeding around the shrubs in the ‘Wilderness’. It did make it look like there was a gardener around the place an odd time! Got soaked when a heavy shower came on and I refused to give up! Nice to come in for a long hot shower!

managed to get the lawns mowed today, well chopped and hacked but the grass is a lot shorter and may have a chance to dry. When it does I will give it a proper cut. It is amazing the black tracks the mower left on the lawn in places due to its wetness. The clean up continues slowly but we are getting there

Well it arrived in the process of putting it up GOD! WISH THIS RAIN WOULD STOP

Since I was here the last time I have bought a Blueberry Bush (Goldtraube)…This is a first for me so hopefully I learn as I go along…Looking forward to the abundance if berries next year… Also added to my collection is Lemon Thyme, Rosemary and Sage, the aromas are heaven…

As the Passion Flower and Clematis are used to conceal gaps between shed / fence and shed / back wall  I have used chicken wire in a funnell shape to firstly train them upward and then outward, so far its working…

HELP NEEDED: As mentioned above the Blueberry Bush is a first and I would welcome any suggestions on it’s care and size of pot suitable to house the growing bush…

Thanks for taking the time to look at my journal, hopefully soon i will learn how to upload photos of my achievements…

 

Guess what it is doing outside? Yup, that’s right, it is throwing down huge quantities of liquid sunshine again, accompanied by a very light force 5 breeze just to keep us cool.

Well it’s been a busy summer!   This year we got our tunnel up – hurray!   Finally a space to grow stuff.   I used to grow some tomatoes and peppers in my little porch which used to get taken over with the tomato plants, so we decided that it was time for something bigger.   We managed to get some old hoops for nothing so all we had to buy was the plastic.   It was hard work I can tell you!  Although my husband, Colin, did most of the digging and heavy work.

We built a nice work bench for it too.   We had 3 different tomatoes, 2 peppers and a cucumber in the tunnel and we are still getting produce from them.   There’s nothing like your own fruit and veg.   We’ve started digging over the ground in there now, just on one side, and we’re getting it ready to put in some lettuce and spinach to eat over winter.

We also built 2 raised beds (which can be seen in my photos) from old pallets and lined with some weed suppressent.   They are very handy.   We grew carrots and peas in one and kept the other filled with lettuce and radishes.   Once they were done we sowed some spring cabbage in one and some late carrots in the other, although the carrots haven’t made a lot of progress yet so I’m hoping they will come on soon.

I sowed some Hollyhocks and some other plants for next year (in my photos) and some of the seedlings are up already.  I’ll soon have to plant them on into bigger pots but they will fill in a lot of gaps in our big garden.

I’ve been a member a while but am only starting a journal now. My gardening skills are better than my computer skills I think.I’ve just uploaded 4 photos and am exhausted! Mind you I tried to upload some several times and failed so I suppose that is progress. Gardening recently has been mainly cutting stuff back and shredding it for the compost as everything is growing madly with all the rain.

finally got out to the garden today

we are trying to do a new veg patch so weeded it out today and planted some daffodils down the lane

hoping to hit springmount tomorrow(depending on the babies of course) to pick up some veg and some bulbs. it was so easy to plant the bulbs because the ground is so wet!! good thing from the rain!!!!

hi everyone, got some weeding done today in the tunnel and in the fruit patch, then rebecca and i cleaned some pots that my brother in law gave me, and some bits and pieces of my own, she earned her 5 euro credit for phone, i do this for both of them, if they get credit they have to earn it, christopher cleaned dads car so he earned his. it teaches them the value of money.

 i plan to do some bulb planting monday, i have a room that needs cleaning and an attic that looks like a bomb hit it, i am registering for course on tuesday. while in town yesturday getting stuff together for grant i popped in to easons and picked up a copy of gardens illistrated,(only for the free pack of hollyhock seeds), dont actully like the magazine,i had a look through it, i still dont like it, find it boring compared to irish gardens and gardeners world they are the only to mags i buy.

 had quick luck around garden today, PLENTY of weeds and things flattened with the rain, it will get done, if it starts to get much colder i will take the tender plants out of the borders and pot them and leave them in the already crowded patio.it will be easier to gather them in if a sudden frost comes, i will weed at same time, weed for one last time before winter, you can move stuff this month cant you? or is it next month,ie shrubs in wrong place etc. have loads to do in front garden to keep colour for as long as possible. will take photos when done, i have a todo list as long as both arms joined together, like you all i am sure, just need the weather to stay dry, not asking for much.

no gardening today. Parents celebrated 58 years of marriage and 83rd birthdays

and we had a great day . Most of 9 childre and their spouses surprised  the Parents .

Lots of champagne and then off to Kellys in Rosslare  for lunch (by minibus)

monkells arrived with the long awaited grasses from F armleigh . They are superb.

CANT WAIT TO GET THEM INTO GROUND !!!!

Like all lost gardens, mine has suffered from neglect – not that it was much in the first place – a few patches of vegetables on soil wrestled from the grip of woundwort and horsetail.

(It looks like) a century or two of neglect have ravaged it’s not so pristine borders, but actually it is only a couple of years. Weeds do grow tall and strong in these parts, but so it would seem do dwarf varieties of vegetables. Dwarf peas 6ft tall, dwarf haricot beans 5ft tall. Birds Foot Trefoil (normally 18") – over 4ft and sometimes 5ft.(OK it’s not a vegetable but you get my drift.)

Like I said in the profile it’s not my garden, it’s hers – but actually that is not strictly true as the vegetables and the lawn are my domain.

When it begins to look like a vegetable garden again I might have the confidence to post a few pictures, but then again I might anyway!

Like all lost gardens, mine has suffered from neglect – not that it was much in the first place – a few patches of vegetables on soil wrestled from the grip of woundwort and horsetail and of course the ubiquitous creeping buttercup.

(It looks like) a century or two of neglect have ravaged it’s not so pristine borders, but actually it is only a couple of years. Weeds do grow tall and strong in these parts, but so it would seem do dwarf varieties of vegetables. Dwarf peas 6ft tall, dwarf haricot beans 5ft tall. Birds Foot Trefoil (normally 18") – over 4ft and sometimes 5ft.(OK it’s not a vegetable but you get my drift.)

Like I said in the profile it’s not my garden, it’s hers – but actually that is not strictly true as the vegetables and the lawn are my domain.

When it begins to look like a vegetable garden again I might have the confidence to post a few pictures, but then again I might anyway!

The picture here show the patch which extends as far as you can see in the photo, and is a thin strip on the side of the house.

It was most unreasonable of the heron to take my ittybitty fishies…stood at my bedroom window this morning trying to exercise some weight away !! and saw an enormous salmon leap high out of the water.  I suppose it was stupid to put a pond almost next to a river. 

Maybe it’s the weather driving me inside.  Or it could be the definite hint of autumn in the air.  Or the fact that when I go outside and see puddles standing in my naked (except for emerging scutch grass) field and know I can’t dig yet.  But I’ve got seeds on the brain and not much else.  I’m expecting my Chiltern order any day now — it’s like waiting for Santa to show up. 

I’ve been researching how to sow the various and sundry that I ordered and am looking forward to getting down to work.  Think I’m going to try sowing things outside and have been looking into what they call ‘winter sowing’ in America.  From what I can tell, it’s basically just sowing seeds in pots or containers, covering with some sort of protective yoke (like in a cold frame, or even cling film, though I shudder to think what would happen to cling film in the gales that we get here).  Does anyone use this method?  I have done it for native stuff like hawthorn, dog rose, etc.  And I also grew my prized Rosa ‘Blanc Double de Coubert’ this way — it’s 6 inches tall this year and I’m delighted.  Haven’t used it so much for perennials.  Anyone tried it?

So, I mentioned swapping seeds before but no one took the bait.  I’ll post a link here to the list of what I currently have — it doesn’t include my list of new stuff but I’ll update once that arrives.  If you see anything you like and want to do a swap, I’m happy to oblige.  The list is here:

https://apassionforirishgardens.ning.com/group/propagation/forum/topics/seed-lists-for-swapping

Hope that link works.  An old farmer told me the weather is due to turn better this coming week — he could feel it in his bones.  Hope his old bones are right.

All the best.

I live in the Maam Valley, Galway 3 miles from Leenane. While this area has great scenery, the land and soil is poor and its difficult to maintain a lawn and grow plants. I have new lawns (sowed just 2 years), and due to this bad summer, rushes have appeared on the lawn and i would appreciate if anyone can suggest what is the best way to get rid of the rushes. In addition any suggestions as to what plants suit ground that has poor soil, i.e. stones and wet. I plant laurel hedging last March, howvever only half of them have grown, we are pretty exposed to wind.

Visibility: End of the next field.

Sun: Absent.

Rain: Present (as low cloud)

Wind: Present South Easterly force 3.

Temperature: Don’t know but the central heating thinks it is cold enough to turn on.

Kerbs: Still where they were last night – don’t hold out much hope for them today.

My mother gave me lovely big seed heads from a giant agapanthus plant.  The seed pods are very green and I wanted to find out how to extract the seeds and when the best time was to do this for sowing etc…  So I asked Gerry… his response was disappointing, as basically he said –

1.  Get a division of the plant from my mother and not to worry about the seed heads, which will just wither and die now they have been cut off. 

2.  Most people buy the plants not sow the seed.

3.  Anyway, it would take up to 3 years for any plants to flower from seed.   Which kind of brought me back to my original question… how do I sow the seed?

I think I remember HeadGardener mentioning sowing some seeds or giving advice before… not sure Bill if you can help or anyone else who has done this.  I would like to try the seed route if anyone has any ideas for me… thanks.  Maybe I should be posting this in a different section though… will try that too.

Well ther will be no gardening today either!! Its lashing rain blowing a gale and very cold. Iwas really looking forward to getting out ,as Iwoke with a bit of a fuzzy head this morning…..cant think why!!!

The grasses will have to wait  and I w ill do my most hated chore….IRONING.aghhh

Ex demo 8′ x 6′ ship-lap with solid timber floor – none of your sterling board – for Euro 300! Been wanting a shed for 7 years and at last we have one – well sort of. It’s paid for but still at the garden centre. All we have to do is work out how to get it home, and then plant it. Swmbo says, ‘Well that will be another 5 years then!’. What can I say? You can’t rush things.

as you can see some doing ok but some doing not so good planted them last feb

as you can see ive just uploaded pics of a hedge i planted.alot of it sufferd from severe shock i think there finished.if someone has advice that would be good.migh lawn is wet and heavy so i dont no what to plant on the other 3 sides we are hoping to plant redrobin at the bottom so ive planted about ten there about 3  weeks ago just to see how they go for a year.a big problem i had this year was wind burn i think it was sore on everything we have just started into things in the garden really and i have to be wary of what i get to plant because i lost a lot of trees dew to us being quiet expossed

I included photos of my raised beds made from old pallets and the pages from the magazine where I got the inspiration from.   In the magazine they just use the one pallet to create a raised bed, but for me, who hasn’t a great lower back, I thought I would make them to a height that whenI was kneeling I could comfortably turn it over or remove weeds.   They are handy for sitting on for a rest too!

So with this in mind, I nailed 3 pallets on top of each other, having removed the middle sections of wood.   I stained mine with wood preserver and lined them with weed suppressent material.   The weed suppressent was on special offer from Aldi and although it’s not very tough, it serves the purpose of keeping the compost in for now anyway.   In one of the beds, we put a frame on top to grow peas.   We put the pea and bean net support over it and they grew happily there.

I’d like to have another few raised beds but it’ll be a job for the spring I think.   They are the best idea for me as we have very heavy clay soil, which is great in terms of minerals, but it is very hard to work with.   I put a mix of compost, manure and clay into the beds and it seems to have worked well.

If anyone has any other ideas for raised beds, especially ones made from recycling materials, I’d love to hear about them and maybe see a photo of them.