Month: October 2009

Started off a little cool but despite the slight change by lunchtime i could find that slight smell of leaf spot [Mycosphaerella Brassicicola]in the air as i entered the  tunnell.Having examined the tubs i noticed the culprit on the leaves of just two young cabbages.Nothing serious once the damaged areas were removed in time.Our friend the leaf spot causes a lot of trouble in the damp weather.All was done in app ten minutes.This evening it was cleaning shed time and at least the rain did not win this time.Nothing planned for tomorrow evening yet with this type of weather,unless maybe some work in the greenhouse under lighting.Right now though its all back to the garden books to study in a little while with the plan been to check on weeds and the soil indicators for them and maybe if time allows to have a little read on trench composting.This will help the veg garden especially as the items used like old thick stalks etc will be used to make compost that would otherwise be dumped.The trench for the job will be dug out in late Autumn app 12in wide by 12in deep.Plenty of kitchen skins etc will also be used especially now that in a short while the compost heaps will have to be wrapped up to help them keep cooking the compost well.

Today the girls and I had a walk around Powerscourt gardens. A treat for me as I LOVE the place, any time of the year, and hadn’t been there in months; and a treat for the girls (a hot chocolate and cake in the cafe after the walk!) for having been super good this morning and, among other things, having done a major tidy up of their bedrooms without me even asking!

I had heard that rain would be arriving during the afternoon, so we rushed out after lunch, and we were lucky enough to get the whole walk done before the rain started – well it was just starting as we were walking back to the exit. We live very near Powerscourt, and a few years ago were only 10 mns away from it, so we had a season ticket and used to go there all of the time. I remember being there one 2nd January, at the opening, and the place was empty. It was very cold and the lakes were partially iced, and it was absolutely wonderful. We don’t have so much time now so go there less often, which is a shame.

Hard to say what I love the most there: in spring there are the daffodils, the azaleas and primulas in the Japanese gardens, in summer the flowers from the walled garden, in winter – and all year round – the beautiful trees. Today, the interest was again the Japanese gardens with the acers and their bright colours, but I was surprised to see still lots of colours in the walled garden; there were also lots of beautiful roses on either side of the glass houses, and the row of hydrangeas along the walls backing the walled garden had beautiful autumn shades. And throughout the garden, the trees were as majestic as ever, either in their autumn colours, or in their green shades for the evergreens.

We took a right at the entrance, went by the glasshouses, then into the walled garden (where we found a magnifying glass, probably dropped by somebody, which we kept till then end and brought back to the ticket desk, very exciting for the girls who thought they were some detectives). After the walled gardens, past the little lake, down to the right past the pet’s cemetery, then down towards the big lake, along the lake and into the Japanese gardens; then up toward the stone bench, onto the right towards the little tower. At that point, Lucie, 5, started complaining about her legs and decided she didn’t want to walk any more! It also started raining, so she was "saved by the gong", and we avoided the little uphill walk around the tower and went straight back to the house as I could see we were going to get soaked otherwise! Then we all went into the cafe and had a chocolate feast, hot chocolate, with marshmallows, chocolate squares, etc. Yummy!

On the way back to the car we had to stop by the garden centre, but it was raining steadily by then, and the girls drew the line when I tried to go and see the plants outside, it was a definite NO! Little walk around the indoor plants, there were lots of orchids as usual, and I noticed some white gloxinias and purple anthirinums that were lovely. In the end, the only thing we got was a chilli growing kit for daddy, who was not there. Since he is the only one in the house who loves hot food and chillis, it was something JUST for him (although I might get involved in the growing part!)

All in all a really lovely afternoon 🙂  I uploaded some photos in the Powerscourt gardens – October 09 album…

The weekend stormy weather had put paid to most of the leaves on the trees in my garden i.e. ash tree, poplar etc. My Japanese Maple was a beautiful shade of claret red last week and now its branches are completely bare.  I must admit that this is my least favourite time of year in the garden.  I hate to see everything getting ready to hibernate for the winter and the long evenings settling in.  Having said that, I did find that there seemed to be quite a long flowering season this year, I have some lupins still in full bloom, mind you the wind did not help as they are now knocked over.   

Here you go. My FIRST EVER batch of chutney! Talk about FIERY, hoo, it’d blow your head off.

Patience, patience, patience!  This is the mantra required to handle the prospect of establishing shelter, especially if your garden is on the southwest coast.

Got back to see the garden in mid October and despite all the rain this year, there’s been great progress with my shelter belts.

was spent in the garden.  What a beautiful day it was. It was great to be able to work in the garden in a tee shirt. I wanted to get all my bulbs planted and move around some things and I knew I had a big job to do on all my pots of Lilies. It was getting to the stage where there was no compost in the pots – just roots so drastic action was called for!!! This was the job I was looking forward to most!!

I thought I had better start with the least favourite job. Weeding, weeding and then some more weeding.  Boy was it bad. I even got the grass cut out the front – which I wasn’t expecting after the floods during the week.

Then the planting!!!!! I put most of the Alliums into the Lavender bed. I know – as Becca said "Onions and Lavenders – interesting combination!!! " But I thought they would add height and structure at least until the Lavenders get going. The Snow Glories I layered with my tulips from Amsterdam in pots. Then I started on my lilies. It took me over two hours to sort out two of my pots!!! By this stage it was getting dark and cold, so I called it a day. Lots more to be done there then!!!

I still haven’t found a place to put my Pernettya, as it grows to about 2′ x 3′. Mmmh will have to think about that.

Off to check out IKEA today – so wont be happening today!!!!

 

Gismo, here is a photo of the Echium pininana, growing in the back garden, grew it from seed last Autumn, we have 3 of them in the garden, they should flower next year, friend of mine has one in his front garden for the last 5/6 years and it self seeds prolifically!!!  

Here is the result of this year’s pumpkin growing efforts.

New photos in the October 09 & Greenhouse 09 albums.

I have three pumpkin cakes in the oven baking as I write.

My teenage son helped put the coins into the loaves – look at him all dressed up in black for Halloween. Oh, silly me, he always dresses like that : )

I think someone asked me for the recipe so here goes…

Ingredients

450g/1 lb pumpkin flesh

125g/4 1/4 oz butter (softened)

175g/ 6oz castor sugar

2 eggs

225g/8 oz self raising flower, sieved

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground mixed spice

Instructions

1. Grease a 900g/2 lb loaf tin with vegetable oil

2. Chop the pumpkin flesh into pieces and put in a saucepan to cook over a gentle heat for about 20 minutes. Don’t add water as the mixture will quickly produce a lot of liquid

3. Remove all the liquid and drain (this is important otherwise your loaf will taste like sweet water). Leave to cool and then mash to a creamy purée.

4. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg a little at a time.

5. Stir in the purée. Fold in the flour, salt and spice.

6. Spoon into loaf tins. Don’t forget to add coins, wrapped in tin foil for kiddie excitement!

7. Bake in a preheated oven at 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3 for about 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 hours. The cake should be almost solid in the middle when cooked.

8. Slice when cool. Can be frozen.

My daughter rang using a friend’s phone on Sunday night to tell us her phone was ‘dead’ and that she had left her charger behind when she left home on Sunday evening. Then it transpired that my son had left his jacket behind as well! Gave us the perfect excuse for an overnight trip to the capital! What a beautiful day it was there today, with people basking in the sun in St. Stephen’s Green as if it was mid-summer! The previous weekend, my daughter, who is a student at N.C.A.D., had me scouring the garden for leaves, flowers etc that might make a natural Spectrum. This is one of my photos of our efforts!

What a lovely mild October day we had today, enthusiastically helped hubby clear up masses of fallen leaves and dividing and repositioning some herbaceous perennial plants in vacant places in the borders.  Every year I keep thinking this is the year I will get everything right and then when the next spring and summer arrive, you guessed it, there will be several shrubs in the wrong place again. Anyhow I will keep trying.

Nothing much done in the garden this evening only for one quick look to gather something for tomorrows dinner.I went to the brassicas bed to harvest some of the remaining turnips.[A little later than normal in the veg bed for them]Shortly they will come to an end.Winter turnips doing well.With the snowball turnips i needed,after taking them up i recalled a little bit of advice given to me some years back on the sowing of them.As both swedes and turnips come from the roots family they will not be sown there because both will suffer from the same disease as brassicas [cabbages etc] so will always be planted in the brassica area so never to have clubroot disease [Plasmodiophora brassicae] in another bed at the one time.So far in the garden i have never suffered from that disease and hopefully  that remains.Trouble left behind from clubroot will last up to 7 years in the ground.No chances taken here.The main trouble from that enemy will effect the roots and will be most noticable with them becoming both swollen and gnarled.Off to a meeting for the next hour and a half and not to pushy to attend as i feel this minute,with a sore head and upset stomach like going down and staying away from the meeting.Nothing planned for the next move in the garden until later. 

My Kaffir lilies are doing really well and putting on a great show. One question I have, do these normally grow at an angle of about 20-25 degrees? Or is it as a result of this boarder been badly overcrowed during the summer. When I replanted this bed a few weeks ago, I did not move them as they were just about to flower.

More gardening done today, I feel that each beautiful sunny and warm day at this stage is such a bonus, and try to make the most of them. I am exhausted tonight, but I know tomorrow I will be too busy to garden, so am glad I got more done today.

I started by adding some brown gold to my newly dug bed, and the soil is better now, but I think I could have added some more to it… Then I set about cleaning up the east facing border, removing weeds, pruning some plants, removing dead stems from perennials that are now preparing for the winter hibeernation. And as always, I removed lots of stones from the soil while digging. That’s something I don’t understand, every year, several times a year, I remove a multitude of stones from that border, and they keep re-appearing. Very annoying! They must just be in the ground, and I think I remove them all, but I don’t do as thorough a job as I think, but honestly, I’m talking about buckets of stones removed in the past four years or so. Where do they all come from!

Finally, I got a bit of time to plant some daffodils, irises and snowdrops. I still have more to do, but am getting there, and looking forward to seeing them in spring!

Didn’t get any gardening done after work yesterday as Steve’s Mam and Dad called up. And then it got too dark for the garden. Couldn’t log on to this site all night so I gave up at midnight. I made some brown bread and had a lovely supper with my chutney. I bought a lovely Camellia in work ‘Anticipation’ so at the weekend I will have to plant that. It’s lashing out here now so that’ll save me watering this evening. I pay particular attention to watering issues with my Camellias at this time of year. Lots of buds on all of them at this stage.

 

Yesterday, my outdoor sensor recorded 21.5 degrees celsius.  It is mounted on the shed door which is north facing.  Last night at 7.55 pm, the temperature was 12.8 degrees.  We didn’t get that heat on some of the summer days. 

With temperatures like that, I decided to plant just one tray of seeds and see how it does.  I put in marigold, helenium and  gaillardia ‘Kobold’ seeds and just into a pot, some seeds of ligularia dentala. 

I washed a container in order to plant the garlic – the plan being to plant the garlic today.  However, looking out, there will not be much done today as it is lashing here at the moment.  I must look up Labourer’s weather forecast.

 

Don’t look like I will get much done in garden today. Am taking pictures of the Sumac as it changes colour, this one I took yesterday with morning dew still on it.

After a dull overcast day i decided to give the lawns another quick run around to gather all the remaining leaves along with some grass.Started just after four and in app 1 hour i had the job done.All the light grass cuttings along with the leaves were placed in the leaf mold bin and given a small handfull of lime to sweeting the process on in the heap.When all that section was finished i covered it with some of the bubble wrap to start things cooking well as quick as possible.That will have to wait up to almost a year before being removed and feed to the ground.The prepared leaf mould from the other area will be given to the veg beds over the next few weeks.Off untill app 10 pm and hope to get back a short while later to have a look over some of the garden notes and see what is falling behind and to pay another visit to the computer.

Garden Centre is a total disgrace. I left the place in tiptop condition before I went on holidays. One member of staff was asked to go out in my absence but refused because the weather was bad. Had it out with Manager this afternoon. I know his hands are tied on certain issues so it’s not totally HIS fault. But come on! These are perishable goods we are dealing with. I think the Garden Centre Awards is cancelled for this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But thats ok with me. It seems such a waste of money really.

Finished at 5 today. Dark when driving home so that put paid to any plans I had for the garden, AND it was lashing. That hour going back is a right bummer! Now I am going to have to wait for weekends to get anything done.   🙁

 

I finally finished the beds up around the tanks. I have called it the "Bog garden", for a couple of reasons. I am happy with it as long as everything takes. The biggest fear is the ferns don-t take, but I took enough sod with them. The heathers are intermixed with lavender and hopefully will attract the bees in the summer. I put up the photo,s on Tues night but had-nt time to write up the journal as I had some paperwork to do for work on Wednesday. I am delighted that the tanks are no longer visible from the road

This photo on the right is of the tomatoes I bought on a market stall in Lanzarote. Chilipepper reckons they are Zebra black, or green. They are quite sweet, and firmer than most of the tomatoes I have tasted so far. I have extracted the seeds and will grow them next year. Dave, there are lots to spare if you wish to give it a go!

Such growth in only 2 weeks. And growing tip is starting already too.

Still no sign of my free bulbs from Mr. Middleton. I rang them on Tuesday and AGAIN they assured me that they would be going out that day. Never Again! Zoe texted me to say that they had arrived during the day and I raced home at 5.00 to have a look. But my disappointment was soon replaced when I realized that indeed the package was from Deborah Begley. Delighted to be getting my hands on that book.

can i pick your brains?

 i bought some primroses recently in woodies. unnamed ones. the small ones with the vibrant colours. 

however i was B&Q today and i saw them there. on the label it said they were good for one season(as in one year i presume). on my way home i called into a nursery and enquired and she said they were perennials. i know they can die off if they are let dry out but i thought they were perennials. i’m confused now. it’ll determine where i plant them if they are not perennials.

 

what do you think?

What a beautiful morning and then in the afternoon along came the showers. Had decided to rearrange the bed on the NW corner at the front of the house. This area doesn’t get much sun and probaly sould be made into a shade area ideally. I decided to move the lilac and the camellia both just were a bit cramped and out came the lupins although they have now been replanted. I also dug up the gladioli that hadn’t flowered they sort had become hidden, the ones flowering will be repositioned later. Also moved the lilies back in the bed along the front of the house these are now planted between the allium whose bubs have multiplied since being planted. Have a lot of other rearranging to do yet so hope the weather next week is reasonable as garden time will be limited over the next few days but looking at the weather forecast think it may be limited for all.

Clematis Freckles has now been planted into the beds beside the wisteria, I was amazed to see one of them in flower hoping they will climb up the wisteria and provide some colour through the late winter and early spring. Planted the evergreen white flowering clematis as well one in to grow through the wisteria and the other on the trellis on the east basement wall in the south facing bed. Planted the winter jasmine on the trellis on the north west side of the basement. Pruned back the whippy wisteria shoots lower down will need a much bigger ladder to reach the higher shoots. The poppies are now sort of flattened by the winds and any that have stopped flowering have been removed and I imagine the others will be removed in the next couple of days along with the love in a mist. I will then be able to see what perennials are hiding underneath and possibly plant up the lavender hedge. Oh to have more hours in the day so much to do yet.