Month: November 2009
hi everyone hope you are all well and happy. spent yesturday tidying tunnel and got all my bulbs sown in window boxes and containers. i will plant them out in spring, i prefer this way because i know what is what and the type of display i want to make with them. i forget what i plant and where if i do it by just plopping the bulbs down in the ground and it usually ends up a mess. busy with projects, thought i only spent an hour typing last night, it was actually 3, started at 9 and when i looked at my watch it was 12.15. time flies when you are having fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. well back to the books. i am going outside to name my plants in the border i chose to do as my month by month project. i will check back in a while round nine after the x factor. i am an x factor junkie folks have to get my fix. bye for now
happy gardening
Attended a lovely Mass this morning with the girls. My Dad is in a Brass and Reed Band and they played throughout the Mass. I always get a lump in my throat when I hear them playing. I used to be in this band too. And whenever I hear them, I want to rejoin. Very moving. We weren’t home until 3.30 so not a lot done in the garden. My computer is on the blink so I am using my old one right now. And I cant download any photos because this one doesnt recognize the usb connection. So hopefully during the week, I will get my newer one down to the computer doctor.
I went out to take a few photos of the garden, but the battery on the camera died. Maybe tomorrow. My pansy seedlings are looking very healthy but no sign of flowers just yet.
What a night and morning. The lower pond was on the brink of overflowing into the garden. But the rain stopped just in time. The grass is very long but there is NO WAY I would even ATTEMPT to cut it with all the rain we had. Very cold here too all day. I have a nice fire lit now, and we are all snuggled up in front of it. Wont be able to put up any photos until computer is fixed. I opened up another album ‘nov 09′ from Zoe’s computer with just one photo. This was illegally obtained from the parent plant in Lanzarote, in the hope that it would take. So far, so good. This old computer could malfunction at any time. Or worse still, self-destruct’!
Today the Cosmos plants were reeling from the punishment given by the stormy winds of the past week and the torrential rain last night. They are on their last legs and are ‘hanging over the ropes’ like a boxer. I removed all of the dead flowers and seed heads and some of the plants which were almost on the ground. The remainder I left because they still have lots of unopened buds which may flower soon. I noticed that one of the Cosmos plants which I am overwintering on trial from a late sowing has produced a flower already even though it is only about 9inches in height. This afternoon, here in Raheny, the weather was not too bad. There was a little sunshine but no rain.
Yesterday Theresa and I went to see our granchildren in County Kildare. There are four of them, the eldest is 12 and the youngest is only 4 and these are boys. The two middle ones are girls. I brought down three large yoghurt cartons with four Grape Hyacinths in each, 14 small yoghurt cartons, a plastic bag with more Grape Hyacinth bulbs and a small bag of John Innes all purpose compost. They are very keen on gardening (the parents aren’t) but have no plants in their garden. The three older ones, with a little help from Grandad, transplanted the Grape Hyacinths into individual small yoghurt cartons and really enjoyed it. Their Dad is under instruction to prepare a place in the garden where they can plant the Grape Hyacinths in the future.
I got help from my neighbour to cut the grass recently. He pulled the starter and emptied the box when it was full. I had the easy bit, pushing it around though with semi-motorised wheels there was little or no pushing. I am making good progress and I am now out of any danger and feeling very good in myself. It was important to me that the garden looked well as it gave me pleasure to look out at it. I feel very grateful for the beautiful weather we had during the time I was laid up; it kept my spirits up.
As winter closes in I am looking forward to the Spring. I can wait till then to work in the garden.
Recently, with some friends, I visited Kilmacurragh Arboretum in Co. Wicklow. The estate was taken over by the state some years ago and is managed by the National Botanical Gardens. You could say it is in a process of development with lots of young plants set out amid tall and exotic trees and shrubs.
I have included the link below for those who are interested in finding out more. If you go there be advised there is no cafe there but they do have good ‘facilities’! Bring a picnic. There are guided tours/walks in the afternoon.
www.botanicgardens.ie/kilmac/kilmhome.htm
Regards, Derek
hi everyone
i am back after my fix of xfactor, what is happening in this world at all, them two ejets from dublin are still in the comp, they should throw them and louis in the bloody liffey. come on public get it right and get them out. how many of you garden.ie members are fans of the terrible twins, lets do our own vote, something totally different to borders and weeding. come on folks give it a lash.
anytime i bought bulbs i used to say to myself i’ll remember the name of that and of course where i planted it…yeah right.
so i bought labels in mr middleton onto which you write the name etc-you know the ones, white plastic!
i wrote the names on them in permanent marker, which turned out to be NOT so permanent
so i then bought a label machine which had a plastic label. i typed up all the names of the bulbs i planted in the last month or so..i’m not sure if they will actually stick to the white plastic labels or not as i wasn’t imbued with much confidence today when i was sticking them on. fingers crossed eh!
One of my infrequent entries. Haven’t even visited the site for days….Halloween, Children home from college, visitors etc. I have been asked by my local primary school to help get them started with their first school garden. We have dug over a nice sized plot near the front of the school and tomorrow I will be arriving with compost and we will dig it in. Then later in the week all the children will plant their own daffodil bulbs and look forward to a lovely show in Spring. The staff have set aside a long narrow plot for vegetable and fruit growing. This we will have to work and feed to have it ready for the new year. They have requested raised beds for each of the four classroom units. There will also be room for Herbs and annuals. I am going to give the children a selection of crops to choose from before making up a plan. Has anyone any idea of the best veg and fruit to grow, taking into account that we need to see some results before the end of June and . Also are there crops I should avoid, I am already ruling out plants with sharp thorns. I will take some pictures tomorrow.
Its looks like i have somebody living in my polytunnel. must be a rat or mouse. my salad all gone, nibbled on courgettes, and cucumbers.I got really annoyed cause my radishes were digged out. will start to investigate tomorrow.
Like many of you, I was shocked to read the news of Michelle’s death. It is just as well I work from home, on my own because I spent an awful lot of Friday crying. I meet her at Belevedere and compared notes regarding our children. Her youngest is the same age as my eldest and God knows, there is an awful lot of rearing to be done yet.
I got particular enjoyment out of her journal entry about the Milk Tray man. But re-reading it now, it is so poinenent. I hope when she is looking down on Bobby and the girls, that she doesn’t notice the weeds, she can hear them talking and she can smell her glorious blooms.
Rest in peace, Michelle.
For Bobby and the girls:
She was a mother so very rare
Content in her home and always there
On earth she toiled, in Heaven she rests,
God bless you Mother, you were one of the best.
I have been very busy and not had a chance to look at site lately so lots to catch up with. I think it will take me a bit of time to catch up with what everone has been up to.
The hardest think to read was about Michelle very shocking and upsetting. She was a wonderful person and a real inspiration for me. I know many of you will miss her journals. My deepest sympathy to her family, may she rest in peace.
well there is no fear of going out in the garden today, its lashing from the heavens in the west, started a bit of tidying the shed, well it was more a case of moving stuff from a to b, as hubby kept saying "that might come in handy" of course when he needs something he cant find it, i just left him to it, came and logged on, or else i’ll be in Mountjoy for Christmas. and i wouldn’t mind i didn’t ask for help. Why do some men think women cant do things. God forgive me bad thoughts. i think it will be a week for the gardening books alright.
Having got over the shock of the state of the Strelitzia I had a run around in the rain. The garlic I sewed 10 days ago is up . Went down to stream at back of the trees , which we had cleared earlier , and saw a beautiful yellow wagtail feeding there. He was gone by the time I got the camera.
Ialso noticed a white standard azalea on the balconey in bloom…. at the begining of November, weird
will put up some pics soon
Spent most of my day catching up on work that SHOULD have been done in the Garden Centre while I was on holidays. Nearly there. Tomorrow it should be back to its former glory.
We have a ‘reduced trolley’ at the back of the garden centre and sometimes I don’t know why I bother. Things are very slow to sell there. But they are really beginning to annoy me, looking at them every day. The same things. I have some potentillas, hebes, phormiums, fuchsias, and whole host of other things. And ALL in need of TLC. There are also some pretty primulas reduced from €6.99 to €4. They are that little bit different. One of them is primula ‘Dawn Ansell’ (double white), also ‘Quaker’s Bonnet’ (double flowers in pink), ‘Miss Indigo (another double flower in dark blue) and finally ‘bullesiana’ which is a candelabra primrose with orange flower in up to 6 tiers).So I reduced them down to €2 and bought 4 different ones. I will go upstairs to Zoe and grovel for a loan of her computer in a few minutes so I can upload some photos.
Will be bringing my own computer to the doctor tomorrow. Hopefully it won’t take long and won’t cost the earth for him to fix it.
8.40pm. How come the younger generation won’t take the time to show us ol’ fogies’ how to perform procedures on computers with just a little bit of patience and understanding! Why do they get themselves into such a ‘tizzy’ because we cannot seem to grasp what they take for granted! Ok, I am not grovelling anymore. Does anybody else out there understand what I am talking about? I will wait until my computer is fixed and download my photos myself!
hello all,didnt do much over the weekend.just a little weeding and a quick tidy up in the tunnel.harvested a few chillis, peppers and turpin’s. today (monday 2nd nov) we (local fas community workers)started the first task in setting up the local fas community vegatable growing garden.we took apart 7 hoops from elaine’s dad’s old mushroom house which we will be making our polytunnel from.the tunnel will be 22ft wide x 35 long.if the wheather lets us we hope to get the fame up this week.we hope to set-up a profile on this site soon.
I haven’t seen this bag before yesterday. BioBag is for all your kitchen waste it is 100% compostable and 100% biodegradable and breaks down in 10-45 days in composting conditions. It holds 20 litres of waste, when full just tie it and drop it into your compost bin. It says it is also suitable for storing fruit and vegetables.
"I hope it does what it says on the tin"
I am shocked and saddened to- day to have learned of the sad news of Michelle’s passing – I just logged on for a quick look to see how all my gardening friends are getting on and could not believe it was true. Even though I never met her I followed her journal and thought she was full of fun and life and kindness as she was always offering titbits of advice etc. She never moaned in her journals but always seemed to take the positives out of life – a lesson for us all. My thoughts to-day are with her husband and children and if there is a God who listens to us I will say a prayer to him to give them strength to get through the difficult times and to remember all the happy times they had together. Michelle enjoy your garden in Heaven.
It seems like Autumn ..roses greenery and and all things beautiful but only a chill in the air registers November ,,and the dark evenings ..No longer a workaholic ..no job …but the garden blesses me !…God is good
Despite the Autumn chill, I decided to wrap up and go out and do a bit of weeding. Some weeds were hard to pull through the weed suppressant black material but nevertheless I pulled lots and hope to tackle another corner tomorrow. I bought some daffodil bulbs and snowdrop bulbs today in woodies. I planted the snowdrops on the sloping bed outside my back door which is quite a wet area. Hope to see their little heads popping through in February…. I always loved snowdrops when I was small. Didn’t get a chance to plant the daffodils just yet, hopefully tomorrow.
I have been looking at getting a composter that can take kitchen waste, both raw and cooked. Has anyone got a Big Pig composter from Grow Green Solutions. It is seems very good, I am just looking for extra info if anyone can help. Thanks in advance as always.
ok at the minute my garden in boring and very waterlogged. im just starting to try plan it out hopefully for next year getting ideas and trying to solve ideas ive no idea about.
my biggest problem is its very waterlogged and trying to get my fiancee half interested in planning it with me lol
The fence that I spoke about in september is down. I took it down yesterday but forgot to take a picture before it came down. Started to dig the foundation today and because I will only have an hour or so a day at, it will take till friday I think. I hope to mix and pour concrete on Saturday, all going well. Hopefully the weather will be kind. Hope to start to build friday week and finish on the Saturday. Well thats the plan anyway.
Bought primroses yesterday, for the simple reason I always liked them, but had none in the garden. Now I bought them without having anywhere picked out for them to go. I want to know if I plant them in the edge of the lawn for the winter, when they die back in the late spring, and when I mow during the summer, will they return the following year for me ? Also can I plant them straight into clay or do they need compost with them ?
tonight i went to a meeting in monaghan to establish a steering group for GIY MONAGHAN. we talked about picking a date for our first opening meeting.also talked about how to get word out to local papers and radio without a fee.the first meeting will be a toe in the water to check that there is a interest in the idea locally.we hope to have the first meeting 30th nov or 1st dec.
With this rain I have’nt been able to get anything done in the garden. The grass needs the last cut and weeding has to be done and the last of the leaves to be raked up. I’ve had a very busy week so thats why I have’nt written anything in my journal. I also had my daughter home from London and that took up a good bit of my time.
Last week when I read about Michelle (shelser) it knocked me for six. Someone so young…..its not fair. !!! I did’nt have the pleasure of meeting her but like you all I felt she was a friend. May she rest in peace.
Winter seems to be here in ernest. Very heavy rain this afternoon and cold with it. So no gardening done, everywhere in pools of water. Hard to believe that last week I was digging up and planting! So much more that I would like to have got done before giving up for winter! But lots of garden reading to do and plenty of writing up needing to be done before I forget what plants are where!
