Month: November 2009
Such trauma! Rang technician this morning. New part for computer would cost €500. Not an option. So Harvey Normans here we come!
Ok Nice new Toshiba computer here, and the computer doctor downloaded all my data from the old computer onto this one. I traded in my old computer so that covered the cost of saving all my photos onto this one. Now the only problem is I can’t work out how to download photos from my camera onto it. I don’t remember having problems with the last computer. Oh Frustration! Kim will be here tomorrow, so I reckon I will have another stint of grovelling!
I got NO time to go out to the garden today. 🙁
Wet here most of the day. Got some work done on leaves yesterday and bit of weeding. The bit of colour on the hollyhock is slightly bigger so let’s hope…
Managed to get out between the showers today. Got some onion sets in today. Hopefully ealy next year they will carry me over the fallow period. Also lifted and split chives and sage that were rampant. I have mint to beat the bans at the moment and will have to start iving the stuff to everyone and anyone. I have about thirty pots of the stuff.
Going to try shop bought garlic in a window box in the greenhouse tomorrow.
Unfortunately, am down to a three day week at work, looking on the bright side I will have more time to devote to my passion. I am hoping for a dry day or two next week to lift and split a lot of plants in the front garden.
Gladioli still flowering like mad. Strawberies still producing fruit. Is it me or has the world gone topsy-turvy?
Anyway, sprouts and spring cabbage coming along well, along with caulis. We will be eating fresh and local over Christmas!
Anyone any ideas (preferably kind ones) on keeping my pup from digging all around her. I have had to surround all of the vegetable areas with stakes and plant netting, but this makes life difficult when I want to access them for weeding and such like.
I look after the local green area also, it is about 40m by 40m and very low lying. However, at the top of it there is a ditch protecting a field. Over the years I have built up the ditch with soil and last year started to plant it. The ditch is quite steep and loses soil from slippage very easily. Has anyone any ides for low growing plants that will hold the soil in place?
What abeautiful day, sun shining and not a cloud in the sky!!
My eldest son and his wife are home from Vancoover now and are with us for the weekend . As we speak tyhe are out in the garden and on the balcony looking for plants for their small balcony. So far a, bamboo ,a bay tree ,a rosemary ..I will have nothing left!! now he wants flowers as well… better go out before my garden is bare.
talk later happy gardening
Just can’t figure out where the time has gone – well I could blame the kids, my better half, bad weather, a greenhouse full of tomatoes and peppers, chillies but I won’t – I think I lost my mojo for a while and its just taken this long for me to be happy with dirty fingernails again – which thankfully I am.
Still have some tomato plants doing ok (tigerellas which I grew for my mum) and too many chillies to deal with at the moment and lots and lots of seedlings and divisions which I need to nurture and find sheltered spots for.
I planted some daffodil bulbs a while ago and I can see some of them sticking their heads up already (not right) I have told them to wait but the won’t listen! have a few more to plant and then some Allium bulbs to put into pots (the slugs get them otherwise!)
Also have to dig up the comfrey and divide it – not a job I relish as its a bit of a tough job to do, but its worth it.
Got to grips yesterday with a Phormium purpurea (New Zealand Flax) divided it into 19 plants (well husband did) so potted them up for the winter and see if any take – didn’t explain to husband properly about roots – I don’t think he realised that the plant needed them to live – but we will live in hope and wait expectently for the spring shoots to appear………
Ginger doing fine in the greenhouse – have to keep it for another year to see if there are any roots worth harvesting – I did get a second shoot over the summer which is good. watch this space.
Hopefully the weather will be kinder this week and we can get out and about a bit more without having to use the kayak!-)
When david and Miriam went back to Dublin laden with plants I weeded and then weeded some more. That bl…y sorrel is back with a vengance even though I put roundup on it earlier in the year.
It was such a beautiful day , and Tony was playing golf I mowed the lawn, had to strip to a t shirt, it took me two hours but it looks good now.
Niw that we have seen the weather forecast I am very glad I did it,
Virburnam bod. dawn is in full flower and smells gorgeous,lonicera fragissma just coming into bloom Dahlias still flowering along with rudbeckia and fushia .
all in all a great day
Feet up now , fire lighting and a glass of wine….there is a lot to be said for winter after all!!!!
planted gooseberries bushes 2 day these are the big dessert type i got cuttings last year. i am planting them to form a hedge. i also harvest most of my potatoes 2 day.
I got an email this morning from the secret seed website………………….
Buy any 3 of our own seeds this month – and get the cheapest packet free! This offer applies to all of this seasons stock but excludes vegetables & herbs, Christmas packs and the Laura Ashley collection.
We have also put together some Christmas gift packs – ideal for gardening friends, and easy to post. There are several themes to choose from, the white garden, woodland or shade, wildlife and cottage collection. Priced at £7.50 the Christmas pack will contain 5 different seed packets, or £12 for packs of 10.
We have also introduced personalized wedding favours – ideal for letting your guests remember that very special ocassion – seeds are of a new pure white field poppy called ‘Bridal Silk’.
As always, our usual bulk order discounts apply: Order value over £25 (-10%), over £50 (-15%), over £100 (-20%).
Best regards – and a good growing season to all,
Mike Burgess & John Langston
Secret Seeds Nursery,
Cove, Tiverton, Devon
EX16 7RU
UK
Tel: +44 (0)1398 331946
www.secretseeds.com
Tempted anyone :O)
Sorry everybody. I am up to my eyes in work and will be for one more week. So after that, I will read eveyone’s journals and put loads of comments up!
Until then, happy gardening.
neglected orchids are 1.99 and spring bulbs are half price in woodies at the moment
I was away most of the weekend and got no gardening jobs done. I was hoping to get something done today but guess what!!! its raining. Just have to abandon it for another day. The garden is looking a bit of a mess at the moment. Needs a good tidying up and cutting back. SOMEDAY !!!!
It was pouring in Galway today! I got my shoes wet going from the car to the shop!City car parks half empty and the shops as well. Wery strange!It’s normally much more busy, rain or no rain. Got shredder from Lidl for 130e. Hopefully I’m not going to be disapointed.
Anyone looking for spring Bulbs, Mr. Middleton has special deals as of to day. 100 mised bulbs, 20 dafs, 10 tulips, and so on for €11.95 was €19.95. Other deals also.
saturday started brilliantly, finished work at 10am and by 11.30am we were mixing concrete. Rained a bit but we continued on, stopped for dinner, rained a bit more but we motored on and we got the job finished. The blocks were delivered this evening. The plan was to start to build on thursday but I have being laid low with the flu. I havent the energy or strength to build a lego wall. Hopefully maybe by friday I will have recovered enough to start.
Did anyone see the the programme James may did this week. It was about plasticine, and about his plasticine garden in Chelsea. What a brilliant programme and more so what a brilliant garden. No weeding, flowers of any colour you want, no dead heading and the flowers are in season all year round. If you got a bit fed up of the colour scheme, you could just add a bit more colour plasticine. Only thing rain did-nt bother the garden, but sun caused it to melt. Well we would have no trouble with that type of garden in Ireland
Just logging on for 2 minutes while the computer does a search for a file. Except I have one major problem – I don’t know the file name. Could be here for a long time…………ah, what a pity (ha,ha)!
On Sunday, I went out and swept the patio. It was in a awful state as there are still a number of plants waiting to be planted into the front garden. Himself saw them and guess what he said? "I thought when the patio was being put down that the plan was that there was going to be no plants of any kind on it". As my mother would say – "sure, he’s harmless!"
Did I agree to do this?-) I think so – anyhow have been asked by our school to create a vegetable garden for the kids to tend and care for. They have a hugh space and its all gravel (don’t know whats underneath probably hardcore/rubble~) so am planning on raised beds – 4 to start off with about 16ft long, keeping it simple so to speak, its on the east side of the school with shelter but not too much shade apart from in the evening time.
Has anyone out there done anything like this before or is involved in this type of project – I am keen to make sure that the crops they grow are harvestable during school times and not just July and Aug (no-one there) – so any help, advice, suggesstions etc………..aaaarrrrggggggg:-)
At long last I got some things done in the garden today when I came in from work. Started cutting back the sweet pea which was nearly lying on the ground. Raked up the last of the leaves and did a bit of weeding. Then hosed down the path at the side of the house and gave it a good scrubbing. There was a lot of green moss on the paths and they were getting very slippy. Unfortunately the grass was too wet to cut but hopefully that will be done before "CHRISTMAS."
There is something eating the leaves of my magnolia bush. Any advice on that would be appreciated.!!!
I put some winter cauliflower in a pot a few weeks ago and could’nt believe how well they are doing. Planted them out in the ground today and hope they will keep growing.
I was doing some things in the garden last weekend, I spent a lot of time in the shed looking for this and that, tripping over other things, things falling by themselves. That is it………….have had enough……… It has to be sorted. Have been meaning to this job for an age. Spoke to junior, he is going to help me for the day. Have had sheets of plywood for two years, for shelving. So we are going to redo the whole place. Two sheets of wood are going to be used for hanging all the garden tools, so everything will be to hand. Once it is sorted, it will be easy to keep.
One condition with Colin was that his phone stays in the house, otherwise he would be texting none stop.
Part of my Saturdays Plan is to help get my garden under control. I have also got the buzz of wanting to grow some of my own veg, how far that will go we will have to wait and see. One thing I have learnt from garden.ie is that there is a certain amount of discipline is required, this needs to be increased when there is a family involved and time is needed for other things.
In saying this, no way will it become regimented, gardening is to be enjoyed, and I am the kind of person who needs plans and ideas set out to a certain extent, am really excited about the coming year and the changes that will happen here on my little plot of The Good Life.
Best of luck to us all, and thank you to all of you for your advice and encouragement past and still to come.
Bugger I can-t get out to buy any of the bargains most of you’s are getting on the bargain trolleys. Bugger my garden is a swamp and now also looks like an abandoned building site. Bugger the dog for digging up my daffodil bulbs out of their containers. Bugger, the rest of the family have being laid low with the flu and the place now looks like a hospital ward. I off to the vet tomorrow and he’ll either put me down or give me something to get me going like the jockey in the weetabix adds. While I am in the mood bugger everything. Why do we not hibernate for winter, miss the flu, miss the rains, miss the dissmal winter, and miss the BUDGET. Bugger I have run out of things to give out about.
The Garden in November is cold and bleak apart from a few splashes of colour – found my camera so put up some new pics! – the Chocolate Cosmos has to be the star performer this year – I thought I had lost it and then all of a sudden it appeared (not sure what it was at the beginning, but waited to see) and I am so glad I did – it is still in bloom and still looking good despite the wind, rain, and frost – I LOVE THIS PLANT!
Its the Chocolate Cosmos – winner hands down!-)
I was in a garden center , just having a look you
know, when I spotted a Brugmansia. instructions as follows…. bring indoors or undercover for winter and cut back by a half!! does anyone do this ? tony says he needs a machette to get through the sunlounge!!! if I can reduce it by half please let me know
Lying in bed this morning with a cup of tea I noticed the blackbirds gorging on the Pyracantha berries under the window it is usally after Christmas before the berries are eaten. A bad omen of what is to come ??
did no gardening today , was painting….walls and skirting…not pictures.
lashing rain now and it looks like no gardening for the rest of the week.
No matter I have loads of xmas recipes to look through to find something different for the holiday season>>>
