Month: January 2010

Rachel, took your advice and followed it exactly, plant divided into 3 new plants so hopefully all will be well, was caught out on the pots, only bought 2! the other Orchid is a Cambria that we picked up the other day that also needed to be potted on

In my job I work what is a 5 over 7 shift, that means every few weeks i work 7 days, Sat through to Sun. I am sitting typing this and cannot believe what has happened in the garden in the last week.

The amount of growth in all the  bulbs is great.green growth popping up all over, buds swelling on branches. There is a normal frost out there, not the extremes we had a few weeks ago, complete blue sky, will be cold be buzzing to get things done.

 We were meant to have visitors today, be a minor issue weighing 6 lbs 2 oz scuppered those plans, best wishes to all again. So am off into the garden. Loosening up the soil in all the beds, want to try and get some more clearance in the wilderness area. Then hopefully some time on the work area behind the shed. Hope your day is good whatever you may be doing.

Got down to -2.3C here last night.  Rumour has it there is a lot worse to come again.  If it does I think we will all be a bit more prepared.

Again looking through my photos I came across ones from last year of both Duckets Grove and Carlow Sensory Garden.  I know I’m very lucky to have them right on my doorstep.  Duckets about two three miles and Sensory a little closer. They are both definitly worth a visit  if you are in the area.  Altimount Gardens are not far either.

I shall setup a photo folder and tempt you to a visit.   For inspiration the Sensory Gardens on the old link road at Strahall, Carlow Town, will blow you away. Even in the middle of winter when there is no wind.  Duckets on the other hand is real old time walled garden style of the aristocracy attached to a beautiful castleated building with a tower.  It has been restored over the last few years. There is now an annual plant / garden and handcraft fair.  Keep a look out for it.

 

I put up a photo of this Azalea on 20th Nov and can you believe it is still looking so good! Best value for 2.99! My orchids are in bloom again even though I still dont like the potting compost they are in so if they do ok for me anyone should be able to grow them!

My Castor Oil Plants (Ricinus) are really taking off. Only five of the seven seeds seem to have germinated but the other two may follow. It’s only been five days since I sowed them after all!

The vigour of these plants has taken me by surprise and I now realise I’ll have to pot them on immediately – probably tomorrow – to avoid stunting their growth.

I love seeing big seeds grow because you can actually see what happens in so much more detail.

Received my order from Mr Middleton during the week, and now have the remainder of our spuds chitting, we have Home Guard as our first early crop, Kestrel as our second early crop, and Roosters and Maris Piper as our main crops, also planted our Garlic that we received in the same order, we got 4 bulbs of Cristo which produced 42 cloves, we were delighted with that………….. 

Hi Chilipepper,  have just being enjoying all the photos in your photos folder.  But would you believe that the 13th picture in your Belvedere House ’09 subfolder shows the plant that I’m looking for the name of.  I don’t know how I missed it as I was there too in the walled garden.  I would surley have senced it’s sent if I had been anywhere near it.  It’s so magnificent.

I love your garlic. I tend to eat them like apples at times along with some of my Cayenne peppers with the homegrown Tomatoes.  What a hit,  lovely.  A friend of my wife asked me to make her some of my Garlic butter one day with some Irish homegrown Garlic. Which I did for her.  I have never tasted such a strong Garlic. Their were some cloves left over, so of course I brought them home and planted some.  They would appear to be thriving ahead of the garden centre ones. I can’t wait for the results. Picture beside shows same.  The Irish ones are the tall ones so far.  They were planted back in the late autumn.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.  I have had them under the fleece for the very cold snap.  Cheers….

I wrapped up and went out to the cold shed to do the sad job of emptying pots that were dead, I have lost so much of my cuttings and seedlings, but I couldnt resist taking what ever little bits of green left on rotting geraniums etc and repotting them in perlite and compost and putting them in my new unheated propagators and giving them a chance on the sunroom window over a radiator. Heres hoping!

I have spent today in utter frustration. Zoe and my grandson, David, were supposed to be coming home today. However, that didn’t happen. They won’t be home until tomorrow. David Senior is the only visitor allowed in for the whole duration of their stay, as a result of Swine Flu precautions.

I have not been happy with the strength of the zoom on my recently-purchased camera. It is no good for getting up close and personal with the birds in my garden. I swear, this is not an obsession with me. The zoom on the one I have is only x3. However, today I bought myself a consolation  prize of a new Fuji with a zoom of x15. Big difference. And not that expensive either. God help my babies when they get home tomorrow. Ha ha. I did no gardening today. Just played around with my new camera.

Had great plans for today, did not quite work out as planned. It was a lovely sunny day, but was bitterly cold, lots of teas breaks were needed. First job was the flower bed in the back. Where do all the leaves come from at this time of year. The soil had a frozen crust on top, which broke easily, within minutes, two Robins were popping in and out of the fresh ground, they were there all day. Had marked all the bulbs when planted with small green canes, don’t think any damage was done.

Really worried about all my Fuchsias, they do not look good at all. Bed looks great, but took much longer than expected.

The decking got a sweep down, and rearranged some of the pots and planters I love this ability to be able to change and move pots around, it has such a rapid effect on how things look. I finally got to plant up my two Leucothoes I bought in the Arboretum in December.

I also planted some pick and pull lettuce.

Finally the gravel got a good brushing over. A sweep with a stiff yard brush is the quickest way of removing leaves and branches from gravel. It also loosens up the gravel and improves its appearance. Good day done.

Spotted this nice colour combination in the garden this morning. The decorative apples won’t last much longer. The blackbirds were picking at them. They are there for weeks and weeks, and nothing goes near them. Then they disappear, they must need to ripen for a length of time before the birds are interested.

Recently Cloncaw posted a journal on how her beautiful pink Amaryllis fell over in the night and broke.

Well, the same thing happened to me today but I had a lucky escape.

My pink Amaryllis is just opening and I had it tucked behind some other plants on a cupboard where the flower spike towers over the other plants. I thought the ceramic pot it was in and the support of the other plants in front would stop it falling. Wrong!

I was just watering my Orchids by the sink when…crash!

Luckily my daughter happened to be standing beside the Amaryllis when it fell and she managed to catch it. What a lucky escape!

I have now staked the Amaryllis and tucked it back in it’s place where I hope it will behave.

I spent a lot of time in the garden today looking at certain plants, do they stay or do they go. I have a limited space at the moment untill I get the wilderness turned around. There are two Hydrangea bushes going a begging, if any one is interested in them.

Yesterday I got into panic that my broccoli seedlings are going to flop over. I remembered reading somewhere about tin foil used as a prevention for seedlings  sretching too much. Out came scissors, cardboard, stapler and tinfoil. I stapled tin foil to the cardboard for a bit of rigidness. One side of the  board was bent at an angle and trays with seedlings were left on top of that to hold it in place. So far it prevented seedlings turning towards the light, it’s nice and upright now. Fingers crossed it will work.

Some of my clay pots were left outside and of course it cracked. I’ve heard that even the hairline crack will result in so much more watering that plant that it’s not worth keeping plants in it. So I will have a smashing time someday and use crocks for the drainage in other pots.

Nearly all my dahlias turned to brown muck. It was left in the shed but not covered. I love dahlias so I was a bit upset but on the other hand there will be room for other types of the same. Have you any favorite breeds to recommend?

What a great day we have had.Despite been cold at -4 just after 7.30am it was not noticed a short while later.Started working in the tunnel until about 11,then a quick cuppa and down to,work on the herb area.I removed the spearmint herbs from the remaining tubs,split them and returned it to both places.The tubs and the vegetable area buckets.The bases will not be removed from the buckets until the mints are settled in well.The herb house was attacked next and given a much needed clean out.After lunch i headed back to the vegetable garden to prepare the last few remaining tubs that will have the legumes [peas and beans] for 2010.It was like a real nice spring day,with the sun shining,and all going well.Tomorrow for an hour or two in the morning i will spend a while checking out the work on the breaking out of a new entrance area into the veg garden that will be nearer to the soil,manure,and sand.This will be completed over some evenings of the coming week[Pictures of todays jobs added to veg garden album.]  

Whenever I think of Amaryllis it brings to mind the fairytale ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly it grows. It almost grows in front of your very eyes. Look at my journal ‘Late Developer’ 28th January. See the difference in 2 short days? Ok I am going to keep tabs on its growth. Today as it is in photo on the right it measures exactly 4inches from compost level to underneath the flower bud. I will measure it every 2 days.

The "After" photo

I was down in Kilkenny today and I got a chance to prune the main rose bed.  These roses were planted about 25 years ago so they look their age.   On some of them, there is a good 2 ft of wood with no shoots at all which means that when the growth is on them, they are in excess of 6 feet tall.  The biggest problem with that is rocking caused by the wind.  Last year, I thought I had solved the problem by putting fresh soil around the bases.  I need to do it again this year.  I didn’t have much time left today after I had finished pruning as my presence is required here for baths and bed so I just heeled them in.  That will have to do them until I am down again. 

How can three bulbs planted at the same time, with the same treatment, be so far apart.  I can hear my mother saying " why cant you be like your brother"? And as for the third one, well we won’t even begin to talk about his behaviour, I just give, I really do………..

Ok I have to use this free time constructively. I bought a fruit called Pomello in Lanzarote, purely so I could get the seeds to sow. I had never heard of this before until googling it. It is a cross between a grapefruit and an orange. It hasn’t got the bitter taste of a grapefruit, and has smooth skin. Has anybody ever grown these before. I am wondering whether I should bother really, as citrus fruit plants need constant day and night temperatures to thrive. I can’t supply them with that. However, I will give it a try. Maybe now is the right time to go out and buy a heated propagator. Or I could leave the seeds sitting on the mantelpiece with the open fire lit. If I succeed in germinating the seeds, I can hand over the seedlings to the first taker.

Just collected the Sunday papers and noticed that Lmenu_orderL have a massive assortment of different seeds out next Thursday 4th.Choice will be from 140 varieties between flowers and vegetables.From 79c,99c,1.99c.

On Thursday 4th, Lidl are selling 40l of sowing and cutting compost for €2.99.  Hard to beat that.

Went over to my workplace looking for seed potatoes. They were supposed to be in on Friday. Ended up going over to Homebase for them. Got 3 different types. Second Early ‘Maris Peer’, Main Crop ‘Desiree’, and ‘Arran Victory’ which are a heritage variety with purple skins. I have started the ‘chitting’ process on them now. I also bought some feed for my Camellias. I do have some in the garage, but it is so untidy that it must be buried under a load of crap. So I am going to feed them now and give them a topdress of ericaceous compost. I also got 2 lovely terracotta pots reduced from €9.99 to €4.99.

Oh and by the way, Dave, if you are still interested in those 2 orchids (Dendrobiums), I found them. Just 2.

Many people have asked me: What do you fill your fishboxes with? So I finally decided to have a go at explaining ‘my system’:

In the beginning we used the earth from a pile of good top-soil, which we had built-up over the years. Now we have a compost area [explained later so read-on].

When we fill a box for anything other than tomatoes i.e. cucumbers, peppers, lettuce or basil, we mix roughly 3/4 of soil with 1/4 of good manure and top that with a little layer of sifted soil (makes sowing easier – if you’re planting strong-enough seedlings it shouldn’t be necessary).

After I’ve harvested whatever was growing in a box, that box goes back to the compost area [see picture], where it’s emptied and washed out.

There are 3 such compost areas. The soil being used for sowing/planting at present would be the longest there (3rd year). The boxes that get emptied go into the newest. And as that gets build up I might throw a few bags of seaweed in with it. Over the next 2 years that’ll all break down nicely and the worms will have plenty to keep them busy.

I would never use the same box of soil twice; I always make a "fresh" one (from the 3rd year compost).

As I said before, tomatoes can be planted straight into manure without any soil added. To make it look nicer and keep the moisture I generously spread grass cuttings on top. This may have to be done a second time later on. You’ll see when it’s needed.

Not sure if I made myself clear. Let me know if you have any questions.