Month: February 2010

Well, after getting back from Ikea, I spent some time sowing some of the dreaded seeds, to try and make a dent in my collection. My sister headed up for a nap and I took advantage of her absence. Amongst those I sowed were

8 types of Sunflowers

Gazania F1 ‘Daybreak Bright Orange’

Linum ‘Sky Blue’

Leucanthemum x superbum ‘Alaska’

Hollyhock ‘Nigra’

Hollyhock ‘Queeny Purple’

Cornflower (dark red/black)- Rachel

Tithonia rotundifolia ‘Torch’ – Rachel

Marigold ‘Colossus’ – Rachel

Delphinium ‘Magic Fountains’

Begonia ‘Tomfoolery Mix’

Brompton Stock

Night-scented Stock

Now, let’s get that propagator plugged in!  Happy enough with that lot for the time being. Very comforting just looking at all those labels standing to attention like soldiers on parade!

Today we were greeted with the sounds of singing frogs in the ponds over 30 were counted. They are coming out of every side of the garden. John has been taking chrysaths cuttings , I have been looking at the begonia tubers to see how they faired over the winter they are looking good ,I think i will spray with the vine-weevil and  pot them up  to get them started but keep them well protected from the weather.

All garden is landscape-painting.

Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.

I am fonder of my garden for the trouble it gives me.

The best fertilizer for a piece of land is the footprints of its owner.

I have just been reading Cloncaws journal on sowing begonia seeds and poor germination. I too have sown some begonia seeds today and hope to have some success. My first time for sowing them. Does anybody ever remember years ago that the seed packets contained their own label? However, when I opened mine today I felt something hard inside and thought it was one of these labels. It turned out to be a vial containing the minute seeds. So tiny. I thought the little vial was a great idea as the seeds are so small they would all get clogged up inside the corners of the pack.

In the photo, I have a little more fencing to put in around the tree. I am not into roses at all, but would like to change a little.

I came up with the idea of a climbing / rambling rose planted where the fence is still to be fitted. Not sure about the condition of the soil at the base of the tree, so am thinking of planting in a large pot.

Will these types of roses do ok in a large pot. I will need to fix wires to the tree of support. Can any one recommend a good type of rose that does not need to much attention. Thinking white or red could be good.

This Thursday (4th March) Aldi is offering Garden Buckets for just €4.99. They look like a garden trug so I reckon if anyone is planning on doing some veg in containers this year, these would be less likely to become brittle over time, as plastic containers tend to become. Might be worth checking out.

The last time I was down the woods I noticed they had turned some soil to make a bank and there were several bulbs near the top. I knew they had to be either bluebells or wild garlic. Myself and my dad went down yesterday for a walk and to investigate. It was apparent after we pulled up a bulb or two that it was the garlic, they smell pretty strong already, we took a few to bring home.

I am thinking now if I put them under the oil tank with the ferns they might grow there and also I doubt the neighbours cats would go in there because of the smell, it might not work but sure its worth a try.

Just put up a February album with some pictures from my garden and from out home. Mostly of the flowers coming up, one is of the cold frame my dad made using the base of an old bed. 

I’ve just been sorting out the photos I posted in the "My Garden" section and have quite surprised myself with what actually managed to grow in my garden last yesr! I did a patrol of the garden yesterday and was quite downhearted at how many of my plants don’t appear to have survived this harsh winter. We didn’t have a lot of snow in this part of Laois, but the hard frosts have been pretty constant The fields are white almost every morning. Last year we put up a greenhouse, the main idea being to protect a large lemon tree given to us by Brendan’s son. this lemon tree was most unhappy in the house the previous winter. losing leaves at a great rate and also producing lots of lemons the size of a jelly-bean, which then fell off – so I decided it was too hot for it and that a greenhouse was the answer. Unfortunately, I didn’t get around to getting a frost-heater until this month, so despite being well wrapped in fleece the lemon tree has had it!

There have been a few other casualties – the Trachelospermum Jasminoides which cheered me up all winter with its beautiful red foliage was finally overcome by the frosts as were a couple of Kniphofia, cordeline and the herbaceous border is looking a bit sad – time will tell how severe the casualties there will be. A few brave plants are showing signs of life but most of them look dreadful.

Even the lovely ferns I got for the stream have been devastated, not by the frost, but by the flocks of rooks that descend on my garden on a regular basis. This hard weather must be leaving most of the wildlife struggling. I can hardly keep up with the bird feeders and the rooks have even been coming up to get the seeds that fall to the ground from the feeders.

But isn’t it an indication that all gardeners by nature have to be optimists – I’ve succeeded in getting my sweetpea off to a good start and just planted a load of sunflowers for next summer. I’m not sure what I need to do to keep the sweetpea happy – they look a bit leggy to me – and this is where I usually fall down in the seed-growing business – I get them to germinate no problem but then don’t know how to manage them properly!

Today also saw the dahlias I got from Bakker this week planted in the pots below the bench – not sure if this is the right thing to do here either! And the greenhouse also has its first pot of cuttings – I was pruning my Cornus and decided to try and see if cuttings will strike or not – nothing lost if they don’t and a lovely bonus if they do!

Have been busy with the tomatoes for the past week, between taking seedlings out of the propagator and keeping notes about germination dates and percentage of seed germinated I’ve been kept on my toes! 21 varieties of the tomatoes have now germinated along with Mammoth red cabbage and various lettuce and salad mixes!

When I joined this site last year, my side and front corner area were a disaster, as some of the albums will show. Some of my recent endeavors in getting the garden back into the shape, that one would like, is down to the interest and encouragement from all of you here on the site. Thank you all.

Up early again this morning, laid the last of the slabs, the slowest part of the last two days work was the cutting and fitting of the last few slabs. Moved the pots and compost in the new area, along with bags of leaf mould gathered last year, this is only for the short term, as once I get some wood pallets I will make proper compost area.

I then spread the last of the pebble in the side area. and a good clean and sweep, finished off two great days work. I am now really seeing the wood for the trees, and while a lot of work still to be done, the end of this serious hard slogging is now in sight. I have added some more photos to the, Work Area Nearly Finished Album, including a panoramic view of the side gravel area. Now where is that corkscrew……………

Did nothing much today due to a sore throat, and feeling fluish. I have been ‘minding’ myself all day, and taking hot whiskeys in the hope I can catch this before it takes hold. I do not want to spend my week off like this.

This morning I managed to sow my Arisaema seeds and they will be incubating in the propagator for the next 3 months, but they will take a lot longer to actually germinate. I must develop some patience here. Hopefully the results will look like something out of Jurassic Park.

Sowed 3 more trays of Cosmos this evening and the six Bat Plant sees that Bill sent me (thanks, Bill. Fingers crossed!).

I now have 31 trays of seed on the go and a few additional pots, with the likes of Ricinus, Bat Plant etc.

As each tray contains 24 cells, that makes 744 plants : )

At last I have a start made! I got the Aldi 3 tier greenhouse last Sunday and set it up in my back porch which is south facing and nice and warm. It is great to have it near to hand as it is so much easier to keep an eye on it. I sowed some flower seeds – Gallardia, Gazania, Verbena, Echinacea and Geranium. I also sowed a packet of hebe franciscana varregata which I picked up in Barcelona last year. The Gallardia and Gazania had germinated yesterday – just 6 days! (photo in my Eeyore album)

Declan, my handy man hubby, made me two nesting boxes during the week (photo added to Handyman album) and I need to get these erected this week. My bird feeders are still very busy and I am keeping a good variety of food out for my little feathered friends. There is no end in sight to this cold snap. 

It is great to see the stretch in the evenings – after a few more weeks I should be able to get out in the garden for a little when I get home from work. I am looking forward to that!

Finaly, finaly i did escape to my garden. After the weather been so bad I was so happy to be outside all day. Got my first Goose Egg and this is a sign of spring, nature’s clock start to tic…

 And this is the list I did:

2 cherry trees planted

2 plum trees -planted

1 pear tree -in.

half a bucket of Daff – in,

Goji berry -done.

90 (red baron, snowballs and stutons) sets onions -planted

20 red sun shallots -done.

2blackberries , 2 gooseberries and 2 rasberries- alsoo done.

Gosh felt so tired, so nice sunday lunch gave me second wave of energy…. well maybe not….

4 red duke of york potatoes- planted

4 white duke of york – done in polytunnel

15 lillies of valley planted in the shade.

2kids fed, ..

Rachels Jeruzalem Artichokes done..

Great feeling of getting something done, watching little black birds flying around, nature is awake and no stopping. you can smell spring is in the air… love it….

 

My Last entry was in Sept , So I guess it must be Spring, and I’m back .

It seems today was the first good day we have had , so the gardening has begun.

Final planting has commenced in the  middle  garden with new trees and grasses

We were lucky to come accross a garden centre that had closed about 4 months ago , and had quite a bit of stock that it hadnt shifted , so we got alot of shrubs , roses, and pots . we were like kids in a sweet shop. Now they all have to be planted .

Lets hope the good weather is here to stay

Over the last week the ducks have become more and more courageous venturing out of the pond, everytime the door from the kitchen to the terrace opened they were out of the pond. By Thursday they had picked up enough courage to make their way to the terrace problem is they didn’t climb the steps but made an assault course over the lower boulders edging the south east bed and then through the rest of the beds. This evening once again they returned on the hunt for food and it was only when the dogs appeared that they took off rapidly through the air to the pond. Think I’ll need to encourage the dogs to sunbathe on the terrace to try and halt the ducks invading my flowers but at the same time I don’t want the dogs to have duck for dinner. Took this photo of them this evening.

I got the greenhouse wired for power yesterday. Got the soil warming cable set up and left it on overnight to warm up. Great idea, thank you Deborah. Andrew built it in to a work bench/staging in the greenhouse and it looks great.

3 new trees by the pond in the middle garden

Himalayan birch ‘Grayswood Ghost’

While out in the garden today I was glad to notice my bleeding heart plant making a return. I removed it from the flower beds last year as it didn’t seem to grow well and thrived in the pot. Hope to give it a bigger pot this year and much tlc and hope it continues to thrive. The flowers are so pretty. Picture isn’t great its off my mobile I need to charge up my camera.

Very frosty here this morning but I had a couple of things to do with my friend Kate, first was discussing and trying to decide on flowers with Caroline for her June wedding time is rapidly moving on to the big day. Job number two was for Kate to show me how to edit and update the website for my equestrian centre, hopefully I now will be able to change it as required. Job three was to go shopping for some supplies so it was off to Armagh to Lidl. Needless to say some garden items managed to find their way to my trolley 2 Queen Elizabeth climbing roses and 2 bags of bulb compost didn’t buy any bulbs as they only had mixed boxes. Next stop was Pound Stretcher just to look see but once again more items just appeared at the checkout with me including a 3 tier greenhouse for £10stg and set 3 propagaters and celltrays for £3stg , 2 packets Lily of the Valley, Peacock Orchid bulbs, Iris Gypsy Beauty and Gypsophilia roots. Once the greenhouse is assembled if it looks a good job I’ll get another one tomorrow. Then as Heatons was next door I decided to have a look see and ended up with 3 Sarah Bernhardt peony, packet of blue Fressia and packet Ismone Festales for £10stg. Total spend £37.50stg. Tomorrow I have to go with Caroline to the florists in Armagh to see what is available for bouquets and the church now she has decided on a colour scheme and then I will plant up todays bargains.

On the propagation front have removed the first of the climbing beans from the propogater tonight think the others will be up soon. Off to put together the greenhouse and then maybe I’ll find some worktop space again in the utility room as it’s totally covered.

Now that I have a nice warm place to place my seed trays I planted.

French Marigold

Cornflower "Blue Ball"

Aster "milady"

Knipholfia Hirsuta "Traffic Lights"

Penstemon Lilac Frost

Leeks

Tomato "Charm"

Brussels SproutsTrafalgar

Chives

Cabbage "Tundra"

Asparagus (In raised beds)

Got the wellies on today and got into deep s*"t. Got into the compost area and turned it all over, mixing in the manure I received from my friendly neighbour. I got some pallets that Im going to use as dividers so I will have three seperate sections to work with.

Lets hope this is that start of some good weather  and the buds start popping

its true, the devil does make work for idle hands

now that the garden is finished, the seeds are a sprouting and the seedlings are potted up. i thought i had nothing to do………….

was admiring my handiwork while ago when i remembered a fantastic idea i saw on gardeners world last year, putting a green roof on the barna shed. 

oh cant wait til tomorrow to start measuring etc.

have to check that it can take the weight but i’m sure it will.

fairly big project so should keep my mind occupied for a while

will keep ye all informed on its progress via journal and photos 

Hi All,

Got a few hours preparing some raised beds yesterday. We have approx 6 raised beds for veg but I plan to shut off four of them for the time being as I am back to work full time and looking after the girls so my time is limited to say the least.

I am starting small this year. I do not want to take on too much and end up not enjoying it, I do however plan to grow onions, potatoes and carrots.

I have grown onions and spuds before and am happy that I will manage all of those. I am less sure about what to do in the poly tunnel. Its a bit of a mess at the moment, there are strawberries and peas in the centre bed, a grape in the bottom corner and the  two side beds are covered in weeds.

As outlined earlier I have very little time.  Any advice what I should grow ? Perhaps Lettuce ? I feel a bit guilty having a greenhouse and a poly tunnel and not a clue what to do with it or time to look after it. 

Tips ?

Bobby.