Month: March 2010

Well Jacinta I guess you are a bad influence (hee hee cannot blame myself), because I reckoned that I should treat myself also, and have just bought myself a propagator.

I am looking at all the lovely pictures of flowers and plants everyone is posting and then I say, oh I would love that one, I end up buying much more than I have room for, my poor greenhouse is not half big enough.

I have also bought the daliah ‘blackberry ripple’ hope this is the one I have been admiring for so long from Mr Middleton online, cannot wait for it to arrive now.

Hope you all have a nice weekend, and that weather stays nice so we can spend our time off in the garden.

Did some shopping for plants yesterday while out with Jacinta. the two of us deffinitely should not be let out together.Anyway got a load of perennials and just three boxes of plugs,trailing begonias and busy lizzies for pots.God only knows how these plants are going to get planted with a back like mine,but i’ll never give up trying.

Hey Rachel, Just spotted new buds on the Philadelphus (Mock Orange). Was really unsure about this plant ever since I replanted it. I may end up have to cut some of it back, a dead in places, will wait and see. Will post photos later when it is in full leaf. It is in the front garden, and can grow away for as long as it likes. Trilled about that, thanks again.

seeing as the day was nice i decided to have a look at The Secret Garden Garden Center. 

Its such a secret, i couldnt find it! not a happy gardener

headed to B&Q for some more inserts for the plugs i picked up yesterday, happy gardener 🙂

 

still though, would a signpost kill ’em? 

Mr Middleton’s Garden Shop at 58 Mary St. Dublin 1 is advertising an Electric Slug Fence for €29.95. It runs on a single battery, which will last a growing season and which is 30 metres in length. The name on the carton says: GOTCHA! PLANT GUARD. I haven’t got one but I am tempted. If anyone out there has used an electric slug fence I’m sure we would all be interested in hearing if it worked.

Hi all. Back from Spain after lovely week; weather was mainly good , just one and a half wet days. Had 2 quick swims in the Med–much like here in April or may. Went to Lidl today just for a look and of course came away with a propagator, a self-watering window box, various ties etc , an Astilbe and an Echinacea. Now the usual question–where will I put these?

BBC1 8.30pm, Gardeners’ World is back. Hurray!

January 2010: I pruned the roses, about 100. There happened to be a rise in temperature after the Arctic spell. The rose beds are now looking good. I noticed that many of my shrubs were affected adversely by the frost. I hope they will come back. I sowed tomato  and antirrhinum seeds. The tomatoes are doing well.

February: Temperature well below normal but no ice on the roads. Planted some more seeds, potted up most of the tomatoes, sowed peppers, beginning to make progress. Crocuses and snowdrops doing very well. The vine is showing some life with the buds about to open. I put some hydrangeas which I slipped last summer into the greenhouse where the temperature is now rising. Succulent plants like aloe vera were not affected by the very cold weather as I have a heater in the greenhouse.

March: I removed the mopheads from the hydrangeas. The buds of same are opening. The lawn does not look good, no sign of growth yet. There is quite a lot of moss in the lawn. This happens every year. One of these days I will give it fertiliser and ferrous sulphate to kill the moss.

First I want to thank you all for your comments, advice and welcoming me into the club. Well I got out into the garden again today and did some more weeding as I said its going to take some time. Potted up some Begonia’s non stop, they are indoors as its still to cold I think.

When to take some photos of the front garden only to fine the camera  isn’t working! 🙁 having it checked out in the morning……..

This afternoon I transplanted the three boxes of plugs Ibought yesterday into bigger cell trays . I know it wasn’t much but it meant i wouldn’t lose any from drying out.as a certain supermarket says ‘every little helps.the plumber is coming tomorrow to fit the radiators in the conservatory,then it will be finished’and the long wait begins until tiling can start.while I’m waiting iknow there is a lot of gardening to be done.

I would love to say that I am well prepared with the garden but unforunately I am not. I have become very busy at work for the next few weeks, I am not complaining as work is work and not to be sneezed at. However I am torn and gutted when I see the beautiful days and I cannot get out to my garden.

 When I am off I want perfect sunshine, lovely dry clay as not to tire me when I am digging and allow me to get as much done as possible in the day. I want daylight to last till all my work is done, all my seedlings to germinate at the same time, when I hasten to add I am ready and prepared to deal and accomadate them. 

When I am at work and unable to tend my garden, looking furlong out the window I want rain to ease my guilt of garden inactivity. I want my plants gently watered and the slugs drowned. I want the ghosts of gardeners past to tend it in my absence, keep it beautiful and maintained till I can return and once again take up my duties.

I know in these hard times I as for to much, but I am a man torn between two loves, my work and my garden

well after a totally wasted day, spinning around looking for the elusive Secret Garden, i planted on the plugs.

I now know the reason they’re called Impatiens, Cos u need the impatiens of a saint to transplant them 😀

into their empty greenhouses i threw in some more marigolds and put the strawberry plants into their respective hanging baskets 

they’re all snug on the kitchen table at the moment, will move the baskets out tomorrow into the greenhouse, but gonna keep the babies inside for a few days, just in case. 

have redesigned the back garden, 1 week after planting it, due to the fact that there will be too many flowers to stagger around the shrubs. so gonna do a bit of "impact" planting tomorrow and move the shrubs closer together.

pity i missed GW this evening, was addicted to it last year. have it on reminder for next week though 🙂 

The sun will shine tomorrow because it’s Saturday. I will spend the day in the garden, warmed by the rays of spring sunshine. I’ll be undisturbed and I’ll have energy to spare and I’ll get all the jobs done that I need to get done and I’ll do a little wandering about and I might see a bumble bee and the birds will sing. That’s the way it will be.  

Hi all! Cloudy but dry today so off into town, once I have finished here and then out into the garden!.

Having read other entries, I realise how much I missing out in not having a greenhouse – one day maybe, but I also realise that we do okay without one?! We considered a small polytunnel but after spending a week last year putting a huge one up with family elsewhere, after laying borders and digging out paths, then struggling with what seemed like the worlds biggest sheet of plastic, we re-evaluated and thought better of it. As much I think they are great and would love to have somewhere like that, all year round growing (and clothes drying!), the only safe position for such a thing would be on the lawn and neither my handy hubby or I want that. Now I would be able to fit a small greenhouse near the veg on the lower terrace but would want the trees down there topping first, not because they block the sun, generally they don’t but because they need topping and I don’t want to put up a greenhouse only to have a sawn ash branch to …. By the way the barn next to the polytunnel came down in the snow this January and destroyed all our efforts – the polytunnel is no more!!!!!!

So I make do with window propogators, a cold frame and still manage to fill the freezer with veg!!!!! I think the worst is when I read about you all sowing seeds in the greenhouse, knowing that I have not got enough window sills in the house to accommodate all I that I want to do!!!!!

Thats it, tale of woe, over!!!!

My sweetpea seedlings are doing great on the kitchen window sill with a good view of three full bird tables! The birds are swarming in this cold weather and I find that I have to refill during the day, not that I mind. Its great to watch and hear all that is going on.

This weekend we are planning to put up a new fence and hopefully finishing off another planter box, which is about 3 foot high. It should look good outside the front of the house filled with something – still to be decided upon!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

After yesterdays efforts, today is going to be nice and easy. Was over to B&Q first thing, needed compost as am planning to pot up some of the stuff from aldi and lidi acquired recently.

Went to check the piece of driftwood I spotted from the Dart the other day. Gone. Rachel, I want it back hehe. Ah well, did find a smaller piece, that I might do some thing with.

Sun is coming through the cloud, think it will be a good day, enjoy.

Have joined as I’m a little desperate to get some advice for a shady front garden. Shady being a bit euphemistic as it’s north facing and I don’t think gets any sun in winter at all, but can enjoy loads of direct sun for a few hours a day in the summer. I’m about to plant some Japanese Quince which I hope will tolerate the site. Am now going to search the site and forums for some tips. 

After a setback for the last week,now it is back to the joys of gardening.Will be done in theory for a few weeks though.Missing out on some lovely weather to spend there,but will get back on track little by little.Enjoyed having a walk down to the veg garden earlier today.Though it be slow and just for a few minutes,the sun was out,so all was well.Some seeds need moving on [pricking out] but maybe later.Will spend an hour or so looking at the Irish Garden Mag,and The RHS Veg Book.

I would just like to take this space to recommend a local landscaping company, Acer Designs, Bunclody.

Acer Designs have carried out four jobs for me over the last year and a half, from putting up pergolas to the recent hedge removal. I cannot recommend them enough.

Acer Designs is very reasonably priced. The young man I have dealt with is also extremely knowledgeable and personable, having studied horticulture in Glasnevin himself. I also believe them to be of the highest integrity, having stuck by me through the horrendous task of erecting my greenhouse last year.

Finally I would like to mention the excellent customer service record of this company. If Acer Designs say they will be there on Friday, they will be there. And if they can’t make it, for whatever reason, you will get a phone call. I don’t know what it’s like in other parts of the country, but here in Wexford it seems that the Celtic Tiger only served to make companies ruder and more disregarding of customer service because you can be promised a job to be done for many months before anything happens and you will never even get the courtesy of notification that there will be a delay.So Acer designs is like a breath of fresh air.

Anyway, I recommend them. Plug over : )

I have just started a wildflower album and will add to it as the flowers come along it will be intresting to see how many I can photograph in a year.

the garden has specimen docks thistles and several other outstanding varieties of unmentionables   at the moment .It has just been attacked by the round-up demon which is not yet evident to the eye of the beholder.heres hoping the demon will be successful .Just back from blooms it was very good.4/6/08

how does your garden grow !!

1-04 09

Lawn up now but needs levelling.Picking stones at moment .Its a bit sparse. i am hoping it will thicken up.In facta I need rain to roll it .Happy gardening for 09.

 28-8-09.

Lawn is growing well enough.Could be thicker i suppose .too much clover which I asked Gerry about -afraid to weedkill til next year.

7-03-10

Waiting for some growth lawn burnt from frost.Hoping for good growth this year.

busily transplanted the Aldi begonias the night before last, formed in gently and watered carefully. 

was gonna keep them in the kitchen for a few days cos of their size.

got up yesterday morning to see that half of them had………promptly died!

any reason as to why? 

beautiful day down here in cork so gonna potter round the garden and move a few shrubs to make way for some bulbs and the flowers yet to come  

I have decided to purchase a heated propagator for the first time. I’m normally happy to wait until temperatures creep up before sowing cabbage,lettuce and calabrese etc. in trays in the greenhouse. I usually harden them off and start planting out in April. However, the way this season is going I’m afraid I’ll fall behind a little. I know it’s early yet but I like to get two crops out of a single bed in a season so I’m going to give nature a helping hand. Day time temps are fine in the greenhouse but nights are still going down to -3 around here. BTW does anyone have any experience of heating a small glasshouse by a few degrees overnight? I have a small parrafin heater but it drinks oil and the wick always burns out long before dawn.

What a lovely day. I was hoping to get some gardening done but visitors just arrived. Put up some photos today.

This is some good news for those of you who print a lot. My son tipped me off about the Cartridge Shop on the left hand side of the Malahide Road before the Artane roundabout heading for the city. 

I paid €25 to have 1 Black + 1 Colour cartridge recharged for my HP 3-in-one printer. New cartridges only have about 5ml of ink in them but the Cartridge recharge shop puts 15ml back into them. That’s what I call a good deal. Check out the price you pay for new cartridges and you will know how much you can save. They also have premises on the Navan Road D.7, Rathmines Road D.6, Drumcondra Road D.9, and Finglas D.11 website: www.thecartridgeshop.ie

just starting from scratch fill in later.