Month: March 2010

I have just come in for lunch. I spent yesterday digging in the garden and I am doing the same today. I have a question for you all, I havnt seen one worm in all the time I have been digging, why? I was brought up on a farm and in my memory I always thought there was lots of worms in the soil, so do they not like the city? my garden? my soil? or are they becoming extinct? Or is my memory faulty?

As I cant take a photo of a worm 🙂 I took this photo this morning. This is an essential for us ladies who are not able to carry heavy things! I move pots with it too. I think I got mine in Lidl a few years ago but they have them in Woodies too.

passed the front bedroom (well, no longer a bedroom) last night, and happy me, with the bit of heat over the last few days the seeds have gone into hyper-drive with their germination. 

the cosmos, morning glory, and marigolds have put in an arrearance only 1 problem now.

Lala here never labeled the herb seeds when he planted them so havent a clue whats after coming up, beginners mistake not to be repeated! 

have to do a lot of pricking out tonight, just need to find pots! 

Just in from the garden. Such disappointment greeted me out there. During all this horrible weather, my Dracunculus vulgaris did me proud and seemed to be fine, it’s snout rising proudly from the pot. I thought it was a born survivor. But I was aware that it probably wouldn’t survive the REALLY cold temperatures so I took it in during that time. However, when I felt it today, the snout just fell off in my hand. What can I say. I am now wondering whether it was the really wet winter we had, or the cold? I am gutted to say the least!

13 March

Finally I began to do some work in the garden. I prepared the ground for my potatoes. Well I tried to prepare the ground but it was so dense in cough grass and roots that I decided to try out a different technique this year.  After roughly digging over the sods of cough grass, I added a thick layer of manure. I covered this with plastic and planted the seed potatoes through slits made on the surface. 

I also prepared a small plot for sowing my wildflower meadow. This was a problem area at the back of the garden that has broken my heart so I am gonna let it go ferral with some attractive wildflowers!

 

The number of plants in my kitchen has reached capacity. It still isn’t warm enough to put things in the greenhouse. It was then that hubby hit on the brilliant idea of bringing the greenhouse table indoors to the boys’ room.

I hope they don’t mind too much, But Josh just recently told us how plants are good for us because they breath out oxygen : )

I also managed to get my hands on some more seed trays so tomorrow I will be sowing again.

This morning was orchid potting time. My neighbour, Wayne, dropped over yesterday with an unwell Dendrobium and Oncidium that he didn’t want so I re-potted them this morning. So two new orchids for me. Thanks, Wayne : )

While out in the garden today I tried to think of the name of this plant. I have been wracking my brains all day. Can anyone enlighten me as to what it might be? The oul’ grey matter is dead today!

By the time Steve got up this morning, I had everything from the kitchen and dining room in the living room to make space for Steve to paint the two ceilings. I went over to work to get paint and Manager gave me this planter of Hyacinths which had gone over for just €2. Original price €16.99. There are 4 really healthy bulbs in it, so they will get planted out in the garden during the week, or tomorrow. However, I pulled off all the petals and got 2 lovely dishes of pot pourri out of them free.

Every time that I go to a talk by the Bay Garden, I hear how brilliant the Felco secateurs is. Recently I went to a pruning demonstration and saw one in action. I was very impressed. There was hardly any need for a loppers.

I was told that Felco is a secateurs for life. Although costly (circa €30), you can have it serviced annually for free. You just pay postage to the factory in Switzerland.

Well, I am fed up hacking my roses to death so today when I spotted Felco secateurs for sale, I decided to treat myself. Well, it is almost Mothers’ Day!

I bought two lovely pear shaped pot a few years ago in B&Q, as I was walking out of the centre, I noticed a grass, with lovely reddish leaves. This colour was also in the top rim of the pots. Of had to have it.

This match turned out to be fantastic, The grass sends out the most beautiful copper/rose heads that are out of this world when the sun catches them. Then with the same colour in the rim of the pots, finishes the whole thing completely.

The grass is Pennisetum setaceum ” Rueppelii”, I got seeds of it from Seedaholic the other day, this is one I am really looking forward to getting set up again.

Potted on some toms this morning ‘Demidov’, ‘Costoluto’ and ‘Sweet Millions’. I also sowed some more sunflower seeds, the same as I had lost. I meant to do a lot more seeds today but somehow I got side-tracked. Outside, I weeded my back border and also dug a new space for gladioli. I planted 40 altogether, either side of my compost bin. Just a little way to cheer up an otherwise dreary area. I potted up the some hostas and planted some Hemerocallis into the border down by the raised pond.

Inside the greenhouse I gave everything a longed-for watering too. It seemed like the Good Lord was trying to cheer me up after losing my Voodoo Lily earlier when I spotted plenty of flowers on my 4 peach trees. In a couple of weeks they should be ready for pollination with a paint brush. It’s strange the way somethings that you would imagine to be tender have come through this difficult period and other things that you take for granted are wiped out.

I watered some of my houseplants, Nepenthes, Rhipsalis and Platycerium (with rainwater) and Beaucarnea, and Swiss Cheese plant.

Done as planned today in the seed room earlier on and now trays,pots,etc have been left in place at the lower end of the room.[Pictures added from there another time].]All potato trays [chitting] moved to the front room.

Spent an hour looking on at the work on the filling in of the clay etc from the area dug for the supply to the tunnel.All coming on well now.[Picture album of the job to be added early in the coming week].Back to study. 

Couldn’t have wished for a better week to give my tunnel a good spring clean. To look at it now you wouldn’t think that it was put up 9 years ago. I clean the plastic every year but went a bit further this year. The build-up of the moss had gotten so bad that I decided to lift the ground cover, leave it in the sun for a few days and put it back upside down. A much easier job than scraping off the moss which I used to do in previous years. You live and learn!

I planted seeds of this trees:
1)Dove tree(Davidii Involucrata). Seed was already stratificated,,all what i have to do,plant it,and wait.

2)Tulip tree(Liriodendron tulipefers) Soaked seeds for 48 hours in rain water,right now them in fridge for 90 days.

3)Strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) Soaked seeds for 48 hours,now in frigde for 2 or bit more weeks.

4)Yellowhorn tree( Xanthoceras sorbifolium)Soaked seeds for 24 hours,waitnig for germination:)

5)Chinese Kousa Dogwood Tree(Cournus cousa Chinensis) 24 h,in water and after 90 days in fridge.

6)Lily of the Valley Tree(Oxydendrum arboreum) No soaking and no fridge,,Just sow ,and not cover with peat.

  Liam planted today first cabbage,califlowers,broccoli,peas and parsnips,spinach …in one month time we will get our first veg,,ok,,just spinach:))

At last it flowering.I wait so long.I think i said that last year it had a 3 flower steams,i bit lay.Liam remaind me-was 4 of them.This year i have just one flower steam,,but…it growing new bulb.:))

This Helleborus has been flowering since February!!  Out in garden yesterday as weather was so nice – have done alot of tidying up.  We’ve been really lucky here – haven’t lost anything.  Some shrubs got frosted on tips, but no major damage. 

Some of my first daffs ‘tete-a-tete’ are out.  Late September I bought two lots of daffodils half price ‘Churchill’ and ‘Ice King’.  Instead of putting them into the ground I potted them up and now these last past few days we’ve been knocking them out of the pots and transferring to garden.  Looking forward to seeing them in flower!!   Glorious morning with Croagh Patrick sparkling in the sunshine.  Still abit of snow up there on its north face.

Ok Let’s see what needs doing in the garden today.

Compost needs tidying up and put into its own corner.

Pots need to be emptied of old stuff, and new plants put into them ie, the last of my perennials.

Border needs to be cleared of weeds and dug over.

Bishop Dahlias need planting in that area and slug pellets scattered around.

Shelving from greenhouse needs dismantling and put away until after summer.

Washing to be taken in. Another to be put out. Can’t beat the smell of freshly-laundered clothes when folding them.

Leeks to be sown.

Tomatoes ‘Tumbling Tom’ red, and ‘F1 sweet Million’ need potting on. Also Cayenne Pepper ‘Heatwave’.

 

 

Don’t you just love Mothers’ Day?

The current conditions are ideal for digging. So, I decided to some double digging this year. It was well overdue on some of the veg beds. In fact they are currently about 6 inches higher than they were this time yesterday. I’m sure the results will be worth the effort.

Maggie was up early this morning and decided to make a start on potting on the tomatoes, it is normally a big job for us any year but this year its a huge job!!! Thanks to Maggie’s hard work this morning we now have 11 varieties potted on, 92 plants in total!! we only have another 30 varieties to do! about another 250 plants or so! that’s all!! we will be keeping about 85 plants ourselves and another 60 plants or so promised to friends so far! still think we will have a couple of dozen plants spare! so if anyone thinks they would be up to growing some heirloom tomatoes give us a shout! the good weather we have had over the last few days has everything starting to take off! greenhouse has come alive! will post a journal about it later, off to town now for a ramble around, something to eat and a few pints! as a thank you for my hard working wife!

A glorious scent welcomed me as I entered the greenhouse this morning.

Unfortunately I have no room indoors for my bowls of hyacinth but they are not wasted in the greenhouse.

One of last winter’s survivors in the greenhouse, is my sarracenia collection.

They are just waking up from dormancy at the moment and one is even producing a flower. Sarracenia produce their flowers before their carnivorous pitchers to ensure pollination. No point in eating the insects that are going to pollinate you!

The picture shows ‘evergreen’ carnivorous plants.

After a wasted half hour looking for a trowel, I finally got out to the garden. We really need to do a ‘Fran’ on that shed!

I started clearing and weeding the ‘annuals bed’ in front of the greenhouse. I was very pleased with it last year and this year it is going to contain a completely different planting scheme. It’s my border for ‘ringing the changes’.

Actually, the weeding wasn’t as bad as I feared. The bed does actually have some dahlias in it so luckily I had the presence of mind last autumn to mark where the dahlias were planted with bamboo canes. That way, I didn’t pull them up with the dead sunflowers and helychrysum. I am assuming for the time being that the dahlias are still alive.

Well, I didn’t get it all finished but I nearly did so that wasn’t bad! I think I will put plastic over it when I’m finished until it gets planted up the 3rd week in May.

Gave my new privet hedge another watering while I was busy. The soil is terribly dry!

Late last summer I spotted 3 frogs swimming in my upper pond. However, I feared the worst as we have a cat, Holly. And she is extremely good at catching anything that moves. However, as I was digging over my shady border today I nearly drove the fork into this little critter. Oh, I was elated with my discovery. Steve was giving the ceilings a third coating of paint and thought I had had an accident in the garden as I was screaming for him to come out. Do you know that frogs only spend about 20% of their lives in water?

I don’t know about anybody else, but whenever I make a list of ‘things to do’ I usually end up doing completely different things. Today was no exception.

I did manage to take the washing in, and put another one out. But I spent the majority of the day digging over my shady border. It was completely over-run with couch grass and other weeds. This year I am hoping to plant things that I have in pots, in an effort to dispense with all the pots cluttering the place. I managed to plant Ilex crenata ‘Gold Tip’, Mitrarea coccinea, Helleborus argutifolius, Saxifraga x arendsii ‘Highlander’, Nandina domestica ‘Firepower’ (Sacred Bamboo), Contorted Hazel ‘Coryllus avellana’, Libertia ‘Taupo Blaze’ (thanks Fran), Arum italicum, Primrose (Thanks Liga). I did a lot of cutting back today. I think it may just be safe enough now. I cut back some ferns and fuchsias, Lysimachia, Rudbeckia, Montbretia, Pennisetum alepecuroides ‘Hamelyn’, etc. Lots of new fresh growth evident everywhere. It does the heart good.

 I also made sure to plant my Bishop Dahlia collection in my sunny border, which will be shared with my sunflowers. And I have marked them out and scattered plenty of slug pellets, just in case. Can’t have those ravenous molluscs munching their way through those little gems. I also have plenty of surplus BISHOPS for planting into pots for the patio for extra impact.

This morning there was virtually nothing in bloom in my garden, apart from my Helleborus orientalis, 2 Galanthus (Snowdrops) that I didn’t even plant, and a few crocuses, but by this evening I noticed a lot more crocuses in bloom and some irises. It seemed that I was the only one on this site that had very little colour in the garden right now. That has all changed. I reckon all the daffs will be in bloom over the next week, weather permitting. Oh it was such a pleasure to be out all day.

very exciting here in my ‘yardenette’ note the addition of a letter in this!

 

in bed this morning i was watching activity.

i got some dunnock, blackbirds, collar doves woodpigeon and to my surprise, a great tit inspected ‘property’ or in the tits world a possible site to set up home, for a letting period i guess.

flew onto the entrance where i had placed the nest box in the pyracantus, sorry if i spelt that wrong.

i had added here some of my chis fur, its gorgeous and soft and clean.

so it inspected and flew off.

it must be prime hot prop as a house sparrow was quick on its heels and also dunked its wee beaky head inside to have a deco and flew off.

No activity since but its been spotted and inspected so it has at least a chance.

 

Rebound of a long trip to Kilquade yesterday had me never getting dressed and feeling woeful, but i did move the zen stone thingy back and i had got another bud yesterday and placed it amongst the stones, its improving that wee spot.

twin came later and had the idea of moving the shoes and it was defo a great idea.

the swingseat was fab today, but no, the thatch doesnt work, twin again with her ideas, suggests i get willow screen and place it horizontally, great idea.

 toward evening, a woody called and i snapped him (or her).

so full day in the yardenette and too ill really to enjoy but as i sit here, my solar lights are making my buddhas glow gently and reassuringly, ana one of my chis is in my lap, on top of the hot water bottle.

i am posting some snaps and would love ideas too.

I am looking for some buddlehja and also a small tree, dwarf cherry or a type with a nice shape bark or catkins that have a long spring flowering.  any ideas on these gratefully received.

xann and margaret, well she did have ‘input’ in the yardi today so she gets a ‘credit’ here now.  i am trying to get her to log on for her rice paddy field!