Month: May 2010

The arum Lilly is one of my favorite Flowers and i though i lost them with the frost but they are starting shoot above the ground also i have a lot nasturtium  which i let self seed and i seen a few seedlings again i was worried the seeds might not have survived.  cut 3 shoots of the asparagus today it was tasty first every home grown.     

Finished planting up the hanging baskets and window boxes today. Did a bit of weeding and planted some flowers in the bed. Its lovely to see the garden coming to life!!!

INternational  space station high in south 9.52 passing Mars, and back round again 11.27 low in south west. I used to spot steam trains. I have gone up in the world. 🙂

it sure was i gota bit done in garden after my travels re polytunnel but the .wind was cold cutting cold i call it anyway just in from a grass cut its looking good

Hi all don’t get much done in the garden it was more travelling this week than anything else. The weeds are beginning to take hold again so have to get out there some time over the weekend. I’ll keep at it as much as possible anyway not everything I wish to do isn’t going to be finished this year, it will be still there next year.

Bro’s news hasn’t been great and he has be feeling very down, he got me a rose and potted it up, before he went into hospital he wanted me to take it home, I told him today I’m waiting until he comes home and is feeling up to it he can place it the garden (hopeful he will be able to do that in sept/oct) and then next year p.g. when he is visiting and if its not in the right place I said he’ll have no-one to blame only himself, I loved to see him smile. Sorry I keep going on and on thank you all for keeping him in your prays 🙂

This site is so quiet.

It is really odd.

I think it is quieter than in the winter of 2009/2010.

Is everyone too busy in their gardens to write?

Hi all,

        Well I decided to join this site as I’ve become an avid gardener since I got my own place and have a garden of my own…. I have started from scratch and was probably lucky in a way that I had a blank canvass to work with. At the moment I have dug my borders, planted some plants and sown my lawn. I’m  an absolute beginner and total novice and I’m keen to meet more experienced and knowledgable gardeners who I can gain some advice from.

Attended the Country Market 10a.m. to midday was fairly successful with my sales from the garden and greenhouse. Afternoon was taken up mainly with pruning. The job of removing dead wood is almost complete. some plants are showing life while others are still dormant or dead. The bedding plants which are still indoor at night and out during the day have made great progress but I am in no hurry to put them out on a permanent basis. The temperatures next week will still be quite low for May. The wind is still coming mainly from the north and am more concerned about the low temperture than the ash from Iceland.

Yes it has been some time since I visited these pages. But I have been doing some few things in my garden mainly keeping it trim. I have planted more plants which have come mainly from my mother’s garden, for example: Inula, Campanula (white), Hemercallis and a miniature Fuchsia. I will put more photos up soon. My health is greatly improved but I need to learn that the garden is for pleasure and relaxation and should not be another source of pressure or stress. Though I have many plans and things that need to be done I will take time over it. I hope to keep in touch with you all through these pages and learn how to garden. 

I’m in a tough situation, for all my glorious green fingered ideas I used to think that they were only pipe dreams living in an apartment. A couple of months back I spotted the ready made grow kits in Woodies and to my surprise grew some chives pretty successfully….this was to be the beginning of a flurry of planting.

No sooner had my chives risen from the soil in the mini pot was I online looking up ways and means to grow without that gardening industry standard….A Garden!

Back down to Woodies, larger pots, compost, seeds, propagators, much planting, black under the fingernails, soil all over the dinnertable = one horrified looking girlfriend. 

I have to say I get a buzz when I see the green spots of emergence gingerly making there way up from the soil, I rush home from work to see the progress, quench with water and sometimes a little word whispered.

As you see from my pics, there is now a sea of green. I also scan the apartment looking for containers that could potentially be used for planting. Yesterday I found my PC box, that was swiftly used to plant large carrots.

Should I be worried at this behaviour? So far it does not feel like my urge to grow will abate any time soon. 

 

Arrived back last monday week but have been so busy I hav nt had time to even check the journals. I could nt believe the growth in the garden when we got home , it was phenominal, and the weeds surpassed this . Have spent all my time weeding and cutting down all dead shrubs, I gave them time to recover but , nothing doing.

But I have to say it was a pleasure to come home and see the growth in the garden.

will put up some photos . 

We had a fabolous cruise, such luxury, and the food…….. think I put up a stone, the ship THE MAGNIFICA was amazing and massive , but back to the real world now. 

Youngest son surpassed himself !!!! but drowned a lot of seedlings I just could nt say a word as he was so pleased with his work… sewed some more but did nt tell him. Praised him etc etc  and he has gone off home with Dahlias tomatoes, cosmos and peppers which survived despie his ministrations. Dont you just love sons.

 lost all my canna lillies ,but one, but never mind there are plenty more where they came from. At least the bananas are growing very well.

The winter flowering jasmine is in full bloom as well as the white azaela which bloomed in the snow last january .

I think a trip to the garden center is next on the list . Will catch up soon on all your journals . talk soon

What a fantastic evening, I was outside so long that my other half asked had I grown roots, and quite honestly I really wouldn’t have minded. The birds were singing their little heads off and it felt just like summer.     We bought another Rhododerdron "Percy Wiseman" in Lidl.  it is a really large plant and chocker block full of flowers.  Im looking forward to getting it planted tomorrow.

Have a great weekend ya all. 

 

I was getting very annoyed with not having my plant database any more. It disappeared in the last computer crash and our back-up was too old to be of any use. Every now and again I would rediscover the name of a plant I had and would say to myself ‘I must remember that’ but there was nowhere to note it and, unfortunately, my memory isn’t that good.

And then I found my bag of plant labels (where I have kept the labels of any plant I bought). I thought I had thrown that out when I made the database.

So I decided to just bite the bullet and spent most of the day re-inputting all my plant names to an excel database. Although incomplete, it is a start and I can add to it as I go along.

Other than that I didn’t do much. I planted a Rheum I bought some time ago and moved saome bulbs and a plant that hasn’t been doing well. I made some Helenium divisions for Krista too. Really looking forward to the Rare Plant Fair tomorrow.

watered the potting shed and cut the grass i put in supports for my perennials copied your idea perwinkle. planted out cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower and b sprouts. got the labels mixed up so i dont kn whats what also weeded flower beds and veg garden a lot done but always more to do.

 


Finally goy our bark mulch for the herb garden & Sean has completed the framing around it to keep it tidy. Can’t wait to see what it will look like when it’s done.I know its a bit to big but I don’t care it’s less grass to mow!

 

Joined the Dungarvan Flower & Garden club this week too, attended their talk on herbs- & growing herbs- it couldn’t have been more timely, I get started on planting now this week. Must improve the drainage onmy seedlings now to get them growing nice & strong before I put them into the garden

 

Cut the front garden lawn ( must do the edging………….)

sprayed the lawn weeds in the back garden.

No weeding today though…….

Had a really busy weekend planting out my cabbages and cauliflower plants. Also weeded the onions and the flower bed! Still another flower bed to go though. I’ll try and tackle the other one after work tomorrow when the kids are in bed!

To day Sunday, having put out the bedding plants, I headed for Clane (Co. Kildare) another First Holy Communion, met a lot of my relations and told them about the Garden Club. One niece, it was her house, we had a look at the computer and got the webside open. She has a very big garden. She either has joined or will do so. She was really busy as it was her daughter who received. She has quite a lot of plants and animals that she plans to use the name Joanofarc. Watch out for her profile. Another relation Ann showed a great interest in same She loves gardening but is scared of animals. I got back at about 6.45 p.m. and got my plants in for another night. 

Beautiful Sunset this evening in Donamon  see Album 

My Loderi King George has flowered in the last few days and it is just fabulous.The flowers are very large and are a sumptuous pinky/white colour.R.Golden Bouquet is also in bloom.that has a yellowish colour flower.My recently acquired species R.Yakushimanum has also surprised me by flowering this year,this has lovely rounded trusses of white.R.Yakushimanum is the parent species of all the Yak hybrids,most of which are coming into bloom around now.These are very popular as they dont grow too big so are suitable for smaller gardens.Of course as the previously flowered rhodos start to lose their flowers,its time to start deadheading as far as practical.I dont go near the smaller ones as it is next to impossible not to damage the new growth.

well i could just commit hurry-curry i am SO annoyed, just added the longest journal entry only to find it obliterated because the flippen programme on this website timed me out, geez is it REALLY NECESSARY to have this stupid 15-minute restriction in place, after all, everything is password protected.  this is not the first time i’ve lost postings on this site in this way, it is SO annoying!!!!

I do not own alot of property so my garden is small and in some cases growing only in plantpots scattered around my house and yard. We eat a great variety of greens as antioxident and vitalizer against illness. In the process of experimentation and happenstance we come across many plants and flowers that are of interest for their durability and beauty.

Always open to new ideas and advise!

Well our garden is ‘invested’ with Starlings. Tis the house of course but the garden is taking a big hit. Most of the flowers have been decapitated 🙁 and I am trying my best not to get evil… I worried for the hanging baskets that are dangling in fear in the greenhouse, what can I do to stop the terrors from getting their beaks into them- and they’re so pretty too, so much work put into them 🙁

But besides the terrors which lie in wait, the garden is starting to look fantastic. Great team effort with the painting, amazing what a difference a lick of paint can do 🙂

Here are some more photos.

I have reached the stage now where I do not know what the plants are. I would appreciate help in getting names.

I include white and pink bluebells (oxymoron ??). These are all Scilla non-scripta, which I put up previously ((27 April).

‘Molly the Witch’ is included again as this photo (I think) is a bit better than the previous one, but still does not do justice to this plant.

The Thalictum is probably aquilegifolium.

The tree with the bronze leaves, turning green with time, was a mystry. As I have it in different places in my garden it is probably grown from Chiltern seeds. A Google search (with the help of The Hillier Manual of trees and Shrubs) showed me it is Koelreuteria paniculata (Pride of India).

I do not know what this beautiful plant (Orchid ??) is. I think it may be an orchid. Some years ago I was on a Garden Visit in Northern Ireland and the very generous owner of a garden we visited gave it to me. Could anyone suggest a name?

This is my first hosta to be uploaded. I am not sure of many of them, but I am fairly sure this is ‘Halcyon’

The fern may be Athyrium nipponicum.

I am considering this to be Tiarella cordifolia, even though some Google images seem different, but Perennials (Phillps & Rix) seems to confirm the name.

The geranium is probably correct. One reason I put this in was to include the pieris, which previously was uploaded (13 April)

In and out to work today so not much gardening done. Very cold this evening but I did lift and divide and replant my Watsonia, it was looking very brown but a few green pieces coming through so giving it the benifit of the doubt! Also cut a lot of dead of two Olearia -frost damage in both cases.

Off to our Garden Society meeting shortly Real treat tonight as Mary Waldron is speaking on Perennials. Expecting a good crowd-so scones in the oven! Must not let them burn! Goodbye!!!!!!!!!