Month: May 2010

in Co. Limerick. We have just ‘laid’ an oriental rug of bizzie lizzies for our buddha to look out on. A cranberry pink outer with an orange centre. Roll on the summer!

This looks wonderful this time of year. I am exhausted after mowing the neighbour’s field all day, so you have my pemission to feel sorry for me. thanks

Was in work all day. But before I headed off, I tied up my mangetout, sweetpea that Myrtle gave me, and Radishes. Very time-consuming indeed. Did a bit of dead-heading. When I got home from work I got all the stuff that I bought in England planted. Happy camper. While in work today, someone called in to say hi. It was actually a customer of mine when I worked in Homebase years ago. When I made the move to where I am now, he brought his custom to me. Lovely that. He drops in occasionally just to say hi. He is into model ship building, something that Steve is also into. He is always saying to drop in if we are in his neck of the woods. So after doing a bit of planting we went over. Only home now.

I love his garden. Roughly the same size as mine, but he has done so much with it. He has 3 sheds in the garden, all made by himself. He also made a beautiful Dovecote. He has a little pond, filled with water lilies and a bit of a water feature. Plenty of fish too. We were over there last year, fish are huge. I took the liberty of taking some photos this evening. Everything in his garden is done from pure passion of the great outdoors and ‘his’ space. I was happy to have been able to take the few photos. And Steve came home with a few plans of ships. He was hoping that Michael would have the plan for Shackletons boat ‘Endurance’. Will post an album Customer/Friends Garden. Maybe throw out some more ideas.

Done…. I think it is time to sit down and have a cup of tea (its only expression- i only drink coffee). Been so busy in the garden and the veg plot, that in the evening after reading 2 or 3 journals was falling asleep.

sometimes  it will rain so it will be a reason not to go to the garden… sounds bad, but the battle with the weeds really started… the minute i finished one end of veg plot its time to start again. i wish veg were growing so fast… escaping hens drive me mad, cause its lovely to see them free scraching around but when they do that in carrot row you feel like having stew…(chicken stew …)

ok after crumpy part its a happy one. i got my mini tunnel done and its for cucumbers and few courgettes(early crop). Pollytunnel finally has an order- 50 tomatoes plant, 12 peppers, 6 cucumbers and lots of herbs and salads. its been great to have fresh salads and stir fries. strawberries has about 5 berries a day and my little ones having a fights in the morning. its a great feeling of success and all the hard work well paid of/..

 

happy gardening to you all.

I can not believe the weekend is over already did not get much gardening in this weekend as we had communion in Kildare yesterday – however lucky for us the house was only 5 minutes away from the Orchard garden centre in Celbridge and that was way too tempting for the gardeners among us so we were able to slip away for a couple of hours. It is a really good garden centre in fact it is much more – lots of posh interiors as well. But all we were interested in was the plants but we were also just browsing as we were saving our money for next week!! – but who ever leaves a garden centre with nothing- I was very restrained i got a Rodgersia and a primula loverly pink to go with a deep purple ligularia that I planted in last year. So not too bad I did not blow all my Bloom budget!!.

 Today was spent planting in my new purchases. I also got my cosmos that I grew from seed out into the garden and all the sun flowers are now planted out. The dahlias from seed have been transplanted into pots as I Keep losing them when I Plant them in the ground. In the veg garden we planted out the sweetcorn and some more cabbages, cauliflower and broccli. I staked tomatoes which all seem to be doing well amazing how quickly they come on when they are finally planted into the ground. Cucumbers planted out of pots in the polytunnell, got the straw down under the strawberries. Gerry was working on pond Number 2 ( yes we have finally moved on from pond No 1 which is now filled with water – so exciting!!!) (Jacinta i will post pictures promise) 

I am likely to bore you all on this subject but I am a big fan of hardy geraniums – some of their characteristics  , reliable, hardy, lots of different varieties, loads of colours for all parts of the garden i am going to take pictures of the different ones I have and post them up as a separate album – unfortunately I do not know the names off all so all help appreciated when I get around to doing this

Does anyone know what this one is called?

 

Tonight i finish repotted my Heucheras sanguinea’s.I see i have them little bit to much.So. if someone  want it let me know,i will put your name in list,for next meeting/plant swap.

   Soon i will know whit plants i can give away,so watch out,maybe you see something good for you.

   Picture from google.

After the slow start the garden is getting greener and more colours appears. but what are these?? do not remember buying them,.

name please

Had the usual Sunday walk this evening on return home after paying a visit to a friends vegetable garden.All is going well there apart from the odd weather set back.With the coming week,hopefully the weather will be good to all the gardeners.We all need the weather on our sides now.Have to take a final check in the tunnel in a short while and make sure all is well.If watering will be needed in the morning that will be done soon after 7 o clock.No plans for tomorrow evening just yet,but i will have a think about what evening work will be done in the vegetable garden later.

the wisteria is growing nicely now on the trellis, it has a lovely scent while im sitting on the arbour. this is its second season, so doing quite well i think.

this bedding gazania has the most viberent colours i think, i also have yellow and cream, my perennial yellow one was killed by the severe frost this year much to my disgust, i hope to replace it if i can find the same one somewhere.

my feeding station has worked really well. i have goldfinches and sparrows which are now on the endangered list even though they were in their millions when i was growing up. many moons ago!. also have greenfinch and blackcap and blackbird and thrush and two woodpigeons, which is not bad for a town. as i grew up in a very rural area i like having them around.

they are the best weapon we have, i have a very bad problem with whitefly and greenfly on my honeysuckle, i have five different ones, even my wild one is invested with them, i brought this one from my home as a child, i have never seen greenfly on any of the wild type before, i am using an organic spray at the moment and am awaiting the results.

i tried this plant for the first time this year, it has flowered on its first year, they sometimes do not, i think they are worthwhile, i planted them beside the pond.

I have sown 3 lots of cucumber so far this year (Crystal Apple). They all perished. Sowed a 4th lot 2 weeks ago. Have germinated. This evening I will pot them on and get them into the greenhouse. They need to get up and running asap. So the extra heat should make all the difference. Won’t do them again this year if these ones fail. So fingers crossed.

On a rather dull morning with plenty of cloud,it will be hard to know the outcome.Checked the usual areas this morning around 7 am and will return there sometime after 5-6 this evening.Some of the hedge needs trimming,but the main area will be the vegetable garden for getting in some more seeds.At one stage i was asked by friends about who are the vegetable families.With vegetable growing etc,some of them must be in the right area to help each other and not to be an enemy.

Vegetable family names.[along with some fruit]

The brassica family,cabbage,cauliflower,broccoli,kohl rabi,radish.Swedes and turnips are root crops but in some cases left with these as they both are open to club root disease.

The solanaceae family,potatoes,tomatoes,aubergines,peppers.All them are known as night shade family and  leaves and stalks poison

The legume family,all of the peas and beans are the feed for the ground in places.The peas above all attract atmospheric nitrogen and send it down to their root nodules in the ground.This is food for the next crop.

The umbelliferae family,carrots,parsnips.

The allium family,onions,leeks.

The chenopodiaceae family,cucumber,courgette,pumpkin,melon,vegetable marrow.

The compositae family,lettuce,artichokes,

The chenopodiaceac family,beetroot,Swiss chard,spinach.

The likes of root crops are mentioned above,carrots,beetroot,parsnip,spinach can be included together,but from different families.

 

 

Two days ago, when I was watering my orchids, I noticed that the 3rd Epiphyllum leaf piece, that Rita gave me last summer in Belvedere, has started to grow.

Rita gave me one leaf, to make a cutting from, and told me to be very careful about which way up to plant it. I took the leaf home and cut it in 4 and planted all 4 pieces. Two started growing that autumn, one is not yet growing and this one has just started.

But the really funny thing is that it looks like I planted this leaf segment upside down as the shoot is emerging from below soil lever, rather than from the top as with the other successful pieces.

I laughed first at being such a wally, after Rita’s careful instructions, but then I noticed something. The piece which is now growing ‘upside down’ is a leaf tip. I can tell from the way the leaf tapers into the soil (see front of photo). The first one to sprout was also a leaf tip and that was obviously the right way up (behind in photo). As each leaf has two tips, that means I did plant the cuttings the right way up!

It would seem, therefore, that the ‘right way up’ changes half way up an Epiphyllum leaf and half the leaf should be planted one way, the other half the other way, always with the leaf tip up! I think…

But one thing is sure – Rita is somewhere having a good old laugh at me now : )

Has anybody got a Christmas cactus in flower.? Found this in bloom on Friday when I arrived in Wexford, I thought they only flowered in December.

The garden is begining to look better, lots of plants flowering and some colour in the garden. Barbara worked hard in weeding this weekend, amazing how quickly the weeds grow especially the buttercups in the (lawn) grass. We edged beds together and took up the laurel. Went down to Flitters (Mary) and saw her beautiful garden. Just like the rest of us, counting the cost of the harsh winter, and looking for second opinions. Thanks you Mary for the lovely plants. I only hope the laurels take for you, and apologies for just stepping out of the garden and down to you like skarecrows, we will dress up next time. Next week its off to Blooms on Thurs. and then Wexford, have to get the stream finished, looks like a building site now, a disgrace. Put up some photos in the May album. Happy gardening.

Deb has been planting into our inside two greenhouses garden today, raised beds can be such fun as it brings the plants nearer

Just joined up .I live just outside athlone with my husband and our three children.love the gardenening especially the vegetables.We bought a polytunnel last year and its all about experimenting at the moment going well though.

talking of Roses I thought Id take this picture of Old Blush China also know as The Monthly Rose. Known in our family simply as Granny’s Rose. Thought to be the rose Thomas Moore refers to as the Last rose of Summer!

I was hoping someone had a clever idea about how to keep my patio doors open.

As you see from the photo, the doors open straight out but, because of wind, we need to put a chair in front of the doors to keep them open.

Both doors open and they open only as far as you see in the photo.

This is not ideal and I really wish I could think of some DIY attachment to keep the doors open.

I suppose something could be drilled into the outside wall below the fountains…

I love this little tree and the little model under it : )

The tree is a Hawthorn called ‘Crimson Cloud’ and it has the poshest miniature flowers at this time of year.

Some of you may recall that last year I was worried about my Ginko tree.

It just wasn’t thriving and was looking very sorry for itself.

Well, it must like cold winters because it has made a miraculous recovery and is looking really well.

I spent two weeks in Arizona last Easter. On my way to Mexico, I travelled through the Sanoran desert where the Tohono O’odham Nation of American Indians live .  The lands of the Nation are located within the Sonoran Desert in South Central Arizona.  Of the four lands bases, the largest contains more than 2.7 million acres. Boundaries begin south of Casa Grande and encompass parts of Pinal and Pima Counties before continuing south into Mexico. The desert was in full bloom and it was really very beautiful.  The saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) is one of the defining plants of the Sonoran Desert. These plants are large, tree-like columnar cacti that develop branches (or arms) as they age, although some never grow arms. These arms generally bend upward and can number over 25. Saguaros are covered with protective spines, white flowers in the late spring, and red fruit in summer. I really enjoyed my trip and hope to go back again.