Month: September 2010

i cleared some of the veg beds over the weekend and sowed green manure  landsberger winter mix also put on seaweed an farmyard manure, also dead heading and harvest the onions will fill about 3 onion bags 

I want to plant a feature plant in the gravel area. But I want this plant to be in a largish pot. If I use an angle grinder to cut the bottom out of pot, to allow the roots extend down into the ground over time, will this work ok?

Has anyone else done this and how did it work out?

Just about to head for home, dreading what will greet me. I know the pond has to be overflowing at this stage and the garden waterlogged. The main road here flooded earlier today and my best friend is actually flooded into her house, I felt a bit selfish worrying about my garden when I heard this.

Are we back to building Noah’s Ark again ?? Amazing to think I was out sunning myself on the pation yesterday and picking apples :O)

When will the rain stop?  We had the most horrible wind two days ago.  It’s rained non-stop since.  So dark in the mornings.  Almost 7.00 am now and still I need the lights on.  Definately end of the season and beginning of autumn. 

Reading the blogs on other gardens being flooded out I really feel for you. As Jacinta I think said all the hardwork over the year and all the harvesting to be done it’s the last thing we need.    Mine is on a slope and a small hill so we do not get the flooding and the wind didn’t do too much damage either.

Do not really feel like going outside at all.  Even to the poytunnel but life in the garden goes on.

Sitting here in the kitchen surveying my garden – with the rain at a drizzle I am looking back to the time I joined Garden.ie.  My husband – Dan – had just agreed to allow me free rein with the North Side of the garden and so I got in lots of gardening books and relearnt the basics.

Since then I have been on an amazing journey.  I have gone from seeing a plant growing along a hedgerow or overhanging someones garden and taking a slip and putting it wherever – only to find it was in the wrong place.  (The moaning would be dreadful and a quick flip with the digger and it was gone.  Oh I would morn for the plant.)   Now  I still do do that but it’s more selective – I am planning where to put that slip if I do take it.  Maybe I’ll wait and see what colour the flowers are?

That takes me to another amazing discovery.  As I have said before I am not a flower person – let’s alter that – I am becoming one.  All of you have shown me a wonderful array of plants and colours and now I am thinking blue and white theme for the Northside.  Lots of blue and white plants love the shade – thinking bluebells, snowdrops and some I can’t name.  For the South-side it’s going to be Red and Yellow.  I have become flower friendly.  that is a first.

The Polytunnel has become my favourite part of the garden and I am planning all sorts for the Spring.  Never really thought about the seasons and now I have a calander which is filling up fast.

Yes we all moan about the weather it is never just right but then the rain brings in the nitreogen and the other good things to our gardens, the sun brings on our had work at sowing and cultivating and you know like might find some satisfaction.

Well that’s all I have time for – just wanted to share that with you.

I have discovered that our beautiful horse Chestnut tree has died of the dreaded Bleeding Canker of the Horse Chestnut. The symptoms which I found on the Forest Research www. are absolutely identical. A friend who knows a great deal about trees came to see our old tree and immediately saw what the problem was. Am I supposed to report this to any department? We live just about as far north as you can get in Ireland so I believe this to be quite a serious discovery.

Have not been on this site lately and looking back at the last couple of entries makes me realise what a change in weather in the week! Autumn has arrived and I just hope we hav’nt seen the last of the sunny days! Strange how a couple of wet days changes our outlook and makes one think of winter activities. Bought a good lot of bulbs in Lidl and have now ordered some more from Heritage Bulbs. Every season has its joys!

I have a HUGE crop of Victoria plums. They are lovely but usually I have to fight my way through the wasps to get at them, however, this year there are hardly any wasps so all the fruit are perfect!  Where have all the wasps gone? Is it a good thing there are no wasps or are they on the decline like the bees? The garden supports a lot of bumble bees but the butterflies seem to be fewer. Any comments?

 Delighted with my pot Mums this year. Bought them two years ago in Lidl and over wintered them in the green house, potted them on in early summer and they really have excelled themselves.

Finally got the front yard tidied up, including the corner flower beds and border. I need to get the Spring Bulbs back down, hopefully today. Now it’s time to start on the back. It’s a pure playground….just grass. I’m going to try make some flowerbeds and borders back there also. Planted a lilac tree in the last week, have 3 Cherry blossoms and a Weeping Willow back there already. There used to be flower displays which were very nice back there but they need rejuvination. It will probably be next week before I get to begin on that. In the meantime there is quite a bit to be done in the tunnel, not to mention the clean up of the veg garden. Course begins on Monday but it is only one day a week so I have plenty of time to be busy, busy, busy :-). Have LISTS of things to do so just sitting here having a coffee before I head outside again to tick off something else off my list. Sun, please stay a while!!!

They say a week in politics is a long time. The same can be said for the garden. This time last week I was in sunglasses, t-shirt and sporting a bit of a redneck. There was a brilliant colour display in the containers and I was considering trying to grow a few veg over the winter. After work I managed to get a few things done as the light did-nt fade till about 9pm.

This week I am in oilskins and wellies and the rain is running down the back of my neck. The veg garden is a sea of mud and as for the flowers, they are a pitiful sight. Heads blown of them and the few that remain with flowers ,battered and bent with the wind and rain. To add to the misery it is dark nearly before 8pm. Yep a week is along time in the garden especially when its raining

I have just joined this gardening site and will add photographs of my garden in the next few days.I look forward to chating to other keen gardeners and hopefully will pick up some usefull tips.at the moment I am thinking of revamping my borders as I have made a few errors in planting plants in the wrong place.hopefully the weather will allow me to do so.

Fran very kindly sent me some seeds of Rhodochiton this morning in the post.  I have never grown this before and am wondering what to do next.  Any advice from members who have grown this previously would be greatly appreciated.

I had decided to take out some hardy geranium to plant my bargain Hebe and discovered the ground was dry and hard. then the rain came which helped, but in the meantrime I decided that I should move some white daisies that were at the edge and kept leaning out onto the path ( not nice when wet!) into the middle and put the Hebe at the edge.

So yesterday I dug out the daisies–harder than I thought needless to say–and went to get compost. filled the wheel-barrow which hadn’t been used for yearsand then discovered it had a flat tyre. Anyway managed to bring it round, put it on and forked it over.

Getting tired at this stage but put in some of the daisies and the Hebe. Does anyone else find that when you dig things out they seem to multiply hugely? So I cut off the top growth and stuck them in a bag to give to friends.

 Time for lunch and then off for walk and swim and handed out the daisies which were accepted gladly.

At least I have some space left now for bulbs or…? No photo as too exhausted and not very exciting anyway.

The wall between ourselves and the neighbours was built today, it will be plastered next week, I can then get it painted. Over the weekend, I hope to get the wood finished for this feature. I will then be Abe to get the last small section planted up.

Then it can be finally declared as finished, as far as any of us gardener ever finish anything.

Wednesday 8 th: only a little done in the garden as in the afternoon a bus load of us travelled to a place in South East Wexford, leaving at about 4 p.m. The weather was excellent. Would any body know the place? We returned at about 9 p.m. 

no gang… i havent fallen off the planet…we had a very rough start to the year. not only did my dad pass away as you know in february, but his sister passed away 3 months later…so gardening wasnt done as intensively as i would have like…there were days i could barely get out of bed…but i think i am getting to see the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ now…typical that the miserable weather will be kicking in just as i start feeling my old self ! grr! anyway, i know i have a lot to be grateful for too. speaking of which…muggins decided to make raised beds for next years veggie patch…i have 4 sixteen by 4 beds and with wood that was around the house i made an 8 by 8 bed for the center to be filled with annuals and herbs for next year and 2 8 by 4 beds…to keep costs down, i also decided to use tyres to plant in…i know some peopls wouldnt because of chemicals…but considering we really dont know what we eat when we buy from a shop at the best of times, i think i will give it a bash anyway!! the local diy fella gave me extra timiber that was damaged so with one of the boards i made a smaller raised bed to put on the 8 by 8 bed to add a bit of hieght for taller annuals…that is also the bed that can be seen from the kitchen window…the stones arrived yesterday and they have to be spread via a wheelbarrow and shovel…i can feel EVERY muscle in my back now and am going to stock up on those heated back patch thingies!!! the stone colour will change a bit when the rain washes them clean….i may use the stones for the ornamental side too…don’t half bite off more than i can chew now do i?!?! let me know what you think guys!!

we picked our first sweetcorn today, ate it this evening and it was just lovely!!! forgot to bring the camera down with us last night so no pic 

been a mad few weeks, have a nasty recurring headcold,. has anyone a bucket of energy to spare ! finally got a few hrs in flower garden yest cutting back and seed saving in a frenzy. ran out of envelopes so had to make some. ( it was that or go to the shop ). wrapped up well today and took barrow loads from the veg patch to the compost heap. beans and tomatoes are over, saved heads of sunflowers for birds and seed for next year. whipped stalks to heap also. busy day but so worth the aches tonight. saved sweet pea seeds also, im like a woman possessed !!!!

yes, i watched rather than participated in the autumn changing.

I took self off to Festina Lente, i let the two chihauhaus off their lead, probably totally against ‘the law’ wow, you should have seen them go!

manure rolling and rocket running, i never saw Maggie Mai run so fast, she was grinning from ear to ear, a whirlwind running around the large expanses of grass area, it was pure joy to watch,

ana padded along too, but she has lost some speed in her body, a different ‘make’ of chihuahua she is more fond of foraging for food, and of course she found it, in wrappers rather than the allotments.

I love it there, peaceful and happy, and everyone smiling and willing to share and banter.

vegatables are now being recouped after a hard summer, young had younger in tow a=with the rakes and diggers etc over their shoulders, and the kiddies had pretend wheelbarrows and sandels, very very earthy and wholesome and just happy there.

I sat a long while by the round pond, i then took the camera out and left the walking stick by bench and strolled gently and carefully.

I am now down to one stick which is a miracle since when i got ill i couldnt walk at all, so this is great, i really had a fantastic day, also called into older sis nearby too.

February 13 2010

The winter had quite an effect on my garden. Cordylines, which I planted about 1978, do not look good. The leaves are hanging down and I wonder will they come back again. One of them seemed to be dead after the 1978-79 winter but it came back. Senecio greyi is not looking great but should come back. Hypericum hidcote appears very brown unlike other years but I notice the young grren shoots opening so I am optimistic here. I have pruned the roses, about one hundred of them. I did the pruning immediately after it became mild after the very cold spell in January and they look good. The grass looks poor and has a lot of moss but very soon I will give it fertiliser and ferrous sulphate to kill the moss which comes every yearl late in the year. Hydrangeas look good and the buds are about to open. Very soon when it gets a bit milder I will prune the mopheads. Snowdrops are looking good and crocuses are about to show flowers but the daffodils are slow to make progress surely due to the low temperature. I look forward to feeding the birds, robins, bluetits, sparrows and some bullfinches which I did not see in recent years. I hope these bullfinches will not do much damage to the buds in the fruit trees. I noticed a big rat climbing up to the bird feeder so I have set some poison inside a plastic pipe under a shrub. I hope the birds do not go in. My favourite among the birds is the robin. At this time of year there are two, surely male and female. They come near me when I am working in the garden especially when I am doing some digging. I did not see the rat again. It would seem that the poison worked

April has been great, into hospital 30March for hernia operation, out the following day and after that great progress. Two weeks after, got the all clear so generally right through April, got a fair bit of work done. Some shrubs like Hebe, Cordyline and a few more show no apparent life but there is still hope. Tomatoes have done well. Vine is very good , better than last year. I should be pollinating it soon. Blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries, rhubarb all doing well.

July

Life is not dead only delayed, so many plants which seemed dead are showing life again. Of the three Cordylines, there is a sure improvement in one. Shoots are coming from the ground. I am hoping the other two will make progress. A Griselinia hedge had been cut back. Young shoots are coming out, first at the bottom, later higher up. Libertia which I was certain was dead is really alive now. The grey shrubs like Senecio and Santolina are safe. Hypericums and Hydrangeas are booming. Roses: what can I say, never had anything like them before. It must be the sunny weather, some flowers on rose bushes as big as your hand, no exageration. Fruit: Apples will be very good, both dessert and cookers; gooseberries picked and jam made from some 8 th. Will make more later. Strawberries: for the birds. For years I had great crops, ate as many as was possible sold some, gave some away but the blackbirds also love them and seem to have found that they are there. I used a net for a few years but they got through it. This year I just left them there. Black currants and redcurrants – they love them but while I got nothein out of the blackcurrants last year I should get some this year. Weeds: hard to keep them down.

August

Greenhouse had a very good produce. Tomatoes so heavy on stalks that same stalks bent or even broken; Vine – what a crop of grapes bigger and better than last year but while i like the grapes, so also the wasps and they invaded the greenhouse. Getting in was confined to night time whe apparently these social insects had gone to sleep. People told me to find the wasps’ nest but alas it was never found and by the time they had departed very few of the grapes remained. however I did rescue one bunch and now I know that around the middle of August, they are ripe and sweet. Roses are not good at the moment. I had a really good crop early on, best in the second half of June, a sight to behold but not so now. Runner beans are good, should be very good in September. In the front garden I had a poplar tree Populus candicans Aurora. It had grown very high but I was a bit worried, thought it was a bit too near the house, saw some rot at the base and had heard that the roots are shallow also that they would do structural damage. would I employ a tree surgeon? The answer came on Monday 23 rd. I walked out the door at 4.45 p.m. and lo and behold the tree was lying on the lawn. The tree had been a present I got about 1980. It was now no longer standing erect in front of the door but on the other side of the story, the view of the front garden was better than before. It reminded me of O’Connell Street, Dublin in 1966.

As I haven’t been well lately, I have not been out in the garden for a while.  There have been a few jobs which have been annoying me – namely pruning the Photinia ‘Red Robin’ and the magnolia.  Both form the backbone of the front garden but both were getting a bit too big for a small garden.   However, I couldn’t do these jobs on my own so help was enlisted – by way of hubby – a non-gardener.  He had never pruned a plant in his life before but he got into it quickly enough and did a great job on both.

Then, he took all the cuttings and other garden waste off up to his parents place, where he shredded the cutting and disposed of all the waste into the composter.  The pair went with him, to help.  

With them gone, I emptied the wormery and tidied up.  I cleaned out the top shelf of the greenhouse and put in some of the ‘tenders’.  The forecast for the week is that the weather is to turn autumnal so I don’t want to be caught by an early frost. 

Tonight, when the pair were going up to bed, my daughter said "Even my shoes had a great day today".  

As autumn approaches, I’m trying my best to keep colour and interst in the garden.

Ballintubbert Gardens are the largest and most intensive gardens to be developed in Ireland for over one hundred years. Ordinarily a garden of this type would remain private until the owners had passed on and the gardens come into public hands.  Visitors have the opportunity to see the development stages of such a large scale project, and interact with the owners, designers and gardeners from the outset. This is almost impossible to do in any other garden in Ireland as the originators have passed on or the gardens are in public ownership.

The garden is set out with one long central axis, with the beautiful glebe house at its centre. From this long axis the garden radiates outwards in a series of rooms and walks. This garden is full of charm and delight.  At every turn there is something new, something different, something unexpected.

The Gardens are being developed along organic principles, and the use of artificial weed and pest controls have been minimized from the outset, with the final exclusion of all chemical solution form winter 2010 onwards.

Andrew Farrelly who has been head gardener at Ballintubbert since the inception of this project says,
” I have the privilege of coming here every day, year in year out,  and every day I find something I have not seen before”

Highlights Include,

• Canal, situated at the front of the house, the canal is 12m x 100m of still water with a 12x12m header pool and weir, the lower pool is flanked by lawns on either side furnished with Tilia Cordata walks and 4m high beech hedging. A spectacular piece of landscaping which shows off the house to its fullest potential.

• Irish Meadow, a beautiful area of trees and shrubs with meadows, this area showcases the best of planting with Irish connections, either native Irish trees and shrubs, along with plants developed by Irish breeders or fount by Irish plant hunters. The collection will develop in the coming years as the trees mature. This area is divided into various zones, hot dry, cool moist, alkaline, acid, etc, allowing the gardeners to indulge themselves in a variety of unusual combinations.

• Beechwood, a wonderful collection of beech trees interspersed with acers, willows, birches and alders. The beechwood features the wildfowl pond and the sacred circle, it is also the starting point of the introspective walk. This garden has numerous twists and turns incorporated into the design which requires the visitor to cross and recross paths from a variety of angles to get the best effect.

• Theatre Lawn, coming out of the beechwood you are confronted by a flight of steps up a grassy mound, from here you survey the gardens to the rear of the house, the 450m x 22m lawn inspires “Oh my God” from the majority of visitors. Designed as a theatre space, this lawn will comfortably seat 2,500 people with the mound forming the stage.

• Orchard: The Little Orchard, so named in honour of Mr. Little who planted the trees some 25 years ago as part of a fruit farm, contains a lovely collection of Apple trees in good heart, in conjunction with the fruit Cages and herb terrace, this area introduces you to the food production areas of the garden, incorporating the potager (vegetable garden) and nuttery.

• Lutyens and Cloisters: a beautiful interpretation of Edward Lutyens design for Haywood (minus the controversial fountain). This terraced garden surrounding an oval pool has some spectacular planting, an air of elegance and beauty, and a sense of calm and peace. The Yew hedged cloisters offer an opportunity for some reflective rambling in the inner “rooms” with slotted openings affording glimpses and temptations at every turn.

• The Yew Walk: completing the strong linear axis of the garden, the Yew walk affords one of the most pleasing vistas of the house through an avenue of native yew, through the formal hedged of the Lutyens, on into the Terrace Garden and culminating in a beautifully framed view of the bronze table with the french windows of the house completing this spectacular image. 

• Terrace Garden: a beautiful arrangement of public and private space in one, the rear terrace is where the family do most of their entertaining in the summer, and it is easy to see why, with its varying heights of grasses, manicured lawn and wilder grasses, its mature apple trees, yew hedges, enormous bay barrels, and curved walls this space is highly successful as a family garden.

• Barn Garden: an ultra high quality circular lawn and a wonderfully conceived deep planting in irregular beds, surrounded by old walls, barns and the south facing gable of the house, this garden is an absolute treat at any time of the year. Colour, texture, and scent are king in this garden. The adjoining “Secret Garden” with its small dark pool and its enclosing walls, is an absolute haven of calm and quiet.  

• Bird Life, The gardens are patrolled and guarded by a range of Peafowl, Guinea Fowl, Chickens, Geese, and Fantail Pigeons, we will be adding to our collection of exotic fowl in the coming years as well as encouraging wild birds to establish their homes.