Month: September 2010

 

 

Some things are worth waiting for.

 

Here is the Cayenne chilli plant Ivor gave me back at our meet : )

 

I am delighted to see that my Nerines have not disappeared.

They are just obscured.

At least two of them are coming back.

 

I am not sure of the name of this Aconite.

I call it Lidle’s best : )

The blue asters are coming on now.

The pink are to follow.

Gotta dash. Off to HeadGardener’s for some R&R today : )

Taken 29th September

Still not getting to do much in the garden, but lucky me has been out and about over the Summer judging our local tidy towns competition. It amazing to see the works the groups do and the effort put into the private gardens as well.

The awards ceremony is next Thursday where all the winners will be announced. This will be my last big thing in work before I finish up and please god I will be back to the judging and my own garden next year :O) I am not finishing up work til the end of November but the rest will be desk work.

Today I had a visit from Linda and Rachel, this was Lindas first visit this year so it was interesting to see what she thought since last year. Rachel had been a couple times before so had seen some development.

It’s always nice to get other peoples reactions to your garden as the old saying goes sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees yourself. I think they might have been a little over polite is there praise of it but hey I’ll take any encouragement I can get.

Luckily the weather stayed fine and we had a good look around of course the odd plant was exchanged and there was a free for all seed exchange on the kitchen island unit (Rachel made an awful mess took me ages to clean it up :-)) 

We had a quick cup of tea before people had to head and as Linda said I’ll have to do a big open day next year for garden.ie people. Rachel was contemplating heading to Coolaught Gardens and Nursery but I did’nt see if she turned right at my gate for it or left for home (whats the bet it was right)

Anyway was good to do some socialising and get my head up out of the soil for once 🙂

This one, in a bed of short ones, grew to seven feet tall as it came up through a rose bush

I believe I owe someone a prize. It must be Fran, so if he would like to pick from these garden ornaments, to be set in concrete in his new garden area.

Everyone covers their pond in bubble wrap. It seems to be working though as the heron was in the pond twice this morning before I put it up, and since then he has stayed in the field next door thinking out a counter move.

Mary set off to work on a border, a bit of weeding and freshening up, while I set to planting a bed I had cleared, put a low stone wall around to raise and added lots of garden compost to yesterday but then it started to rain and we abandoned the garden. 

This is the last day of September and I had a look at photographs I had taken last weekend and have made a final addition to our September album, all shots of flowers this time, I think, so my photographs.  

Paddy 

Can’t wait for this one to show its flowers. Finally planted it yesterday.

Have just put up some pictures that I took yesterday morning when the mist was still lingering! Never saw so many cobwebs on the hedges!!

Between yesterday evening and this evening I planted 68 tulip bulbs of different colours in the herbacous borders, with those already in the borders there should be a great show in spring! also planted 30 new narcissi in the lower garden and Snake’s head Fritillary. Still have not received my order from Heritage Bulbs, so they will add to the number!! There is something very exciting about seeing new bulbs bloom for the first time!

Took this picture of Michaelmas Daisy this evening. I have several clumps of this one and it always does well. Not too tall so stands up to the wind.

I had a great morning at Bill’s. He and Gabriel have done such great work this year, it has put me to shame. Your garden is looking great, Bill. Congratulations. I couldn’t face bulb planting after that : (

Linda gave me two large black bags of dry straw. A present only a true gardener could appreciate. They are for protecting my tree ferns : )

Home again, some cat got into the greenhouse and sh** all over the floor. Yuck. Couldn’t face it today. Will clean up tomorrow. The smell was rare in there when I closed it up this evening!

Back in the house, I did a job sorting out my orchids. Cold orchids have gone into the ‘cold room’. This is my daughter’s room but as she is at college, I will also be putting my plants in there this winter. I took out all the Oncidiums and have moved them to my bedroom (intermediary room). I need to check the requirements of some of the odder species in my book tomorrow – to make sure they are in the right place.

And I also sorted out all my South African bulbs, transferring them to earthenware pots and putting grit on the surface. But, oh dear, now they take up much more space. Between them and the intermediate orchids, my bedroom is fairly packed.

A few years ago, before Steve made the Pergola, I had lots of Nerine bowdenii all against that wall (south-facing). However, I knew that they would get trampled on, so I disposed of them before that happened. And I had nowhere else to put them at the time. Raging now.

In with Dad this evening. I might go back at midnight to dig up his Nerines. He has his planted just like I had mine – with bulbs 50% exposed.

Rachel can you name this orchid? i bought it two weeks ago and the name is not on it. Like the Moth Orchid, it seems to have no pseudobulbs but is much smaller.

It’s great the way something so ordinary can provide such lovely autumn colour as ‘London Pride’ (Saxifraga).

Looking very good.