Month: October 2010

HAPPY OCTOBER to everyone. october the month of falling leaves and ghosties !!!!! been busy with my own job. hubby and the boys have had some very long days catching up after the rain. im off next week on A/L, so plans to cut down some battered foilage and plant more bulbs. veg garden needs some tidying up also. thanks to deborahs inspiration and a chance conversation with another cousin, im going to help out with "shoe box"(xmas collection) filling and wrapping etc, 2 nights a week!!!

sounds like you are busy every day. what a joy to be able to caretake of our little corner of gods earth !!

Our postman here has now gotten used to large padded envelopes been delivered to the house here.

So came in from work yesterday, another envelope. Yipee what is this time, Hosta, had promised to send me some grass seeds, but how many had she sent me?

On  opening the envelope, yes there were the seeds. Also in with the seeds were three grasses, Bowles golden grass, Ophiopogon nigolescius, Calamogrostis karl forster.

Hosta, thank you so much. I have not forgotten the Carex for you, I will be trilled to send it on to you.

The summer seems gone and we are into autumn.  Would you like to look at some recent photos – 1 October 2010?

All of the pelargoniums surely well over 100 have been lifted and most of them potted. The potted pelargoniums have now been moved to back of house, over 60 pots in all. They are now facing mainly south so there should plenty of time to take them indoors. Were it not for the rain, all would be potted and taken to the back by now. Winter pansies bought on Thursday, replaced some which were not replaced by wallflowers. The last of the work was done after 6.30 but the darkness drove me in by about 7.15 p.m. Only a small portion of the summer half hardies remain. Soon the French marigolds, Nicotianas and Begonias will be lifted. I am looking forward to the Glory of Snow which I never grew before.

it was bright and breezy here today. hadnt the heart to cut down geranium johnston blue or ornamental horseradish that frame my blue & white border, so gave them a trim instead. had spaces then to set daffs for spring. dug out and weeded out feverfew that took over a bit in a spot. dug out 4 tiny heucheras that were struggling in my heavy clay and have clumped them together, fingers crossed. dug over what clay is now exposed and removed several stones the size of a litre carton, no exaggeration, they are like baby boulders. the wise man builds his house on rock, but his wife- the gardener of the said house- spends the rest of her days digging out rock to make a garden!!!  at least bulb planting will be straight forward tomorrow.

my hubby is a skinny as a pin, but loves ice cream. i save the boxes & lids and use them for allsorts. one use last year was to cut them up in srips of  different sizes and use them as plant labels.  the whole lid was handy for sections in the tunnel where i had several seed trays of the one thing. EG " lobellia – cambridge blue x 12 trays ".

ornam/ hradish dosent need any special care, as it cannot be consumed. i have heavy stoney clay, and  as it is a hardy perennial i have no problems. cut back excess leaves, dig a hole about a foot wide and a foot deep to accomadate the long taper roots. you will need to leave a space about 2-3 ft for width. leaves grow to about 2 ft in summer.  clonaw, there may be a few plants in that po, so your could make a feature of them .i will get photos up soon, promise, and let you know how i use mine. it will produce roots under ground and you will have new plants in about two years. only a suggestion , but if you have a bare spot near the bridge at pond or a corner your not sure what to do with maybe the ornam/hradish could have its home there. not prone to disease or pests , except for caterpillars in late autumn if close to brassicas. enjoy

i have excess feverfew plants,ornamental horse radish, parsley, hostas, and a few pheasant berrybush ( it was in cloncaws posie at our cloncaw garden visit )if anyone would like some, when im lucky enough to meet up with members again.

the dilema of the permanent pen persists. what about trying layers of white permanent marker or tippex !!!! let me know what works.

will keep a pheasant berry bush for you no prob.

Hi all

My internet is letting me down "AGAIN" when trying to upload into my photo albums I’ll see if I can upload the photos from my daughters internet tomorrow sorry about this my gardening friends. Maureen

Time of year to clean up glasshouse,  a few green tomatoes still on the last few plants we have left.  Took some off plants and left on shelving in glasshouse, ripening slowly.  Have to tidy up last few plants and empty out grow bags.

Must get some winter bedding plants for our parents graves….

Any ideas for use of glasshouse over winter, so far all we have in it is our plastic garden seats that we cleaned off last sunday.  We tend to leave it more or less empty over winter as it is not heated and so probably too cold for any plants………

Our grass is beginning to thicken up that we sowed on the back garden that we cleared off ……….

First time we sowed grass earlier this summer birds had a field day eating it all.  better luck early september when we topped it up……….

 

 

Out in the garden most of the day yesterday 04 October – clearing some weeds which had escape my attention recently- planted Iris Dwarf /Armeniacum/Croscus bulbs -now looking forward to seeing the end results – Still plenty of colour in the Garden -Dahlia’s still looking well and giving the garden colour –

Wallflower seeds planted some weeks ago are now  ready to be sown into the garden –

 

Was very busy last week planting over 200 hundred bulbs in the garden.  Among all the daffodils, alliums, hyacinths, Dutch irises and tulips is the new Tulipa ‘Ice Cream’.  Can’t wait to see how they all look come Spring!  As well, planted a magnolia ‘Sieboldii’, bearded irises and three more hydrangeas: two ‘Annabelles’ and a ‘Sargentia’.

finally got rem of bubs planted, will put up pics at weekend, charlene to give a crash course. is it common for moths to destroy bulbs!!!!!  no im not starting to dote. they seem to have targeted snowdrops and fritilaries. rinse of the "dust" and planted them in clumps, dont know if they will do anything,. i was really pissed off. there was thunder this afternoon, no rain though, just breezy. going up north tomorrow for a few days. miss you all.

……… but not the kind you might think.

Anyone who was in Mount Venus a few weeks ago, would have noticed a raised bed display that greeted you as you entered. I was totally taken by it. It has been on the back burner since then, brewing away, slowly but surely.

Have come up with a smaller idea of using a Belfast Sink that has been waiting to be used for to long. It will also kill two birds, as a big problem I have is wanting to disguise the shed as much as possible. It is a small step, but got to start somewhere.

While I had to curtail the mowing yesterday, I got the job done to day. The Pelargoniums which I did not pot yesterday were potted to day. They filled ten pots. I would say that the total number of plants in the pots would be about 150. There are still a few growing at the back facing the south and I will leave them there for the present. Eventually due to sun and wind it was possible to bring out the mower and within about an hour the lawn was mown. some parts of the lawn had more than the normal amount of grass, in particular the area where the fungi were growing. I should put the grass in the compost heap to morrow. I hope that the fungi will help to break down the grass in to good humus. There is a lot of moss in an area which I did not spray early in the year so the ferrous sulphate will be in use to spray same. 
All of the grass cut yesterday was collected (with mushrooms) and put in the new compost heap. Part of the lawn was not treated in the spring due to the hernia which is put behind me. Some ferrous sulphate dissolved in water and sprayed on part of it. I hope to have that complete within a few days. All of the pelargoniums except for a few are potted. I will leave them outside for another while as no cold weather is forecast. They tell us in Met Éireann  that temperature will reach 21C within a few days. some pruning was done here and there.

Great day for working in the garden today. Managed to get all the grass cut in the front and back. In the greenhouse I got a lot of cleaning up done, got rid of all the tomato plants at last, along with the peppers and chilli plants as well. It looks so bare now. I started to bring some of my pots of plants in that need to be over wintered. Heading off on Saturday for some sun shine for two weeks, so I was trying to get as much as possible done. It’s looking good for tomorrow as well so hope to get a lot more done. Having awful problems with the Internet lately, it just drives me mad at times. (no all the time)

I had two visitors from Dublin to day, my sister and her daughter. My sister had told me that she had a birthday present for me and as I had not been to her house since July she decided to come my way. Included in the gifts she had for me were freesias, tulips, miniature daffodils and Ranunculus. They were most welcome. There were other things as well. What puzzled me was that in the case of Freesia and Ranunculus the label said "Plant August to December" while the Flower Expert says to plant in the Spring and lift in October. Can anybody explain? The three of us went on a tour of the garden which looks better now than the day Rachel called. What lovely weather we have and likely to be even better over the next three days. It is like an Indian Summer. Unfortunately my niece who was driving had to leave early. 
Back from the Country Market where this time sales were good, Hydrangea, Coleus, Geranium, Tomato. first thing in the garden was to divide a geranium and pot up the new plants. In the front, I lifted some miniature roses and potted them . I felt that in pots they might do better than in a bed. Later on I decided to put the lilies which I had acquired during the Summer into that bed. The soil is better than where they were. They really came to giving no flowers. they should be good next year. More work was done in the rockery. One large rose bed with one rose bush was cleaned of weeds. It had been annoying me for some time. Now the front garden is beginning to look good.

at last with charlenes help, we got rem of onions in, 120 onion troy and 60 electric red. 

 garlic cristo and and afrench variety total of 50. 

 we cut down peas to stump( yes left roots in to feed nitrogen into soil). beans gone weeks ago. pulled last tomato outside. dug up half of the carrots and layered them in new dry multipurpose in a barrel in the tunnel. took the mis fits home to use up, and charlene will take some to dublin along with spuds parsnip onions and last  cucumber of the year. we had some fresh lettuce today. its doing really well. pulled crop no.3 of beetroot to pickle. crop no.4 growing nicely.

stayed in premier inn lisburn. clean and comfey. booked meal deal with room- never again, choice of food limited & average, service very slow. they do a main course " 2 for £11" which would have been better.

toured around county down did the ulster transport museum and then the ulster american folk park, 2 dry warm days. no stops in gardens or nurseries, but charles managed to squeeze in two agri machinery outlets!!!!!!

charles dad finally got home yesterday after 8 wks, incl a week in st james for triple bypass. weather fab here all day. got more multi-purpose today going to top dress flower beds on sunday. charlene and i heading to shoe-box land tomorrow, i think i said my cousin does 50 , its actually 150,  got more toothbrushes and pencils yest in asda.

 

If any of you want the following (all in 1 ltr pots):

3 * Eurphobia

2 * Squirrel grass

1 * Comfrey

3 * Carnations (large pink flowers)  – each pot has 4 / 5 plants which can be divided

2 * Penstemon ‘Garnet’

1 * Iris Variegata

5 * Geranium (originally received from Liga)

2 * Aeonium

3 * Sweetheart plant (Phidendron Scandens)

 

In smaller pots:

3 * Geranium (same as above)

2 * Hollyhock ‘Black’

 

I need the space in the greenhouse with winter coming so if any of you want them I would be delighted to let them go to excellent homes!