Month: February 2011

I bought a second hand Gazebo last year from a local garden centre who had it as a display unit. Unfortunately, my neighbours have the exact same one in their garden. So, I was thinking, to make it look a little different I could thatch the roof with a reed thatch which would also give it a more tropical look. Does anyone know where I would be able to buy bundles of thatch? Bear in mind that I’m on the Tipp/Kilkenny border.

Woke up this morning to the sound of lambs bleating in the back field, and the sun rising over the hill.

Spring is here!! the daffodils are peeking over the ground and soon the snowdrops will be opening.

Isnt it one of the best times of the year? I think so.

Now to go do some more work…

Spent the day moving some bits from the garage back to the end shed. Put all my gardening tools down there and some bags of potting compost that i had from last year. It will be grand to have everything in the one area so that i dont have to be walking around looking for something. Nothing worse than having a stuff in a few places and then trying to find something  in particular. I noticed that some rhubarb plants were poking their heads above the soil this morning and an Oregano plant i sowed last year is begining to put up new shoots. I have it in a pot outside so dont know how it lasted with the extreme temps we had over the winter. Plants always have a way of surprising us. It was a lovely start to the morning with the sun shining and not a cloud to be seen. I thought the weather forecasters had gotten it completely wrong but sadly the rain did arrive shortly after midday. It wasn’t persistant and was very mild so wasn’t too bad. Plans for tomorrow will be to get some firewood into the shed and hopefully get a start on cutting up whats left, weather permitting of course.

That gives such a trill to us gardeners when we see the first signs of life pushing up from the compost we sowed seeds in, a short time before.

Myrtle and a few other folk have said the same kind of thing in recent days.

Today I came home from work had a quick check on the sweet pea that was sown a week ago. YES, three of them are up. The feeling is so good.

I tell the non gardeners in the other room, the great news, and the reaction is like that what we will have when we will be opening the door in the coming weeks to listen to pure tripe from our politicians.

Made my day, so simple but so satisfying.

Spent most of yesterday trying to get to grips with cutting back escallonia. Managed to make a small dent!  The small mulcher I bought is doing a sterling job chopping up the off-cuts and the chickens are enjoying digging it up as I’m using the chips as a mulch in their run.

 Raining today, so will spend some time planning my next move!!

Hi Gerry,

As you said in your email today, the winter pansies have now started to flower. I just noticed some this morning. My rhubarb has also started to shoot. It’s nice to see some colour start to appear. Can’t wait until spring.

I’ve been asked to give a short talk on taking cuttings at the monthly meeting of my gardening club. Has anyone got hot tips or anything unusual i could use? Any ideas would be appreciated.

Some of you may remember my amazing plant from South America that bloomed on cue as I had been assured it would on the 1st of April last year, it really was a great plant.

I spent about an hour doing up a journal on Monday night all about the earliest flowering Daffs that I had received from ”gotyabulbs.com.uk” and were called Aprilone, I even had a photo an all. It was a great journal.

I waited up till midnight to press the publish button. Just before I did, I reread the journal, which finished with the word Aprilone. It was only then it dawned on me, I was two months to early, after a few choice words at myself, I laughed at myself for ages.

And Deborah, thinks she has problems with Martin………….

Still grinning, at the fool I nearly made of myself ;-)))

Today we had rain in the morning so I got to work on a planter I was given for Christmas – it had some ivy and that twiggy silver plant that seems to be mandatory for planters in the winter. It also had a snowman on a stick and finally a cute little conifer that someone had "improved" by spraying it with artificial snow. The ivy and the other plant were totally dead so I splashed out and got some primula reduced to half price in my local Supervalu as replacements. It took ages to get the artificial snow off the conifer but it looks really good surrounded by the primula. Perfect way to spend a rainy morning.

Well, after another poor crop in 2010 I am taking Carol Klein’s advice, as seen on her latest BBC Cottage Garden show. I have put my garlic into modules in the Glasshouse in the hope of giving them a good start for 2011………I love a challenge.

good night all

Spring started with me doing a spring cleaning in the garden. Finally the weather warmed up and I took the opportunity to spend the day outside and reclaim back all the edges of my flower beds and tree borders.  Then, I could not resist, I started planting.  I planted a selection of tomato seeds and various vegetable seeds in the green house.  But still I was not satisified and I planted some lettuce seeds in between the onions that have started to peep up.  So with my potatoes chitting the in the conservatory I am all set for another year.

I have added  a couple of photos of H.Jelena, a close up of H.Pallida and a couple of shots of my lone flower on Chimonanthes Praecox ‘Luteus’ .If it were only possible to transfer scent onto the net you would be in for a treat. I have also put up a few photos of Rhodos. I will be adding to these in the coming weeks.

I have already chitted my spuds and the earlies are ready to go, this year i am going to grow them inside bin liners, so i can save on space, as i found that the growth of the leaves shielded the smaller veg i was growing.

 i propergated 5 strawberry seeds on the last day of dec and only two survive, also propergated are my cherry tomatos and parsley and basel.

 i started assembling my raised beds yesterday, and have no knuckles left (i was using my brothers electric screwdriver and realised quickly that i t was shite), the two smaller boxes are done and half of the 9×3 one is finished but it was way too cold today to finish it.

 i will add more to this journal when i get some more time to do some gardening.

eric

I’ve uploaded photos of some of my Rhodos and i will be adding more to these in the coming months. It will be nice to have a pictorial record of the flowers, new leaves etc for people to comment on.

I ordered a load of veg seeds through ‘Grow it yourself’ site before Christmas and they all arrived today!

Now if the weather would ease up a bit I might get some raised beds sorted out.

Went into 3 lidl stores today to get some of the red helleborus but none there, was so disappointed, got a pink one, but all they had were white, pinks and yellows. Did pick up some double primroses to get a bit of colour going.

Does anybody know if you can divide helleborus plants. My mum has a lovely deep burgandy one and she has told me that I can take some of it, but do not want to kill her plant if they cannot be divided.

in aldi next week are lots of fruit trees. would any one know which  will fruit when grown on their own and how big the trees grow

at 6:30 this morning i planted on my windowledge (inside), some mixed leaf lettuce, and some more strawberry seeds, in the hope that they will survive the next few weeks!

 eric

That seems to be what today is going to bring. A day for the shed, some of the plants taken in for the really bad weather are going back out into the shelter of a wall, till I can plant them.

Going to check my two Cannas, divide and repot if they are ok, I think I may have left them out to late last year. The decking and gravel are is covered in branches and twigs, nearly enough to build a rookery.

Have a good day.

Helen Dillon is giving a lecture at Lismore Castle on the 24th, we will be there.  Contact gallery@lismorecastlearts.ie for more info.

Lismore Castle Arts presents a talk by

Helen Dillon: Confessions of a Plantswoman

7pm, Thursday 24th February 2011

Lovely to see some positivity in my garden. Daffs, crocus and tulips coming up well. Long time since I had some colour in the garden.

As the Irish match is about to start, I am writing a  letter to the IRFU, to request the moving of match times to suit gardener/fans alike. I was on a real roll outside getting things done.

I will let you know how I get on ;-)))

Well I had to go to Castlebar today so I popped into Horkans.  Ooh I call it heaven although a biteen more expensive to get into haha. I had a field day -pardon the pun-. Bought some Orla spuds. I had a taste of them last year from a friend and said I wold try them myself.  Also got onions, peas and other bits n bobs.  They have a brill clothes section so I treated myself to a lovely wool jacket half price and some gorgeous cotton ganseys.