Month: June 2011

Gee this is fabulous now I can enjoy your garden even more knowing the layout of it. Looking at your other photos now I know where various areas are. Love to have an aerial view of my place……..I could photoshop out the bad areas  haha

To day the remainder of the Hypericums were tackled. Eight in all have been pruned down to size and the interesting point is that young Hypericums are over ground in all cases. I had given them up as dead. You should see the heaps of wood that came from them. Perhaps light a fire. They are all very dry. While Hypericum is known as St. John’s Wort, and considering that in the west of Ireland, bonfires are lit on the eve of St. John, 23 June, it might be appropriate to light a fire in the south east for a change.

The pictures i took this morning of the poppies are not of a great quality for a couple of reasons. I carry a cheap digital camera in the car for the reason, I see something and then wish i could photograph it. But the main reason I could not take a good picture this morning as the sun was shinning and I was unable to see the picture I was taking on the camera screen. I had to return to the car to see what picture i was taking. I will bring the good camera in the morning and hopefully take a better picture. I put up an album of them if anybody wants to glance at them

hello everyone there is a new program this friday at 8pm on ITV about hands on gardening and not in massive stately homes like Highgrove, it is on for half an hour before Gardeners World.

Spotted a bullfinch having his breakfast this morning, he was eating the seeds from the saxifraga at the pond .. I have put a few pics in a Album

Yesterday Myself & hubby spent 6 hours in the rain – strimming!!!! We planted 90 Hornbeam in April as we lost all our Escallonia to the frost. I held a plastic chopping board around each plant while he strimmed. Then we had coffee in the shed as we gazed at our tiny hornbeam.

My back gave in a few weeks ago & I had to potter for awhile but DV i am back to it again.

Today I got the best of the weather & finished the weeding. Off now to get some bamboo to tie up my tomators, peas, beans and sweet pea.

In need of some topsoil for my veg beds if anyone has a contact in Cavan.

Lots going on since my last entry. Unfortunatly we missed out on the tv show we were picked for as I ended up in hospital and had surgery to remove my appendix. We were all gutted coz we were sooo looking forward to being on tv. I will also miss out on my school tour in 10 days because its an adventure place and the doc said I cant go. Boo Hoo. On the upside, Stefi and I are going to visit my uncle who lives in austria in august for a week AND we are travelling alone. Cant wait for it, he is a real extreme sports lover and will have loads planned for us to do. Because of my surgery I was finding it quite sore to garden so my wonderful mum looked after it as best she could. She doesn’t have green fingers so my veggies are lucky to be alive, lol. So as you can imagine I had lots to do in my garden over the last few days and i finaly got it done AND i won the race with my grandad to dig up the spuds first. I also went to bloom yesterday with grandad and had my picture taken with Nevin Maguire, got his autograph aswell. Mum calls him OH HOLY NEVIN because i dont stop talking about him. He is my fave chef and grandad said i nearly lost my life when he walked past. I also spoke to Gerry Daly about sunflowers and watched our president give a speech. It was a great day and grandad and I enjoyed our time alone together. So to gardening, dug up and ate the first spuds, vales emeralds and they will deffo be planted next year, they were really yummy. All my other veggies are flying along nicely but I am really proud of my lettuces and most of all my beloved ‘Sunny’. She is my 5ft tall grown from seed sunflower and I cant wait untill she blooms. I will put up pics when she does. Gotta go now as need to tidy my room. huh.

 

Alex

Well since the scare with the ecoli and salad vedge, I was forced to attempt lettuce (various) and scallions. So thrilled am I to see them actually growing I’m going to venture doing some raised beds and planting carrots etc.  Will be seeking advice from all you gardeners out there, when the time comes for those.

When I was at Bloom On Saturday, I went into the exhibition area to see Gerry Daly. I did not want to see him over a sick plant or even get advice of him, only to say thanks for setting up this wonderful website, and allowing me to communicate with people who have a similiar interest. I get  daily to communicate with people all over Ireland and even outside Ireland, people who In a normal lifetime I and they would never possible spoke to each other. I have even met some of the wonderful people who contribute to this site and others have welcomed me to their home. A small action by gerry and his team of createing this site, has set about the creation of gardening discussions and lifelong friendships. Once again thank you Gerry and Team.

I bought and planted 5 Geums earlier in the year quite big healthy looking plants. Trouble is they are producing only mingy little flowers that seem to wither very quickly. Having seen some flowering in your gardens I feel something is wrong with mine or me ! Do they favour particular soil , like breakfast in bed, want to watch TV or what?  Happy they are not, so any suggestions please. On the other hand Aconitum has done wonderfully and must be in flower for 2 months now; it bulks up so fast I have made several divisions . One of the other plants that does not like me is the Californian poppy. I have seen these grow and seed over other gardens but here if two germinate out of a packet I am lucky. Then on the other hand, lots of hands, the Geraniums are as ever doing very well except for that praetense  that is the most promiscuous plant ever and appears all over the place. I fear lots of that will hit the compost heap soon.

I suppose this post sums up gardening, win some , lose some.

Hi everybody.  I’ve been neglecting my journal lately.  Just picked first cucumbers, peas and strawberries.   Delighted with size and flavour.  Maybe its beginners luck !!!    Tomatoes filling out well,  looking forward to trying them.  Melons taking shape too.  Only disappointment is nothing showing on peppers and aubergines,  is it too early?  They are growing well.   I placed all my tomato plants in trays half full of water,  is this good or bad?.   It keeps them watered during hot days in greenhouse.

Ordered a ton of mulch yesterday, they were supposed to deliver it this morning but they forgot so didn’t get it till this evening so didn’t get any of it out. Will do it over the weekend.

Really looking forward to it as it gives the garden a much better finish.

 

 

Planted 50 Lupin seeds a while back. Yesterday put them into bigger pots. Have 49 really nice seedlings. Number 50 did germenate but in a pot with other seedlings, it has since died.

Delighted with all of these and they will look well with the cottage garden theme I am doing.

Questions is can I put these out in a cold frame? The info on the seed packet said not to plant out till August.  

Despite the temperature being low for June, we actually got it better in April, nevertheless it is good to be able to get into the garden again and have a look at flowers, shrubs, vegetables etc. If it remains dry, I should mow the lawn. I took some photos of the roses which are looking great, the fragrance of some of them in particular Arthur Bell, one of the yellow roses I have. Campanula, which i grew from seed this year is beginning to show blue flowers. It is a low growing type, some of it in the rockery. Tomatoes are very good, I should take a photo of them later.

I grow small quantities of potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower peas, broad beans, runner beans,onions, carrots, and parsnips outdoor. I also have two polytunnels where I grow stuff like tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers, melons, lettuce, kohl rabbi, pac choi, early carrots and spring onions and squashes. I like to experiment with more unusual things from time to time.

I never thought I’d say this, having grown up in east Donegal. But, with a total hosepipe ban here, plants were dying. It has now rained quite a bit in the last few days, so things are looking better. However, only the top 2 inches is wet so far. Commercial vegetable growers are in big trouble, and the Germans blaming their plague on vegetables hasn’t helped!

One newspaper listed 10 plants that are drought-resistant, and they included hydrangea. However, 2 of my 3 wilted. Following secret watering, one is recovering, but the other is still dead. The one that didn’t wilt is shaded by a campsis. Don’t believe what you read in the papers. 

Off to France this weekend for 3 whole weeks (yipee).  Neighbour is on hand to cut the grass in my garden so I wont be cutting silage when I get back.  His daughter is being paid to water pots etc every day – booked in anticipation of this heatwave we’re apparently getting here.

Have a lovely time in Headgardner’s get together this weekend.  I would have loved to come to my 1st one. 

Ladygardner, Anne, if you get to your mams don’t forget to keep me in mind for a stray sumach sucker if you get any.

Enjoy the rest of June.   See you in July!

 

Hi. Just signed up as a member. Looking forward to getting to know you! 

I.ve just uploaded some photos of my garden. I’m not very good with anything technical.  The first photo is a picture of my ‘plant of the month’ codonopsis. I saw it in a nursery and grabbed it, I thought it was beautiful. I have it outside my kitchen window in a pot so I can look at it even in this rain! 

I.ve just uploaded some photos of my garden. I’m not very good with anything technical.  The second photo is a picture of my ‘plant of the month’ codonopsis. I saw it in a nursery and grabbed it, I thought it was beautiful. I have it outside my kitchen window in a pot so I can look at it even in this rain! 

Not the best time to be digging anything up but if anyone wants some of these corms I’ll dig them up in the morning and take them to Headgardeners

I kinda wish this site was more interactive as I would have by now LIKED at least 50 comments about our visit to Gabriel and Bill’s garden and home today.  So its for me to say here on my journal, along with all our gardening friends – THANK YOU!  You made me and my kids feel welcome, your fed us, watered us, gave us refuge (when my son needed time inside!) I love every minute of being with your family, in your home, sharing your beautiful garden and being with like minded  friends… brilliant day – so Thank you! x Liz

Cripes its been ages since I was here.  Lots of work done since.  Just finished putting in a new bed at the top of the bank (which i still have done nothing with!!!)  Was at Bloom last weekend for first time and really enjoyed it….mind you i thought entrance fee a bit steep considering I was at similar show in Hillsborough, Northern Ireland last year and it was only £5 in, but bought loads of new and unusual plants …. I ll soon have no lawn left digging in new beds to accommodate all these plants I keep buying!!!!!

Will post pics soon

I have read the journals and looked at the photos of the visit to Bill and Gabriel’s wonderful garden. I have sat here trying to be imaginative and creative with the english language, but I am not a literary genius, so from Barbara and I a BIG THANK YOU to Bill, Gabriel, Pat, Garden.ie friends and the garden for a very memorable and happy day.

PS. Bill do you have contacts upstairs with the weather man.

I have a 10 metre long polytunnel in which I grow vegetables – salads, broad beans, sweetcorn, carrots and leeks, as well as flower seed.