Month: June 2011

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

I have 2 long herbaceaous borders, with mainly hardy geraniums taking over down the avenue.  I have a steep banking which is full of hellebores, shrubs and trees. The birch trees and an acer I grew from seed.  I have a lawn at the front of the house with a gravel path down the middle and hydrangeas set at the bottom next to the road.

I love growing things from seed and would love to swap seeds and seedlings.

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

I have 2 long herbaceaous borders, with mainly hardy geraniums taking over down the avenue.  I have a steep banking which is full of hellebores, shrubs and trees. The birch trees and an acer I grew from seed.  I have a lawn at the front of the house with a gravel path down the middle and hydrangeas set at the bottom next to the road.

I love growing things from seed and would love to swap seeds and seedlings.

At present I am collecting hellebore seeds – I have about 100 plants varying in colour from pink, purple, white, plain and spotted, and a few lemon ones. 

I have 2 raised beds which my husband Tommy made, as well as large tractor tyres containing potatoes, rhubarb, peas, and others with flowers.  I have nearly an acre of garden.  We also keep bees. 

FLOWERING AT THE MOMENT: ROSES, AQUILEGIAS, HARDY GERANIUMS (PINK & BLUE), YELLOW LILIES, YELLOW AND ORANGE WELSH POPPIES, CANDELABRA PRIMULAS, HIMALAYAN COWSLIP, PURPLE ELDER, CLEMATIS, AND COSMOS.

I love visiting gardens and I like to take cuttings.  I have mainly grass paths which are mowed and the edges strimmed. 

hi all. i dont know what ive done ,but i have lost all my photos that were on my camera. had lots of my own garden,bloom and buddies.its sickening. had specifically zoomed in on labels of plants i liked. hopefully charlene will have some. i have spent awhile today looking up journals and photos of bloom .

seems longer than a week ago, that we were at bloom and the sun was doing her thing in warming us up and putting everyone in good form. a special hello to all the folks i met last sat.

deb and her friend gereldine, it was soo great to see you andcatch up a little, deb you are my inspiration !

jacinta , nice to meet you again, and steve and your dad.thank you for the gift of rock dust, trials are under way.

met rachel for the first time and ciaran burke.

hi to liga. can always depend on you for photos. lovely to see you again.

charlene and myself thouroughly enjoyed bloom. the floral displays, bought a white wisteria, a few fushias,  i  know donegal is full of them, but these are teeny weeny ones for me pots. a pink and white pelagonoium. loved the use of foxgloves and alliums throughout. loved the cottage / woodland themed gardens best.

Such a horrible wet day in work. The place was like a ‘ghost town’ was allowed to head home a bit earlier than normal.

Nothing done in the garden. And 35 viruses detected on my computer. Zoe is giving me a few minutes on her one to check up on others journals. Hopefully my computer will be sorted asap as it’s as if my right arm has just been amputated and antivirus is in need of updating.

Having spent a while removing "weeds" from my wildflowers, I began to think how stupid could I be. Aren’t wildflowers weeds, and, conversely, weeds are wildflowers?? But, maybe not. Still, how do we define weeds? It used to be easy. Daisies and buttercups were flowers, but dandelions were weeds. But, the French don’t think so. The most difficult thing with the language is undertanding normal speech, conversation, newsreaders etc. So, I joined a walking group, and we do 3 hours every Tuesday. I try to understand what their conversations are about. Last week two of them were discussing how "delicieux" dandelions were in a salad! Not just the leaves, but also the flowers, especially at the "button" stage!

Of course we also had the three "noxious" weeds, with their wanted posters in every garda station. Nettle, ragwort and dock. (Ragwort was called "benweed" in Donegal). And, you could be fined for growing them.

Any plant growing in the wrong place tends to get treated  as a weed, but I believe that there are some plants that are always weeds.

Dandelion and ragwort are very common here, dock less so, and I haven’t seen a nettle. Thistles to beat the band, bittercress, plantains ("hardheads") and  weed that used to be called "red shank" in Donegal. Unfortunately it grows six feet high here, if left to prosper.

Others I’m not so sure about. Day nettle, for one. I’ve left it alone, and it looks OK as a flower.

Has anyone ever seen a weed wilt due to drought? 

Got home to lots of ‘unwanted’ post this evening. But also a small package from Cork. While at Bloom I wanted to buy a Saxifraga ‘Lissadell’ but discovered that they didn’t have any left.

This very one was sent by Margaret (Hosta) today. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness. It is potted up now. So I have a lovely plant to look forward to thanks to you. 🙂

P<S< no photos until my computer is sorted. On borrowed time again tonight.

On the ‘work front’ I had words with the Manager in question today, over Friday’s incident. I couldn’t let it ‘fester’ any longer. He lied about the answer I gave him when he ‘told’ me to take all the indoor plants outside on a trolley, and hose them down.  And I have witnesses!

This probably seems very insignificant to others. But not to me! It has affected me, and my positive frame of mind in work ‘bigtime’.

 well i did it the old over grown hebe is gone now just what to plant instead a friend suggested a few miniature patio roses geranium pansies cant wait to go to garden centre at weekend have a lot of home work to do . need to get it  looking right its driving me mad at the moment

Just had word that some visitors expected on Saturday are now arriving Friday – big panic! The visitors are my cousins from New Zealand – last time they were in Ireland they visited our half-built house so I really want the place to look its best for their visit.

So yesterday and today have been a bit frenetic. Lawns had to be mown, hedges trimmed and the current "work-in-progress", the reorganising of the shrubbery and sorting out some paths, had to be made at least respectable!

The groundwork involved in the shrubbery project has involved a lot of earth moving to level things out so that a new lawn area can be planted. this inevitably meant that a huge number of stones were thrown up and I was struggling to find a home for them. Today I got a brainwave – the base of the willow fence has weedblock around it that used to have bark on it but the bark kept drifting onto the path so I cleared it back in the Spring. I was going to use the same gravel as the path, but today I tried out the stones from the rotavating and they look really good! I shouldnt have too much trouble finding enough to cover the base of the entire fence. Tomorrow i may have time to take photos 🙂

The place is now reasonably presentable so I can concentrate on looking forward to these long-awaited visitors!

Good God, I think you are nearly as posh as Scrubber!!!

Just saw your photos.

At last new computer is up and running and I am experimenting adding photos of the garden. These were taken last year and this year. More to follow.

Hoping for a bumper crop of strawberries this year.

Hilary 

on anual leave this week from my paid proffession.

weather wise it has been dry and windy with some rain and hail on thurs. woke up monday with sinusitus, which i seem to get every couple of months. didnt bother the doc. i just avoid dairy products and drink plenty. have been out weeding and futtering in the veg patch and flower garden. been chilling in the evenings with gardening books and mags . boys working all hours silage contracting, so ive had a quiet week , a nice change.  hope to catch up with some journals today.

Just finished the jam. I got 10 lb. of jam from the first 4 lb. of fruit.

Well its been quite a while since I wrote in my journal but now hopefully I’m back in action again. The garden has really come alive during the past few weeks. Most of the flowers are in bloom.  Runner beans are doin well. I also planted some herbs, parsley and basil and they are also doing well.  We got the decking stained and it took a lot of time cleaning away the old stain that was on it but eventually its finished and makes a big difference. I will add some photos as soon as I take some. I know the weather hasn’t been great but the rain seems to really freshen up the plants, however, roll on the sunshine!!

The best anecdote to this recession is gardening.

For a few euros you can buy seeds and fill your garden.

It may be escapism. But we can all do with a bit of it!

The best anecdote to this recession is gardening.

For a few euros you can buy seeds and fill your garden.

It may be escapism but we can all do with a spot of that every now and again!

Ihavent written up any journals lately spent to much timewatching my veggies grow,a few of them did nt turn out my radishes died dont know what happened there but have had my 1st harvest of peas they were really sweet and tasty.because of the disaster of my cabbage seeds not doing well a while ago sowed loads of beetroot because id live on the stuff so saved any glass jars over the past few months so i could pickle my beetroots when they were ready,a neighbour of mine popped by so took her up to see the beets when she looked at them she said how well my cabbages looked WHAT i said to her i  thought they were beetroots no i have 21 heads of cabbages.i did label everything and cant understand what happened,now what to do with over 40 glass jars,im sowing more beetroot.

Despite some of the worst weather conditions people can remember in this part of the world, Periwinkle opened her garden this afternoon to warm sunshine in which people could sit outside in the most idyllic surroundings and enjoy a cup of tea and homemade scones.

Perwinkle and Myrtle flitted around making sure everyone was well looked after. The view was out of this world and the planting was sublime. Some of the plants had suffered but this did not take away from the overall ambience and all the perennials were at their peak and the colour and shape combinations sang.

Plants were very inexpensive and I came away with several Asters, Campanula and a Cercis for half nothing!! (PS I am hiding them in the boot of the car) ….All proceeds go towards the construction of a well in Africa.

My one regret is that I forgot to bring my camera – hence no pictures to share and learn from.

Thank you Perinwinkle and Myrtle for a lovely afternoon!

Todays weather would’nt entice much enthusisiam for plant purchase.Everything looks either water logged or windswept! However,I think i’ll drop up to d "HUB"in KK Tomorrow ,just to have a look!!

         Famous last words,I’ve never been known to leave empty handed yet!

Ugh, one of my pet hates spraying the drive way, pathways and what ever else gets in the way!

Well just in from garden i think we have it this time we got really large stones in the arboretum in carlow along with a few choice alpines .we also went to rathwood garden center in tullow beautiful place but  very few plants very poor garden centre although i managed to get a lovely menetti its says it will survive down to 0 i think i will have to protect it from frost

have them well spaced out this time just need to keep them in check 

If you’d like to find out more about Galway Garden Festival 2011 please go to

website:  https://www.galwaygardenfestival.com/

Welcome!!!! 

Hi , middle of june now,garden in full bloom now,hav’nt dug potatoes yet,look like a great crop,all veg have done really well,getting something to eat from the garden every day. First years strawberries have turned out very well,picking every day now,.Great crops of fruit,incl logan berries,redcurrents,blackcurrents  etc 

June 20, 2011 @11pm  Think we wont have hedge again.  It will take too long to grow tall. Will I change my mind? Any ideas?

June 20, 2011….Have average size back garden(we live in a housing estate) which consists of a lawn.  We have leylandi trees at end of garden cut to about 6ft.  On either side we have two walls, one about 5 ft & the other about 6ft. Bare! bare ! bare! We have some rhubarb which needs to be split; it is there too long.

Jun 10, 2011….It looks awful.  Nearly invisible pieces of growth so we root up the roots!! 

Jun 2011…. Got loppers out and got to work.  Cleared away little branches to allow access for chain saw.  Over the next few days, all the hedge was cut down to above new growth level. 

Jun, 2011…. I go to Bloom on opening day and make further enquiries.  It would be best to cut it severely back to above growth height, I am told.

May 2011….A few more bits of new growth appear right at the bottom of our 7ft high grisolinia.

Apr 2011….We will wait until Autumn.  Give it a chance to recover.  There is about an inch of new growth at the very bottom, at ground level. 

Mar 2011….The leaves at both sides have fallen off and I can shake hands thru the hedge.  Other people have similar problems.  Told to wait & see; it might recover! 

Feb 2011….My hedge is beginning to look poorly.  The leaves are brown and they have begun to fall off.  The neighbours side of the hedge looks to be keeping green. 

Nov/Dec 2010….Snow, frost, cold.  I’m certain my hedge is fine!  I’m trying to stay upright on all our iced-over footpaths.

June 20, 2010….Have lovely Grisolinia on either side of back garden.  It is about 7ft high and it is thriving!!