Month: June 2011

I really should wear gloves while in the garden. My thumb has thick muck underneath the nail deep down, and is absolutely throbbing. I have had it stuck in a bowl of dettol for the last 20 minutes. Anyone any tips?

Much and all as I love it, this squirrel grass, it is on the move. It is the only grass that I am unhappy with in this arrangement. Something more upright is in order. The grass is moving over to the front corner, the soil is less rich there so hoping it will be better behaved and upright this time next year.

Someone gave me this at our last get-together, but for the life of me, I can’t think who! It opened today.

Thank you, whoever it was!

This plant is starting to produce seed now. I sowed some today, as an experiment to see how it goes. If anyone is interested in trying it, send me a private message and I will get some to you in time.

FYI this plant is in flower now about 5 weeks and still going strong.

This grew in the side of a pot in my greenhouse.  I potted it up and planted it into my shed border about 3 weeks ago.  I thought it was Jacobs Ladder but now not sure.  It has tubular flowers and is an attractive neat little plant.  bigger photos in June album.  Incidently the dahlia next to it came through the winter!!!!

This little blue plant is in great flower at the moment

I really like the colours on the stems of these ‘Bright Lights’ Rainbow Chard, which I got as part of my seed allocation for Deborah’s charity trip.

The seeds on this Doronicum are ready to scatter themselves about the place, better remove some of them or I will be over run with them

This is from a mixed packet I sowed and red white blue and pink in it I was so lucky love this one but excuse the toes but tried to crop the photo sorry……

on the leaves of Patrinia this evening with the sun shining on them.

Decided to plant up my ‘head’ this year with white trailing verbena and blue trailing lobelia. I like the effect.

The ideas for the front are coming together nicely. One little feature has been taken from something I saw at Bloom. For it to work I needed a low maintenance plant, and I had just the one here.

It is filling in the area where it is nicely and I did not want to divide it. So a trip to Mount Venus was needed. It was great to walk around and see the plants at a different stage of growth. Lots of notes and names taken., more than I will ever use but what the heck.

I bought two plants of Cotulla ‘platts black’, grand total of €5. Today I divided them into eight plants. By the time I am ready to plant them they will have filled out nicely.

The plants I have are about to flower, the stems are tiny, standing about 2.5 cm above the plant, will be interesting to see what develops.

Martin & I have just spent a really  relaxing day with our friend Carl Wright in his fantastic garden Caher Bridge Garden, in Fanore, Co Clare. What this man has done singlehandedly with hazel scrub is beyond belief. He has carved a garden out of pure rock in the heart of the burren. If you get a minute check his garden out on facebook 🙂 Anyway, whilst having a nice cuppa in his garden we noticed a bit of activity on an aquilegia and low and behold there was the most adorable little wood mouse going about the business of severing the seedheads and carrying them down to the ground to eat. Over and over again, up and down, up and down. OMG it was so adorable. And he wasn’t alone, he had a mate with him. Martin took this picture of the guy with the white stripe on his head. I seriously have never understood how people don’t think that mice are the most adorable, dinky little things ever!

Very content with my fairly new greenhouse border. It nearly gives the impression of a meadow with the choice of plants here. I have sanguisorba, leucanthemum, dierama, arum lilies, Perovskia (Russian sage) and small thalictrum to yet to come, all plants that are light, airy, and ‘see-through’. They all seem to blend in together quite well.

I have updated my June photos where you’ll find a bigger photo of what I mean.

This is a close up of the flower on mine this morning.

This is my 50c bargain Astilbe, I had no idea of colour etc. Perfect, I did not have a white one. It is doing great and will be divided later in the year.

Its summer holidays.. this morning was the last school run morning with all the rush and lunch packing…. summer is really here  with all the colours, scents and butterflies..

Got it into my head this morning to tackle the deck. Clear it and power wash it.Why????  Dont Ask !!!! I have cleared it down as far as the table – the swing and the BBQ oh and 1 pot that I cant move by myself. My garden is covered in plant pots (No wonder it was difficult to get around ha ha ha) It is just about ready for power washing. Then the job of putting everything back  🙁 It looks huge now!! Somebody SLAP ME the next time I come up with a bright idea like this !!!! 

Any of you who have been here will know of the Sycamore trees along the road. The builders should not be allowed to plant these type of trees in estates, they are just far to big.

Yesterday while I was cutting the hedge outside, I noticed a monstrous crack down from one of the main branches down the trunk about 4 ft. very dangerous looking. I rang the council, and they called out this morning to have a look, the tree will be gone in a day or two.

While I am sorry about the loss of a tree, the problems this tree causes to me and the garden, I am like the cat with the biggest bowel of cream ever.

Myrtle, I thought you would enjoy this after the conversations we have had, you may like to have a close look at your trees…………..

The tree is close to 50ft tall, so is going to change our end of the cul de sac ;-))

Called to a garden centre this morning and bought this i think black beauty,was told it was black lace but not.Dose any one have this or know anything about it.Advice would be great before i plant in.

Had a nice morning going round this garden in Blackrock with a friend and then she came here to see my garden.

Deepwell is a perfect garden for the house that sits above it and is designed a bit like an italian garden with box hedges etc. A beautiful house with tennis courts and swimming pool, beautiful lawns and trees. A sheltered area with herbaceous planting had good colour but really the garden’s main feature is the symetary that one would expect of an Italian style garden.

I have put up some photos which you might like to look at.

Bought two roses,this dark sedum and a tree.my sister has this tree and it is a beauty.Just have to find places for them.

Doing really well.

Yesterday to celebrate my Mammy’s 81st BirthdaY and 53rd Wedding anniversary we went to Gash Gardens in Laois for the day – It was super, beautiful gardens on 4 acres (2 acres planted with ornamental planting ) the remainder is a walkway towards a river which is very pleasent.

The entrance fee is €5 and there is a good variety of plants for sale at the gardens – we did not get to visit the adjacent nursery which was a shame but hunger kicked in. The only drawback is that there is no coffee shop but Mary the owner advised us that we would have been welcome to bring a picnic ( which I would certainly do next time). The introduction of a coffee shop is the project for this coming Winter.

The garden was started by Mary;s late father 25 years ago and it has a beautiful array of mature trees and conifers. The planting is done en masse (loads of the same plant together which is very effective) and lots of nice seating areas and features throughout the garden . Mary particularly likes foliage plants and this is very obvious in the planting schemes with loads of hostas, Gunneras and Dalmeras along with other favourite perennials Astibles, Iris’s Phlox, phlomis and many more that I do not know the names of.

I hope you enjoy the pictures which i did not have time to title but may get to in the coming days. A garden well worth visiting in my unexperienced opinion.

A

I liked the way the Sun caught the leaves of this Acer.