Month: September 2011

Don’t forget Lidl tomorrow. Hope I get there in time, see Enkianthus for sale amongst other great goodies. That plant has wonderful Autumn colour so may plant in a pot.

I woke up this morning and am still laughing about this… I guess it must be in the blood!

Finn shouts up to Dad “Mums says she will be upstairs when she is finished with the GERANIUM Rice” – ?? What I actually said was I will be upstair when i finish DRAINING the rice!!

Even Finn laughed like a drain when he heard what he had said 🙂

hi frank and lisa. welcome to garden.ie.

i am intrigued to see you both have similar interests and paths as myself.

well done on your veg success. it takes work to reap rewards.i bet you can taste every morsel with admiration and pride.

The Duchess has arrived! And seems to like her suroundings! And the sun has just started to shine so that will help everything.

I will try to take a few pictures, Im hoping they will be better than the TV ones. She is really quite pretty. (You want to see the outfit she is wearing – to die for!)

Will write more tonight and tell you all how she came to be here.

Eden Garden Center, on the bypass road is having a closing down sale. 

Picked up quite a few bargains there today.  Got a couple of things new to me:  Lambs Ears (loved it in Bruno’s garden), Phlomis Russelina, Kniphofia "strawberries and cream", Sempervivum Hens & Chicks, Feverfew Goldenleaf, a couple of Delphiniums and a couple of Rubeccia Goldsturm to bulk out my borders next year, a couple of sage plants (purple and regular), some parsley and a couple of Chili Prairie Fire.  I have already planted up a basket with the herbs and chillies.  Will post a pic of this tomorrow.

Am VERY tempted to go back in tomorrow and pick up a large budda statue – 1/3 off from €100!  Have to pick the right place for it though.  Paid less than 2.50 on average per plant!  Beats Lidl any day!. 

wow i spent the afternoon fishing, and relaxing in the sun, i moved a lot of my summer flowers to the community garden, as i am away fro most of the winter with work, so at least some one will see the beauty of my flowers, shrubs etc.

my garden is looking very bare, and is taking on the autumn/winter look.

bigsnow coming, get ur garden fleece very very cheap in homebase only 2.79 a metre i think. and if u get it on a thursday u get 10 % off again.

also i found a website called, watco.ie

and they sell cheap snow shovels and a rocksalt/grit bin, i had one delivered this morning, and its great, nice size and very sturdy!!

hope everyone is having good fun in the garden!

It’s become apparent that to continue my studies I will need to get back working in the new year once the current course has finished. This has unfortunately put a stop to a lot of what I was working on here at home. Maintenance is of course still ongoing, but the planning has had to stop. I was going to create two new area’s to be working on early spring (landscaping would have been carried out now) but as I am not going to be here to look after it there is no sense to doing it. My boredom threshhold is very low…I love to be actively planning, digging, using energy and brain. Hate when there is no reason to do any of the above. I’m loving the rewards I’ve gotten from the garden this year and I’m glad I got the year to work so intensly in the garden, but it looks like it’s going to be a few years before I get to do it again. Hope I don’t go insane in the meantime 😮 All of you who are going to be working from now on in – on your spring calendar, do enjoy and cherish the fact that you can!!!

Yes it can and I wonder if I will last out. You see it is this border called the ‘mad’ border that I decided to make. Well I wonder did I decide or did Scrubber’s cherub make me do it…mmmmmmm. Anyway so it is rotovated and tons of stones removed and looked quite inviting. Then kind Tony arrived with bags of horse poo to put on it. So I did this and covered it with membrane intending to leave it until Spring. But I have all my plans made and lots of plants sort of shouting ‘plant me’. I explain that in the spring it will need to be rotovated again to mix in the manure but they are unconvinced. I am a great believer in soil preparation but will I stick it out………

Less than a mile from Donegal Town:

Some years ago  there was to be a big houseeing development behind our house – the whole process went to planning etc-If it had gone ahead , I would have moved –  so in the intrim I let the garden  go – such as it was-  I grew my veg – but all else was on hold – then the recession came and the develpment never happened: so 

Two years on I have replanned the whole area – I think its about an eight of an acre, the garden is on two levels  – roughly the lower garden is 2 metres below

I grow veg , fruit, shrubs and herbecious plants. Started a rose collection this year -winging it as I dont know much about rose – but learning on the hoof :]

There is a pond and an ornamental rill – mociac tiled 

A wooden arch in the lower garden  is slowly filling with roses- kiwi – honeysuckle and clematis

I removed two hedges last nov 2010- I just dont like cutting hedges – so I built a pergola with much thanks to my  friend Francey and his carpentry skills – and put in beds where the hedges were removed-.

Does anyone grow Valerian?  I have been growing the red one for the last few years and find it a great plant. It lasts for ages and though it does self seed ,even in gravel it is easy to control. I would love the white one, it grows on a bank quite near here but the road is too narrow to stop and get seed. Keep saying I must walk down and get it but forget or maybe I am lazy.!!

well after this impending storm my small lidl cold plastic tall frame is going to be taken out. i have some diantus cuttings there and i hope to take more if i can.

there is quite a lot to do  now, the raspberry are still very very leavy and lavish and i still have to wait till they did down.  i hope to start dividing alpines and some hebes and will start potting up most of my plants in pots,they now will get a chance to at least grow in the right soil!

i want to still plant seeds, i have seeds coming out of my ears!

last year people gave me seeds such as honesty and i still want to see if life is stil there.

poppies i want in trays too.

i guess i will have to clear quite a windowsill space for these.

 when my twin moves a lot of my garden will go to her, its been mainly a planter garden anyway as i only really had a yard. the front was very large and i did a border each year down the avenue and other things will be worthing saving for my forever home and some given to the twin.

so i hope some time out in the yard will be very welcomed for all concerned tomorrow, after the storms if they blow over when i am in noddy land.

p 

In anticipation of the Hurricane Katia and 130 kmph wind speeds, I went out and moved everything and anything that I thought is likely to fall or get damaged.  Finding a temporary home, away from the wind was another job as the greenhouse is full with old containers of spring bulbs.  I didn’t think there was much point watering the pots, even though they need some water.  After that, all I had to do close up the greenhouse.  All the hatches are battened down.  Hope it is not as bad as predicted.  

My son went to college today.

He wanted to bring his Agave americana with him (named Tropius) but there were no window sill, only sky lights.

I don’t think he will mourn Tropius for too long.

Two down, two to go.

my god but it is windy here. watching the tunnel and rabbit and hen runs in case i need to run to rescue them. heavy stones are keeping the lids on the rabbits hutches down and heavy wheels are keepin the hens run door shut.. plants are getting battered to bits but nothing i can do.

seeds arrived this morning which made me very happy. i got a good lot of seeds, including banana, eucalyptus lemon bush that i will put into containers next year  to contain them and stregthen them before they go out in the border, once they are big enough. got gorgous echinaceas of different colours, primulas varieties, budleias, ferns mix. there is seeds. i havent seen at the garden centre. i will put up a better list later when i have dinner cooked.

Potted up strawberry cuttings excellent roots and forming fruit, should I cut the fruit off for better cropping next year?Any Thoughts?

had to cut down the past their best sunflowers as these big winds have them decimated. 

Also some haning petunias in pots and baskets ripped out by wind.. 

Virginia creeper loosing leaves like the new time is this early for them to do that…? 

I was looking at Woodie’s website to see if they listed plants and came across this one. it looks to be most interesting and I wonder if anybody has grown it?  Woodies listed lots of plants but I don’t think they are all current stock as they included many early Summer varieties such as Petunias etc.  I would like to get my hands on this Euphorbia though!

Have a google and see what you think?

and others….

Rachel for introducing the notion of a database of plants. When ordering bulbs from Future Forests, I also ordered some plants (as having a friend collect), and I put in database format:

I know now that I will transfer all the labels in the filing drawer into a similar format and also record where planted (if I can remember)

I may say that I won’t bother doing this but I will only be fooling myself. The database may not be done today or tomorrow but the organised side (part) of my brain will ensure that it will be done.

So three columns of plant name; when purchased; where purchased; where planted (each border annotated); notes – think that takes care of all data to be recorded

As for the others – well showing photos of many of the plants and so getting them on the wish list – although Thanks probably more appropriate than blame

 They arrived this morning so that will put some pressure to complete (or even start) the very back of the garden

I hope it is possible at some stage to fill a garden with plants or does this new plants lark continue indefinitely?

Just got an invitation for friend request from a ‘Neel’. Do NOT accept this request.This is getting to be really annoying.

I have just alerted CraigK about this matter.

A few months ago I purchased a leptospermum Scoparium ‘Red Damask’ as it was a small late flowering shrub so ticked all the boxes in winter flower; 450mm x 450mm which is great for size of bed; and a shrub in a predominately bulb and perennial bed to ensure some plant presence at all times.

Last night I was placing my most recent purchases in possible positions in the different borders and couldn’t remember how big the Leptospermum got so checked RHS website it said that the Red Damask could go to 2.5 x 2.5.

Went searching for the label in the box and it does not mention dwarf or miniature variety or anything to distinguish this one from the RHS description.

As the bed isn’t even 2m wide, I just have to hope that label on plant is correct.

Again, ‘they’ do not make this planting lark easy…….

another flipping property viewed and offer put for it.  I am away tomorrow for ten days and so is the executor so maybe that is a good thing.

the house is not in great shape inside, in fact bad shape! but the structure is sound and has been vetted.

the property is bright and ‘friendly’ and hopefully there will not be any ‘friendly fire’ there!

it is east facing with not a lot of garden but has potential i am sure.  it is sloping gently away from the house too.

there are three tiny fruit trees and two fallen pears!

garden is mature as there were an elderly couple there.

i have factored in to the price the decrepitude!  and again, yet again, fingers and toes crossed on this.

when in england shall visit the trive gardens in battersea park, think it is there and also may go to their main one in reading, well think that is where it is.

have their contact details anyway as i wanted to do this.

looking forward to ideas.

also will go to some exhibitions too and would like to get to some disab stuff as well, especially when its about art and dealing with disabilities.

OOCH is one such, the beeb radio show run by disabled people.

there is beginning to be an increase in london on disabled people, a perception that we/they are the cause of recessionary ills!

they didnt have these banks they had er us it seems! 

Yes it is weird that several iers have said they are feeling sort of burnt out and for some reason I am working harder in the great outdoors than I have for the last few months. As ever there seems little to see for all my effort but I know those jobs were done!!

I will put an album with a few pictures to show various areas and some of what remains to do.

hi folks. after several attempts to copy info sent to me today from lady sue at killegar estate, i have given up.

mushroom forays as follows

10.00am earley bird

11.00am

1pm

2pm

11.00am – a walk on the wild side(which has been advertised as 12. in some links)

i am booked for 11 am walk etc.

hope to meet some of you on the day.

further info and bookings to www.killegar.net