Month: December 2011
Rachel’s plants and photos are wonderful. I do not know whether to be inspired or depressed by them. However in the spirit of the new year I will be positive and encouraged to try to garden and photo better.
My Stipa elegantissima, which I got in Bloom two years ago, is scrawny compared to hers. I have been looking at her photos and her Stachys byzantina is so different from mine, which is relatively weedy.
But in the new year I hope, weather etc. permitting, I will be able to improve my garden. This morning I planted a few hundred Tete-a-Tete daffs which were being sold off at a very reduced price in Woodies. Perhaps they will come on and brighten up the garden in spring.
On a practical point. One of my sons, who photographs planes, got a new camera and gave me his old SLR one. What type of lens should I get for general garden photos?
Hi everyone,
Hope you all had a nice Christmas and Santa was as good as he always is.
Very soon you’ll notice a new feature on your club page on Garden.ie. It’s the online edition of The Irish Garden magazine.
If you are a subscriber, simply enter your subscriber number and click go. Your subscriber number will be on your club newsletter which will be posted out to you in the next few days.
If not, you can subscribe to the online only version for just €25 at www.garden.ie/subscribe
Any questions etc can be sent to me as always.
Craig@Garden.ie
I do not want anyone to take this opinion the wrong way, so please bare with me.
When I first joined this great site I was in total awe and envy of everyone elses gardens. I wanted this, was going to copy that, why can’t I do that? etc etc etc.
I even found myself planning and giving serious thought to things that I knew in my heart and soul, would not really fit in in my garden, and even more important, fit in with my own liking.
Slowly in the last few months, sense prevailed. My garden, is my garden. I know I will get inspiration from other gardens, and that is great and long may it last, what I do in my garden will be to my liking.
One thing that is worrying me of late is reading journals where folk at knocking or down playing their gardens. We are all different, our gardens are and should be different. While we can, and do look at others gardens often in total awe, please remember our gardens should be ours, be proud of them, and no more knocking them.
I hope you know what I am trying to say, so most all enjoy your little or large piece of heaven, it is there to do with as you please.
Has anybody got any of his books, Dan is my hero!! I got a very generous book token from a niece and would like to have one of his publications. I have quite a few gardening books but prefer to buy ‘stories’ about peoples gardens rather than more specific topics.Any suggestions gratefully received.
… in Gortnalee today …. most of the visitors have departed and I spent the day in Dublin.
Has anyone noticed the days getting longer yet? I haven’t – and this morning was so overcast that it took ages to get light.
I just want that magical time when you can actually see the difference in the length of the days.
Just as well Johnstown is coming up …. really looking forward to it!
And a Happy New Year to all!!!!!
happy new year to all
Happy New Year Everyone!!
Got fed up with weeds and always begging for help to get rid of same. So hopefully have made raised beds for veg etc weed mat and gravel inbetween and got a tip to keep weeds down for winter old carpets which i sourced off a lovely man selling carpets he sometimes take the old carpets and has to pay to dispose of them so he is willing to give me some when needed. Hope this works will know in the spring when ready to start planting my kids want a bed to plant also so hopefully it will be great allround. Anyone got any ideas or suggestions on some lovely trees to plant. I have a high wall with at two terrace below. I plan to plant roses climbers and some large shrubs in top terrace with possible 4 to 5 trees across the length of bed. Hope to mat and gravel this so will be low maintenance. The bottom terrace will be perrineals etc down onto lawn area. More work but only bed i will have to work on regularly. This is the plan so any suggestions welcome. It will be spring or Autumn before some of this is done.
Happy New Year to all our friends on Garden .ie
This Exochorda macrantha ‘The Bride’ is starting to flower on bare stems. It’s unbelievable what the mixed up seasons are doing to our gardens.
My Camellia ‘Wisley White’ is also opening.
Exochorda flowering
Only getting the one bloom this year, no idea why but at least the rest of the bulbs are solid and seem healthy. This is a pink colour but colour is much lighter than before. I know this looks white but the light was fading when this was taken.
They are great to see at this time of year.
Nerine bowdenii
Yesterday I received moist-packed seeds from a nursery in Nova Scotia. They are Trillium seeds, which I sowed today.
Trillium, grown from seed, require a double dormancy and a whopping seven years to flower. My eleven-year-old son, who is home sick at the moment, estimated that he would be 18 when we get to see these blooms! He then remembered the last time I spun him such a yarn, about a hedge which would take five years to get to a decent size and now almost is!
As we all realise, time passes and even two winters pass quickly enough. Double dormancy means that the seed requires two cold spells (winters) to germinate. Mostly this type of seed can be tucked away in a corner of the greenhouse and forgotten about so they are easy enough to manage.
Last autumn I sowed Cardiocrinum giganteum and Viburnum betulifolium, from my Plants Person course, and as both of these have a double dormancy I should reap the rewards this coming spring.
So that’s all about double dormancy except today I decided to cheat!
Encouraged by Liga, I am sowing these Trillium seeds and placing them in the fridge for three months, then they will be out again for three months and then into the fridge again for three months, fooling the seeds into thinking they have had two winters! This way I hope to shave off a year to germination. Wish me luck!
Meconopsis paniculata
Jurgita, I finally got to plant up the Contoneaster plants, that you most kindly allowed be dig up from your garden a few weeks ago. I have them planted against one side of the shed, I pruned one of them back a little to suit the position it was going into.
These are going to make a great impact as they grow. Concealing the shed,Spring flowers, fab Autumn colour, berries in the Winter for the birds.
Thank you once again, in time they will do a great job.
Cotoneaster
As you all know I had a monster being built over our back wall and I was so upset at the look of it I found out the name of the people who were building and contacted them had a barney with them and told them just what I thought of them and yes they agreed to grow some Bamboo between us and yes they came up trumps on Monday morning , as I was just getting over a bad flu and yes it made me feel better . I have to take my hat of to them for keeping a promise and making it a lot easier on the eye.
The Bamboo must be a least 9 ft.
Much easier to look at
Those of us blessed with heavy soil
I bought some bare root shrubs today in my local garden centre; 10 of the bright orange stemmed willow and 5 of the yellow cornus. The plan is to coppice some of them but allow others to reach their full height as I will be looking down on them in my back garden so will always be able to see their bright new shoots.
I had been offered some cuttings of the yellow cornus (thanks Noelle) but these were cheap and well rooted and branched so I took the short cut and bought them. I’ve planted about half of them now and my little shih tzu helped me so he is now a wet filthy mess and confined to the kitchen!
Winter bark
Very sad looking
I like many other .iers grow Dahlia from part of Deborah’s seeds this year. I was really trilled with how they grew and flowered in their first year. Two plants were way ahead of all the others, I was amazed today when I took them out of the basket planter that they were in.
Just look at the size of these tubers. It was then I rememberd that I had used Miracle Grow compost in this planter. While the other tubers have done well these ones are twice the size.
It says enough I think, now just to keep these safe over the Winter.
It’s all down to the compost
Cosmos–in December!
I posted a journal on this Bamboo last week. A few people were asking and googling about it.
This photograph shows what I love about this plant. This green stripe looks as if it has been painted on the culms and branches, but it is down to mother nature once again.
This green patteren is repeated on alternative sides and is what makes it so interesting to me.
Phyllostachys Castillionii (again)
Plant from Deborah Seed
This has to be the most neglected poor plant in my garden, it has been moved from pillar to post for so long I should be charged with neglect.
I finally found a home for it this year at the back of my private seating area. It is there to stay. With a sigh of relief from the plant it is just putting on a small display of flowers.
Sometime over the next few weeks I will fix in some wires for it to grow along and cover the fence in time. A great bright flower to see at this time.
Winter Jasmine
My red morning
Our garden is a tip right now, that’s what happens when you don’t get out to do an autumn tidy up. The lawns haven’t been mowed since late August and I can’t remember the last time that I actually walked around the garden. But it’s not for the lack of wanting to do something, it’s just the lack of time. We built that conservatory a month or so ago and since then we have gutted our kitchen and dining room, knocking down a wall between the rooms. OMG. What a mess! This was how my kitchen looked about 10 days ago. By bedtime tonight it should look magnificent, units all in and finished. A slap of paint, a few final tweeks and then we can get back to the garden. Roll on January!
Gardening – a distant memory
