Month: April 2012

My neighbour had this bush in her garden. It remained green and plain for most of the year. My neighbour was out in her garden and was going to pull it up as it never bloomed at its supposed time (christmastime) but I convinced her to keep it as I felt sorry for it.(I feel sorry for plants and inanimate objets sometimes), this was in october. And around novemebr/december it came out in beautiful white flowers for the first time. The flowers were mostly at the top but thinned out towards the bottom, but I think thiw was only beacause of the sun. I asked my neighbour and she has forgotten its name. Any one know what it is, Sorry I have no pics but I didn’t think it a good idea to creeparound my neighbours garden at 9 o clock in the morning haha:)

Thanks to everyone who commented on my Unidentified Bush problem. I googled each name and then noticed that the Virburnum that Blarney suggested has the same flower,leaf shape and size as the bush. Also Thanks to Rachl because when I googled Camellia I saw an image of a familiar plant.

My granfather has a camellia and for years I thought it was some sort of mutated hydrangea, so thanks Rachel

P.S. My ‘E’ ‘H’ and ‘V’ keys are not working properly so if there are a few letters missing don’t mind me.::))) 

Apologies for my absense yet again on this site for the last few days, I have my Mum staying so feel I’m abandoning her if I go on-line.  Boys also on Hols.  I have a cunning plan for the day though;  we’re going out to lunch and from there I have an errand out the Cork Rd.  Sure then we’re nearly in Mt Congreve; so I’m going to make them come with me and I’ll have a quick look around to see what is looking well so I’ll have a good idea of the best route through the gardens for next week.

Kitty Mt Congreve is in Waterford, Cork side of the city.

well after the tornado effect of plastic and plastic lifting airborne i have been left with a cluster of unidentified seedlings.

bundled into the pots that were scattered everywhere they are now doing well, some of them anyway.

i cannot id them, so will nurture and wait and see…some of defo tomatoes, they i do recognise.

and i guess that spinach and more tomatoes shall sprout all over the lawn too!

it was potting up time this evening, for i felt they couldnt wait any longer.

the peas are really doing well, except one row which never appeared, that was a differnt packet.

the onions too doing good and the pots have really good leafy heads now.

my stream/pond is a ‘work in progress’ and i feel most of the digging has been done.

anyone in greystones region who understands the dynamics of putting all this together well would love the advice!

there is a pump for sale across the way in Lidl and wonder about it, but thats all as i dont understand them things, the spade yes, but them things..no!!!

twin and i tried out electric wheelchairs today at the hse centre, a sort of ‘two fat ladies’ affair.

ghastly old antiquated gizmos but we had a spin at not a mondello pace for sure.

we did a test too, drawing a wee house which had parts left out and the time on the clock face and crossing a line with another line.  that was about perception, we we perceive and passed those tests ok.

funny things electric wheelchairs, you feel incredibly vulnerable and the small knob for guiding will take a bit of confidence building.

well, now we are on the ‘list’ ahhhh, that list!  

so life goes on at the hubble bubble and the garden is sort of a bit bizarre too, but a lot of fun.  twin also in the mood and got going on her seeds too today.

its a wonderful time of year, i have robins and blackbirds and trush all gathering worms now, so we must have some babies in the bushes i think.

xx 

i nurtured a few raspberry plants back to health when i moved into my last place and had the first fruit there last year.

two of the cane plants started bushing out very healthily in the past few weeks so i decided to divide.

 from one root ball i managed to get about ten very healthy plants with good roots and potted these up.

some are small and some medium, will this mean that i may not get fruit from these this year or that these side shoots from the mama plant are not viable for fruit.

all comes to me on the dawn of a new day.

a similar plant is still waiting for surgery but i may leave that alone to see and compare.

advice needed on this.

Playing a lot of catch-up in the garden this week…its been a very busy non-gardening time over the past three weeks….but all calming down now and almost back to ‘normal’ whatever that is!!

Made a shopping trip to Johnstown to buy my daughter Acer palm. ‘Orange Dream’ as her ‘easter egg’ to re-place one she lost in the big freeze. Of course had to make some purchases of my own too and finally decided on photinia ‘Little Red Robin’ as the main shrub for the 3 large containers for front of the house. They are presently plants in waiting as is Erysimum Bowles Mauve. Also was on the hunt for hebe ‘Heartbreaker’ which Johnstown did’nt have in stock yet…but my kind hubby picked it up in Newlands yesterday on his way to golf….

Yesterday, in the lovely morning sunshine had a potting on session and have trailing lobelia, genaniums and petunias done. Then sowed seeds of Cosmos (I know a little late) and sunflowers. Had to take a trip to Wexford then to have lunch with my daughter so good day and so glad to get some catching up done too!

Have taken some photos but still have to follow the instruction book for uploading photos, but I’ll get there 🙂

Ciao for now!!!!

I have just waved goodbye to Hazel, Brendan and Margaret aka  Hosta. What a lovely lovely visit I had with them. Hazel kindly brought me the plants from Scrubber, Fran and Rachel and a million thanks to you three for your generosity. Now to Hosta who came with a white Hellebore, a red double primrose and a huge white Kennedy primrose. She also brought a huge Banoffi for desert and Hazel brought a scrumptious Lemon cake. In the word of Martin B , Gosh am I not lucky:)  Furthermore I had got delivery this morning of a 6ft picnic table and my three guests put it together for me…..how about that. I only hope my visitors enjoyed the day half as much as I did.I have no pics as my camera is not behaving but Margaret and Hazel have a few .

Myself and the two kids headed off this week on a tour of West Clare, we spent Tue night with Biddy in Carraigaholt, looking at her garden, admiring the progress and making future plans for it, did a bit of walking and looking out onto the Shannon estuary, admiring the views and being blown away by the blustery winds. We had a lovely time with great company and food and the kids were exhausted coming home.

On wed evening I headed to Doonbeg to Nuala (AitAlainn), what a garden she has! All lovely and laid out into different sections, unfortunately she lost all her shelter in the bad winters so lots of new planting has got to be done, but like all of us who lost stuff its a good excuse to rethink and get lots of other plants in we might never have thought of first time around. Nuala has a great little polytunnel, which I have been dreaming about since my visit, it would be perfect for my needs, and the best bit was she had loads of plants in it and gave me loads of stuff when I was heading home!!!!

We were given a great welcome at Nualas too and she even pulled out the ferry timetable to double check crossings for me. So off I headed for the 8pm Ferry back home,  unfortunately due to the recession Shannon ferrys have reduced their sailings so the last ferry was 7pm!!!   Imagine Biddys surprise when she returned home wed night at 10:30, knackered tired after being busy giving a garden talk to a group in Carraigaholt, lo and behold Joann and the 2 kids sitting in her kitchen again, just when she thought she had seen the last of us……………

Anyway thanks Biddy and Nuala for looking after us, making us feel welcome and for your kids entertaining mine so I could relax and do what I like best, looking at gardens and plants!!!

Afraid to speak never seen it so quiet here.

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I haven’t been keeping up to date with my journal. I have been very busy reorganising my garden for vegetable growing -including the installation of a greenhouse. First crisis of the year…..my early potatoes have suffered frost damage on Saturday night last. To counteract the ground frost these nights, I had been spraying them early in the morning with a fine spray of water from the hose, which seems to have have saved them for a number of nights. But, finally I was caught.(Amateur!)

When they first emerged, I carefully covered them again in soil, but now the first earlies had grown through this cover. In the hope of them recovering, I’ve now covered them with fleece.

Are there any experienced gardeners out there  that might be in a position to advise an "innocent novice" how to get through the next week or two, while that cold northerly airstream persists? Help! Help! 

My garden is a cottage type style and covers about half an acre. We open it every year from mid-May to end August and this is very hard work! Especially now in mid April the panic is on to get it ready for opening. Spring is very well advanced already this year and my tulips are almost over whereas most years they would only be coming out now. But everywhere is looking beautiful anyhow and we should all just drink in the abundance that nature has to offer us.

Those pots of lilies seem to multiply over the winter – I never remember having so many last year but that’s what happens with us gardeners’ – it’s called selective amnesia!

Luckily I have the greenhouse to work in as it is a somewhat tedious and slow job of gently emptying the lilies out of their pots. Then I have to refer to my wonderful little lily book which tells me what type of compost suits the particular lily in question. In a large flexible trug I mix up the compost recipe and then carefully replant the bigger bulbs back into the pot and water them well. And that’s another half-hour gone……

yes, long day today with no chance of getting to the garden.

one crisis after another as the twins mobility scooter broke down and now both our scooters are out of commission.

 i walked the chihauhaus to the local cafe for the medication so wonderously curative, the cappicino.

i had taken the rollator/walker for help in getting me there but it proved useful on two accounts.

when i went into the cafe i was able to put the two bairns into the basket where they sat without protest while i supped, chatted and read the papers, they also sat without complaint when i went to do some shopping in Lidl, my eye being reminded that the pond pump is still there.

i met a freind from my Archery days. we laughed about our present demise of not being a good shot now as time moves on.  we both were good at getting the bull dead centre, i won the first Archery competition i had gone into, a wonderful thing to happen…i hardly knew how the scoring was done!

after lidl the chis got out of the basket and the cargo was redistributed, my purchases now went into the basket and we all trotted and shuffled home.

i then went to do ‘time’ the breaking yard of the centre piece, where i wanted to get in another bamboo and another grass in the gravel garden and buddha garden.

i want to get this completed before the soil gets rock hard and too dry to dig, its quite full of rocks and compacted poor soil.  we are on the side of a mountain!

wind is forcast and storms are expected. i pinned down the lidl walk in glasshouse (plastic)! but may yet take all the seed trays indoor, i dont darn trust that thing to not take off again.

the seedlings are all progressing so nicely i hate to lose them at this stage.

my peas are looking SO impressive!

i also had a chat with the pond expert at Kilquade at the weekend, he commin to view and see how progress is being made and if he can help me complete my weel stream and pond, defeat has been admitted here, but i am proud of all i achieved there and i can say its MINE ALL MINE!

ha.  well thats that.  had a lovely trawl of Keega and clara’s gardens, on the virtual level this eve, really enjoyed that indeed.

all the best 

As I mentioned in this morning’s journal, the morning was dry and I got the grass all cut. But, what a cold wind we had. It really felt like it was blowing off ice; I’m sure there will be a lot of damage done to fresh young leaves. I did see two branches blown off a climbing rose against the wall. Not a pleasant morning to be in the garden.

At lunchtime I was glad to see the rain arrive to calm the wind a bit. So it was into the shed for me to pot up seedlings and repot houseplants. Lots of pots sitting around now!!

Grrrrrr……….. The frost here over the weekend has left alot of damage…………Grrrr. There vented feel better already:)

Hi Mary,

I asked about that plant in Farmleigh when I was there today, and it is Lilium Gigantum ..it flowered last year,then it dies so this year they are not expecting any flowers, as it is little bulblets that are growing this year in this spot and they are not expected to flower for about 3 years.. it has the most beautiful leaves,never mind the flowers…

Sorry I got the wrong day ,it is next Tuesday.

im thinking of trying some yellow toms, taste wise is there a difference, love the colour of them, must see if they have any plants in horkans tomorrow.which variety is the nicest?

Spent a long time this evening sorting out pots of plants and checking for slugs and placing them all where the weather cant harm them! Then I dug up and divided and potted some osteospernums and some michaelmas daisies and have now decided that I have done quite enough propogating for a while! There are only so many babies anyone can look after!

Managed an hour or so of weeding and mulching in the Inner Circle. Plenty more of that to be done. But there will be no more gardening time this week as a non-gardening friend will be with me for the weekend.

Back from a short trip and pleased that most new plants have survived. Some have headed off to plant heaven but they were looking decidedly sick before I left. Not my fault. 

I posted a couple of photographs before I left of two Podophyllums bought recently. The larger one was bought at the plant fair in St. Anne’s Park and the smaller one was one of the plants I ordered from England. There was little difference in the price. The small plant has given up the ghost since I took the photograph. Hmmmm.

Heading to Fota this weekend so I’d better check the bank balance beforehand. I emailed Crug Farm with a small order but heard nothing from them so I’m not sure if they will bring the goodies. We’ll see. I imagine there will be plenty of other ‘must-haves’ to snap up in a buying frenzy. A wise friend of mine is going with me to act as a brake. 

The same wise friend has urged me to plant what I have already bought this year before buying more – but there’s not much fun in that. Wisdom isn’t all it’s cracked up to be if you ask me.

Hi Folks

I am looking for some help from ye i have record potatoes growing for around 2 months now,they are about 2 to 4 inches above ground but a lot of the leaves are turning yellow they look like the after affects of been sprayed with round up.Is it blight or is to soon for blight  

apart from taking the cover off the spuds and recovering with fleese and watering that was it. i didnt get that tree, bills had to be paid first. i have three magnolias that will make great trees eventually so thats what will be put out. i want to save and get some bark for my beds as i plant them up. i love bark the smell and the feel of it reminds me of a woodland theme.

tomorrow i will be in the tunnel again,maybe i will get another bed fixed and planted in the next week. getting my housework done this eve laundry folded and put away and then i am free to spend the day in the tunnel yipeeeeeeeeeeee  

I have added some more blue photos (how dare you, not those types) one at a time, but I still cannot get more up as they are too big.

To dig up split and replant Heleniums. With me been incapacitated this is one of the many jobs on our list that did not get done. Will they flower this year if they are disturbed now ?