Month: June 2012

OMG… Went out this morning to inspect relative sites (see previous journal)and there were dead slugs everywhere … big, small. brown. black… Fran you counted 15 well I could easily double and even treble that. Maybe now my rudbeckia will get the chance to grow.

I did take a photo and was going to put with this journal but for fear of being ejected from garden.ie site for horrifying members and also to protect the squeemish I have refrained:)

I know we all have our fair share of slugs but is there more this year than any other. Maybe it was the mild winter?

could anyone explain how a meconopsis betonicifolia changed over the winter into meconopsis cambrica. The label for mec., bet., is sitting under the mec cambrica, so I know thats where it should be, Have the flower fairies visited me over the winter??????????

 

Could anybody please explain to me the garden with the purple and white Foxgloves and bird houses on the back  wall. What was it like in reality and what was it called please and thank you.

Thank heavens a sunny day , just what my strawberries need .I have a bumper crop this year again but like last year they are at a standstill . I am going to put some in the tunnel for next year in a barrel .Tried the barrel last year but only got one strawberry from it most of the plants got burnt with the wind . Long may the sunshine last

Initially this garden would have been described as a jungle with trees and sheds etc, with just a small patch at the top of the garden for flowers and some rose bushes.

Some of the trees fell over the years from heavy winds, so we decided to clear it all out and now we are part of the way there to seeing  some semblence of a garden.

A river runs at the bottom, so we would appreciate any ideas from green fingered individuals on what to plant here, some of the clay is poor with blue clay been dug up in several areas, also wet patches exist wherupon rushes are now growing.

As you can see we have put some designs in place with a small shrubbery and a rockery on the far side, with some flower beds, however we are trying to minimise the amount of time and effort needed to maintain this size of a garden – We would really like to grow as many native Irish trees, shrubs and flowers as possible and with time hope to achieve this ! 

Hope I spelt that right. đŸ™‚

Anyone got a bit of this to spare?

Can’t find any for sale here.

Kevin.

My garden is south facing,with mature trees and a large area of lawn.I have six raised beds,one in herbs and the remaining five in rotated vegetable crops.I practise organic gardening and my main battle is with the ever vorocious slugs and snails with casualties occuring far too frequently for my liking!I also have a greenhouse and am growing tomatoes,including heritage varieties,basil,Thai basil,peppers,chilli peppers,cucumbers,aubergines,calandula and an array of herbs and flower seedlings on the go.As well as a bed of potatoes,I planted early varieties in buckets in the greenhouse and am enjoying them now.I had a rather nasty proliferation of whitefly in the greenhouse this season but have seen it off effectively with a garlic concoction sprayed onto the leaves-also very effective for greenfly on roses,etc.There is a double compost bin in the north facing corner.Photos to follow… 

I wonder if anyone would be interested in recording their longest flowering perennials this Summer.  I know we have different growing conditions but it would give some indication of the best value flowering plants.  Perhaps from now until the end of August would be a good period to evaluate. Deadheading will make a difference so maybe a note could be made as to whether you are a good deadheader or not!!  Selfish motives I confess because at this stage of my life I would like to have big clumps of long flowering perennials  rather than seeing what I can move into gaps. Of course we would have to like the plants and not just pick them for longevity.

I will propose many Hardy geraniums as the best value in my garden over many years here and in my last garden. In particular the Sanguinems  and a bigger one called Claridge Druce. Actually you can have these great plants flowering from early May , Renardii then Phaeums, and so on until November when Rozanne is still flowering away.

 

i am trying to upload photos, they show uploaded but then they dont come up at all and when you click on a box it just says cannot do request, am i the only one? 

I bought some larkspur and sweet william seed last week cut-price. Am I too late to direct sow in the border or would I be better off growing it next spring?

 Also sowed wallflowers for next year to go with my planned expansion of tulips (my new best friends)!

Many thanks to the many Garden.ie members who said hello at the Garden.ie/The Irish Garden stand at Bloom. It is always good to meet members and readers and to get feedback about the website and the magazine, and no better place than Bloom, which despite weather ups and downs was a great success and seems to have been much enjoyed by those attending, as comments here would seem to agree!

The question of giving publicity to Garden.ie members’ open days has been raised and there is no problem doing this on the News page, if desired. Just send the information to info@garden.ie

Please note, however, the question of public liability insurance. Members should find out before holding open days whether they are insured or not.

You might well be insured for a gathering of friends, which Garden.ie members known to you might be deemed to be, but wider publicity, such as on Garden.ie News, might bring other people who might not be covered by insurance, if they could be deemed to be members of the public.

In any case, it is always wise to check with you insurer, and the same goes for having tradesmen on site… they may or may not be covered. The devil is in the detail!

 

 

Despite the weather forecast given yesterday (Tuesday) to day was lovely. The sun shone and it was warm again. I slipped some more Hydrangeas but most of the time was taken up weeding. Vetches seem to have taken over and large numbers of these were pulled out and taken to the compost heap. Tomatoes which were in flower pots have fruit while those which were put into grow bags some time ago have still to show fruit. I have a record crop of grapes on the vine and the larger ones are sweet. Roses are appearing every day and there should be a good display. I believe we will have quite a lot of rain to morrow. I hope it won’t be that bad but it is a day when I normally have plenty time for the garden. Sorry no pictures as it was dark when I entered this.

I just added a few photos of a dragonfly emerging last weekend on an overcast day – it took hours to get from photo 1 to photo 6 – can’t imagine it had much of a life seeing as their life is so short anyway. 

 

Seeds not my greatest success!! But it all went well with Golden Agastache and there I was with this tray of seedlings that Monty would be proud of , even growth, hundreds of them a thing of beauty!! I potted on about 10 a few weeks ago, the others grew and prospered in their confined space . Could I throw them out , no these were my pride and joy but thousands of seedlings to pot up, not on. So today I had a chat with them and told them they had to face the great outdoors but would have company. I headed forth and found about 6 gaps and into each space went a big clump of seedlings must have been about 30 in each clump. It will be interesting to see if they survive or become slug fodder but at least they have a chance. Do you do seedling planting in clumps if you have too many?

It is bucketing down here – sheets of the wettest . Enough of the stuff! Oh dear, sounds as if tomorrow will be equally drenching. Hope all gardens are ok and able to absorb the extra drink. 

thanks for all the advice about keeping cats off plants. | will follow up and see if my  moggies can take the hint. (they spent the day sleeping, eating, yawning and occasionally scratching). I was not too active either, spent afternoon teaching myself to twitter – good fun. But I have no twitter followers which sounds a bit pathetic! lets hope the weather improves so I can get out to healthier pursuits!!

suspect the rain has done a bit of damage to the bedding I put down earlier in the week – I can see some very droopy petunias. Sometimes nature is too generous. 

love reading the journals and enjoying the fellowship of the soil.

bonnie 

I was away all day yesterday driving  (it’s 3.25 a.m now) and didn’t get back until 11.30 pm it was as you all know lashing out of the heaven’s  and the wind was fierce….when i opened the gate and drove the van in i seen my work i’d done on the basket’s and window boxes and pot’s/tub’s were being battered, anyway!! i  got a bit of supper and sat down to watch telly HUH!! the mind started to wander out to all my pot’s/tub’s and  bedding plants,   window boxes so out in the rain and wind this eejit toddled to look at her flowers torch in hand , and i seen all my plants were being really  battered to death(as i live right in the path of the divils bit mountain (that’s devils bit to those that dont know the place LOL! ) now this was 12.15 a.m so i felt  sorry for the plants(AND THINKING OF MY HARD WORK TOO LOL!) and started to bring them all in… YEAH! as my friend says I BRUNG EM ALL IN !!!so in i came grabbed a jacket and headed out 25 window boxes 15  hanging baskets 24 pot’s /tub’s and bedding plant’s  at 1.45 a.m  later i had them all over my kitchen floor( GOOD JOB IT’S TILED LOL!) water everywhere and this eejit drowned to the skin, sopping wet feet,jean’s stuck to me, two cats howling for grub and my little jack russel looking at me saying to herself what kind of an eejit would go out at this hour of the night and bring in all the flowers?? so turning around she trots off to bed and snuggles down looking at me with that doggie grin on her puss as much as to say it would take only you MAM to go out on a night like this..  Anyway! i had a nice hot cuppa, warm clothes and sat down happy  as a pig in a puddle of mud my flowers were safe and there they will stay until the weather clears up COZ I AINT DOING THAT NO MORE NO WAY! NO HOW! NOT ON YOUR NELLY!!!!!  now i know why they call me the mad March Hare hee! hee! hee! LOL!!! i hope this gives you all a giggle,i’m glad the neighbours were all tucked up in bed or i’d be certified.as Cath Cronin has a poster up singing in the rain, I was dancing in the rain trying to keep out of the flood in the yard if only i could have run between the drop’s i would have kept dry ha! ha!

Alan: Do you think the bee orchids will be all right in this weather?

Me: Well, they’ve been growing hereabouts for about a million years or so, so they’re probably used to it!

 More than we can say for the rest. The baby shrubs keep battling on despite all the batterings. And the new Johnson’s Blue geranuims are all coming out. Hold on out there, lads, it’s got to get better!!

I do know we are all suffering from the rain and horrific wind today so my sympathy goes out to everyone. Here a lot of damage, Delphiniums hit by branch and destroyed, Lupins, many hardy Geraniums, clematis etc knocked to the ground. So sad when many plants were starting to bloom. So Nature having treated us to a mild Winter seems to be having a giggle at us now!!

Tought people might like this as i was just on the dailymail online and they had this story of a garden through 4 seasons. hope the link works.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2156181/Four-seasons-suburban-paradise-The-incredible-labour-love-rivals-Sissinghurst-Chatsworth–round-peddle-dashed-house-Walsall.html

Don’t forget your fix at 8 30 BBC 2 God knows we need it.

Anybody know what a seedling of this looks like?  I got some from Bruno months ago but had no luck , then I ordered Bomarea caldasii seeds and sowed them over three months ago.  Nothing happened and indeed sometimes the pots dried out but for some reason did continue to water them. But today I spot in one pot a strong looking ‘stalk’ about an inch tall which does not look at all like a weed could it be one has germinated after all this time? What do the seedlings look like is important to find out.

hi all/ still cant upload pics to album. did the plugins etc, when i try to add a photo it shows a toolbar as error and wont save to gallery. any tips wud be welcome. signing out now and having a bath to relax,

 

To day was a great day for the garden and I took advantage of it. The front lawn had to be mown and also a strip of grass along by the road. Now I had tried the mower on the grass strip by the road without success. I mentioned that my two pairs of hedge clippers also failed so I finished up using a large scissors and it took me nearly the whole day. Now after the two days rain, the grass had to be cut again and I was not going to repeat what I had done. So after mowing the lawn 1/4 acre, then the strip by the road. The grass was returned to the compost heap and I think I need to start a new one. Earlier I worked in the greenhouse removing portions of the tomato plants. Now I had hoped to go to Mozarts Requem in Carlow beginning at 8 p.m. However the grass in the front had to be done. I fell in love with Mozart back in 1959 when my eldest sister presented me with an EP of Eine kleine Nachtmusik. He became my favourite classical composer. Eventually I decided to continue with the gardening. By the way, Mozart also wrote Don Giovani and considering that so many Irish people have travelled to Poland to follow Don Giovani (Trapatoni). That sport  by the way is not my forte and to morrow afternoon, I will be watching on TV not the Boys in Green but the Boys in Red in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

went to garden early yesterday morning very apprehensive about after effects of so much rain. The bedding plants generally got hammered and are looking very poor. which is a shame as I had planted up a good few containers and baskets – the petunias and surfinias look quite flattened. However the veg are fine and I expect they will thrive after the nice sunshine today. Actually ate my first pea of the year today – well there were some teeny peas and a delicious pod. Potatoes have some flowers and runner beans are running up the beanpoles. CAbbages are spurting out of the ground – probably sustaining an army of caterpillars. salads etc are growing well. The garden seems rather grubby after the rain – petals and sundry bits of plants smeared all over, and other lovely things like dead worms all over the patio. tomorrow I will get out there with the broom and sweep away vegetation and corpses.

 concerned that a climbing rose which I planted a couple of weeks ago has got a white mildew on a lot of the leaves. It has a number of buds and seems OK apart from the white stuff. Not sure if that is anything to worry about – my first rose so I am not well up on rose care. Any tips from rose experts? 

 

good week to everyone

bonnie