Month: August 2012
I took better care of this cuphea, Fran! It hasn’t left the tunnel, nor has the rhodochition that I grew from the seed you sent me. Very pleased with both. Mind you, I think the cuphea could do with a feed – some of the leaves are a little yellow looking – what do you think?
This orange kniphofia (name unknown) lives in a pot near the back door and always brightens the day when it comes into flower. It has eleven flowers so far this year … didn’t think they particularly liked rain but maybe they do.
I grew this chocolate cosmos last year and overwintered it in its pot in the greenhouse. Had almost given up hope of it flowering this year as it has looked pretty miserable all summer but at last there are just a few flowers.
Worth the wait I think … wonder how I can get it to perform better next year?
At this time of year montbretia pays its way by flowering its heart out , its so easy to grow and has a beautiful mophead shape to its leaves. It looks after itself for years.
I like this two tone effect on the flower of Kniphofia lemon bees as the true colour emerges. Only one bloom on it last year, five on the way now, must like it’s position.
I was browsing today and came across this photo and just thought of someone who could make one and looks like if he is trying it out???? My beady eyes.
I bought this at our last get together in Johnstown Garden Centre and am pleased at how well it is doing.
At the beginning of the season, this clematis was covered in aphids and not looking too well. I was advised to spray. But I was too lazy to do so. However, today it has opened without human intervention. Happy Days!
So pleased to see flowers on these two plants despite the lack of sunshine.
Cuphea from Fran and Zauschneria calfornica ‘Glasnevin’ from Bruno
Many thanks to you both.
Myself and Steve are managing to get a little bit done on the cave every day now that the weather has been condusive to a bit of ‘drying’ time. Let’s pray that the rain stays away for a while now. I posed for a couple of photos this evening just to show the scale of the cave. The entrance measures about 8-9 ft – depth is about 6ft and height is about 5ft 8inches. Way too big for Hoblins or Goblins, or even Fairies.
I have lots of the pink C. hederifolium , but was delighted to spot this white one. Could it be an untrue seedling?
This is the second year and the first year for flowers. There are two colours, red and yellow.
Since I moved to Co. Laois in 2010, I’ve been trying to grow some vegetables and salads. But as I work in Dublin, I was only getting to garden for about an hour in the evening when I returned home. Which meant that I wasn’t at home to keep an eye on my vegetables, etc. and protect them from bad weather and certain ‘visitors’ to my vegetable patch i.e. rabbits, birds, etc. A bad day’s weather, etc. could ruin all my endeavours.
So, to resolve this issue, and because I’m telling myself that I’m keen to grow vegetables throughout the year, I got myself a polytunnel. My polytunnel is 16ft long and 10ft wide – so it’s sizeable. I now have enough room to attempt to grow a variety of vegetables snd herbs; I’m learning about ‘crop rotation’ and putting it into practice; I’m learning about ‘companion planting’ and how it works; I can work in the polytunnel when it’s absolutely horrible outside so I’m no longer a ‘fair weather’ gardener; and my plants are all protected while I’m at work. Happy days 🙂
Until recently, I’ve just grown a handful of potatoes and tomatoes in growbags and a few herbs in pots. But now, I have BIG plans – potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and chillies, cabbages, carrots, onions, garlic, strawberries and a variety of herbs all feature on my 2012-2013 wishlist to try to grow.
I’ve discovered the joys of shopping online – not to buy clothes or accessories or books – but to order seeds and to reserve spring flower bulbs for me to collect when they’re ready from the shop or garden centre and to find suppliers of scaffolding boards to use for my raised beds. I spent a good bit of time, energy and money on my polytunnel, more than some might say was necessary but I really wanted to do this project right from the beginning and have everything looking right (as I had it in my mind’s eye!).
Perhaps it’s because I’m relatively new to growing things generally, but I really can see the difference growing something indoors against being outside. I planted some potatoes in the first week of August and they are shooting up!! They must be at least 2 feet high and it’s only 3 weeks since I planted them. Is that normal? Am I easily pleased? I’m planning to stagger when the potatoes are ready to be harvested so I planted some more at the weekend and already the tops of the potatoes are peeping through the soil. It’s such a pleasure to come home after a day’s work and commute and go to the polytunnel and see how everything’s progressing.
My tomatoes are thriving too. I planted them very late in the season but I’m hoping that because I relocated them to the polytunnel they’ll continue to grow through September/October and I’ll have something to harvest in a few months time.
But even if I have left it too late for the tomatoes this year, I’ve learned SO much – I know what a ‘truss’ is; I’m learning about the importance of snipping off the small shoots to enable the plants to grow ‘right’ – one or two of the plants are growing a bit crookedly! I’ve read for years now about people growing marigolds where they are growing tomatoes – I now know why – my plants are tomato-fly free! I’ve learned that the sludge that’s left over when I make my nettle tea liquid feed can be put on the top of the soil of my tomato plants – the difference it makes – WOW! Using the nettle tea in a warm polytunnel is a bit smelly though but in a nice way!. I’m very wary about using bamboo canes in the polytunnel because I’m sure, one day, I’ll puncture the plastic sheeting – so, I’ve learned how to have the tomato plants grow up support strings that I’ve attached to the polytunnel frame!
I’m started growing beetroot too. I bought a small frame – about 4ft high, in my local Woodies store – and I’ve made this my ‘nursery’ for plants that I need to start off in cells before I transfer them to a raised bed. Beautiful little red and green stems and leaves are now visible and are new my pride and joy. I’ve also sown some lettuces and this is in my nursery too.
I had planned to sow some spring cabbage this month too but the online supplier that I ordered my seeds from let me down unfortunately, and the seeds I ordered only just arrived.
Who knows if we’ll eat all that I plan to grow but I think I’m going to get alot of pleasure from giving my homegrown harvests to family, neighbours and friends. I might have to learn how to pickle some of these too! Perhaps a new year’s resolution for 2013?!
Next month, which is only a few days away now, I’m looking forward to planting my spring cabbage, my overwintering red and white onions and my early carrots. Who needs a tv when you can have a polytunnel instead!!
I’ll let you knon how I get on with my new seeds/seed sets and update you on the progress of the potatoes, etc. I’ll get some photos online too soon, so you can see what I’m talking about too.
Here’s a new addition from Ravensberg Nurseries…..
Some background info:
https://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/136980/#b
Seed is poisonous so it may end up in our poison garden.
Our property is ALL grass – in various degrees of quality. The ‘front’ third of the grass is a pretty decent lawn, the reminder isn’t being used by us at the moment, so it’s a bit wild. A neighbour uses it for grazing his horses.
It takes about 70-80 minutes to cut the grass, depending on the weather, time of year, etc. We’ve been thinking up ideas to reduce the amount of lawn we have – creating paths through the lawn, introducing some raised beds, having one or two defined areas to sit and read and admiring the view, while having a glass of wine enjoying our handiwork!
So, I started this project by introducing a wood mulch path, going from the top of the property where we park our cars, to go along side the East hedge down to where the horses are grazing – about 50 feet in length. The path’s about 6-7 ft wide. It really has inproved the lawn area, visually. There’s also a small stone bench to sit on, under the hawthorne trees that make up the hedge; this spot catches alot of the sun, and when it’s been raining, the wood chippings smell great.
I’ve begun clearing out the east hedge area too – there’s alot of white hawthorne trees but they’re fighting for space with all the nettles, thistles, briars, dandelions and other types of weeds. It’s a slow job, and bigger than I anticpated, but already there’s improvement. I’ve gained about an extra 8 feet of land!! Clearing out the weeds, means that the ivy floor beneath the hedge has a chance to grow properly and I’ve found some lovely ferns growing in the hedge bank! Who knew that ferns could be so pretty?! And what looks like purple crocus. I had noticed, at the beginning of the year, some snowdrops in the hedge so, hopefully, more will pop up now that the hedge is cleared a bit.
Between the hedge and the far side of the wood mulch path, it’s about 20feet wide – I needed something to break up the space a little and to bring in some colour. So, I’ve planted some nasturtiums – I love these flowers with their big lily-pad type leaves, the pretty flowers, the way they move in the wind. Plus you can eat them. Excellent! I cleared out my local Woodies and HomeBase stores and had planted these next to the path, spilling over to soften the visual effect. I’m really pleased with myself with the result. Still some more work needed to be done – I’ve ordered myself some seeds to start growing my own plants for next year as I need to get alot more plants to finish the area next year.
Okay, so I may well have one of the smallest veg plots in the country, but it doesn’t stop me dreaming of bigger things. One day, when I have more land (I wish – sigh) I am going to grow so many vegetables. I am going to be buried under mountains of carrots and swimming in seas of peas. And by God I’m going to have the books to help me do it! Until then I’ll just keep accumulating them and live in hope of a veggie future. I bought my latest one on my expedition to Belfast at the weekend. The bargain bookshop chain The Works would be a great addition to us here in Ireland, everything is such great value. This one cost all of £1.99. ‘On The Plot’ looks like a real winner. A personal account of a very experienced grower, told in journal/blog style, packed full of tasks and ideas. It has lots of detail and covers wildlife, insects birds. There are lovely recipes in the back as well, which I didn’t realise until I came home, are all meat free. One of my pet hates is a gardening book (or magazine for that matter) that has vegetable recipes that contain meat. It turns out that Joe Hashman is a fellow vegan 🙂
Last year at the end on the season I managed to pick up about 8 Lewisias at something like 20c each. So far none of them have flowered. I’m putting it down to lack of sun.
Grew this from seed this year really like it and will be growing again – Lovely light and airy
This Ipomea never fails to bring a smile to my face every morning. It really looks like the light is shining through it.
When we bought this farmhouse 20 years ago we also got some outbuildings and “the street” between them. We eventually did up one of them and gravelled out the street. It’s a big area (about 80 X 50 feet) and I was disappointed when the landscapers decided not to put down weedblock before the gravel. Since then I have got used to the idea that it has to be sprayed a few times a year as well as hand weeded. Well this year it has been hard to get a guaranteed dry day (we were away during the dry week) and the weeds have started popping up all around it.
Hubby and I set to it at the weekend and spent about 3 hours weeding it by hand. The thing that struck me though was the amount of “good” plants that had seeded themselves into it. There were lovely violets, aquilegias, feverfew, foxgloves, deadnettles, marjoram, thyme, geraniums as well as alder, willow and a bluish conifer.
I found it hard to weed these out and thought that the ideal would be to let them grow in the gravel (apart from the trees of course) if I had enough time to keep it under control. Alas, I do not have that amount of time to spare….I did leave a few violets in there though..shhh don’t tell hubby…
This was in HD’s greenhouse and was so happy to see a label, will be on my wish list. But googling, it seems to be tender and still on trials. But I shall be watching out for it.
I have been galavanting for the past week on Wed. I go to the Cancer Support here in Bray from 10am to 5pm. Thursday down to Rachels and Altamount with Fran …Peter etc. Friday to The Tall Ships in Dublin and on Saturday out all day as we left our house at 10 30 am and went to Charleville House Enniskerry , had a bit of lunch and then on to Helen Dillons garden ….. so nothing done in the garden so yesterday I got dressed in the rags and spent the day tidying and cleaning deadheading binning and then the grass got cut ….Today I finished off as it was good at about 11 am so put stakes on tall plants but by the time I got to my Digitalis they were lying flat so I just took them in and put them into a vase with other flowers I had collected … so I have my Digitalis inside , but will get no seeds or do I,???
What a day I had… It was like mini happy holidays for me. First its a big thank you to Clare (Clara) and Greg for taking me out and driving around to these fantastic places.
I have never been in such a beautiful and grand garden as Charleville. Every corner had a feeling of grandiosity, yet with a blend of naturalism and history..roses, hydrageas added classic feeling to the garden, grasses gave contemporary flavour… and Clare’s company added fun… great day.
Next stop Woods nursery in Cabinteely, did not get anything … forgot my wish list at home.. hahah
Then just to make a day even better we went to Helen Dillon to meet more gardeniers and share love for gardening… wow was fantastic to see you all and to talk to you all. great fun as always and the garden was so lush and so coloufull. i just could not believe that some colour actually looked great together… a beauty of having so much knowlege as Helen Dillon.. and i managed to get a very special rose cutting from her garden.. noi did not sneaked it in the bag….. she gaved it to me…
but its better one time to see it then 10 times to hear about it… going to upload the photos…
It’s not often one can sit back and admire the foliage of a fuchsia. Maybe this climbing one is slightly better than others. Either way, it’s lovely.
It has started I am getting ready for Spring although it’ll be another month or so before I start planting I have been building my collection slowly, I have saved a lot of bulbs since last year but lost a lot too and don’t know which is which so this year i am gonna plant most bulbs into pots and put the whole pot into the ground and label them (which will be a 1st for me) and then when they are finished I can lift the whole pot and put them into a corner to die off naturally, that’s the plan anyway. I decided to get most my bulbs in the likes of woodies, garden centers etc as it is fairly cheap much the same as online. However if there is something I like online that I can’t get in a shop I will order then.
Here is what I have so far and I’m not finished but I want a huge mix next spring.
Snowdrops Single
Fritillaria Meleagris (2 Colours)
Muscari Blue Grape Hyacinths
Crocus Ruby Giant
Narcissus
King Alfred Select
Tete a Tete
Star Burst
Daffodil Thalia
Daffodil Bell Song
Daffodil Sempre Avanti
Tulips
Tulip Ballerina
Tulip Purple Trills
Tulip Heart’s Delight
Tulips Rockery Mixed (Various Colours)
