Month: September 2012

I took a close up of the anthers in a lily, just had to share it

Because the summers are often cold and rainy in Germany we decided to buy a glass pavilion kit last October to make the most of German summers. We found a round pavilion which can rotate on its axis. It’s made out of two half circular walls, each covering 180 degrees. The two walls can be moved around on two concentric circular tracks, each with the capacity to rotate 360 degrees. In this way we are prepared for all weather conditions.

 We have had also some dreadful weather here this year but in this way we are  prepared if you intend to visit us on your next trip to Germany.

On the way to the pavilion with Irish coffees and some pieces of apple pie.

Certain people who I won’t name were supposed to be visiting Bay Garden today…… It was raining in Laois this morning but the forecast was that the rain was to clear so i decided to keep the appointment to see this renowned garden and headed off at about 12.15 to make the rendevous. The rain had stopped by then and the sky was beginning to brighten so I was full of optimism that I would be spending the afternoon in a lovely garden in congenial company! Alack and Alas! I was more than half way there when I got a text crying off because of a little bit of rain! I ask you!

Anyway, I continued on my way and was not disappointed by this truly special garden. I had looked at their website but was quite unprepared for what I found there. i suppose because I was seeing it on my own I had no distractions and took my time seeing the many interesting plants and exploring the interesting layout of the garden.

I was struck most of all by the really effective close planting and have got lots of inspiration for filling the gaps in my own garden, not to mention new areas to be covered in the future! I loved the boardwalk and summerhouse. This is how I originally wanted to do my own boardwalk but Brendan was nervous of people falling off the edges so we opted for a “safer” design!

The part that surprised me most was the Barn Garden – described as 

“The most recent addition. Inspired by European perennial planting, the naturalistic beds blend into the surrounding cornfields.”

I am not a great fan of Prairie Planting so was not expecting much from this part of the garden but as i was drawn in by the delightful meandering paths I was totally enchanted! So much colour! So many textures! As interpreted in this garden I can finally see why people get so excited about prairie style planting! 

Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet the owners of this great garden as they were away but I was well looked after by Michelle, and spent a really enjoyable afternoon there – and guess what? not a drop of rain! Unfortunately the sun waited until I was on the way home to come out so the photos are a little dark … and I hope the Sugar Babies managed to stay nice and dry !!!!!

I met up with Drumanagh (ALison) a few months ago in Skerries. She kindly gave me some plants. Here is one that opened yesterday. Looking forward to this getting bigger and better each year. Thanks, Drumanagh.

I need ID on two plants please. Both are about to flower, but due to a strange working week, I may not get a chance to photo them in daylight.

The first I’m 99.9% sure came from Myrtle and will be white, the other looks like it’s going to be yellow.

Thanks as always.

and for no other reason, I said I’d share it.

Didn’t get out to the garden today until about 3.30, although Steve had more of an opportunity. Nowhere nearer ‘planting’ day. I hacked back the ivy on the dividing wall to the neighbours. Steve now has decided that the wall needs to be raised to take more soil (actually, I’m calling it ‘muck’ now). He will use boards to raise this. Another stumbling block, and another delay in my planting scheme. 

My garden is a mud bath right now. Didn’t get a chance to cut the grass as it is so wet and it was lashing here again this morning. And with both of us traipsing muck all over the place, it has now blackened. My hands are tied. Muck in the dining room, good job it’s floorboards. Muck all the way up the stairs. I want an outdoor toilet now. Spades, forks, trowels, mucky boots all lying up against the patio door. No point in putting them away at this stage. Otherwise things may be put on the long finger AGAIN.

Every day I go out, my silver birch is at a more horizontal position. Don’t want to lose this. Affixed a proper stake yesterday but obviously not secure enough. So sorted that out finally today.

Rant over.

On a more positive note though, I managed to cut back my climbing rose, still to be cleaned up. Might as well add to the mess. Ooooh, I did say ‘rant over’.

Tomorrow’s another day.

i havent really been on site this week, i got the cabbage blanched and a good start on the bulb planting, i have put them into pots in the tunnel til spring and like last year i will plant them out in spring. hopefully i can get it finished tomorrow. 

had a walk around the garden today and came across the first hellebore in the garden and the first carnation, have been watching these for ages to flower was delighted, there is loads more to flower so loads see yet.

the garden is full of gorgeous red leaves at the moment. the euonymus alatus compactus. will put up a small album of some plants looking good right now

https://www.garden.ie/post.aspx?id=3621&idpost=34215

 Fool

Do you not remember the advice from school and college to ensure that you understood the task fully before commencing your answer – RTFQ

Eejit

It is so true that a fool and his money are easily parted – that fifteen yo-yo could have purchased three or four more plants – that Verbena…

Amadan

Even your six year old realises that none of sixth, seventh, thirteenth or fourteenth October are actually in SEPTEMBER

Silly Billy

You can try to convince yourself that it was a great nursery to visit and that you would not be in Dublin for either of the next two weekends and the cost of petrol is greater than 15 squid anyway, but you will be making a major assumption – making an ass (of) u (and) me

Twit

What is even worse is that if you had remembered the name of the one plant without label, you would not have needed to phone them today to ask what the plant was. So you would not have realised that they were closed on their ‘sale date’ – HA

Wake up and smell the flowers 

Simpleton

Please excuse my split personality taking their conversation to the internet………..

I am now going for a walk to find myself. If I return before I find me, keep me here, please

Last week I transplanted the spring cabbage which I had raised from seed. I did the same last year and lost most of the plants to the pigeons. So I made these protective boxes to prevent a repeat.

I have also put some in the tunnel to make a comparison but I notice a different problem as when taking the picture I saw a lot of holes in the leaves. These are not due to slugs or birds, so what else I wonder?

The lettuce, by the way is for the birds in the aviary, canaries and zebra finch, they will have eaten all this by tomorrow. There are 24 of them.

This spring I did a short sowing in the tunnel of veg. I would plant later in the veg. garden. They all started off well and we had early, peas, runner beans, broad beans, carrots, white turnip and parsnip. The broad beans planted in the garden soon caught up and exceeded the growth of those in the tunnel. The big disappointment was the tomatoes. I’ve grown these from seed since 1966 trying out different types and growing methods. This year I bought seed from Aldi and they tuned out to be a miniature or bush variety’Trailing garden pearl’. I think the lack of sunshine and heat caused slow growth, poor pollenation and a ‘sick’ appearance. They were fed and doctored with care. Those that did ripen were very tasty and I’ve taken the fruit off the plant and put them in a sunny spot to ripen.

Been a very busy few weeks here but glad to say all is getting a bit better and we are all well.

I seem to be coming and going in the garden house etc not getting anything finished  so now we are going to just take one day at a time ….. Rome was not built in a day..

Looks like a good day but I have the feeling rain is on its way we are off to Gorey again so hopefully not to bad ..

I was in a Garden Center last week and got a few things ….as I have been off the fags for 8 weeks now and had a few bob to spend I got a beautiful Acer and Melianthus major as I have seen Frans Melianthus and I loved it .

We  also finished the front garden nearly…

Will take a few more photos and put them up during the week hopefully.

Happy Gardening to all.

I bought this Sedum for a coulpe of €, last year. It was not looking great after the bad winter.

But beady eyes spotted lots of new buds appearing.

After the bad winter, I just cut the worst of damaged growth off it, and left it alone.

It has come on great and will be divided next year. 

Some of the leaves are taking on great colours at the moment.

It’s amazing to see the bees still doing their thing at 7.30 in the morning. Ya jus gotta luv it!

We can not help ourselves – We have been talking about extending our woodland area for a few years now but had put it off for lots of reasons. But Gerry was determined as it is quite wet end of the garden and he hated having to mow it. So he skinned it last weekend. My main concern was financing the purchase of plants to to stock it so I started thinking what have I got in the garden that can be divided and planted in to this new bed.

I had loads of different primulas / cowlslips that had grown very big in our Bog garden so these were first target – out of eight clumps of Primula we made 50 smaller plants and these were all planted in today, I had loads of daffodils bulbs that I had dug up in the spring so in they went. I have quite a few Hellebores some from my own seed and some from Huntingbrook so they will go in. We had an Acuba Japonica that was in the wrong place and was getting crowded out so that has been moved and replanted.

In the area already was a cercis & 2 flowering cherry’s only planted last year A Genistia (not sure of spelling) and a Mahonia Charity. With the budget I had for this bed I bought the following after a lot of consideration. Viburnum Rhytidophyllum, Hydrangea Aspera Macrophylla, 2 White Lacecap Hydrangea & 2 Hydrangea Quer Burgundy. I think the hydrangeas should do well here as there is some shade and the ground reamins fairly moist as the bed lies at the bottom of our garden and there fore the bottom of the hill.

We are leaving a path through the middle of the bed which will go into the existing woodland and at the end of this short path will be a bench. When you sit here it gives a nice view back up the garden and the house.

I am hoping to buy a nice tulip that will fit in with the planting and am considering what edging plant to use – the following are all on the list , Bergenia (small leaved one) Brunnera, Persciaria, forget me nots what do you think?

Nice to see something that we have talked about for so long finally come to fruition.

I will post photos as it develops .

Today Gortnalee was a hive of activity – there were a number of tasks requiring Kevin’s skills (to those who haven;t met him before, Kevin is my “right-hand man” who gets roped in to any projects that are beyond my strength :-))

1 End fence to be raised in the corner to increase the shelter for the seat there

2. Thujas to be planted

3. Miscellaneous plumbing bits for Brendan

4. Rocks to be removed from the trailer to free it up for use

Then there was the Solar Panel man – we were extending the solar panels we already have so that they can contribute to the underfloor heating as well as the hot water. He had struggled to get them installed on Monday and Tuesday this week in torrential rain, and had to come back today to finishe them off!

I was flitting about doing nothing very spectacular – well,  I did paint the new bit of fencing – when a surprise visitor arrived to see the garden! Alice  is a friend of Kevin’s and I had often heard him talk about her!  We spent the rest of the afternoon doing the kind of thorough garden tour that only keen gardeners can appreciate and I was delighted to be able to give her bits and pieces that she hadn’t already got! I hope to go see her garden soon!

The reinstatement of the front garden is proceeding apace and I look forward to posting some photos of the finished article before too much longer!

Photo is of the Solar Panels – anyone considering them, if you have a south-facing roof I’d strongly recommend them! I only regret that we didn’t go for this option instead of the disastrous Wind Turbine!

OMG I tried soooo hard to get out to the garden today. Sometimes family commitments can really get in the way. But where would we be without them. 

We were finally free at about 5.00. And it would have been all too easy to just vegetate indoors and put gardening on hold till tomorrow. But no, time is of the essence right now as the temps are starting to get cooler. And fibre-glass won’t set in the cold. I know this from last year. Ok, we didn’t do any fibre-glassing today, but got more soil onto the cave. Steve is happy to date. So next weekend he will apply just two more layers into the inside while I can hopefully get stuff planted. And while he is busy doing what he does best, it’s giving me lots of time to decide what and where to plant things. 

This is a clematis montana which I had to cut nearly all the way to the ground today. It was growing on a trellis against the wall, and a few weeks ago the trellis was broken while we were cutting large branches of the tree above. The trellis needed replacing, but it was impossible to do so unless we removed the clematis parts that were tangled into it. in the meantime the whole overgrown plant had collapsed so it was a bit of a mess. So today we got a new trelllis but had to cut most of the plant to replace it. I’m not sure it was a good idea but there wasn’t much choice, so I gave it a go and we will see if the clematis survives. If it does, I will prune it more often! 

This little fern, while still small, has nearly doubled in size since arriving here.

This is a special fern, and am posting this just to let ‘The Master’ see it is been well looked after.

The fruits of Solanum are starting to ripen well.

I hope to save seed of this plant, just in case it does not make through the winter to allow it mark it’s third year in the garden.

I also love the dark stems on this plant.

Also known as Kangaroo Apple in it’s native Australia.

Here she comes.

I got working at the front garden to get my pelargoniums potted and removed. While I was working at them, the phone rang and I moved to the front door. The phone was silent. I asked who could it be. I resumed my work and shortly before 1 p.m. retired to the house to have lunch. At about 1.30 p.m. there was a ring at the door. Who could it be I asked myself and when I opened the door, who was there but Rachel. She had plants for me, hippeastrums, pelargiums and others. She was in a hurry having the family in the car. I showed her one of my orchids a Phal. It has shown quite a lot of flowers. In the afternoon, I finished potting and moving the pelargoniums. The total I have now inside and outside is close on 100. I also moved a lavender and Fatsia japonica to where the pelargoniums had been growing. Thanks a million Rachel. I will look after these plants. 

This pic would not go up on the last entry. This is what you see when you raise the fronds, some wonderful developing spores. Never say that ferns are all alike 🙂

This is a polypodium that I found growing on a wall of an old falling down cottage. I brought it home some fifteen years ago and it has grown happily in our garden ever since

Some years ago I got crinums from a colleague in work, but as they were planted close together in my garden  I decided later on to move them, and the result was they did not flower for years.  I wondered why this  was so.  Was it because they were too close together or because they are essentially greenhoiuse plants and I was growing them outside?  Crinums flowered very well in the Botanic Gardens.  I was concerned but this year they flowered.

However I am not sure what type of crinums I have.  Are they x powellii (https://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=578) or moorei (https://www.plantzafrica.com/plantcd/crinummoor.htm)?

I suppose they  probably are  x powellii.

Hi guys, if I was to set up the Irish Bryophytes society would there be any of you interested in joining?