Month: October 2012
Hi folks, this little Badger has been hibanating and keeping his head down, as things have been a bit difficult, the Irish govenment is trying to exterminate all Badgers, including me, but hay, what the hell, life goes on and so does my garden, been very busy developing a bit more, (under orders from her indoors ) We have cut back the scrub picked out all the rocks ( or at least Lola has, God bless her ) and levelled the soil as best we can and sowed No 2 grass seed, its started to show, but it is very slow, won’t be cutting it this year, the area is now ripe for some choice trees now.
I have included photo of the “before and after look” and how it is at the moment, all done by hand, ( fair and mighty ) i might add
Ha! For once I decided to take things relatively easy in work today. Flittered about the place scraping moss off shelving, and removing staples before I am ready to paint all of them.
I have a couple of planters which needed re-spraying. Customers tend to consistently ram their trolleys into them, and cause the paint to flake off. Enjoyed dossing for the day. 🙂
At the moment I am busy preparing the shelving in work for a ‘re-paint’ before winter sets in. Yesterday I was working on the Buxus Shelf and was amazed to spot this little grass seedling coming up through the membrane. Even though this particular shelf had been swept down less than two weeks ago, this brave little soldier decided to come to life (I think it’s a seedling of Uncinia ‘rubra’) How quick was that!!!
Yesterday (Tuesday) we had a day to beat all days – just glorious. You’d think we’d head out into the garden (we did hear it calling)! We decided instead to walk the Owenwee Bog Trail featured in a local ‘brochure of walks’ which we have been meaning to do for ages – it’s a distant view from the front of our house. Unusually for a bog road it has a really good surface. We parked our car at a nearby bridge – the circular walk took 3 hours half it through the bog, a quarter through forestry and the rest all along the road below the slower slopes of Croagh Patrick. I took some photos but the sun was so bright and strong my views of CP aren’t that good. The silence was deafening – didn’t meet a soul. The heathers had gone over. It made us think of how difficult it was for all those people who walked to this area, cutting the turf, saving it and eventually getting it back to their houses. Brought back memories of my childhood holidays in my mother’s place – we thought it was a novelty to go to the bog, us being brought up in the city!!! Getting back to the gdn I have posted some pics of plants still flowering in my garden.
I took some pictures this morning and did a Bing search.
Fallopia baldschuanica or Russian vine – Mile a minute.
Virginia Creeper Vine – Parthenocissus quinquefolia Engelmanii – Boston Ivy.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction folks.
When the Virginia Creeper was in its full autumn dress and set against the white of the Russian vine it was a sight to behold.
Two more names added to my poor gardening vocabulary.
When I got these, they were both very small. The yucca in a poor shape from the bargain trolly in November 2009 at Woodies for 1 Euro, and the Crassula a few years before that. The crassula lives outside in the summer, and spends the rest of the time on our fridge in the kitchen! It is a very bright, and quite warm, spot. I love the way the branches are beginning to “curl around” now…
After a long wait, I finally traced this wonderful plant for my garden. Hoping to get it planted at the weekend.
I was pleased and surprised to see the autumn colour on the leaves, sadly it is very short lived but great to see.
Can’t wait for this plant to bulk up and have am impact in the garden.
The postman brought me three new Disa orchids today to add to my collection.
I bought small divisions that will take two years to flower – always doing things on the cheap, me!
Anyway, the big thing about the South African Disa orchids is that they can be grown in the same conditions as Sarracenia. Except they’re not hardy, while Sarracenia are. These orchids are bog plants so they need to sit in water, exactly the opposite of what is required for most orchids.
I had been looking for Disa uniflora for some time and I am very pleased to have gotten one with an orange flower.
I potted the orchids up in 50% perlite 50% peat in pots that sit in trays. The trays hold rain water. I happened to have a lovely little cup, just perfect for my Disa uniflora!
This is a lovely coloured Aster but has long rather grotty stems. Anybody know the name please?
Some of the interesting Fungi that appear in Autumn. The hardy geraniums is procurrens a super creeper for this time of year.
After much cajoling and coaxing, I finally persuaded Steve to get the thumb out and do a bit more on the soil over the cave. I refuse to allow any more plants to die this year. He dug a definite shape to the future pond and placed the maximum amount of soil over the cave so I could finally get things into it. He still needs to apply at least two more layers of fibreglass to the underside of the cave. Firstly, (probably the wrong time, but c’est la vie) I transplanted two Laburnums to the uppermost corner. This will give us a bit more privacy from the field ‘over the wall’ area. I also transplanted my Sambucus ‘Black Lace’ beside it. That leaves a lot more ‘walking space’ around where they were taken from.
Took some cuttings of Sedum ‘Frosty Morn’ and planted them into the nearby area. Had to shift quite a few primroses to avoid them being smothered with more soil, and other plants. Also took a few fuchsia cuttings.
Unfortunately, my spade has had it. A new one being purchased tomorrow.
What a smashing Octobers day!
Steve asked me to move/remove a gorgeous cherry last year. I was reluctant to agree, but had no choice as it was hindering the shaping of the new pond.
Another tree that I moved was my Taxus bacatta. I have spent all year looking at its inevitable demise, growing yellower by the day. But today was an eye-opener. Lots of new growth from the trunk. Am I a Happy Camper or what???
The morning dew on plants is one of the many things I love about this time of year.
I’m beginning to like this cherry blossom even more for its autumn colour than for its spring blooms. This spring, the weather was so bad when the flowers appeared that we didn’t really have time to enjoy them, but the leaves are just beautiful at this time of year.
The problem is, the roots are getting so big at this point that they are lifting the cobblestones and also appear in the lawn. We’ve been supposed to change the drive for a few years now, but there is always something more urgent to do, so it has been put the long finger. I am pretty sure that if we eventually spend the money to improve the drive, the tree would have to go as the roots would continue to lift the stones.
So each season that I can admire the tree is a bit of a bonus at this stage!! On the other hand, I would really like to get this drive done, as I would take the opportunity to change the front garden, which is as boring as ever as you can see on the picture!
Today, after a family walk on Kathy Gallagher/Carrickgollogan hill behind Shankill (Fran/Clara will know the place!) I spent about 3 hours in the garden so I am happy with myself 🙂
This is the third Hippeastrum to open. This one is called ‘Orange’. But it’s the most sumptuous shade of red I have seen in a Hippeastrum. Another 5 to go.
I bought a Agapanthus ‘blue storm’ at half price a few weeks back.
I got around to planting it on Saturday. When I went to get it out of the pot I realised it was heavily pot bound. I was not expecting to see just how much when I broke the pot away from the plant.
There was only the smallest little bit of compost left in the pot, it was all roots.
I have planted it in front of the decking at the yellow seat. Talk about getting my colour scheming sorted out ;-))
we have had it good for so long and it was the longest we have had these beautiful colours… lets get ready for the next Season and enjoy it as much.
Top photo is not from my garden it is a neighbours …
Some of us were lucky enough to receive divisions of Cuphea cyanea from Fran at the Johnstown meet this spring.
Mine seemed very slow to get going early in the year but steadily grew in size to about eighteen inches or so tall and started producing a few flowers in around June or early July.
Since then it literally hasn’t stopped, constantly sending out beautiful unusual small, dangling, tubular red and yellow blooms with tiny plack ‘ears’ at the mouth of the flower.
I’ve never dead headed it and it just keeps going strong, getting better with even more flowers as the year wears on.
October has been a very productive month here in the gardens. We are definitely well into autumn now and the trees throughout the grounds are providing a wonderful show, with bright gold, vivid reds, buttery yellows and endless shades of orange and brown. There’s a photo opportunity around every corner! We have been busy competing with the red squirrels to collect seeds for our propagation projects. Luckily there is enough to go around.
We are moving into the time of year where we are able to look at new projects and clearance work that we don’t have time for in the spring and summer months. Our jungle border will be started in the next few weeks, and we are doing renovation work throughout the arboretums. There will be a lot of new tree planting over the next few weeks, many of which are rare and unusual varieties. As well as these specimens, we are also planting up some new areas of native woodland, which will add to the already considerable biodiversity here in the castle grounds.
The ongoing labelling of all of the trees on the estate had stalled a little last month, but we have just ordered another 200 labels. We aim to have all notable trees (around 1000) labelled by next summer. We will have a complete database of the trees available for visitors. We will then progress to the shrubs, which will be another challenge.
Our volunteers are doing great work on the Himalayan Walk, and we have begun planting, which will be ongoing over the next few months. In years to come this area will be a real showpiece, especially in spring. We would welcome any ‘new recruits’, and we meet at 9.00am every Friday (weather permitting) and finish at 1.00pm. Contact me at blarneygardens@blarneycastle.ie for more information.
Our fruit and vegetable areas are currently undergoing their autumn tidy. We are organising our beds for next year and planning where to plant what. We have a crop rotation system in place, which helps prevent pests and disease and keeps the nutrients in the soil more balanced. We will shortly be planting out garlic and shallots and sowing sweet pea indoors for next year’s crops. We are currently keeping glasshouse vents open overnight to encourage leaf fall on our indoor fruit such as peaches and grapes. The grape vine needs to be fully dormant before we start to prune it.
All of our bulbs are now planted and should give a great spring show. We have finished our winter bedding and have tried some winter baskets this year. It will be interesting to see how they do.
Other jobs we will be doing over the next month include: lifting and dividing herbaceous perennials, wind lopping roses, pruning of established apple and pear trees, spreading compost and digging over vegetable beds, leaf collection to form next year’s leaf mold, lifting dahlias, begonias to overwinter inside, fleecing tree ferns to protect from frost, planting of new bare root hedging and trees.
It’s a very busy time of the year for us here in the gardens and usually, in my experience, the time when you achieve the most. Come and see us in November! Adam
This tree has so much going for it – the autumn colour now and the glorious scented blossom mid Spring. I have put up final Autumn photos (taken last Sat) for this year as by the weekend I’m sure the leaves will have dropped!! The Amelanchier is a shrub which now has the Autumn colour and then lovely blossom in the Spring
This morning we went for a walk to Woodies which is not to far from us and when we were coming home I just could not resist taking a few photos of a different view of Bray head and these beautiful trees.
Please if someone could id this little plant I would love it ….very small leaves .
Last night’s coldness has given way to a bright, crisp, sunny day. We escaped the frost here so the only damage in the garden is Impatiens tinctoria, which has been blackened.
Halloween is in full swing but there was still time for a scoot around the garden with the camera…
Today I braved the cold and wet to follow to the letter Monty Don’s instructions regarding my Dahlias. I’m quite proud of the dahlias because all but one of them came from a packet of seeds last year and I managed to lift them and get them through the winter (Ok – so it was a very mild winter but it was a first for me!!) and they made a great display this year in the new beds down near the stream. I even managed to sit for a while on the little white seat down there to enjoy them!
Apart from the plants from seed I also have a lovely tall red Dahlia given to me by Nuala I think – please correct me if I’m wrong- and the carefully placed label has totally disappeared 🙁 I’d love to know what the name of that lovely dahlias is!)
Anyway, I digress. the instructions from Monty were very clear – get those Dahlias out of the ground once the first frost has arrived! And make sure you label them!
Well I’m feeling so virtuous – I lifted the plants, shook off as much soil as I could, brought them up to the shed (It had started to rain again by this time) Taking one plant at a time I carefully trimmed off the foliage leaving a decent stump (as seen on TV) on each and then labelled. the labelling was interesting – will I remember next year what I meant by “Yellow”, “Tall Yellow”, “Crimson”, “Lemon” etc.? What I want is to be able to mix the colours better than this year as this year it was totally pot-luck (except for the named one) and I ended up with all yellows in one bed and a couple of reds not being properly visible so hopefully next year will be more balanced.
I was also encouraged by Dick’s post about lifting the dahlias and replacing them with Wallflowers … I may well follow his example if my wallflower seedlings bulk up a bit more.
Finished off the job by shredding the foliage from the dahlias and adding it to this year’s compost heap.
And why am I a REAL gardener? Well photo No. 1 is the answer – dahlias actually lifted in time and properly labelled!!!! Can’t wait for next weeks Gardeners World to see what I do next! LOL
This bed was planted with dephiums, monkshood, lillies, loosestrife and gladioli. It was colourful until the bindweed and the loosestrife took over.
I decided to sort it out during the fine autumn spell. It took a long time.
I’m sure there will be a few unwelcome visitors in the spring but I’m ready for them this time.No more Mr. Nice Guy!!
So in addition to what’s still there I’ve planted:
Delphiniums: Guinevera, Blue Bird and Galahad.
and for contrast:
Pink Didalcea ‘Brilliant’
Scabiosa ‘Chile Pink’
The plants came from a 50% off sale at Altamont Garden Sales. Great value.
I saw this plant in Bay Garden last year and was well impressed.
Needless to say I came away with a pot of it. When I went to plant it, I was able to divide it in two. They have come on great and about to put on a great show.
