Month: February 2013
If I remember correctly Jacinta did say that Aldi will have Magnolia’s in store from tomorrow. I cant wait! I just love them. I did have a beautiful Magnolia Stellata…in the old house 🙁 but it had to stay…well I did syphon a LOT of plants out of the garden so I had to leave some as that was one of the conditions of the sale lol….
I have not looked at the site for several years and my garden has changed in that time it is still fairly wild especially the back area where the frogs have been spawning both in and out of the pond this is the first year I have found clumps of spawn on the grass and I found more away from the pond this morning amongst the daffodills.
My raised beds have been a great success , one just with small shrubs and the other two I plant vegetables in as well as a few flowers. last year I put several small cheap clematis in along the back and hopefully some of them will flower this year.
My greenhouse which I bought from peppermint farm is already filling up I planted some seeds of perenial sweet peas and also some seed I took myself from a perenial lupin in my back border. and plenty have come through for potting on. the first pot of Dill seed is through also some wild flowers which will be planted out as plug plants near where my bee rest is
Feb 26th 2013
i got this in woodies was also looking for the white ones i have a lovely place for them, all will be revealed soon. i loved these asters last year so picked up these. also got these strawberry plants in aldi. after this i will need stay away from the shops i am lethal
yesturday i was out of steam and didnt do an awful lot. i moved some stone from this bed have loads more to do so friday hopefully i will get that sorted. shopping tomorrow want to pick up some plug plants in aldi so want to get in early. when i was at this area i thought that some burgandy leaved hebes or even heartbreaker hebe would be lovely in this area, will have to see what the budget is like after shopping, they are in woodies and i think it is three for 15 eiuro and that would be perfect…… we will see.
i popped in to woodies on monday and got this lovely primula for 4 euro, it can be divided and made into three or four plants, i dont know the name off hand but i did get two simular ones in lorna mcmahons last summer will check the label, they have just peeped through lately and the hibiscus for under three, i move a hibiscus from the slabbed area on saturday and potted it up and left it in the tunnel it was in a bad place and never flowered so hopefully a more sheltered area will help it and the bleeding heart.
it would be great to get this area fairly sorted so that i can go seed sowing. once i have stripped it of stone and mypex i will dig it over and put down compsot from my own compost heap and also along by the front wall this will give the plants a boost as they havent had a feed since i did this in stone about 4 years ago worst mistake ever.
I’d have said the wind was much too cold, but the sunshine tempted the first bumble out yesterday, reeling about gorging on the heather in the pond garden (she was, not me). Today we have yet more sad-looking pots of daffs, muscari and tulips rescued from Tescos in Kilrush to plant out, and as usual I’m worrying about leaving all my babies for a week as we’re going off to a wedding and round of visits in England. Will I take all the covers off? Leave them in trays of water? On or off the windowsills? I’m sure they’ll all survive – they have done so far!
Good news the new Irish Garden is out – something to take my mind off the unnaturalness of getting into a flying tin can and taking off. Call me a wuss, but my feet are happier in the mud!
We delighted to host an evening with Brian Cross tomorrow evening. Brian is a fantastic speaker and his talk, a live demonstration, is entitled ‘Winter Beauties in the Garden’ the venue is the Southcourt Hotel, Raheen at 8pm and all are welcome. The group have a great season of speakers ahead. Can’t wait for the March meeting when a certain Rachel Darlington comes to speak…….
This is not an appropriate question to ask on The Irish Garden magazine site but please forgive me but I was woundering if the Garden Heaven magazine is publised anymore as I have heared that an Irish plant is to be featured in an up-coming issue. The last time I saw it was when it was issued as part of one of the daily papers. The plant in question is a cornus which is growing at Kilmacurragh and was raised from seed by Seamus O’Brien. Mary
…..my garden!
Yesterday I spotted these tiger lillies coming up in a pot. I think Conrad sent me the seed –
was it last year? I am so pleased to see signs of life! Thanks so much, Conrad! I wonder how long I will have to wait for flowers?
Horses have been in the news a lot lately and they have been featuring in our garden as well.
I looked out the window this morning at 7 a.m. and saw a large white horse grazing on the lawn. It was -5, a bit misty and just dawning so the scene looked a bit eery. There was also a donkey and another horse waiting in the wings.
I phoned our neighbour and hope he can fix where they are getting in. Oh dear, they could do a lot of damage.
For those of you who asked, this photo shows roughly what I am aiming for with my cloud pruning.
My area is deeper than one side of this though.
And I don’t have the water 🙂
I’m a big fan of blue flowers and this is a real electric blue. They are tiny just yet but already looking good.
Oh! I just hope I get a flower this year as I have had this years …and some one said ” I had it planted to deep , we will see if it flowers …hope it will.
This is planted in the raised bed in work. It’s a great groundcover plant, without taking over, and takes NO maintenance. A few weeks ago I took some cuttings of it, they got planted last weekend. Looking forward to seeing my baby bulking up as well as this one.
What a difference a day makes……nope Im not going to burst into song! although ;)……………………
It was very overcast here in Dublin today and a bit on the chilly side too. Wasnt sure if I would get out to the garden as I was minding my gorgeous 5 month old granddaughter Mae today for a while. But as luck would have it my daughter collected her before 1pm and then I was able to go out to the garden .
I wasnt planning on doing anything really, I thought I would take it easy!…..Anyway I have an Acer Palmatum ‘Crimson Queen’ that has been in a large pot as we took it from our old house when we moved. It was in the front garden waiting to find a home. So as I had made a border on the North facing wall I thought thats where I would put it……….
I also put in a Bergenia ‘Rothblum’…..and some Foxglove that I had sown from seed in the last house also…Some Vibernum and Skimmia too…..and a couple of Primroses that I had left over. So its looking more like a flower bed. It will take a while to fill up all the beds but Im sure looking forward to that.
Now Im inside and Im whacked. I did have a great time. 🙂
Can’t believe it is almost a year since I last wrote in the journal. Although I have ben following Garden IE on Facebook.
Last year as we all know it was the most awful summer. The garden got away from us as the year progressed. It was just impossible to keep it in order. My husband found grass cutting a trial.
Despite this I had some plants which did well. I actually managed to have a good crop of tomatoes despite lack of sun.
I was out gardening this afternoon as it was sunny and there was a little warmth. It feels good to start tidying beds and seeing all the spring bulbs coming up.
Well this year we are going to have a brilliant summer! Gardeners are always optomistic.
I have ordered my seeds from the Irish Garden Plant Society so hoping for a good gardening year.
Some of you may remember the project I started last year to create a ‘cloud pruned’ area in my garden.
Last year I covered the intended area with mypex to kill off the grass. I worked on bulking up smaller box plants that I had, through feeding.
So, now it’s time to put it all together.
I removed the mypex, re-cut the border edge and laid out my many box plants to see how I will arrange them. I also pruned the lower branches off the trees in that area for appearance sake.
I only got to plant 14 of the box plants today but should finish off tomorrow. By next year I reckon the area should begin to look really well.
The photo is from yesterday as the light had gone by the time I finished work today.
As usual my discipline regarding the amount of varieties of toms i grow each year has gone out the window, again!!! i recevied a batch of 10 varieties from a friend in Poland, 3 of which id grown before, but i just had to try the other 7!!! so thats 32 varieties this year!! and thats definetly it for this year!!!!!!!!
The March issue should have landed in the letterbox of all subscribers at this stage, and, of course, for those who prefer to purchase in the shop, it is on the shelves with a nice fresh spring bulbs cover!
The issue has been very well received … a great feature on small spring bulbs, Beginners’ Guide to Vegetable growing and an update on the full range of path weedkillers available.
and lots more!
We hope you enjoy it and please tell your friends if you do.
That old softie of mine has been coming home from his travels with pots and pots of half-strangled bulbs from various supermarkets. He says they look so pathetic he can’t resist them, like dogs in a home he wants to rehouse them all. You’d think they’d be appalled at being put out into the icy wilds of Clare but no, they’re all delighted with a bit of fresh soil to stretch their little roots in. Yesterday he excelled himself and arrived with 2 new pots for the wall shrubs as well, so we had to rush out at dusk and plant them up straight away – we were amazed at how much root growth they’ve made over winter.
We’ve done a lot in the garden lately so decided to go out for a couple of days. Sunday we went to Lettergesh Beach Connemara – sun was so bright that my photos didn’t come out that well. Yesterday we went to Carraroe in Co Galway, to see the Coral Beach – have been meaning to do this for ages. Weather has been fantastic here, it seems, for weeks!!!!
Delighted to have acquired some Vitamin D today. Went out into the polytunnel and planted some seeds. Probably over eager…. dont go shopping when your hungry they say. Well the sun was out, and so were the seed packets. Have em wrapped up nicely. Cant wait to get out there and start the rest of them.
Lettuce, cabbage, peppers, calendula, valerian, bergamot, lemmon grass, licorice, cauliflower, Wild tobacco, sweet marjoram, nasturtums, poppies and cherry/tomotoes.
Was a bit miffed when i realised there were only 6 seeds of the cherry tomatoes. I hope they come up!
I had a great couple of hours in the garden this evening. Lovely to see the ground drying up! Even the Lower Garden is getting there! And I am just longing to get at it as no work has been done on that area for a very long time.
I did divide a couple of clumps of Phlox today and some pieces were planted in the Outer Circle.
When down there I noticed how well my rhubarb had come on so I pulled 3 stalks and hope to enjoy Rhubarb Crumble tomorrow!
With just an hour free yesterday, I tidied up the shady corner at the end of the garden where there are hellebores, pulmonarias and some bulbs flowering now as the winter jasmine on the wall is finishing.
I’m hoping to get out for longer later in the week but this little bit kept me content for the time being. Have added some photos to my Jan-Feb 2013 album. Happy gardening everyone.
This is in my kitchen at the moment, but once it has finished flowering I will plant it somewhere in the garden for next year. It’s called Narcissi Jetfire, is quite small but I like the shape of the flowers. Got it in Powerscourt garden centre last week-end…
Blue skies and sun( We won’t mention the cold) and doesn’t it make everywhere look great. The first photo is of the latest hellebore to flower and the other two are general shots.
