Month: June 2013
Did anyone else buy the badminton set for sale in Aldi.
It comes with net and all but does take up a bit of space.
We had great fun playing yesterday!
Bought this in The Bay Garden two years ago. Not impressed with the flowers on it last year.
Well impressed this year.
I love this sulphur clover too.
Apart from the flowers been orange,
the marking on the new leaves is great.
Who could be without them?
I have a ‘thing’ for Dianthus. This one is looking lovely this evening.
After Elizabeth and Hazel sharing their painting projects over that last few days, I decided to share mine. My son, John went to an auction and purchased the table for me while I was on holiday and Paddy has stripped the wooden top and base and has painted it for me. The bench was washed up on the riverbank many years ago and John brought it home. So, for a few euro I have a lovely patio set which is totally unique. I am still looking for a church pew for the other side of the table. I am delighted with the results.
Who could live without them?
The Schizanthus are flowering the last few days and the first of my Petunias too, all purple so far, but hopefully I’ll get some variety.
You see Rachel, I do listen-sometimes. I went out and took a photo of the full round so you could see the circle. I know you know what I meantbut others might not. Im sorry about the second one. It was a shotof the path disappearing into the wooded bit. I put in a big flag step at the bottok and two stones inset into the lawn above it and they have worked well giving the steps a bit more oomph. The last photo is that of the ‘Terraces’-someone gave me their name two tears ago when i had just made them and now they are matched on the other side (not in picture ,by ‘The Ledges’. Its funny the way things unintentionally manage to combine-perhaps there’s a master plan that Cherub alone knows about-bit like life were one to go all philosophical!
Got a tiny little Solanum crispum ‘Glasnevin’ in a 9cm pot in Dealz last year (€1.49). Forgot about it totally over the winter and was surprised when I saw new growth on it in March. I decided ‘what the Hell’, we’ll pot it on and see what happens.
This is it today!
I’ll be devoting a bit more attention to it from now on. Had one years ago and lost it.
Today Paddy and myself visited the garden of Ian and Frances McDonald in Wexford. The garden was as ever full of colour as one toured the many different gardens. The primulas stole the show with the numerous colour variations.
The nursery has a great array of plants to purchase which are propagated from their own plants.
I will put up an album to give you a glimps of what to expect should you visit in the next few weeks. If you are holidaying in Wexford during the summer make sure not to miss it. It is only open of Friday and Sunday from 2-5
Ok, my Mad Pink Poppies are sprouting all over the place. This evening after work, this area was ablaze with clashing colour, with my new orange rose in the background. I kinda like this. đŸ™‚
Next year I will have to be a bit more selective in where I let the poppies grow. But for now, it’s gooooood!!
I would have expected Hypericum hidcote to be well open a week ago, still not open but when the flowers open, they should be good. Roses on the other hand ar really good. Deadheading is in progress every day.
Last Tuesday I was having my early morning cuppa in the garden when I heard a rustle in the flower bed. Thinking it was a bird I paid no attention at first. And then s/he appeared. A small mouse munching on the bird seed. Now I’m not scared of mice but suddenly my thoughts went to my cherished strawberries and this monster devouring them!
What if s/he came into the house? So for some time I thought about the kindest way to kill it. Trap or maybe poison …just in case there were brothers and sisters? But then poison might harm my dogs. A trap seemed the kindest and best option.
So off to work where the mouse was soon forgotton. That evening out it appeared again, even cheekier than before. Next morning I watched for it as had forgotten to buy the mousetrap. And so it went on till Friday by which time I realised I had become quite fond of it and would leave it in peace to join me and share the crumbs I was feeding it.
This morning I sat quietly watching her, amused by her antics and happy to have her in the garden when suddenly out of the blue a big ugly magpie swooped down and grabbed my little friend by the back of the neck and flew away with it into the trees.
So there I was having gone from executioner to sympatheriser in less than a week!
Will miss this little guy/gal.
During the week,weather results that i heard from different areas were,1 from mid July a scorcher, 2 next month some very warm weather,3 talk of a drought on the way.Mind you,the weather spell for the last few days was humid,but the force od Mother Nature in the form of Blight [Phytophthora infestans] waited in the wings and another visitor was Grey Mould [Botrytis ] on some of the Tomatoes.Let them call but defence forces will hold to their last hope,yet again.
The water holding areas from 100 to 1000 litre containers are filled up well now and have been on call,especially for indoor crops.Water supply from the roofs of the greenhouse hot house,sheds etc,all paid their stay.From the front and rear of the house here [tiles] that water is only used for flowers etc in that area and throught the garden.
Down in the veg patch more liquid feeds have been made from Comfrey [Symphytum] and Nettles [Urtica].Grass and weeds have also been used at times for similar.No leafy veg will have those feeds splashed on the leaves while watering.Wells are used there.
Hanging baskets at the front of the house call for food.We are hungry as well they almost mutter to me as i pass by them.Dont worry my friends as you give off the splender of summer with golden flowers,im on the way with food.Time to get the watering can and liquid feeds.Just as i look out the window i see drops of rain fall.Just my luck,just my luck i say.
No plans until later in the week.
I got this last Friday in Donegal at Perywinkles open day as she had a some plants for sale and am so pleased to see it open I bought 3 so heres hoping all 3 will open.
Love it .
During the upscuttle of plants taken out to accomodate the ‘cave’, the area beside my compost bin has become a dumping ground for plants waiting to be re-homed, and my plastic wheelbarrow, and odds and ends. Next weekend I’ll be off so I plan on doing something about it.
While out with Gretta on Wednesday, I bought myself a nice new rose ‘Wildfire’ which is orange. Now there are already two roses growing in this area, one a deep red for which I have no name, and my other one rescued from Steve’s job a few years ago ‘Tequila Sunrise’. So the new rose will be planted beside this, and hopefully they will be happy together and easy on the eye!
Don’t know the name of this Campanula that a friend kindly gave me a couple of years ago. I gave a piece of it to Jacinta when she visited our gdn once. It’s a lovely lilac compact plant. Another friend gave me this Clematis and I put up a Journal last year as to its name. I’ve looked at all the double blue clematis and have come to the conclusion it’s ‘Blue Light’. It’s spread like mad and flowers seem happiest in semi-shade. It’s going through a Ceanothus on a stone wall.
This Osteopernum is putting on a great show this year, really fantastic.
But the Dianthus ‘sooty’ beside it looks great. The photo does no really do the combination justice at all.
Have a great day, whatever your doing ;-))
Yesterday we went to visit this beautiful garden it is so peacful and it is open again today from 10 am to 4pm.
40, Templeroan Avenue ,
Rathfarnham ,
Dublin 16.
€5 includes tea/coffee.
Plant sale / Raffle.
I painted my picnic table and the platform, in the background, with the Forget me not and it just seemed to lift that area of the garden.
I should have said ‘our’ picnic table LOL
After slow start in the morning due to the rain, the evening was very nice.. weeding and cutting back some plants…. gosh i need so much to learn about gardening and planting.. all my flower beds looks over planted.. my little seedling and cutting donated by friends turned to be beautiful big plants. they need more space then i could imagine… well move them split them in the autumn.
but what i am realy happy today is my water pond and the first water lily opened…
summer time.
happy gardening to you all.
The thing about my garden is that it is definitely a work in progress. I tend to get a bit carried away with a new project every now and again but sometimes I have to do stuff in stages …. Now the thing about stages is that there can be quite a while between stages, but as long as I keep the ideal clear in my head, they eventually get done.
I put in some raised beds for my strawberries a few years ago. They were made from scaffolding boards and I gave them a coat of creosote to preserve them which looked Ok the first year but since then they have gradually deteriorated so that they looked pretty drab.
I also had feature beds made from the same material on my Wind Plaza (the location of the late lamented Wind Turbine) and they didn’t even get the creosote!
Last year I bought a tin of that outdoor paint that all the trendy garden designers are so fond of, and it sat, with a brand new paintbrush on top, in the corner of the kitchen until this Friday.
So as I said, the stages sometimes have long gaps between them … but both areas have had their finishing touches at last!
I was hoping to put the finishing touches to the Rose Garden too but unfortunately ran out of bark ….. Stage Two will be when I get more bark next week !!!!
Oh, and I did a bit of a Dash and have put up an album!
I do love Lupins and love their structure. How they are so vertical and have amazing flower heads
BUT………………….I get so annoyed with their messy foliage. Some stand so erect and graceful and then others just lie flat out on the ground as if they couldn’t be bothered
Why Does this happen, anyone know?
