Month: August 2013
I was at malahide castle gardens yesterday, the first time since the restoration work finished.The gardens looked really good, and great to see the walled garden now open.
Okay, there is a certain logic to this. Birds are living creatures; they fly around in the sky; at some point, they die. So if they die whilst flying around, presumably they fall to the ground. Mind you, considering there are so many birds and my forty odd years, I would have expected to have seen at least one bird fall dead from the sky, similar to a kamikaze pilot prior to impact. Maybe they don’t die whilst flying???
Regardless, upon death and falling to the ground, there are several landing places. For example, in a field, where no-one notices and no-one cares. Or on the road, where people notice but no-one cares; in fact, some people take pleasure from driving over the deceased birds. Or in a garden, or, being very specific about it, in a container, in the front garden, only a few feet from the front door. Clearly, their remains are noticed; clearly the gardener cares, if for no other reason than the fact that several plants in the container have been damaged by the impact.
So the question remains – what to do with a dead pigeon? Immediately digging a grave can be ruled out because the borders are full and to go digging would mean climbing over some lovely plants at the front to reach the back, as a potential burial site, causing damage to the lovely plants as you go.
The remaining options are (i) black bin which goes to land-fill; collected every week? Or (ii) brown bin which goes to make compost; collected every two weeks? If we go with the brown bin option, then the next question is will the odur be too overpowering during those two weeks?
Any ideas anyone?
Sorry I can’t put up any photos – a problem with jpeg images.
Well work in the garden started at 8.30am…1st i did the watering and my plants were very glad of it…nearly sept and still having to take the hose out…goes to show how good a summer we had and its still hanging on by its finger tips….
Next it was hedge cutting time which took a lot longer than i thought cause the old body was struggling with the hedge trimmer….lucky i only had to do the front hedge but in my madness i cut the neighbours too cause it was taking away from my front garden…Jackie next do doesnt be well so doing any work in here garden is out the window…she suffers from epilepesy….
With 1 good deed done it was back to my own garden….i hose the slabed area down at the pond to tidy it up abit then moved many unused pots around the back of the house out of site….then it was dinner time and abit of a welcome rest…grub over and some footie watched it was back out again….
Some pruning and dead heading which were well over due was the next port of call…next some digging in the cleared border to loosing the soil for some plants and bulbs…im still dreading the thoughts of planting so many bulbs….
Of i went to me brother-in-laws for good deed no.2….weeding and tidying in the front garden plus some prunning….while i was there i decided to take some dahlia and sedum cuttings…why waste the opportunity i thought….i also got some Brunnera macrochylla plantlets….with all finnished back i went to the green house and potted up the lot so hope i will have some plants come next year…..
All in all it was a busy day…well to busy cause im feeling the brunt of it….my joints pains have pains….the sicatica down the legs is driving me mad….my back feels someone kicked the living daylights out of it….i really should have took things handyer but as some my friends say that i bull in and suffer later…hard to teach an old dog lol….
Sorry for the long journal and thanks for reading…..
i know i post a lot from the Botanic Gardens, but its such a fantastic resource for gardener and artist alike and their is a fine display from September the 5th until October, if your around that way pop in, Its always free,!!. it was very enjoyable chatting to some of the artists today.
Well, we’ve been blessed with a lovely summer and I suppose it officially comes to an end today but, as Clara posted earlier, there’s still good colour in the garden.
These are showing well here this evening: Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’, my favourite late summer/autumn perennial; one of my mother’s fuchsia’s “babies” in a pot at the front door; and sedum ‘Purple Emperor’, only acquired last year so will get even better in future.
And welcome autumn tomorrow, there’ll be more colour to come. Happy gardening everyone.
No gardening done for a couple of days and no pictures taken, but I have just added to the August Album the last pictures of my garden for this month. I always feel a sense of sadness as Summer goes but after a few days and some nice Autumn weather I usually enter into the season and enjoy the sense of harvest time and the richness of Autumn colour. No point in pinning after summer for long – about as useless as hoping to always be young! (that’s not the same as staying young at heart!)
The great delight of the last couple of weeks in the garden has been the number of butterflies and the variety of butterflies. The white buddlia seems to be particularly attractive to them. I have spent ages just watching them flit about. The weather has been perfect for them. They seem to love those warm calm days.
Miscanthus ‘Ferner Osten’ is coming into its own right now. Hard to get a decent photo today with the gales.
………the morning sun shines through Acer palmatum Beni Otake, my sister bought me this acer a couple of years ago, I am delighted with it.
I’ve only had geranium ‘Midnight Reiter’ since last year, chosen for its nice blue/lilac flowers and purple foliage. It’s a good plant up to flowering time but I’m a little disappointed to find that the flowers last a short time and don’t repeat, even if you cut it back.
I wouldn’t mind this too much if the foliage colour held well but it’s completely covered in mildew. Maybe not surprising this summer but the same happened last year after flowering. Does anyone else grow this plant with better success and, if so, can you offer any advice please? I have watered it.
Otherwise, can anyone suggest a small hardy geranium with blue flowers that would perform better? All suggestions welcome!
We were expecting visitors at one so I got out from about eleven to twelve thirty. But first I had to wash a window-well I offered to as I had ‘hosed’ it by mistake and it was abit grubby. Then window sparkling I turned to cleaning up the side of the house-old flower pots, leaves, general debris etc. Got that done then down to Scrub and set small boulder in deeper-couldnt go very deep as root in way but its ok.
Then gently ,oh so gently pulled out two stones from small retaining wall and turned them on their side and lo! there appeared a perfect step (size and heightwise!). It took me some time to bed it in and put in some supporting rocks but am quite pleased with result.
So not a lot done but clean side area and window and one satisfying step are not to be sneezed at especially as Scrubber didnt do any damage to hisself in doing these tasks. Mundane but necessary.
Didn’t get any decent time in our garden today as Dad’s back garden needed our urgent attention. We popped up to him, and Steve had to do a major make-over on his back gate. Dad, being in his eighties, hasn’t got the inclination to be keeping on top of garden maintenance. So today, while Steve replaced the gate framework, I got to grips with hacking back lots of growth in the little border alongside Dad’s garage. Can’t believe how much this lot has grown since March, when I did my back in. So this time round, I borrowed a hedge trimmer and just let rip!
Gathered 5 bags of growth (brambles and loganberries mainly), and the place is looking way better. Threw out loads of rotten hanging baskets and bird feeders that he doesn’t even know about.
But the best thing is…….the aroma of fresh blackberries and loganberries stewing on the stove. We came home with about 4lbs of fruit. Mmmmmm! Brings me back to my happy childhood.
Thalictrum is looking totally delectable here at the moment. My second one on the go, it’s planted at the Upper Pond. I love its airy and feathery growth habit, never obliterating the view beyond.
Really pleased this year with how this Clematis has ‘bulked up – growing up Crataegus ‘Paul’s Scarlet’. Gets cut down to 1 ft middle of Feb around St Valentine’s Day.
Still lots going on in the garden at the moment.
Busy with other things for the rest of the day, so just had a great few hours pottering.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend folks ;-))
That month went by just so fast , but maybe because it was such great weather .
Now the picking up the leaves start as yesterday the howling wind just came from no were.
Have a good weekend everyone .
Here’s my specimen of Sedum ‘frosty morn’ at the moment. As you can see, the growth is pretty strong. I have this plant at least three/four years and it has been moved from pillar to post, and has had lots of bits taken off so I can share it around. I wouldn’t be without it.
Myrtle gifted me with this white Phlox paniculata? last year. It has bulked up great and is in full flower just now. I love the pure
This plant or Climber has come up in my shake and rake over the last few days and i think it is absolutely stunning aswell, I will be keeping seeds from this. So i am just wondering does anyone have a name?
I love Sedums for late colour and I have a few different ones now Pruple Emperor is still my favourite.
I am clinging on to Summer by constantly deadheading in the “Hot Border” It has been a success to a limited degree, I have three heleniums but the best by far has been Sahins early flowerer , With Gold variety coming second and Waldtraut coming a very poor third. The Rudbeckias have been great and Orange King I would not be without for the great orange colour. Some of the Orange King I overwintered and have been flowering since Last Summer.
Throughout the summer I had thought that this plant was actually Cerastium ‘Snow in Summer’. But I know now that it isn’t, as I have that elsewhere in the garden and WITH A LABEL on it. So what is it, please?
As I pass my window boxes daily my eyes are drawn to their somewhat jaded appearance. I fear it wont be long now before the grim reaper adds their content to the compost bins! A sign of the approaching Autumn perhaps/ Note I didnt say WINTER………….
I have been off for the week, but haven’t been able to get a whole lot done in the garden. I was determined though to get my potted roses into an area that I used to grow my dahlias in. So, I’m happy that job has been done. No taste involved in the planning, I have seen these roses growing in pots over the last couple of years and realize that they would do far better in the ground. So clashing colours will have to do for now. They got a good dollop of farmyard manure added to the soil before planting so they should really take off now.
I have a gorgeous deep red, which my neighbour, who moved to Wexford, gave me years ago, ‘Tequila Sunrise’ which is yellow, tinged with orange, a newish one ‘Wildfire’ which is orange, ‘Iceberg’ and another newish one with variegated foliage called ‘Best Wishes’. Not to everybody’s taste, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder – ME!!!! I have one more to plant tomorrow.
Also, my climbing rose ‘Teasing Georgia’ (yellow) didn’t perform too well this year. It’s also in a pot. So when I eventually clear the pergola area, this will get planted up against the wall, where it will share a spot with another climbing rose ‘Paul’s Scarlet’.
Thats because he has had time to think about his garden. Thats because we were away for a day or two and also because Scrubber while helping someone to do mysterious oil-related things to a motor-bike managed to pull a muscle and for last few days found gardening a bit of a strain, having a strain, as one might say. You try straddling a motor bike at a certain age and assuring the other person that you are quite comfortable doing so! Silly Scrubber.
Hopefully a course of Aunty Inflammatorys will do the job but meantime one can water the garden and think deep thoughts! Today on a market stall I got five ajuga reptans Catlin’s Giant which goes a lovely very deep purple and also three Ajuga Burundy glow. I had to smuggle the latter three in as they are the ones Esmeralda has been cultivating in her basket! I am thinking a dark purple patch deep in the Scrub just catching the light and another of the burgundy family not too far away and using them as groundcover.
I did manage to get in ten Astilbe, job lot, into the squelchy path area, so hoping to have a nice patch or two there next year. Ground elsewhere is as dry as Sr. Eucharia’s jokes. (Dont request a sample!) so have to water to ensure China Girl doesnt go off in a dead faint. But while watering one has the chance to review things and my list for work tomorrow shows some results. 1) Get out the turkscap lily bulbs as their stalks are crowding the rhododendrom Luteum and spoiling the line of three. I’ll put them in somewhere else.2)Sink a small boulder just a bit more. Honestly its only about 15 centimetres long and twelve wide and when sunk a fraction more will match another beside it. 3) There’s a bottom step needing to be made and it only involves digging out some clay and the stones are there but just to be laid on their side and that will make a satsfactory step. As it is its a big leap down especially when one has a slight strained muscle!! 4) Start the long delayed weeding of the long border and put in four rock roses that have been patiently waiting for yonks. 5) Put in the above mentioned Ajuga plants. Oh and there’s a matter of shifting some big sedgy plants in the bog so that the Squelchy path meanders around rather than under the willow trunks!!! but I may leave that until Aunty Inflammatory has done her work.
The rose photo is a poor one because old port nearly got lost under weeds and had to be found and i havent trimmed back the deadwood yet.It now looks a lot better than in the photo. Sorry!
Gardener’s world shortly tonight and then that very good nature programme on the Burrowers.
I took these photos last night at 8.45pm – the top of CP was covered in cloud but there above it hung this magnificent orange sky interspersed with dark cloud – it was changing by the second!!
