Month: October 2013

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. This year is a bumper year for our native trees, and we have collected sacks of acorns, yew berries and hawthorn seeds. All of these will be grown in our nursery before being replanted throughout the estate as part of our initiative to increase native tree cover. We also recently ran an acorn hunt for the local school which proved very popular with students and teachers alike.

There will be a lot of new planting over the next few weeks, part of which will be in the village square. The beds were looking very overgrown and untidy so it was time for a revamp. They will now be planted with a range of rhododendrons that will provide a much needed blast of colour in the late spring. We have used a special lime tolerant range named ‘Inkarho’ which are more suited to the conditions in the square.

All of our bulbs are now planted and should give a great spring show. We add to our bulb collection every year to further enhance the gardens. This year we have planted a lot of crocus including tommasinianus into the mansion lawns. They should naturalise and multiply every year. We have finished our winter bedding and have tried some winter baskets this year. It will be interesting to see how they do.

Our volunteers are doing great work throughout the estate and have recently been helping us with the bulb planting. 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.

Other jobs we will be doing over the next month include: lifting and dividing herbaceous perennials, wind lopping roses, 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

What a wonderful summer. I had just moved my strawberry plot to a different part of the garden , so the fruit was scarce but the plants build up nicely. Blackcurrants and Gooseberries were never better also Rhubarb and Loganberries. Had a great pea harvest and other veg especially potatoes went according to plan. I bought the wrong variety of tomato plants and instead of getting large impressive tomatoes I got hundreds of tasty little cherry types. The good news is, I am still picking them in late October. Apples were ok but all the fruit on the Pear trees and Fig Tree dropped off early on. Hopefully this will lead to good crops next year. I am plagued with slugs and just cannot grow Dahlias or my favourite Lupins in the ground. I have some in pots which is better than nothing. I may try raised beds of some sort next year. 

The project of planting fruit and Veg with the schoolchildren of Passage east N.S. worked out very well. The parents also became involved and now do a lot of the heavier work. We love growing things that most of us don’t try at home such as Khol Rabi, Spinach, Swiss Chard, Beetroot, Artichokes and Courgettes. The children continue to have their own plots at home and are enthusiastic young gardeners.

It wasn’t my best year for roses. I think I neglected them a bit. I’ll make it up to them this coming season. That’s the great thing about gardening, looking forward to the changes, the new chances to try again and the weather lottery. Lots of small wasps around still but nobody I know has been stung.

I’ve been concentrating on house plants the last few days and have been rewarded by some coming into flower.

The Tibouchina, which came from a cutting of Tina’s this year, is in flower so I brought it indoors. As it is just a cutting I tried to hold it back and cut off all the flowers for a long time but it just won’t be held back!

Orchids are, of course, in flower too.

(I have seeds for sale in my last journal, if anyone is interested…

Seed Sale 2013    )

Nice bit of light so I took a few pictures of the last splash befotre the frosts. The shrub rose (Ab Fab) got battered by the rain, but there are a few buds still. Nothing seems to keep little Open Arms down though! 

The Bougainvillea has got its thick blanky on ready for the cold. I have no idea how it’ll fare, but let’s cross fingers and see. 

I’m just wondering am I wasting my time taking all the leaves off the beds or should I just leave them alone. Will they help as insulation over the Winter?  Some of the beds have chipped bark underneath also. 

As you can see the floor of the beds are now orange!!!!!

I have one here that’s about to flower! Can’t believe how early it is considering that most plants have been late! It’s very welcome though.

As it was such a beautiful day yesterday and the garden was looking so untidy I got the lawn mower out to clear away the debris……..looked good when it was done………

You know when Autumn is here as you get some leaves in your garden and the temperatures drop!!!!

but I wasn’t banking on EVERYONES leaves coming into my garden. 

Its just relentless ………..no matter how I try to clear some away the next batch arrives. 

Yesterday I went out to try to clear up some of the mess and got another four black bags full of leaves. The grass was covered in them so I got out the lawnmower and hoovered a lot of them up. The borders are unrecogniseable as the leaves are covering everything. ” it’s an ongoing battle and as we ar surrounded by trees I think I’m losing the fight. 

It was a glorious day yesterday in the garden though and I’m hoping to get out there again today for round two 😉 

Thats what this photo reminded me of when I saw the mix of colours.

I really love when people come to visit. I know that most of you think that I make all my visitors work for their supper but this weekend I had a visit from my brother who is a total non-gardener! We spent the weekend just lazing about and chatting so no progress has been made on the willow hurdles for the moment. 

I went to Dublin with him yesterday afternoon and having got the shoes I went up for I still had an hour to spare before my train so I headed up to Chapters where I got a second-hand copy of a delightful book – “Dear Friend and Gardener” – a collection of letters between Beth Chatto and Christopher Lloyd. Made a good start on it on the train home.

Did one of those “if i can’t garden at least I can photo” walks and was delighted to see how two of my Persicaria in particular have flourished. The “Red Dragon” from Rachel a couple of years ago wasn’t happy with its position so I moved it and it is rewarding me by actually flowering! The second photo is  Persicaria Campanulata I got in Mount Venus last year. It is a bit of a thug so may have to move – but for this time of year it is a mass of flowers which start deep pink in the bud and gradually lighten as they open. It is beside the drive which also has these self-seeded Cerinthe (from this years plants!) flowering away! I’m dying to see how many of them will survive the winter – I even have some that appeared where I had plants last year. They sprang up at the end of the summer and are now also flowering!

The flowers on this plant are a bit strange but I have it planted beside some Ajuga Repans and the contrasting foliages are lovely! 

I have about 5 different acers still giving lovely colour. These are two of my favourites at the moment. Sorry, but I don’t know which ones they are.

Since I decided to take out the honeysuckle over the logia, and cut back the jasmine, I gave it a ‘near enough is good enough’ cut back a few weeks ago. However, the top growth had been left up on the overhead beam.

Today I cut back, and cleared away most of the hostas that have died back at this stage to give Steve a bit of space to use the hedgetrimmer over the logia and oil tank. I’m glad about my decision to get rid of the honeysuckle. For the past few years it hasn’t been doing too well, and doesn’t even open its flowers any more for some reason. Although its vigorous growth has shifted the trellis that Steve made for in front of the oil tank. There is a bit more clearing to do before the Oilman can have access to this area. It’s a pity we both sat on our laurels all weekend until today!

What a mess! 

Today i got myself two new plants for the garden iris pallida ‘variegata’ and Helleborus ‘dark as night’, the 2nd and 3rd photo is what they will look like when in flower but too be honest i wouldn’t care if the Iris flowered or not i really like the foliage of it. I got these in a place called hillside Nurseries today and was my first time visiting the place. There was a huge amount of stock there and bits of everything so i was in my element looking around. With it being so close i will def be making more visits and happy with what i got.

I always wanted a tree lined avenue up to my dwelling, but it was never to be, and I suppose thank god for that as I certainly could not afford to pay the property tax on that dream. however I conted myself with something different and gave myself a colourful entrance instead. It also a lot easier to look after. I feel however looking at the pictures it is incomplete, so next year I will hang a container on the middle of  each gate

I am about to put my surplus seeds up for sale on ebay but thought I would give garden.ie first dibs.

Five packets of seeds, of your choice, cost €6 including postage within Ireland.

Send me a private message if you are interested. But it’s first come first served for certain varieties. I only have limited numbers of seeds in some cases.

The photos shown are from my garden this summer and show three of the plants from which this seed was collected.

When digging up my succulents a few weeks ago I found that the Echeveria came up a lot easier that it should, it just popped out of the ground. 
“Uh oh” thought I. Yup, damned vine weevil grubs had munched through all the roots and one was making its way right up the centre of the stem.

She is no more.

The top of the plant has been potted up in gritty compost and should re root. 

They’re a bit of a problem, Fuchsia, Primula and Heuchera have all been chewed through this year. Luckily all were saved in the nick of time.

By the way, did you know that all vine weevils are female? Able to reproduce without any intervention from the less fair sex. They’re not native either, originally being found in only in one small area of central Europe. Modern horticulture has helped their dispersion, causing problems for gardeners world wide. Horrible little things.

Sorry if all that has put you off your lunch. 😉

I really love when people come to visit. I know that most of you think that I make all my visitors work for their supper but this weekend I had a visit from my brother who is a total non-gardener! We spent the weekend just lazing about and chatting so no progress has been made on the willow hurdles for the moment. 

I went to Dublin with him yesterday afternoon and having got the shoes I went up for I still had an hour to spare before my train so I headed up to Chapters where I got a second-hand copy of a delightful book – “Dear Friend and Gardener” – a collection of letters between Beth Chatto and Christopher Lloyd. Made a good start on it on the train home.

Did one of those “if i can’t garden at least I can photo” walks and was delighted to see how two of my Persicaria in particular have flourished. The “Red Dragon” from Rachel a couple of years ago wasn’t happy with its position so I moved it and it is rewarding me by actually flowering! The second photo is  Persicaria Campanulata I got in Mount Venus last year. It is a bit of a thug so may have to move – but for this time of year it is a mass of flowers which start deep pink in the bud and gradually lighten as they open. It is beside the drive which also has these self-seeded Cerinthe (from this years plants!) flowering away! I’m dying to see how many of them will survive the winter – I even have some that appeared where I had plants last year. They sprang up at the end of the summer and are now also flowering!

The flowers on this plant are a bit strange but I have it planted beside some Ajuga Repans and the contrasting foliages are lovely!