Month: January 2014

Thanks to ClaireE for the idea of logging views of our gardens through the months of 2014.  By a whisker it’s still January and when rain stopped this afternoon I took a dash around the back garden with the camera and have put up an album.  The light is low and dull in my west-facing back garden at this time of year, so hopefully the photos will get better as the year advances.  It will be interesting to see how the garden changes through the months and to see other members’ gardens progressing also.

Didn’t manage to get to the (even smaller) front garden … a job for another day.

The first few of my dark Iris reticulata opened today despite the terrible day.

Really do like these little Irises.

Rain,winds and Jack Frost call upon this little man regular, but still he looks on at the entry.Today has been quite wet and just after one on a lunch break i gazed out the window and the sun has appeared out.

Not for long though.Buckets of sunshine the gardeners need,not buckets of rain.

The water tubs are over flowing and the bottom garden is like a swamp.Some flower pots etc decided to take a swim today.

The heave rain has decided to call back,say no more.Mother Nature is winning.

What an awful start to the year, we have tomatoes and peppers growing on the heated bench. This year we have decided to down size some more of our flower beds as the poor old gardener(john) cant keep up with it any more.the last few years we have been muddling along.We had a very good crop of peppers last year (var.Romano) We are just coming  to the end of last years tomatoes which we froze and have been turning into soup.we will endevour to keep our journal up to date again 

The second amount of name tags are in for a swim,to help them get a good cleaning.A large percentage of the tags have been building up over the last few years.

The first amount of them are spread on a large tray in the tunnel to help them dry out fast.

Like other years,i would often think all were collected off the ground through the growing season after plantings,but still at the walks around the veg garden i will always fine a lost one or indeed four or five.No matter how careful i think i have been with them.

After spotting the trays from Aldi in last Saturdays daily paper,i called upon them to have them ready for the morning in the greenhouse.Prepare them there,and back with them to the heat of the kitchen window.

Might start some tomato and aubergine seeds.As the trays were my main purchase,i wanted to get them into use as fast as possible.Up on 20 sowing areas in each one.

I went out today to take a few photos and it was so cold also so took a few and went inside again ……don’t know about anyone else but I have not been as cold since the big snow of 2010.

Oh it was getting dark when I took these photos………..

Well I have decided to copy Claire’s journal and put up a photo album of each month in this year and see how my garden evolves.

As you can see from the photos the garden is a bit of a mess. The guy finally came yesterday and pruned next doors tree, well actually he hacked it, dreadful job, not the guys we got originally….anyway once the weather improves, Jimmy can get out and finish building that wall. Then I can start to put some order into that side of the garden. It does look awful when I see the pictures on here now, but Im determined to get it looking good sooner rather than later.

Ive lots and lots of plants in pots waiting to be planted and I have lots of perennials just starting to push up through the soil in places. But Im bursting to go out and get my hands dirty. February hopefully will be a better month, although in fairness this has been the worst week and very little in the way of frost. It can only get better.

Fingers crossed its not that far away and we will all be able to get out and get gardening 🙂

I’ve been meaning to post a journal about these work gloves for ages, that I was given by a friend.

The are serious work protection gear. The main point, is they are classed as ‘needle’ proof. What I found with them was that when cutting back brambles on the enbankment I can easily hold the bramble tightly as I cut etc and not hamd done.

They could well be worth the investment (don’t know cost, sorry), very tough so would be long last in garden use. Sadly only come in two sizes 9 & 10 (L & Ex. L).

For people who have wildish boundaries, I can recommend then highly.

Prenco Katz Glove En388

This time I will be prepared! Is there anything worse than having to repot cuttings slips and assorted bits n bobs when the wind comes calling? Tonight and sat are stormy so tie down what you can folks. The south and coast will be worst effected I understand 

Tuesday, 4th February, at the SMA Hall in Wilton, Cork, 8pm

“Snowdrops, Harbingers of Spring”

If you are in the Cork area on Tuesday evening next and have an interest in snowdrops you might like to come to this talk. I will do my best to inform and entertain you and if that fails, there is a pub nearby. lol

Paddy

Since I’ve joined this site the amount of things I’ve learned is invaluable. lots and lots of great information I’ve soaked up. Learned names of plants and even recognising so many more now. 

One thing I have learned is how flowers and plants come back every year, well most of them. 

This is true of the Primrose. These little plants I bought over the years while living in my old house. I used them for instant colour and had them in the planters everywhere. Spent a lot on 4/6 packs each year and then just discarded them when I wanted to plant out new stuff 

Last year I learned that these come back!!!! What???? After all those years of throwing them out I could have saved myself a fortune. So I decided to keep a few and see if I was successful. And yes I have a few that are earning their keep at long last. 

A true learning curve!! So thanks everyone for all the advice you have give me And sharing your gains and losses too. 

Some days are  good and some days are blessed and today was the latter! Scrubber woke up and his cold was nearly gone and the day was dry! He was soon out in the garden and yesterday he  and  Anna had paid a visit to Pat Comerford’s  Flower Power garden centre in kilkenny to collect twenty Cornus siberica (red willows) and while doing so three heathers and lots of primroses and two herbs mysteriously  smuggled themselves aboard. The cornus were a present so I had  money for the heathers! Pat says I’m to call it Flower Power  as he uses that name for business and modestly thinks people wont know him otherwise! I think his stock is excellent, varied and reasonable! No I don’t get commission and my heart is still in Glanbia!

Well today my first job was down to see if Noah’s fludd had receded enough to put in my Cornus. I put in the three heathers on the heather bank-(I now have a ‘heather bank!’) and had a great time putting the cornus alongside a good length of the squelchy path –in the boggy bit. They were about two/three feet high and had a terrific root system. I had to cut some away!-and these beauties were only one euro each! Had they been potted up they’d have been about six or seven. So that made a lovely curving line of plum red stalks.

Up and put in Anna’s primroses in two big containers and they look very cheerful indeed. And they also were a euro each. (Just in case you are near Kilkenny!). I cleaned that area and also the top of a bed that had been strangled with leaves.

Then I went to dump the leaves and  got a nudge from cherub. ‘Hmmm, if I just cut away a bit more of the bank at the carraig more Id 1) expose more stone 2) have a more circular ‘rock pool’ and 3) could build up a bit of a bank near the steps where I needed clay. So  got a good bit of that done. Then up and raked marian’s bed. I had done a lot of rock shifting there last year and today I could see the results and was pleased. I transplanted a few small snowdrops clumps-that way I get to see them this year! (I found the French for them was ‘perce neige’ ‘Pierce the snow’ or ‘pierce snow’ Rachel or Claire can correct me. Lovely name though.And raked a few more heaps off the paths-stillmountains of them to be shifted!

I don’t think I was ever so impatient waiting for the snowdrops! Had to take myself in hand today and say ‘Scrubber its JANUARY .have patience.’ There are lots out but so much more to come.

Oh and I had my first daffodil out last Tuesday so that must be a sign! Weather for next few days aint great but am so thankful  got a lot done today.

The garden always looks way neater when the grass is cut. It’s been a long time now. Hopefully after our next wet spell is over I can get this done for the first tme this year. The garden isn’t looking too bad at this stage in winter. Over the last couple of weeks I have got a lot of things in the borders pretty much in order.

I was gifted this snowdrop in the green last year, from memory there was two flowering bulbs and a few smaller ones.

This year will be five blooms and about four non flowing ones, just shows the speed this little bulbs increase.

I normally don’t like posting flowers before they are fully open, but I’m back in work on Saturday for seven days so I don’t know what condition it will be in by then.

I have also added a photo from the web of the fully open bloom.

Thank you ;-))

I normally take these into the greenhouse over the winter months as it’s not reputed to be too hardy. However, that never happened this year. I have three different types in this pot and the pot is too heavy to bring in. It has been flowering continuously since at least April and plenty more flowers on the way. 

It was a much better day today, very grey but dry and mild.

My aim was to finish the front garden. I finished the main border and then attacked the Fern border. I really love this border, it gets one major tidy / makeover every year at this time,

All of the ferfs are cut back, last of leaves and any weeds are remove. Then a bag of bark mulch is spread over the area, and the job is done. A little weeding, cutting back of spring bulbs in time and I won’t have any else to do with this area for another year.

I also added a few plants, Euphorbia ‘Amy Robbie’ from Doreen, a different Bergenia from Elizabeth7 and from MartinB, you guessed it a Fern, to you all I send my thanks ;-))

Things are starting to appear; it’s always worth having a look these days to see if anything new has flowered.

I’m sure there has been journals on this already but when i heard of this bargain the other day i had to go have a look this morning. I picked up 2 Hellebores both being Double Ellens called ‘White Spotted’ and ‘Pink’. At €3.99 each you just can’t go wrong and seeing that people have previously had success with these i am quite happy with the purchases.

Since I started to get into gardening 14 years ago, I have developed a love of scented plants and as I said lately in another journal they are particularly invaluable at this time of year. At the minute in the garden, I have the following scented plants in bloom, Chimonanthus praecox var ‘luteus’, Hamamelis ‘jelena’, Hamamelis ‘pallida’, Viburnum tinus ‘eve price’, Viburnum bodnantense ‘dawn’, Sarcococca confusa, Sarcococca humilis and Mahonia x media ‘charity’. If there are other winter flowering scented gems out there that I don’t have, I would love to know of them. I am on the lookout for a corylopsis. I know We are told ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ and I’m sure the same should apply to photos but in the case of the full shot of my Chimonanthus it hasn’t turned out to be true. I showed a close up of its flowers the other day and am showing them here again as it is now in full bloom and is fabulous, so You’ll just have to take my word for it.

It started out miserable this morning, but after my little trip to Lidl things brightened up no end. Got myself 5 new Hellebores, and 2 for Jackie. Well, that’s fair, isn’t it????

All were Double Ellens. My ones are ‘Pink’, ‘Purple’, ‘White spotted’, ‘Picotee’ and ‘Red’. So after getting a few household chores done I headed out to see where I could plant these. Forgot about that as soon as I got out and ended up cutting back some Hellebore leaves, chopping up the Christmas tree down at the back and chucking it ‘over the wall’, and cutting back more stuff and a general tidy up.

As it had been so miserable over the last week I hadn’t realized that my Helleborus Orientalis had begun to open up. I mentioned the other day that sometimes I place a small mirror slightly tilted on the soil so I can see the flowers that may be facing downwards. Picture enclosed so you can see the effect.

I need to have a quick shower and get to the cards [25] which begin at 7.30 tonight.Maybe if a little luck could come my way i might win the pot.I could take on Mother Nature in a game but not a hope there for me.

Unless i had a trick or two made from a heatwave.I started some Turnip seed just after first light this morning in the greenhouse.Beetroot similar,with just 2 seeds to each pot.Both can be quite fussy if the roots are interupted.Can be done,but to much of a chance.The Beets are Boltardy with the Turnips called Purple Top Milan.Time to get cleaned up.

So after I got my Hellebores in Lidl, I crossed the road over to Aldi…..here were some more goodies 🙂

I picked up the Electric Propagator for €24.99 and also a windowsill propagator also a couple of packet of seeds and some seed and cutting compost. I dont generally go to Aldi but when I saw these I couldnt resist. Cant wait now to start sowing some seeds and see how they get on in the propagators!