Month: January 2014

For the last few nights the large tubs in the tunnel have been wrapped up for night time,with bubble wrap in the greenhouse.Just in case of the worst.

More 64 and 108 trays have been washed and prepared for this year.The hanging basket tubs need similar.Some of the tender seeds such as Auber,Tom etc have been giving a place of rest in the house.

All seed Potatoes are under protection at night for safety.Cool,but dry today.Having a cup of tea as i walked down to the tunnel for a quick check,just after 5 this evening,its quite noticable the stretch in the evenings especially.So much for light.

Well with all the excitement of Hellebores in Lidl I thought I would burst if I didnt get there this morning!

And thanks to Jacinta, she did look after me as she was there first in the queue….you are a star!!

I evenutally managed to get to Lidl and no need to panic at all. They had loads left, so even though I knew that Jacinta had got me some I couldnt resist….so I picked up a few more.. the Picotee is fabulous and they are all Double Ellen too….so what a find and only €3.99 each. I even got one with a flower on it…wonderful. Now I just need the time to plant them out when I dont have the grandchildren and the weather improves somewhat!

……. I couldnt be left out!

I have 3 different ones all given to me by Garden.ie friends! None in full bloom but I was interested to see the 3 different kinds of foliage.

Clare, the Bergenia you gave me a couple of years ago is in full bloom for ages now. It seems to love the area I planted in. I think it looks great with Euphorbia ‘humpty dumpty’ behind it. Thanks again.

Normally ladybirds hibernate in groups but yesterday I noticed these guys quite alone and totally exposed. Presumably they have no predators.

Gidday all,hope the bit of colour brightens up your day&

you must be due a better deal from mother nature

                                                                           regards roofy.

Gidday all, the name of the shrub still eludes me sorry about that.

The Gladiolus seem to be enjoying the heat,coming from bulbs must help combatting the dry conditions (I think).

                                         regards roofy.

After seeing Jackie’s journal the other day about the primulas they had in Tesco i decided i would call over this evening after work to see what they had. Most were gone with only one type left called Primula Belarina ‘Buttermilk’. And at €2.99 i said I’d pick up the one. When i was picking it up i did not pay any attention to detail on the plant only that it was a cream double flowering primula. It was when i got home when i was looking at the flowers I noticed that the flowers themselves were edged with tiny green leaves which i am absolutely thrilled with. It’s so different to the any of the other Primroses/Primulas i have. Very happy with this purchase.

Will it just ever stop raining so that I can get out and do something in the garden…..I am really starting to feel grumpy now!

The rain is just relentless. It never stopped today and it was heavy at times and then drizzly. During the ‘drizzly’ time, Jimmy and myself went to the recycling centre with the hedgeing that we took down on Monday and got rid of all of that. Soaked but worth it for €16!

Then it was home and ‘what do I do’?? I cant get near the garden with the rain, my plastic green house is full at the minute so no room in there for me. So in the end I did a bit of painting of the new unit that Jimmy has made for our new dining/kitchen……not nearly as exciting as out in the fresh air!

The weather forecast isnt too good now til at least Sunday….Im hoping it will ease up soon I NEED to get out more lol

Just a few pictures of the Summer months………let them come quickly 😉

Another Johnstown buy,This one is called Paphiopedilum American complex hybrid.I think this one is my favourite,i just love the coppery tones

Got out for a while today and done some weeding ,cutting back and cleared bark mulch from the drive

I also repotted three  new orchids into clay pots

Snowdrops are just starting to open in my garden, these (Galanthus Nivalis) are the first together with the Galanthus Elwesii I bought a couple of weeks ago. The ones I got from JoanG at the Johnstown get together are not far behind.

I was looking at these pictures taken yesterday thinking, don’t they look like perfect white drops, and what a perfect name for these little beauties!

I adore these little antique clay pots.

Originally they come from a pottery here in Enniscorthy but I had to chase them up north to finally get my hands on them.

As they are all handmade, no two are identical. There are differences in colour and shape. Some are lopsided and some have the potter’s thumbprint still visible on the side. But they are all a lilttle slice of history and just beautiful! It brings a smile to my face whenever I work with them.

I thought I would take longer getting through the 50 pots that I bought but I only have a few left. I really should have bought more!

What a dark, grey, wet day it was in Dublin today.

I was hoping to get other things done but the weather had other ideas.

So I decided to tidy up some of the pots and planters. It was a perfect day for this job. A quick dash out grab a pot, or in the case of the bigger one use the hand truck (great investment) into the shed work, away nice and dry then back out to for the next one.

I kept going till the fresh compost ran out. Then just as I finished, it stopped raining so I re-arranged all the pots in the front garden. Finished that and the heavens opened again.

This is a job I normally do bit by bit, but I’m chuffed with getting a major hole knocked in this task.

Weather forecast not great for the rest of the week, but everything done is something else off the list ;-))

Got to do  bit of Taxing later, but after that I think a beer or two has been earned ;-))

This looks the same as the fuschia in your photo, doesn’t it? These photos were taken at the beginning of December, but I still have flowers on it now!

Mary brought me some lupin seeds ,the last time she visited.I misplaced the seeds and could not find them anywhere

Last week i was cleaning the dresser and found them behind a plate

On wednesday i soaked the seeds in a glass of water and left them in the window over the sink!

When i came in yesterday evening ,my daughters boyfriend had thrown the lot down the sink!!! These  were a dwarf variety which would of suited my garden more so than the tall ones i have.

The picture shown are cattleyas i bought in johnstown 🙂

In Horkans last week, they were selling large clumps of Agapantha for 4.99.  Were I thought unusually,  just packed in plastic wrapping.  No specific name but  I bought one and planted it in to a large pot – keeping in greenhouse until late Spring.

I suppose the veg garden wont dig itself this year. Maybe I should look on it as a blank canvas………………

The cold frames are already full. I feel a project comming on involving steel, PVC piping, lettuce wire and some imagination…

It was cold and wet today and I hadn’t planned on any gardening.

But then I spotted something out the patio doors. It was Iris ‘Katharine Hodgkin’, not yet open but bravely emerging from the ground.

As it wasn’t actually raining, I was out in a flash to edge the bed and tidy it up a little. Imagine such poor little beauties having to come up in the middle of scruffiness!

There are lots of snowdrops and white hellebores in the garden now and the other hellebores are beginning to bud up. Oh for a flash of sunshine to get some photos!

The photo shown is from the weekend when we had a Doctor Who themed birthday for my son. There are some plants in the photo and the patio doors give onto the irises (tenuous link, I know). But of course you can’t see them! Who recognises the Doctor Who character?

Today was a reasonable good day, dull but DRY. We got out in the garden early this morning and only had a break for lunch and it felt that we were making some headway with the tidy up.

The snowdrops are really starting to make an impact at last and the hellebores are not far behind.

In the lane I have a shrub of Corylopsis pauciflora which is just about to burst into flower and it is a joy to see at this time of year. I spotted a flower on my Magnolia grandiflora today which is way out of season. 

Sorry to hear that Dublin was getting a wetting today, but the forcast seems to be good up until Friday. So Happy Gardening.

When removing shrubs early last year i dug up a lonesome boxwood,that looked really under the weather.Done in a clearing out job.Looks a little different now,thanks to 2 old hanging baskets to help me form it into a ball.Pictures will be added.In a year or so i hope to have it holding its place in the garden here.Takes a little time,but getting there.

I decided to move the tubs and the raised bed in to a better place in the vegetable garden.The beds were moved around autumn time in the year gone by.Did not suit the usual plan for crop rotating with the vegetables.

Now the grass is grown back to the normal,and looking just like it was never touched.Of course that was planned and not done over and over again,but not anymore.The beds are now in place in the veg garden,to extend the rows.

I often wonder why I don’t keep all my seeds in the one container. I went through about 5 different big boxes that I keep them in, just to see which ones that can be sown from February (well, it’s NEARLY February). Had a pile to do, when I came across another box. I remember Deborah posting a photo in the past of a beautiful seed chest where she keeps all of hers in the one place. Clever Lady!

I sowed an envelope full of Strelitzia (Bird of Paradise). They’re old seed (possibly from Deborah herself), so whether they will germinate or not, only time will tell. But if they do, I will have lots to give away. Also sowed some more sweet pea (two types), Cleome ‘Colour Fountain’, Coleus ‘Rainbow Mix’, and Rudbeckia ‘Moroccan Sun’ making sure to top them with Vermiculite to allow the light at them.

I had been saving the inserts from toilet rolls for the sweet pea, but somehow I have mislaid them. So I ended up sowing them into these root trainers. Nifty little sections that can be opened when ready for planting out, without root disturbance. A bit fiddly as they weren’t closing tightly enough. But they’re positioned on a slant so that the compost won’t seep out the sides. Fingers crossed.

I was delighted to find a basket with Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ in it out in the garage, bought late last year in Dealz for a mere 25c a pack, Polianthes tuberosa, and a bag of Watsonia ‘Mount Concreve Coral’ that Paddy had given me at the I.S.N.A. fair in Palmerston Park in September. All of those were planted into pots. Oh, to be more organized. But at least being off sick I have enough time to start the sowing in earnest.

A few more to do tomorrow.