Month: February 2014

And these too 🙂 

These little guys keep me company in the garden and watch over everything. I love a bit of fun in the garden it brightens the place up. Must put up an album later of all my friends. 🙂 

Gidday all,

                 that,s the Hellebores done they should do well now that they have more open ground around them,the Iris were really into there space.

Abit of a bonus there were 2 young-uns in amongst the mature plants so it was a case of wet the babies head.lol.

Abit of light rain at the moment 20*C.

I don’t have many daffodils or narcissi in the garden, too little in fact and will be planning on fixing this for next year, but most of them have started opening now, and I love their sunny colour. The ones that give a great show every year are in the first picture. Originally a small pot of Tête-à-tête bought for the kitchen, which I replanted outside, a good few years ago. They are brilliant.

My “little” Sophie is gone to Germany for the week, first trip abroad on her own (well with school) apart from when she was in France with my family. I’m grateful for mobile phones, which keep us in contact for some basic news. I wonder how our parents did when we were that age and went on such trips!!!

On Friday when I was down at the bottom of the garden with Fran and noticed this beauty so today I potted it up so I can have it out the front garden as there are 2 more doing so well and yes I can see it every time I come in or out . 

The spring pot display in the greenhouse is beginning to prove its worth.

Ornithogallum fimbriatum ‘Oreanda’ is in full flower. This is a bulb that was originally collected by the Latvian breeder Ruksans and, by chance, I was just reading about it in one of his books when I realised I’d bought that very bulb last autumn! It’s a keeper.

The Primula ‘Rosanna White’ is earning her keep this season too.

Monty and no doubt Nigel are back on the telly on Friday March 7th.  Something to look forward to 🙂

I adore this little auricula-type primula, which Joan gave me at the Dublin Alpine Show last year.

Just look how gorgeous it is and it isn’t even in flower yet!

This little beauty is covered in powdery farina, which makes the foliage really attractive. I have to be careful not to spill water on the leaves and wash it off when I water.

So, a great big thank you from me, Joan. I remember you and that great day at the show whenever I see this little fellow and it always brings a smile to my face.

This is a Camellia that was given to me by Mairin. We (Liga and myself) dug it up from Mairin’s garden and it was transported back to my garden where I have had it in a big barrel for the last oh, 4 maybe 5 years?  I’m surprised at how well it has done being restricted after having the freedom of Mairin’s garden soil.

And I didn’t expect this one to open up before my ‘Berenice Perfection’. So it goes! 

Two more hellebores opened up here in the garden and unfortunately no names. The first one is a hellebore i got off JoanG last year at Johnstwon which also flowered last year but much more buds this time round and the other i think might have been from JoanG aswell as i think i got a seedling or two off here aswell last year but that didn’t flower then but has now and i am very happy with it. They really are great little plants to have. Last photo is just some of my hellebores with a primrose down by the back of the garden next to the bamboo. I hope to introduced more primroses, this years snow drops and a few daffs in there too so as to have a nice mix over the years.

A few weeks ago I thought the this Tree Fern was done for.

The first shot is of a leaf about to start unfurling on the smaller of the two plants.

Second shot is my finger pointing to the smae thing on the main plant that can’t be seen yet, but is there.

Really happy about this 😉

Woke this morning to howling winds and rain……a big difference to the lovely day we had yesterday.

After doing some errands and back home, the weather improved and about 12pm I ventured out to the garden.  Took out all my tools and buckets and compost and got started…..I was only out when I had to go in, as the rain came down…I was only in about 5 mins when the sun came out and out I went again!!! Then the rain came and I had to scurry to the greenhouse for cover…..and out the sun came and out I went again…..

This went on for more than an hour…in, out, in, out, in, out…….I was all short of shaking it all about 😉

I got some plants moved around and some taken out of the way so that Jimmy can finish the wall by the end of the week, weather permitting!

Planted up some Lilies Conca D’or and some more seeds, this while I was in the greenhouse waiting for the rain to stop.

So by 2.30pm Id had enough of this hokey pokey and decided to come in and stay put. Each time I had to run with the tools etc to keep them dry and then out again, so I was exhausted by the time I had finished.

And what happened as soon as I came in, yes you guessed it the sun came out and it didnt rain again all evening!!!! Typical lol

For those of you who remember my previous journal about knitting, here is the progress I’ve made.

I’m knitting jackets/socks for the trunks of some of my trees for this summer’s Open Day.

The two knits on the top right were knitted by my boys in school – more garter than sock but they will have to have a special position.

It is nice to have something to do in the evening that you don’t have to think about!

Just like topiary, yarn bombing brings an element of fun to the garden!

Bets are now been taken on whether or not this planter on top of this post will stay in place?

I managed an hour in the garden this morning before the rain came, focusing on pruning.

I have a lot of sambucus, largely because I’ve been propagating them, and it is the time of year to prune them.

While I was out I noticed Rhododendron ‘Christmas Cheer’ in flower. But I also noticed that this old bench will not see another season.

The bench has been bad for a while and I kept it only for appearance (painting it each year) and the fact that it shaded my erythroniums nicely.

Last Open Day I had to put up a sign, warning people not to sit on it otherwise they would end up in the border! Anyway, time to bite the bullet!

The miniature tulips have been in flower now for the past week. But yesterday was the first day that they fully opened due to the sunshine. And what a sight they were. 

What a fantastic morning we had yesterday here in Dublin. The sun was splitting the trees. It was wall to wall blue skies and not a gust of wind  in sight. 

After walking the three dogs I decided to head out to the garden and take full advantage of this Spring like day as I knew there was a change in the air. 

Got out there about 11am  This is going to be a real sun trap. We are hoping to put a pergola down here when the weather gets a bit better!!! 

After a lot of moving things around I eventually planted up some plants that have been waiting in the wings for ages to find a home. In there I have the Pampas, Escallonia,  Syringa, Euphorbia,  Cordyline, Pittospermum, White Buddelia, tree Lupin  and some more bits and pieces that I have yet to finalise. Not sure if these will actually stay here as our wall further down is not finished yet as Jimmy has other commitments this week, but time will tell.  It could all change once that’s done!!!

By 2.30pm that blue sky and the yellow ball went on its holidays again and the rain started again. So I had to clean up everything and head back inside. I had a welcome cuppa then and a much needed sit down!! It’s howling outside now this morning so don’t know if I will get out there again today. 

Its great to feel that the weather will improve and we can have many many more days like yesterday 🙂 

Gidday all,

               trust the weather allows you to get out & about in your gardens at least those who are well enough to do so.

Another Iris bed done,I,ve removed them all to make room for the upcoming purchases that will be made on future shopping trips to the city&they,re about to become fortnightly instead of monthly,wonder where the shopping bug came from lol

A few more photos added to the last album.

I reckon you could grow babies in that red soil it holds the heat & moisture alot better than the grey soil in the rest of the garden beds.

Hope you all have a good day.

                                             regards roofy.

Two nice Pieris in my garden. One is the common one ‘Flame of the Forest’, the other one that I got in Johnstown G.C. a few years ago ‘Valley Valentine’,

Ill bet people don’t want to hear about Scrubber working in the wind and wet today ,gathering up the millions of branches and twigs left by the storm. Tiring and tedious but the place is a lot cleaner. No, you’d much rather hear about him swanning around in a very fine garden in Co Kildare lastFriday. Where he gets time to garden I don’t know and he feels very guilty that he has not been commenting on other people’s journals at present.Have no fear he will soon be doing so.

Last Friday Anna and I decided to visit Burtown House in Kildare-near Ballitore and not far from Athy.I think it was advertised in the garden magazine for Feb and when Scrubber was up in Angela Jupes  the present owner of Burtown House, Lesley Fennell was pointed out to him. Her mother is the wonderful  flower -illustrator Wendy Walsh and she herself is an accomplished artist. She is also a very nice lady and I said we would visit her garden soon.

Its very easy to find and we parked and walked up the curving drive. There were fine sweeps of snowdrops under the old trees and I hoped that  there would be more!  I need not have worried. I went into the very nice café and met James, an extremely cheerful welcoming young man whose lovely wife Joanna  is the cook and a jewellerydesigner  and maker! . I purchased our tickets (6 euro each)

And went out into the garden beside the house and then we both realized we had hit heaven! It’s a very intimate space , almost a sunken garden and there was a massive carpet of aconites under what I think is a white cherry. Swathes of snowdrops all around and winding paths that allowed you get up close and personal with the aconites, hellebores-some startlingly beautiful dark ones, tiny irises, a little blue flower beginning with’h’ that I cant remember ( a bit like an anemone). Just then Lesley herself came over and  gave us a warm welcome (That seems an intrinsic part of the Fennell family). She was very willing to explain what was what and where something was doing well and why such a plant was attractive to her-good gardening chat-when we were hailed across the garden and to my delight and Anna’s puzzlement I was off embracing one lady and warmly hugging a gentleman! Who was it but dear Clare and Fran , like ourselves out on a skite! One delicious moment when Fran asked courteously ‘And is this a friend of yours, Peter?’ To which I wickedly replied. ‘Ah no Fran , this is the owner, Mrs Lesley Fennell!’ As if Scrubber was well used to being guided around the gardens of the great by no less! We chatted for a while and then they were on their way. It was such a lovely surprise. Anna was a little confused not having met Clare before and then thinking that perhaps she should have recognized her but we sorted out the relationships and then, after switching off a boiling kettle Mrs Fennell returned and escorted us down to the wood.

Fran has well described it, it’s a magical place surrounded all about by a stream and you cross a little bridge and again swathes of beautiful snowdrops of many varieties, I’m afraid despite my attendance at two snowdrops events that week, I was of no help at all in identifying particular ones. I think I saw Straffan and Skyward and Hill Poe… The delightful thing was that Mrs. Fennel was able to tell me what would be coming on and how it looked in summer and I could see the area carpeted not alone with snowdrops but bluebells and trilliums and primula! The storm had knocked a number of the trees in the wood but I know they will be replaced by gifted planting that will be true to the spirit of the place.

Mrs. Fennell then had to go to her work but took us up through Wendy’s garden and showed us the best way back to the house which involved a series of smaller gardens. One of them is designed by James and is quite formal Ligustrum underplanted with lavender and a square of lawn. Its very simplicity is a foil to the other gardens which have an air of naturalness and almost (if you were easily taken in) artlessness about them. On through another with two lovely figures placed upon obelisks and out into the main garden in front of the house. We have to go back to see this in april and again in may/june and again in… that’s the effect the house and garden has on one.

In then to the café and we had a delicious cooked lunch. Everything was straight from the vegetable garden , which is very large and which I should have viewed but was so carried away by everything else that I forgot. Joanna does the cooking and there are no pre-packed sachets opened in that kitchen. The cakes are to die for and Scrubber went for an old favourite Biscuit cake- real chocolate makes all the difference!

We got some irises and cyclamen coum plants to remember our visit. One can become a friend which entitles one and three other people to visit as often as one likes so I am going to take up that offer in the April/May and use it! I only later realized that James was the James Fennell who did all those Vanishing Ireland books with Turtle Bunbury-I think there are four out and he has done many more, some on the Great  houses of England and the Great Houses of Ireland. These were for sale in the café. He is then, I realized a very successful photographer indeed but would be , Id say, the last person to bring it up! Perhaps another trait of the Fennells. Mrs Lesley Fennell is a consummate and talented gardener and yet the first to acknowledge that she is ‘not at all well up on snowdrop species’ this  despite the fact that she grows them magnificently.

Some gardens one comes away from perhaps a little despondent at their perfection. Not Burtown House. It shows what a gifted dedicated and obviously tremendously industrious gardener can do! There’s no doubt that Mrs. Fennell is a hands on, full time gardener but its also obvious that she garden in harmony with the spirit of the place. Scrubber is so looking forward to going back in other seasons-Mid April to late September open every Thursday through Sunday and of course Ill be back again next year for the snowdrops -early to late February and maybe some more biscuit cake!

Last year I removed a quarter of a paving slab out of this small paved area and planted it up.

Really pleased with the look of it just now.

Amazing how a tiny little bit of planting can alter an area.