Month: August 2014

Really like the leaves on this plant which has bulked up well and is just about ready for division.

Just back from doing a bit of shopping in SuperValu. Good-sized Hydrangeas in 3 litre pots for only €9.99. I have a vague recollection of seeing other ones during the week but didn’t take much notice as I had no intentions of buying one.

Ours is only a small branch of SuperValu, so maybe they only got in a very limited amount. So it could be worthwhile checking out some of the bigger stores.

I was delighted with myself in the end yesterday when I got all my indoor plants looked after.

In the last few years I decided, as I was running out of space in the house that I would start hanging the odd plant from the ceiling.

Yesterday evening while on the computer, the living daylights were scared out of me. I felt a ‘whoosh’ behind me and then an unmerciful clatter.

Looked behind and realised that a Rhipsalis hanging from the ceiling had come crashing down, and narrowly missed falling on my shoulders by about 12 inches. I guess I didn’t let it drain enough before hanging it back up, and it obviously hadn’t been screwed into a beam. It would have been a sore thing as the plant is in a 3 litre pot. The pot split open, but luckily the plant stayed intact.

Repotted it today and found a little old corner table thrown into a corner in the garage which I will use for now. 

I have just uploaded photos for my August album. This is a fantastic idea as I can look back from January through to August and see the transformation of the garden and how everything has flourished in that time.

(*just a short note, if you havent got Fibre broadband and its in your area, I would strongly recommend that you look into it…it took me all of 10 minutes to upload over 100 photos whereas before it could take anything up to AN HOUR OR MORE!!…)

The garden has changed so much over the past few months and Im so pleased with it. It is everything I have always wanted and Im delighted with the way the plants have progressed over those months. There are a few mistakes here and there, tall plants in front of shorter ones, some clashes here and there, a few bare patches here and there too….but overall I like the way it works and I do think that it works….well for me anyway 🙂

The weather has been atrocious these past few days, the rain yesterday was awful. So as you can see from the photos they werent taken over the past few days!

Today was exceptionally windy, coming from an Easterly direction which means that most of the garden is in shelter but a couple of Gladoli and Dahlia needed rescuing earlier…….hopefully the wind will abate soon before those large Norwegian Maple try to come into the house!!!!!

Its a lovely evening now, with the sun shining, typical……

Hope you all enjoy the photos!

Gidday,trying to get pics of the birds in motion is beyond me I do,nt think me or the camera are quick enough;)

Fran had to go into my pictures on Garden.ie to find this and yes it is a beauty……I did spoil it I kept it in the glass house most of the time ….

Been saying I’m going to do housework since breakfast time and here I am still not got the duster out 🙂

But I love this salvia and had to put the photo up!

I love Sweetpeas and they have done really well this year…I put up an album of my favourites ..( that is all of them 🙂 )

Fran and myself went to Farmleigh today and I picked up this beauty it is a Deep Purple Iris called      Iris Ensata Veriegata…deep purple …………great stalls……….

I know I already have one, well two, but I need another Cotinus Grace.  It’s the only shrub will do for a particular spot.  However I’ve been on the look out all summer and havn’t seen them for sale anywhere.  Has anyone seen them at any Garden Centre?  By the way the shrub pictured in front of Grace here is a small inconspicuous shrub that flowers now and the flowers have the most delicious scent.  I’ve had it years but don’t know it’s name.  Anyone know?

Yesterday was a great day to be in the garden. There was no rain, the sun was shining and very little wind. I finished the third rose bed, first the edging and then some hoeing and raking. The three rose beds look good now, except that the number of blooms on the rose bushes is not so good. Perhaps the fact that I type this in the rain which drove me in as I was walking through the lawn it is here. That should help, although so many would say: What, rain again? The Hydrangeas were put out this morning to harden. The rain will help. They do very well in the rain. I was at the Country Market on Friday and while people admired some hydrangeas I displayed, nobody considered buying. Food is what they wanted. You may ask: how about the tomatoes? Well I had them ripe early on, now ripening is slow but there are there in the greenhouse and outside. The front garden looks good now with the lawn looking almost top class and the rose beds in good order. I also brought out the hedge trimmer and trimmed a Kerria hedge facing the road and a number of Hypericums along the drive until the battery was run down. I might have done more only that getting the computer to open and it took up a lot of my time, but it is working again, thank God. I mentioned the roses. There is one which is a later variery than many others. The fragrance of it is super.

You may remember me moving the second of my tree ferns up the garden from the back as it was being swamped by the rhubarb. It was in a pot in the ground so was fine too move. I had it in the main bed but the next day didn’t like it so move to one of the top raised beds and cut off all the old fronds bar one new one as the rhubarb had held it back but it is now doiing great and frond after frond is coming up

I bought this bulb a few years ago now, and have been watching and waiting. I had actually forgotten what it was until a few weeks ago when I posted a photo of the foliage here. But it’s here now, and beginning to flower. My impatience is making me post a premature photo, before all florets are fully open. Isn’t it pretty!!

In, I think, its third season with me this David Austin rose “Jude the Obscure’ has really come into it’s own. Look at that for just one cluster of blooms!

But the best part of it is the perfume! I had a very keen gardener from Yorkshire visiting the garden during this week acompanied by his wife. He was so interested and knowledgeable that we could have talked all day!! But his wife turned to me at one stage and, with a certain edge to her tone, said “but he doesn’t like roses” and I felt that she was waiting for me to sympathise with her having married such a queer man!!. One has to be diplomatic on such occassions!!

I simply lead them both to Jude the Obscure and said “have a sniff”! That ended the debate!  It has a rather uncommon scent for a rose – sort of a citrus mix- delightful!

This has done really well this year.

This morning I was in town and decided to visit our local auction house for a view of the items that are up for auction on Monday next. To my surprise I came upon Scrubber’s double and his three companions. Painted a terrible red/orange colour by someone, but a three hundred estimate makes them expensive, so they will not be moving to Gracedieu.

Since joining this forum I’ve met & read about some fab people and their gardening projects, it’s really great that this forum is so active and positive!

Today I visited Gracedeiu Lass & her hubby who where so generous with their time, advise & information not to mention the wonderful cuttings, it’s heartening to meet such warm people with such a zest and love for nature.

Im sure my efforts will reap better rewards next year, I’ve learned so much already  from so many people, after only beginning in April 2014 !