Month: October 2014
Isn’t it great having exotics flowering still well into October. Here she comes again.
What a beautiful day it turned out to be and I was glad to be spending it with friends in a beautiful garden.
The autumn colour in the National Garden Exhibition Centre is just breathtaking at the moment. Get on down there, if you have the chance to do so.
Here’s today’s line up – Periwinkle, Myrtle, me and Jackie. Some of us basking in the sun and some in the shade.
The photos are here for whoever cares to look…
Yesterday myself and hubby put the bubblewrap up on the roof of the greenhouse.
Only the door remains to be done but I don’t want to do it yet because then I will only be able to open half the double doors and I feel the greenhouse still needs plenty of ventilation these days.
Another great plant still putting on agreat display of late colour in the sunshine the other day.
Have a good day anyone going to Kilquade today, should be a good one 😉
Yesterday I attended the IGPS plant fair in Dartry and met up with Liga, Kristina, Violeta and Ali.
It was a great plant sale with lots of good bargains but, although it was due to start at 11:30, it actually started about 10am so those of us who thought they were being smart and arrived at 11am still missed out!
It was a beautiful day and everyone was in good form and there was tea and cake available too (isn’t that right, Violeta?).
Afterwards we went on a little walk around the gardens (TCD Botanic Gardens) and couldn’t believe our luck when a gardener with a key turned up and let us in to the glasshouses!
There was a bit of plant swapping too, besides the obvious purchases. I’m sure no one is interested in what I bought though!
Thanks for the encouraging welcome back comments. Its been another weekend of tidying and trying to wrestle back some degree of control over things in the garden that I had left go. I have enough of these projects to keep me going all winter. The problem I usually run into is that the ground gets too wet a the soil becomes sticky so its hard to get anything done.
Early Sunday morning is my time for my gardening tv fix. No one else out of bed yet I can watch my recordings of Gardeners World and Beechgrove Garden. I especialy like the gentle scottish humour in Beechgrove. Always great ideas in both shows for gardening innocents like me.
I’m heading to Powerscourt on Tuesday and I’m wondering if any of you would like to join me for a few hours taking in these fabulous views and gardens.
I know its a bit short notice, but if you are free you might like to come along. You can let me know 🙂
This was a free gift from Bakker coming with the items I bought recently.
To day, here in Carlow, it was cold in the morning, with fog. It appeared to be like that until the middle of the day. Then out came the sun. One could see it making its way out about 11 a.m. The afternoon was warm here. I did some hoeing in a rose bed. Then looking at an Echinops where I had planned to get some seed, I noticed this ladybird on one of the flowers, surely enjoying the sun. After some effort, I got a photo of this little friendly beetle. These ladybirds have been part and parcel of the fauna in my garden for some time this year.
Jackie I potted up your Acanthus today, no mistakes this time LOL I promise.
This one flower this year, so you should be sure of flowers next year. One piece of advice, be sure of where you are planting it, if you do move it and leave any piece of root it will grow back over and over again. It is a very deep rooted plant.
These are Nerines I got at bloom which would be white if they opened. Put in the pot to start off as I had no idea where I wanted them. They started of great and then the last few weeks the foliage jsut died off and no flower. The bulbs are still hard so they are ok but what must I do to get them to flower. I had Nerines the last two years aswell and they eventually rotted off.
I moved three barrowfuls of soil from the greenhouse border today to make room for the plants in pots I’m sinking into it.
That soil went very well on the top of the new Lasagne Bed and will hurry decomposition along.
I fulminated about how I am going to fit everything into the greenhouse. Maybe I need to stop buying tender plants!
Couldn’t get motivated in the garden today even when the rain stopped. So I lit a nice big fire and THOUGHT about fuchsias. Finishing off a painting that I abandoned when the Summer arrived. Another couple of sessions should see its completion.
This would be sung to the air of Yes we have no Bananas. For the last four years or so, I tended to have a rash, around the waist perhaps around August, September I had been along to the doctor about it but .while the cause seemed ambiguous, it tended to go about now but came back again, about the same time. This year, it seemed to be worse than normal and I tended to have less energy than normal. I looked up the internernet about allergies and would you believe the word Tomatoes came up. I stopped eating these things and when I went to my doctor for the annual check up, what do you think he said among food allergies: Tomatoes. The health has come on a lot since and certain types of work that I was afraid to do, well no trouble now.
Some of you may remember, perhaps two years ago that I wanted to ripen the green tomatoes. I entered the local shop, looking for some ripe bananas. This type of fruit emits the gas ethylene and the ethylene, when absorbed by the green tomatoes causes them to ripen. The lady in the shop asked me was I looking for something. I replied Bananas. She replied that they had none. I started humming “Yes, we have no Bananas.” Now it is a case that I have bought more bananas than normal but the Tomatoes are not part of my diet.
I looked it up about the song composed long before I was born by an American, when there was a shortage of Bananas but is still to be sung:Yes, we have no Bananas.
The song was the subject of a column by Sigmund Spaeth, who suggested that the melody could have been derived from a combination of parts of other songs including the Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah by Handel, “My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean”, “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls”, “Aunt Dinah’s Quilting party” and Cole Porter’s “An Old-Fashioned Garden”.
Substituting the original lyrics from those to the appropriate melodic phrases you get:
Hallelujah, Bananas! Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me
I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls—the kind that you seldom see
I was seeing Nellie home, to an old-fashioned garden: but,
Hallelujah, Bananas! Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me! [5]
I called down to see Jurgita this morning, I had some plants for her new project. I was really amazed to see the pond full to over flowing.
Jurgita and Killian are on a mission with this project, they know just what they want and are going about just perfectly. Many more ideas are planned and no doubt they will all come to pass in time.
Well done to you both and best of luck with the next stages, I will be watching with great interest.
Somehow this just doesn’t look right ? Have I to look at this all winter in the hope that Cana Cana will survive !! Jackie will sympathise I bet . Think I May end up digging it up and moving it indoors once it dies back some ? No jokes now about stockings etc etc
Called into a local small garden center this morning as I wanted some new rose bushes for planting. Having tried a few centers lately without success I was pleasantly surprised to find some healthy roses sourced from Harkness Dublin. The owner was delighted with this company and sang their praises as it was his first time recently ordering from them. Ended up with three of this variety. Hope it’s drier tomorrow. We ended up talking for thirty minutes about this that and the other !! Well done SOS Kilkenny
I started digging plants into the greenhouse border today.
Ground frost is forecast for Friday night.
I’ve ordered clips to hold the bubblewrap on the greenhouse roof in place but they won’t come for a few days. In spring I only removed the bubblewrap on the ceiling so that is all that needs replacing now. A few extra clips for the walls won’t go astray though as it’s a bit saggy in places!
Peter the reply facility on my PM has stopped working…..many thanks for your message.
No more decisions about keeping the garden going. Last night/morning a violent thunderstorm solved the problem and torrential rain flattened most of it. Guess many of you had that storm. Meg doggie sat on my bed (and me) and barked for the duration of the storm so I could do with new ears this morning. Without doubt I can now put away the hose. I would be interested to hear from those with dogs, did they bark or just hide away somewhere or both??
Love the soft colour of this Kaffir Lily. It makes a nice change from all the reds, oranges and yellows of the Summer. Just starting to open now.
Steve skived off work for a couple of hours today with a work colleague. Was I a happy camper to see them armed with a chain saw. I only decided on Saturday that the Eucalyptus was to go, and now it’s gone, gone, gone – what’s left in the ground will be hacked away with the axe, and SBK Brushwood Killer applied as far down as possible.
Lots of firewood to get us over the winter months. I brought it all into the garage to dry out in readiness.
And my Norway Spruce now has lots more light and less competition for moisture now that it’s gone.
I started collecting up the garden ornaments for winter storage.
And look what I discovered!
This dahlia has grown up inside this ornament and is flowering inside the middle section, as if in a cage.
What a hoot!
The creation of a new Lasagne Bed continued today (see my journals of 12th & 29th September and this album – Lasagne Bed Steps).
We laid some more cardboard and some more compost.
This compost is the most decomposed stuff, from the bottom of the bays. It has gone on top of the rougher stuff.
Two of our four compost bays are now empty.
This little acer was looking stunning in yesterday evenings Autumn light.
