Month: March 2015
Just to brighten spirits during this cold snap, a photo from the garden taken last summer.
Abit different fron what you,re getting,hope it improves for you.
Good evening all,
Hope ye are all well, i sat my wildflower seeds and pkts from books or saved from last year, and this morning i had snow, will these seeds be ok do ye think? i hope so as i have them all sat out, Have a nice evening everyone
I’m going to make a concerted effort to become a much tidier gardener. So to that end I spent yesterday evening putting up shelving in the shed, along with various hooks from which my spades, forks, trowels and other gardening accoutrements will hang, there’ll be no more excuses from now on for absent mindedly leaving them behind.
I’ve a few bits to finish as the growing darkness defeated me but I was pleased with my progress.
It needs painted, but that’s a job that will have to wait for better weather. Colour is, as yet, undecided.
I potted up most of my dahlias today, parking them in the greenhouse – until I ran out of compost!
And I weeded a bed and topped up my Hardy Orchid area with grit. So I did do a bit! I hadn’t really fancied weeding because of the cold but after the potting I found myself tackling a nearby bed that had been annoying me.
I made the decision to cut off most of the leaves on my asarum (pictured). I absolutely refuse to miss the flowers on this diminuitive plant again this year!
Oh, and hubby finished removed the Rosa rugosa from the hedge in the West (Scented) Garden. I now have some sizeable gaps to fill for open day in June!
Now that is what Shelley said in his poem “To the West Wind” Now can anybody explain this to me? Surely when winter comes have we not left the autumn behind and the spring has yet to come. Well, to day RTÉ has told us that the spring has arrived but it was very cold to day, at least where I live. They tell us that every year and are never prepared to listen to us. To day, to morrow and Tuesday, the weather forecast suggests that the winter is on its way again. Wasn’t yesterday, a real spring day, so mild. Yes, we are to put up with a lot of the West wind for the next few days and then it will turn more south. They will tell you that it is the temperature that matters not the length of the days as we learnt at school years ago. So they have it wrong both ways. However, by Thursday, it seems that it will be real spring weather with temperatures of perhaps 15 degrees. We won’t know ourselves. We will be out in our gardens doing All kinds of Everything as we heard from Dana back in 1970. We will have snowdrops and daffodils and perhaps butterflies and bees. I have packets of hardy annual seeds which I was afraid I would not be able to sow direct into the ground. Won’t that be great?
I am in the process of re-discovering my garden. Yes, re-discovering. It is hiding under layers of moss and couchgrass !
Its is hard work, but I am determined to make my garden look respectible this year.
So right now I am in the process of digging up a square yard of border space at the time, digging out my plants, cleaning the roots of them, getting rid of as much grass roots as possible in the ground and replanting everything. The daylily clumps are the hardest to deal with. Thankfully they needed deviding anyway. I am amazed so find so many Iris rhizomes. While they didnt flower mucch last year due to being burried under couchgrass, they most certainly multilplied.
I know the grass will be back, but the weedkiller is on the ready to deal with it !
I just wish things would dry off a little ….
Indoors I started 6 Dahlia tubers into growth with the view to take cuttings. My garden is quite bare still so I am trying to increase the numbers without blowing the family budget. They all started sprouting now, hurray ! I also sowed 2 different types of Cosmos seeds and they are coming up nicely too.
A trip to the local garden center drew me to the half price bench. I picked up some fabulous Asters and Garden Mums with super fresh new growth. But they are from last year so …. half price ! Brought them home, repotted them and the are looking super. Lucky me 🙂
A nice primula flowering here in the front garden. I have no name for it and can’t think where I got it either but a welcome site all the same.
This is one of the hellebores that I managed to plant out today.
This is one of the hellebores that I managed to plant out today.
This time of year can be both exciting and frustrating. Today was both. Sunshine and then really heavy wintry showers in between with big fat hailstones.
I was mad to get out and do some outdoor gardening as I hadn’t managed that for 3 or 4 weeks so I kept running in and out. Hazel, you inspired me, as you keep going despite the weather.
I got a good bit done but it was a bit “higgledy piggeldy” as I didn’t get settled into anything. I planted out some narcissus but seemed to be working blind since the labels have disappeared or been pulled out. I also planted the Japanese Anemones given to me by both Joann (Honorine Jobert) and Hazel (dark pink) at the same time as the bulbs.
I managed to get the greenhouse ready for the seedlings and oh I was thrilled to see the the tomatoes have sprouted – Black Russian, Black Krim and Tigerella – great stuff!!!
Then started tidying one of the borders – the Melianthus major looked terribly bedraggled. It came through last winter all right but then it was a mild one. I had been leaving it as I thought that if I cut it back it would be more susceptible to frost. Anyhow, I couldn’t stand to look at it any longer so it got the chop and a covering of fleece as it is to be frosty tonight as well.
The Abitulon vitifolium that Conrad gave me a few years ago is still holding up and looks well – happy days.
Let’s hope March goes out like a lamb….
This morning was miserable – pretty constant rain so when I got back from Church I wrapped up in all the gear and went out to sort out the mess from my greenhouse disaster yesterday evening. Outside the greenhouse the wind howled, and we had hailstones, sleet and rain! I did a bit of tidy-up in the greenhouse while I was trapped there ….. and then the SUN came out!!!
The greenhouse is now in the kitchen and there it will stay until my new gates go up as I think this will create a fairly sheltered corner for it. I’ll also take on board Fran’s advice about weights to stabilise it.
In the meantime the poor Primulas and Auriculas got repotted and sorted out. They are back on the staging and will just have to do without more protection for the moment. These Auriculas were a gift from Liga a few years ago and they have survived despite the total neglect they have suffered. They have flowered at strange times some years and not at all on others so I decided to try and give them some attention this year ….
I took some more Helebore photos and have added them to the album I put up yesterday
Looking forward to lots more colour now that Spring is finally here!
The irises are beginning to fade.
But weren’t they just great while they lasted!
A lot of photos of flowers that have bloomed in the garden over the last two months. The first of March, Saint Daivid’s Day, start of Spring and what a miserable day.
I think I posted this video a while ago when it was on facebook. Anyway, maybe it’s time for another reminder of what summer looks like…
Bulbs are up and flowering everywhere in our gardens now. Don’t know why, but the one bulb tip I always get a great trill to see are the tips of the Alliums peeking up out of the soil.
Keep them coming 😉
Yesterday I was driven mad trying to remember who gave me this pretty little sedum. I thought I wrote out a label with the name and donor last year when planting it. But something must have eaten it. So if anyone can shed any light on which one it is, I’d be very grateful.
HAPPY MARCH 1ST!!!!
