Month: April 2015

the weather cleared up well this afternoon and I was just doing a quick ‘dead-head’ on the few remaining daffs when I spotted this beauty – just emerging after the rain!

To day was no day for gardening, plenty of rain. Of course the rain was needed and there should be plenty of growth and no need for watering. I had plenty of rhubarb and so I chopped it up and weight out 1 kg adding 1kg of Sureset jam sugar and made the jam. it is delicious.

Liga gave me a small cutting of this plant at the get together in January. I had absolutely no idea what it was!! But I have kept it in the greenhouse since and it is thriving now. It has almost doubled in size.

So thank you Liga for introducing me to this lovely new addition.  

I had a few seeds left of Ricinus and planted them up last September. Three of them took and then one died. Now I have two left. These have been nurtured all through the Winter and are now putting on some growth…….slowly. 

Im hoping they will grow up big and strong and produce some flowers, as my plants last year didn’t, otherwise I will have no seeds :(. I love this plant and their foliage is beautiful.

At last! I’ve been watching these little buds for weeks and they didn’t decide to open until today – so it was a case of put on the raincoat and dash out with the camera!

That lovely red tulip you asked about is Tulip ‘Van tubergen’s Variety’

I was delighted to see an article on the Foxglove Tree  ” Paulownia Tormentosa ” in this months Irish Garden Mag. My experiment with these seeds now in year two is looking promising. The ones I planted out are all showing life and those in pots are well advanced . The ones in Mt Congreve were cut back to base and are all sprouting vigorous new growth. I think I will allow one or two to grow into tree s to see if they flower in a year or three.

orders now been taken ha ha thNks Gerry Daly !! Jacinta is ahead already …..

……..Linda gave me a pink rockery phlox which did extremely well for her. Mine grew and I divided it up around the garden but it never had more than a couple of flowers and the moss grew through it and I decided to get rid of it but kept a little plant and replanted it beside the pebble path in the front square.

So glad now that I kept it and the plant seems so glad to be moved to this spot:) It is now coming in to full bloom and I love it, thanks Linda.

Picked up this little ornament the other day, I have it fixed to one of the wooden posts on the decking. I felt that I had to give him a name as everthing else in garden has a name.

I wonder how long it will take Colin to notice that it is a ‘bottle opener’……………….

Hence the name.

This week has really seen the emergence of the vibrant purple colour of the  honesty in flower .Later on I collect the seed cases and spread them in certain areas for it to grow again,it is a biennial, with each plant living only two years.

Deep roots I found out it has as I had to remove one which was in the way this week.

I can hear that Bill Joel song been played “Honesty” 

 @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuFScoO4tb0

Is anybody going to this on Sunday? Martin and I will have a stall there selling our wares – but I plan to be in the front row for a good share of these fantastic talks (don’t tell Martin though!)

A lovely double ‘Winston Churchill’ with a great scent, it has done poorly this year with only a few blooms.
I think the front garden is a bit too dry so quite a few came up blind, it’s definitely not overcrowded so that’s not the problem.

I got this daff a couple of years ago, though it wasn’t the one that it was supposed to be.
It possibly could be ‘Trepolo’ but mine have more orange, so maybe not- perhaps they’re just variable.
Nice enough anyway.

This is another shot taken by the same photographer from my garden.

The camera has now panned a little towards the S. And now we are looking across at Co Derry and Binevenagh plateau, with the mist rolling beneath it on top of the sea. Binevenagh is an escarpment, with a steep scree slope, and the flat land running along beneath forms  the 7mile uninterrupted beach going from the ferry port at Magilligan, NE to Downhill. This flat land on both sides of the water is “raised beach” and extends South right up the Foyle estuary.

It really is a beautiful place to live.

Speckled Wood I think. It spent quite a while flitting around the garden.

Living the city I don’t see as many LADYBIRDS as I used to when growing up in the Tipperary Countryside.So to see one is a joy.

Now we have to watch out for an invasive one …see below.

Check out interesting facts about the Ladybird @https://www.biology.ie/home.php?m=ladybirds2 
and https://www.biodiversityireland.ie/…/Ladybird-descriptions_I…
Courtesy of BiodiversityIreland There are 15 ladybird species found in Ireland, plus the Harlequin ladybird, an invasive species now widespread .
in south east england and spreading …
See the Irish Times Environonment News @ https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/study-calls-for-photos-of-invasive-harlequin-ladybirds-1.1908462

Una and Jim arrived this morning. We had tea and cake (supplied by Una). We had a good chat about the past year. I gave them as many tomatoes as they would take plus an Epiphyllum each.

This is a very miniature Rhododendron, only about 12 inches at the moment, and not likely to get much taller. Great for a small garden with very limited space, like mine. Planted this wee one out about two years ago and the flower power has at least doubled.

Don’t forget tune into Supergarden 2015 tonight at eight thirty on RTE 1.

I have been very disciplined around buying for the garden this year, mostly because I wanted to take stock of what is already there and made myself busy dividing up and redistributing existing plants.

But there is always room for new treats so today I took myself off to my local garden centre at Beech Hill. I came home with 

Libertia (which has been on my wish list for a long time)

Lithodora ‘Heavenly Blue’ (ditto)

Digitalis Pupurea Dalmatian White

Viola ‘Dawn’ ( very soft lemon shade)

Erysimum Bowles Mauve ( what’s not to love?)

Saxifraga Deepred Rockred

Leucanthemum ‘Banana Cream’ ( new to me)

And to top it off I got a free hebe which is a bit pot bound but just needs to be planted out. Delighted with my new plants and will pot them up later 🙂

Just to add that I thought I got pretty good value. Tha large perennials were three for €15, the Libertia being a little more expensive @€7.99. Beech Hill is part of the Cope Foundation which does amazing work with people with intellectual disabilities, so well worth supporting.

c