Month: May 2015
We bought Andrew a bubble lawnmower the other day and he loves walking up and down the grass with it. A great sight to see. He has a face of pure concentration.
I am getting very find of Alliums. My first year growing these and I result admire them. Does anyone know are the white ones naturally taller than the purple ? What other colours are available
No soil , no water yet thriving through my driveway edges!! What is it
The Tomatoe crop is coming along nicely mainly Shirley`s and money maker but some Gardeners delight also we have some big reds and golden sunrise, and new to us this year chocolate cherry . We don`t seem to have alot of sunshine at the moment the north wind is keeping it cool but the tomatoes don`t seem to be suffering at all there are lots of flowering trusses.
Hazel gave me this kniphofia at the get-together 2014. It didn’t flower last year as it was still quite small, but grew well. I’m delighted to see it flowering this year, thanks Hazel!
I have another kniphofia, which is yellow. It always flowers early, but I could see nothing coming this year so got a little worried. Looking more closely yesterday, I was glad to see there are flowers coming up, just a little later than usual I think. I’m hoping that eventually both will flower in sync 🙂
This little alpine Phlox has really taken a spurt this year. I hope to divide this later on to spread it around. I can fit this little beauty in just about anywhere.
Having failed miserably to get the small greenhouse to stay (a) on the ground (b) intact and (c) full of plants it has now been reincarnated as a Display Stand for my Fuschias but they were getting battered by the wind so I added some windbreak fabric against the worse winds. So far so good – the plants definitely look happier!
And it is tied to the decking rail with strong wires!!!!
In one of my breaks in the gravel-carrying I decided to trim the Box Ball in my Herbaceous border. It had got very big – i think maybe I didn’t trim it last year – and was not very exciting. So being inspired by that Chelsea Gardener competition I decided to try my hand a a simple topiary!
Job done!
D Day or, should I say, T Day. T is for tropicals and it is time to move them out…
Ive put up another photo album for May because when I initially put one up at the beginning of May I didnt realise how much growth and change there would be in the garden.
It was a lovely day today, if cloudy. Didnt get a lot done as I had other things to do, but hopefully tomorrow will be a better day and Im determined to be out there!
Hope you enjoy the photos 🙂
My list is here, I have been doing a lot of moving and dividing of late, hence the long list. I do not want to be bringing any of these plants home. So please don’t be shy, I will add your name in as ask for something. If by chance you are going to Terra Nova and I promised you something, please do remind me.
Happy Hunting 😉
Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen x 3
Honeysuckle (wild) x 2
Pulmonaria Trevi Fountain x 1
Centaurea (white) x 2
Sangisorbia Pink Giant x 1
Clematis Pixie x 1 ——- JoanG
Euphorbia (red stems and leaf edges, no name) x 2
Aster amellus Mira x 3
Alchemilla x 1
Primula Cobalt Blue x 1 ——— Elizabeth 7
Euphorbia (unknown) x 1
Convallaria (lily of the valley) x 1 —— MaryB
Angelica (Gigas seedlings) x 2 ——— Deborah, LindaB
Mentha (mint, invasive) x 2
Aster (unknown colour) x 1
Geranium ‘mourning widow’ x 1 ——- Kathrin
Geranium phaeum (lighter than above) x 1
Welsh Poppy (yellow) x 1
Oxalis oregano x 2
Erigeron (small daisy, invavsive, but flowers and flowers) x 3
Leycesteria (seedlings) x 3
Ajuga x 3
Persicaria affinis x 1
Euphorbia ‘whistle berry garnet’ x 1
Onclea sensibilis x 2 ——- Joann
Carex rekohu Sunrise x 2
Phalaris arundinaca (Ribbon Grass) x 1
Campanula Elizabeth x 4 —–Elizabeth7, PeterW, Kathrin.
Black Bamboo x 1 —— PeterW.
Following Peter’s post here are the plants I will have.
Melanoselinum seedlings x 3
Erigeron karveniensis small plants but will grow and flower this year x 4
Eccremocarpus seedlings orange x 5
Embothrium for Tina
That is all I can think of for now.
Well the birds decided to stay in their own domains today – except for Mr and Mrs Roin who obviously decided I was the cause of their son and heir having to relcate in a hurry – they set up a terrible racket every time I went within 10 feet of the new nest location!
But I digress … The area I call the Rose Garden and the Compost area beside it have had bark chippings on the paths for the past couple of years but it hasn’t really been successful so I decided on a different approach. The bark was on weedblock fabric so it was a simple enough task to lift the bark – it has been down a couple of years so is quite composted so it has just been dumped straight onto the roses as a mulch.
The replacement is going to be the same crushed stone I’ve used on other paths in the garden and the plan was going well – Kevin was doing some other stuf for me the other day and he had agreed to get a trailer-load of the stuff from a local quarry but when we looked at the area to be covered it was clear that one trailer load would not be sufficient so then it transpired that it was cheaper in the long run to get a big load delivered – which we did! It’s really surprising what a VERY big pile 10 tons makes!
So when not providing first aid to baby robins I’ve been resurfacing the area! Fair an easy goes far in a day, as my mother used to say! So I put 10 shovels of gravel in the wheelbarrow each trip so the barrow isn’t too heavy and doesn’t pull my arms out o their sockets – so with probably twice or three-times as many trips as one of you he-man types I am progressing well! The other part of the strategy is to do about 6 runs and then change to something more interesting like weeding or repotting!
And the photo was prompted by Jackies journal on Snow-in-Summer. I have let this clump of Cerastium grow unlimited for about 5 years now and apart from trimming where it encroaches on the paths and letting Puss make her bed in the middle of it, it rewards me with this display every year for weeks on end.
OK a little behind with this journal, but I doubt there is anyone who doesn’t know about it now.
BT, just in case, Saturday 6th June Terra Nova, Dromin, Co. Limerick from 12.00 pm.
I’ll repost list of those attending again during the week.
I will post a list of plants I’m bringing tomorrow evening, I was sorting and watering them today.
As I watered the tomatoes in the grow bags this evening, I noticed the first fruits in two plants. Now I can begin the feeding.
CAN SOMEONE HELPE PLEASE MY SON WAS HELPING HIS FRIEND TO PLANT SHRUBS FOR A NEIGHBOUR HE CAME HPME IN AN AWFUL STATE HE HAD A VERY ANGRY RED RASH ALL OVER HIS HANDS AND ARMS THE DOC GAVE HIM ANTIHISTIMENS BUT WERE USELESS THE NEXT MORNING HE WOKE UP WITH HIS HANDS AND ARMS A BLEEDING WEEPING MASS OF SORES THE HOSPITAL HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT IS IM AT MY WITS END TRYING EVERY CREAM AND SPRAY FROM THE CHEMIST AT FIRST I THOUGJT ITIGHT BE DEADLY NIGHTSHADE BUT I DON’T KNOW MY POOR SON IS GOING NUTS WITH THE SORENESS AND THE INTENSE ITCH he CANT SLEEP WITH IT…CAN ANYONE HELP ME SHED LIGHT ON WHAT SHRUB WOULD CAUSE THIS SEVERE REACTION HE WAS ONLY CARRYING THE POTS FROM THE TRAILER TO THE GARDEN YOUR HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED ……MILLIE
Oddjob came with his trailer and removed the grey plastic and quite a lot of the pebbles for his own gardening project. Then he dug up the five skinny trees and took three of those for himself and gave my next door neighbour the remaining two.
I cut the lawns at the front and whilst doing so decided I really didn’t like the shrub [ I think it was vibernum ] and decided to make a rockery largely using the wonderful old river rocks I had brought with me from my previous home. Oddjob got rid of the evergreen shrub and I dug up the nice white rose, put it in a pot to wait for its new home somewhere in the back garden.
I have been just reading The Irish Garden magazine and came across this snippet on two new television programmes which will be screened soon. BBC Northern Ireland, on June 1st will have a three-part series with Helen Dillon and Diarmuid Gavin at seven thirty, something to look forward too. We all must be ‘Chelseaed-out’ by now.
Paddy’s photo of the Roscoea from yesterday for Jacinta. I bought six different Roscoea last autumn form Plants with Altitude and this is the second one to flower and all the rest have snout above ground.
I bought this one at the Rare and Special Plant Fair last year. It said on the pot to plant as soon as purchased. And of course I couldn’t find the right spot. So in Spring I was despairing. It is a plant that I have wanted for ages, and through neglect I had killed it. There just seemed to be a few little poppies coming up on the soil surface of the pot.
But I was rooting around the top of the pot yesterday and ‘lo and behold, I spotted some new growth. Definitely NOT more poppies, so without hesitation I found a suitable spot for it and gave it a good watering in. Now, let’s hope it’s not a case of too little too late.
Today was a gret day for gardening and I was doing my best o take advantage of it but my feathered and feline friends were determined to keep me busy instead!
I remembered to fill the bird-feeders this morning and was enjoying the many birdsongs in the garden as I worked away up to Lunch time. I came in for lunch and it was so hot i left the door open. Within minutes a swallow had decided to check out my living room for a potential Des.Res. and remembering how last year’s starling kept banging into the windows in an attemt to escape, I ran around closing all the curtains and just leaving the doors open. There are 4 pairs of curtains and my efforts just panicked my visitor who was flying round in circles over my head! Eventually he settled on top of the curtain rail at the door and looked ready to take up residence – but I tried clapping loudly and he got the message and went house-hunting elsewhere.
Not surprisingly I made sure the doors were closed when I went back outside! So all went well until I heard a crash behind the greenhouse. There was a Robin’s nest in one of my flowerpots on the shelf there and Puss had found it and managed to pull it down. I was distraught! The lovely nest had fallen out of the pot and Puss was investigating it by the time I got there. I chased her away and started investigating – I put the nest back in the pot and was despaiting when I noticed that Puss had been paying lots of attention to one of those pot-stand thingys with wheels so I gently lifted it up and there was the little chick – still half-covered in down, a roundy ball of fluff! I gently picked him up and popped him back in his nest but the ungrateful young rip just fluttered out onto the gorund again! Picked him up agian and this time keeping my hand over the top of the pot I looked around for somewhere safer to place the nest. found a sturdy fork in one of the trees and wedged is securely there. Delighted with my success i stepped back – and yes. Junior jumped out again! I put him back once more and this time he seemed content to stay.
Will my attempt at life-saving be successful? I hope so. i did see the parent hopping about with a juicy morsel for the baby so I’m hopeful!
After that I had to spend time explaining to Puss that I understood it was his nature to catch birds, but that I didn’t want him to do that.
Well 4 hours later……I always use Paint shop Pro to size and in general deal with my photos have loads on it. Then it is easy to drag and drop the photos into the file I use to upload. But tonight there was no way the drag/drop would function. So I had never tried posting pics from my ipad before , I take most pics on the ipad , so just wanted to see if I could manage it. Seems to have worked but prefer to do this on my laptop so hope in another 4 hours I may work out what is going wrong.!!
One of the most interesting seedheads in the garden at the moment.
my son christopher my eldest graduated from secondary school yesturday. he came away with 3 awards, outstanding academic achievement, certificate for outstanding prefect and his certificate for graduating , in this picture he had a long part to read in irish, he wants to teach french and irish in secondary school, i am bursting with pride
Still in Corbally and only about a mile from my previous home which was at the end of the Mill Road. As of February 2014 I am living on the Westbury estate with a much smaller house and infinitely smaller garden. The previous owners both had full time jobs and not a lot of time for gardening – their solution was to cover any place that wasn’t lawn with thick grey plastic and several hundredweight of small, and large, pebbles.
So the first gardening job was to remove the pebbles. I had help from “Oddjob” who unearthed the thick grey plastic and shovelled out the stones. I looked with dismay at the dead earth underneath. It was so dead that it was about six months before I saw a worm or an earwig. I belong to a book club and we had a meeting at my home a few days after the shovelling and to my pleasure most of the ladies seemed to want stones for their gardens. So there was a succession of husbands turning up with shovels and containers and the stones all got new homes. { one person’s rubbish etc.etc.}
If I can work out how to upload some photos I will endeavour to show what the garden looked like back then and what it looks like now. All for now….it is tea-time!!
