Month: July 2015

Arrived here as a tiny seedling stowaway in another plant, as it came from Terra Nova I guessed it might worth keeping.

It was.

Clare and myself made a flying visit to Jurgita this evening. I am really enjoying watching this garden mature and fill out since first seeing it when Jurgita started on her dream of a ‘happy place’, a riot of colour at every turn.

Great chat and as always time went to fast.

Thanks Jurgita 😉

Clare and myself made a flying visit to Jurgita this evening. I am really enjoying watching this garden mature and fill out, a riot of colour at every turn.

Great chat and as always time went to fast.

Thanks Jurgita 😉

Yes, the ponds do take up valuable planting space in the garden. But without them I probably would never have had such great close-up sightings of dragonflies etc.

I had a grapevine in the greenhouse for years and it produced a very small amount of grapes. Usually though, snails got to them before I did. The amount of fruit on this vine made me think it isn’t a very heavy cropper. So two years ago I decided to get rid, and start afresh with a new one.

Fed up waiting for any decent amount of fruit, yesterday I decided I’d get rid of it altogether. So hacked it back to make removing it a lot easier. Lo and behold……..a solitary tiny bunch of grapes. So, do I leave it to improve over the next few years, or bite the bullet and get rid?

I grew this from seed and anyone who has grown from seed knows exactly the feeling you get when you sow that little brown speck in some dirt and when you see the flowers for the first time it  feels like fire works going off!

First Dahlia to flower for me .They seem to be very slow this year

Love this one but i dont always get the white markings

First Dahlia to flower for me .They seem to be very slow this year

Love this one but i dont always get the white markings

Really love this little plant and looked so well this evening. I will happily let this seed around.

Got two of these bulbs a few months back and I am absolutely thrilled with it. Such a gorgeous looking flower and a really bright yellow colour. Just love it. Only starting to open now so in a few days there should be a great display of flowers on it.

This little juvenile Robin is definitely making friends with me. He’s following me everywhere around the garden. No sign of Mammy or Daddy Robin. I know a Robin has a life expectancy of only two years approximately. I hope that’s not the reason for their absence.

A reminder that BBC 2 will be broadcasting two programmes from the Tatton Flower Show on Thursday and Friday next at seven o’clock. 

The flower in the photo is Scadoxus multiflorus, three bulbs which I bought at Bloom this year but they have decided to flower at different times, which is a bit disappointing as it would have been nice to have all three flower together.

I’m still trying to recover from the excitement of my Open Day yesterday! I am completely overwhelmed by the whole thing. I was so delighted to have so many .iers from all corners of the country make the trip. It was lovely to have a bit of a catch-up although I didn’t have as much time with them as I would have liked. Then there were all the lovely local people who also came to support this very worthy cause. I think that many of them were quite surprised to find that a garden existed here!

And everyone has been so complimentary about the garden too! Its really interesting to see which plants catch people’s fancy! We had quite a few plants for sale but if we had had three times as much of the lovely sedum “Green Mantle” we would have sold them all!

There were many donations of cakes too – and despite our best efforts to force-feed the visitors I reckon I’ll be living on cake for weeks 🙂

The many people who helped out really added to the occasion as I was too busy talking plants to be much use for the other aspects of the day!

And weren’t we so lucky with the weather! Brendan, Pat and Cliona certainly did their bit 🙂 And would you believe it – when the tables were being collected at 7 pm the first few drops of rain fell ……

The people from Laois Hospice Foundation were absolutely delighted with the response – and they kept saying over and over “people are so generous” – so all you kind and generous people who came – take a bow!

I think that most of all, it was a great pleasure to be able to share my garden with so many people and to have them appreciate it!

I just bought an Irish made ten foot high ladder; to be used when cutting the hedges.

This is my favourite potentilla ,it is a peachy colour .I have no name for it 

I think it looks good with geranium rozanne scrambling through it

What on earth is wrong with you guys …………………..,

I was talking about Begonia ‘red undies’ that Rachel gave me and I’m just letting her know that their doing well.

Really folks, come on!!

I overwintered last years chillipepper plant in the greenhouse. It was purely by accident today when I discovered a couple of ripened chillis. And so the heat continues…..    

I haven’t been doing any gardening all weekend on account of family matters. Another family day tomorrow, but when my sister heads home in the afternoon I’ll need to get the finger out.  The garden has been totally neglected in the last few days.

While I may be looking at the borders here with a critical eye just now, one area that is not on my review list is this area.

The more it matures, the happier I get with it. I just love it and am now convinced I need to get a seat into it, and I think I have that sorted in my minds eye.

Sheilas perfume is looking good right now

Love the colours on this one

I love thinning out and taking the lower growth off the new culms on the bamboos, I find something very terapeutic about the process, and the effect is great also.

Like this one.