Month: July 2015
Or removing the blanket weed, as we adults call it. Actually I did more admiring the wildlife than work, and I especially enjoyed meeting our youngest denizens, about 30 tiny efts, or baby newts, at least one or two in each net-full. Of course it might have been the same ones caught over and over again! Later on, Alan and his environmental art students dropped in for a visit and one of them said she wanted to see a frog. I happened to know that there were a few hiding under some foliage so I put my foot on a nearby rock and sure enough, one hopped straight onto a lily pad and posed. He must have been employed by the froggy Bord Failte!
We garden for the beauty of the plants, but it’d be so much less without all these creatures who live here with us. I love ’em!
I have been threatening for a couple of years to remove a shrub rose that gets terrible black spot. With a lot of huffing puffing and sawing I did the evil deed today and I am delighted. I removed a Hydranga that never flowered when I was at it.
Now I have a bare bit of earth I’m trying to decide what to plant. I do need to get my hands on some manure first and then it’s shopping time!
I have this cactus in the porch for almost 20 years and it finally flowered this year …who says gardeners dont have patience đŸ™‚
I have just two Astilbes in the border beside the Lower Pond. I think that they are both lovely, combined with Alchemilla mollis ‘Lady’s Mantle’. Don’t know which one the pale pink is, but the deeper one is A. ‘Vision in Red’.
I tend to like and do things a little different here in the garden. A good example is this hanging basket. I had a lot of small plants/cuttings etc in waiting, so I clumped them all together in this hanging basket. Most are not the normal plants for baskets but I’m liking th effect a lot.
I was starting to have withdrawal symptoms this week but I really needed to take a bit of a rest after the big push to get the garden ready for opening. I eased my way back over yesterday and today doing onerous tasks like dead-heading roses and reorganising labels on the Clematis Walk.
But this afternoon I was feeling a little more energetic so I started on the dead-heading in earnest. I had avoided doing much before the Open Day so that the borders wouldn’t look too bare, but now its ok to wade in a it more!
I was working on the area with all the Heucheras and Geraniums which has a little box hedge at the end beside the steps to the stream and this was being invaded by som Japanese Anemones so here we go again – 5 pots of Anemones have joined the “Plants in Waiting”!
There are quite a few plants left from the Plant Sales so I’m putting a few bob into the funds and trying to find homes for as many as possible. my challenge is to end up with no plants in waiting before the winter!
Having done this bit of tidying I went for a stroll around the garden and took some photos of my Day Lilies – almost all of which came from Jacinta – Thank you Jacinta! – and I noticed that there is another one that hasn’t flowered yet ….
The single ones all flowered last year but the double one is flowering for the first time and is a real beauty!
And Peter (Scrubber) there will definitely be a bit of the Pink Damask for you this year!
It’s getting serious now when Steve asks me to call him early on a Saturday morning. He intends working on the cave from early till as late as possible. Wahoo! It’s getting really close now. Hopefully he can more or less finish it today as the weather tomorrow is not to be very good.
Last year I decided to block off the ugly sight of the unfinished cave from up further in the garden so it wouldn’t depress me further. So I planted Joe Pyeweed just in front of it. It’s doing a great job, but now it’s fast becoming an area that shouldn’t be hidden away. So thinking of creating another bed – rectangular, and having a small seating area down beside this pond. My plants in the Acid Quadrant will be relocated to the bed where most of my bung-them-in plants are. But I have a few roses in this bed which also have to be relocated, or maybe even given away. Not quite sure yet. Does it ever stop!!!!!!
Have a great day!
i got stuck in to the new japanese area, it is in such a mess with weeds and plants that do not belong in this area. i am really going all out to get this a very restful area. i spotted a lovely japanese lantern at the claregalway show, the lady is selling them in the galway market also so i can pick one up there for 35 euro, it is very new looking with blueish grey stone. i have a few ideas up my sleve but will not reveal until it is all done and planted. i moved the sambucus today and gave it plenty of water it is sulking now but hopefully with tonights rain it will perk up
Our Hobbit House and Fairies Wood shows the quirky side of gardening and are a great way of getting the kids involved.
Have been watching these mini-meadows colour up over the last month. Apparently the owners/builders are not gardeners but decided to cover the dug out soil with wild flower seeds, during a new house build. There’s two areas of soil mounds covered in poppies, cornflowers and other wild flowers – what a great idea – it’s a real show stopper and today I remembered my camera!!!
I headed to Ballyseedy to day to look at Acers. The ones there were of the tall rather than spreading variety so guess what I came home with a Phoenis canariensis. This was to be for my hot area but I placed it in the centre of the problem bed. Because this area of the garden is quite conservative I felt it might add an unusual feature and distract from the rest!! Ah yes I would put some planting around it. What do you think?? Also to use the three photos I added a pic of a very very orange Crocosmia and not so orange Watsonia.
When visitng Rachel last Sunday we got talking about gorund cover and her wonderful Persicaria Affine which she has propagated around the steep banks of her garden and I mentioned another persicaria that I got from Fran but as usual I couldn’t remember the full name of it!
So here are some photos of it ….
It is a really pretty one – has lovely Autumn colour but it has touches of red right through the summer too – and it is a great gound cover plant.
The third photo gives an idea of its spread after 2 years!
All the photos were taken today too!
And the full name is Persicaria Elata!
Not much happening in the garden at the moment on account of the dreadful weather. Lots of pink flowers appearing every day. But these are three of my favourites.
I got a baby Spiraea from Terri at Terra Nova, and now I see it has a few fellow travellers in the pot with it. I’m fairly sure the small green leaves are the Spiraea, maybe the bronze one is Lobelia? If so I’m delighted. Any ideas about the one with pale green, pointy leaves? And is the grass something special? It has tiny little flower heads, or something similar, thanks for any help, and thanks Terri for all the plants!
We attended two events yesterday which were run by the Carlow Garden Festival and we had a great day. The weather held up until it was time to go home, which we were very thankful for. In the morning we went to Altamont Gardens for a tour led by Dr Matthew Jebb, Director of the National Botanic Gardens. Dr. Jebb pointed out many rare and unusual plants growing in the garden which were planted many years ago by Mrs. Corona North.
In the afternoon we went to Hardymount Gardens near Tullow, the garden of Sheila Reeves Smyth. Anna Parord was the guest speaker here and she spoke about her life in gardening and the gardens she created herself over her lifetime, from a boat on the River Thames to her present home which she only moved to a few years ago. Anna is a lovely lady and gave her time so generously to sign books that so many of the audience has brought along. After the talk, a delicious afternoon tea was served on the lawn and it was nice to met up with friends again for a chat. However, the first of the showers came just as Robert Miller was making the draw for some beautiful plants from his nursery which he had kindly donated.
Here are some views from around the garden yesterday, framed by a moody sky.
Fed up with the rain now!
July has been frustrating to say the least. I think we are all still waiting for our summer, or did I miss it somewhere along the way? Growth seems delayed and slower this year and our fruit is definitely lacking in flavor and quantity.
There are exceptions though….we are having a great year for raspberries and many of our young apple trees in the heritage orchard are set to give a good crop. On the ornamental side of things the roses have been great and the new growth in our bamboos in phenomenal. The herbaceous borders also put on a good show and are still happily flowering away.
We are in the process of summer pruning our fruit trees. Apples and pears can be pruned now to encourage fruit buds to form next year and also to maintain shape or train the tree into a shape. There are two periods for pruning, December/January and July/August. As a rule winter pruning encourages growth of new shoots and summer pruning discourages growth. We also prune stone fruits now, tipping back and tying in new growth on our wall trained plums, peaches and nectarines. Stone fruits should only be pruned in early spring or midsummer as this reduces the chance of silver leaf disease. Fruit pruning is not very complicated if you follow a few basic rules, and there are many helpful sites on the internet with step by step guides.
Our latest project, The Irish Heritage Plant trail is coming along nicely. We have partnered with the Irish Garden Plant Society to start a collection of rare Irish cultivars of plants that are in danger of being lost. These are often varieties that have been passed between private gardens and are not grown by large commercial nurseries or have fallen from grace. By creating a collection here in the gardens we ensure that these plants will be available for future generations to enjoy.
Ragwort is always a big problem at this time of year. It’s the yellow flowered plant that you see along all of the roadside verges driving into Cork. Ragwort is a highly poisonous plant when eaten and posses a particular threat to cattle and horses. Under the Noxious Weed Act local authorities and landowners are legally responsible for ensuring that the land within their control is clear of ragwort: Unfortunately due to lack of enforcement this is not the reality. We do our bit here in the estate to clear all ragwort every year, but as it is being left to seed freely along our roadsides and elsewhere there is always a new stock of seed ready to blow in.
A good tip that I can give is to plan your bulb order now. You can probably still remember how things looked in the spring. Make a few notes as to where you would like some extra colour in the garden, then select bulbs that suit. Too often bulbs end up as an impulse buy that get stuck in a corner and forgotten about. This can lead to some nice surprises but often leads to disappointment. Bulbs, like any other plant, have certain preferences and it pays to do a little research first.
Blarney in Bloom was a great success this year despite challenging weather conditions in the afternoon and we raised a significant amount of money for the guide dogs. We have already set the date for next year as Saturday 2nd of July. The garden fair provides an opportunity for us to show the gardens to local people who may not have visited before. We have long been seen as just the castle, and a destination for tourists, but this has now changed. The gardens are a feature in their own right and visitors are coming specifically to see them. This is hugely satisfying for both myself and all of our gardening team and volunteers who have put in such hard work over the last few years.
I look forward to seeing you in the gardens. Adam
Lily Love Story in Athlone.
It is exactly one year to the day since Gerry D. Took the pictures in the current ed. of IG. Largely similar, in spite of the dreadful rain that has flattened the delphiniums anD other flowers.
3 months ago we built this shrubbery and everything in it was planted tidy. Now 2 planTS in it are serious after taken over and covering the flowers beside it. should I just cut back the overgrown ones even though they are in full flower? How so i go about fixing this mess.
For one reason or another we dont seem to be able to spend as much time in Roscommon this year, so some areas are getting very neglected.. we decided to get stuck into the Hosta bed today,well Graham did most of it really I just helped at the end…I was busy weeding the middle border .. all this rain is making the weeds grow so much faster ..I think the pictures will show how bad it was before he started..and the difference when he finished
Took some photos yesterday of what’s looking good at the moment.
If you watched Rachel’s latest video you will have seen where she had cut the foliage off her Pulmonarias. I asked the question if it was too late to do so?
But when taking these photos, I think I made up my own mind up.
Foliage stays.
and what a miserable month it has been with rain every second day here and dull and overcast most of the month, hard to get gardening done with this weather but still getting to enjoy the garden all the same and is coming on so well for me. the garden is starting to peak now so here’s hoping for a good August.
I have uploaded some more photos to my July album.
