Month: August 2015
I’ve tried to grow Echinacea loads of times before and it always got eaten or crowded out or something. Last year I put one seedling in a container with copper tape and it came through the winter fine and buds were developing.
Then, DISASTER! I came home after a holiday and thought it had died of drought. Luckily after a good drenching and cutting off the worst leaves it perked up and now has several flowers.
Is it me or what? I can’t put up photo!
Yesterday was a great day. However with two meetings, one at 2 p.m. and another in Kiltegan about 8.10 p. m. The work had to be limited. It was warm and that made the work more enjoyable. The raspberies were pruned, the ones which gave fruit this year although the birds helped themselves to them. Roses were deadheaded and some edging of the rose beds was carried out. Weeding was carried out and the area where I sowed the Japanese onions, had to be dug up as the weeds had outgrown the onions. To day I just about finished that area and got working on another onion bed. Here it was a case of lifting the onions and I have begun planting strawberries in the same area. Some blackcurrants were pruned, the older wood being removed and plenty of weeds removed here. I lifted a Yucca for a friend of mine Michael who has no real garden but lives in a flat within the town. At about 7 p.m. the rain came down and I watched the horse show (the Puissance) and enjoyed it.
The September issue of The Irish Garden is out!
It was delivered to subscribers in the post today and to the shops today. So it should be on the shelves now or tomorrow.
It’s got a visit to the Petrovska garden, a ntural garden near Clonmel.
James Wickham reviews the merits of echinacea and rudbeckia, daisies of distinction.
If you thinking of an autumn garden-walking trip, Yvonne Gordon suggests palce to go and where to stay.
And 25 pages of plants, ideas and insights from Ireland’s leading garden writers!
found myself at the Piltown show last Saturday. Two bags of Tulip bulbs (60) for a tenner. Of course nothing would do except plant them … Immediately !! Three tubs planted . Best to leave them dry I suppose and indoors until Spring ?
Any advice as I don’t want these rotting over the winter ?
You may remember I was in the Aut Even Hospital, Kilkenny, in July 15. I had a colonoscopy and the surgeon was anxious to have another look at my internal system. Unlike the previous occasion the work done in the hospital took only part of a day. My nephew Eoin drove me to the hospital on Thursday (yesterday) morning and that afternoon the second colonoscopy was carried out. I was home that evening. The day before, I was on two bottles of fleet, which was by no means comfortable. The idea was clean the system out. The surgeon was very pleased with my system so I am back to the gardening again. I attended the Country Market this morning and was very relaxed but sold nothing. I am feeling better than before now.
Yesterday (Monday) was wet and windy. Naturally, I had plenty types of work to do inside, including entering something in the computer. Up to lunch time all appeared in order. I had an appointment in the bank at 2 p.m. and as I left the house at about 1.45 all was in order. By 3 p.m. I was home but there was no power. What did this mean? The computer was to be abandoned, for entering a report, also the message from the bank, The vacuum cleaner had to be left idle, so also the electric kettle and I was so keen on having a cup of coffee. There was no fresh water as my supply comes from a well, neither had I any central heating, although it was mild and for the same reason the electric fire had to take it easy. The dining room which I use has no fireplace and of course I had no electric light. I happen to have an Aladdin paraffin heater so I was able to make a cup of coffee. I have a battery operated reading lamp, present from my niece in Castlebar so a bit of work could be done on crosswords and Sudoku. Of course if it were fine, I would not have to worry about these. Eventually at about 5.40 p.m. on come the light and all of the electric gadgets and was Dick not pleased. I had rung ESB about the problem early on and was informed that other homes were in the same position. The rest of the evening was back to normal.
Myrtle gave me this plant last year and it is making a big impact with me already. Suiting the tropical area to a tee.
Hoping to do a bit outside before I start working in the house. Have a great weekend.
Many thanks Myrtle.
Yesterday Paddy and myself went to Altamont Garden for a talk and walk through the gardens in the company of Roy Lancaster. I was amazed by the number of people that attended and how far they travelled to hear Roy and they were not disappointed with the entertaining way he told us stories of trees, shrubs and bulbs that were introduced into Europe from Japan, China and the Americas. I will never look at a Lilium Regale in the same way again after the story he told us of Ernest Wilson breaking his leg while digging up bulbs in Sichuan in southwestern China and being two days away from the nearest town where a Dr. Davidson set his leg, but when he returned to England the leg had to be reset, but afterwards he walked with a limp and referred to his leg as his ‘lily leg’.
We were delighted to meet Myrtel and Ron and all the way from Castlewellen, Co Down, Robert and Kathleen.
The nursery in Altamont has at present a great selection of plants and of course I could not come home without something. I bought a lovely white hydrangea with red stems.
Spent a lovley few hoursin the garden last evening after a day of working in the house. It was just messing about really, but one thing I was delighted with was finally finding a home for a Leucothoe Whitewater given to me by Hosta two years ago now when she visited.
I had it growing against the wall at the front of the house, a bit of a mistake as all the growth was on one side. Yesterday I had it soaking in water beside the Fern bed, I walked out of the door a thought they looked well together. So I lifted the pot up onto the back of the Fern planter and I think it works really well. A tiny bit of prunning will be done and that’s that.
It was a nice day here in Roscommon today and I did a lot of clipping and shaping ..here are a few before and after shots
and some more
Love this small Agapanthus, don’t have a name so if anyone has and ideas it would be great. Flower stems are just over 12” tall.
What a day’s rain we had here today! Everywhere is saturated.
But the sky this evening was amazing! These two pictures show the different view: at the back as the sun set behind the clouds and at the front as its rays caught the landscape across the bay!
You may remember the plant I post a journal about back in April, it was a stowaway in a plant from Mount Venus. I discovered it was Stewartia pseudocamellia, a lovely shrub/small shrub.
I am amazed at the amount of growth it has put on since then. Can’t wait to see this in the Autumn, as it’s meant to have great autumn colour.
As well as the pink/white malvas given to me, I was also given some white ones by another gdn friend. They have struggled during this very rainy week but yesterday afternoon it cleared up here and I took a couple of photos. Also have put up a few photos of poppies that have also struggled during this awful week of rain. Better days are forecast from now on………………
Very few butterflies this year but this guy was having a rest on the windowsill yesterday. Hope I’m right that it’s a Ringlet.
I bought this lovely Dahlia in late June and it was producing these gorgeous pink/white stripey flowers. Called D. ‘Mystic Dreamer’. After feeding and dead-heading, it’s now producing more flowers, as is expected. But they’re a different colour now.
Got this Berkheya from Joann a few years ago. It only got planted out a couple of weeks ago. But having seen Marys in flower the other day, I went out to check mine yesterday and lo and behold, I do see a flower bud. Yay! It definitely pays to give plants their freedom.
I happened to be in our local garden centre the other week buying compost when the owner was saying that they guy who usually minds the place while they’re on holiday had let them down. So I piped up and said, ‘I’m at loose ends for a while – I’ll do it!’ Well, apart from Wednesday, which was cold, miserable and there were only two customers – one of whom was me – I’ve never enjoyed a job so much. Chatting gardening all day with local folks, meeting old friends and making new ones. It’s mighty craic!
Trouble is, I just keep wanting to bring my work home with me….
Dahlia ‘ Matt Armour’ has just started to flower in the garden and I am so pleased. We got it when we were at the AGM of the Irish Garden Plant Society in Donegal last May. The head gardener of Glenveagh Castle gardens had a plant for members of the society who visited. The dahlia arose from seed sown in the 1930 by the then head gardener Matt Armour who retired in 1983 aged 75 after 53 years of service at Glenveagh.
Beautiful fungi spotted in the mostly-shade part of the garden today.
Sorry I haven’t been posting journals or photos this last while. I’m struggling with the photo editing on the new laptop, which won’t accept the camera’s software which I used previously and the photo editing feature in Windows 10 only seems to allow photo resizing one photo at a time! Anyway, I’ve finally managed to create an album of today’s garden photos, hope they turn out ok. **
While I normally prefer single flowers, this year I decided to try Double Click Cosmos seed and have been bemused by the results, as some of the flowers are doubles while some appear to be semi-double and a few have come up single. They germinated ok but after planting out took ages to grow to anything approaching normal cosmos size. However, they have improved a lot over the last week.
Would be interested to know of anyone else’s experience of double cosmos … I reckon I’ll return to the singles next year!
** PS I’ve since deleted this album as the photos are included in the Back Garden Summer 2015 album.
One of my Rodochitons have been growing in the same for years now. They have all reached the top of the arch but this the first year that I have managed to trail it accross like this.
Baeautiful morning, enjoy if you can.
I really like the shape that this plant has created for itself. The foliage is great but the first flowers are just about to open.
Not a lot of flowers as yet, but the plant itself is really healthy.
This I have been working on for months but happy to show it now as it’s nearly there. Since I have no shovel or have not fixed my broken ones I dug the pond out with my trowel so that took awhille and place a precast pont into the ground and covered with liner then for extra insurance. Next was the stone for around it which I collected from the quarry that supplied my garden for the walls. I still have some stone to do and after that then I will put in a pump and hopefully then It will run down from the back and into the pond like a little waterfall effect. I will have to secure some of the stone with bits of cement but hopefully will be finished in a few weeks. Also will plant around it with ferns and the likes to set it off.
