Month: September 2015

This one has good all year round colour, but it’s starting to really take off now.

Rain has stopped and sun is trying to come out, have a good one if you can.

This Phlox is putting on a great display just now. Love the pure whitness of this one.

Bought this awhile back in Hanley’s near me as I was really draw to the dark coloured stems of it and is now it flower with these deep pink flowers. Hopefully it comes back better and better each year.

I got this plant from JoanG at the get together in January. It has been slow at flowering, or so I thought, until I went out yesterday and saw this beauty. 

Thank you Joan it’s a real stunner 

Following on from my previous journal about my Echium getting all mushy and rotting in the middle. I took the advice from Rachel and cut out the middle bit and used cinnamon in the centre , no you didn’t read that wrong. Cinnamon, like you use in cooking…..and lo and behold lots of new growth appearing again. 

It’s in the greenhouse where it’s going to stay and who knows maybe someday it will have a flower. 

Thanks for the great advice Rachel 🙂 

Ha ha , bet you thought it was the other Dundrum!! This ones in Tipperary ten mins from Cashel. Were advertising a Fruit tree sale so despite the rain my good wife and I took off. they have acres under plants and if it was a fine day I would still be there . Settled on three fruit trees , two plum and one Brambley apple and then Mary took a shine to three roses for €10 . Reminds me of her mum, couldn’t resist a bargain.

Now if I cold get her planting them…… 

Well not really but having planted up eight containers of Bulbs I found this one ” idle” so planted it with left over bulbs and it remained outside . Of course they have decided to show themselves a little early . 

They will soon go dormant I suppose and check their adbance naturally ? The other containers will remain in exiting till 2016 I believe 

Another of the new plants from the Limerick trip. A few of the plants in the Japanese planter had gotten to big, when I spotted this one I new it was perfect for the spot in question. Delighted with it. It’s a member of the Thrift family, known as Spanish Trift.

I spottted these two items in seperate skips in the last few weeks, I did ask and I did receive LOL

The pot is an indoor type, wheels and all. I’ll have to see if I can get a paint to take to type of aluminium surface on it. Would be handy on the decking with the wheels.

I have no idea I’ll do with the cable wheel, but it’s a wintertime job so plenty of time to think about it.

I have seen some of you mention these in various posts which prompted an impulse buy this evening. Two packets now await advice on planting . A quick google tells me to treat them as Annuals as they are not frost hardy unless you dig up and store indoors after flowering ?

Another post says to use them in containers for color and keep this way .

iam leaning towards planting up in containers so all advice welcome . They do look nice though and cheap at 2 packets for €5. 

I only bought these Amazonia Lilies on the 6th of September. Planted them up immediately as they weren’t looking the may west. I know (or thought I knew) that they probably wouldn’t flower this year. But they have grown so much in just over a week since planting them.

Now I’m actually noticing flower buds already. What the? Maybe the flowers will drop off soon. Or maybe I should take them into the house in the hope that that will NOT be the case.

Hosta thanks so much for this beauty, it’s been on the wish list for an age.

Isn’t it a beauty, stunning. A real example of Mother Nature at her best.

Just before I went away I got the trusty Kevin to tackle the overgrown hedgerow behind the compost bins because the brambles were taking over the joint. He made short work of the task although he had to resort to a chainsaw! And he took away as much as would fit in the trailer. I was delighted to have the job done and spent the past two days cleaning up the area and guess what? My garden is about 4 feet wider as a result!

I have a big planter planted up with some Lamium ‘Pink Pewter’ and Pelargonium ‘Vancouver Centennial’ in the middle of the lawn. The Lamium is a wonderful spreader, but it was wrong to team it up with that particular Pelargonium. Pink flowers on the Lamium and orange on the Pelargonium. But I would still not be without the Lamium.

Some of it has self-seeded from last year but hasn’t flowered yet. But it’s in a lot of shade. Still, the foliage brightens up that dullish area.

I nipped in to Lidl the other day and bought some tulip bulbs and a pack of 6 alliums. As you can never have to many and usually I lose my alliums over winter.

This afternoon I was doing a bit of weeding and digging and decided I would dig up a clump of alliums that were in the wrong place. It was such any easy job as the soil was nice and moist. But I couldnt believe how many big bulbs there were! 27/28! I think I had 12 originally so they really bulked up.

My question is should I replant them now or wait to the spring?

I’ve never had this Hibiscus flowering so late in the year, normally at this time of the year it would be well gone or going over at this stage, enjoying it all the same.

Finishing a seven day shift, it’s Friday, Rugby starting and a three day weekend all adds up to a happy camper 😉

Enjoy.

I had a few packets of seeds I bought last year and basically forgot about them. Then during Spring when I decided to try out my new greenhouse I went mad and planted all sorts. Then didn’t know where to put anything. 

One such packet was Chinese Asters. They are beginning to open up now and they are looking quite good. Lots more to open. 

Nothing happening for me in the garden lately. but I can see everything is starting to wind down. I feel like we missed Summer as I was waiting to see those lazy hazy days. Although this week has been a good one. 

Never had such a disastrous result with tomatoes as I did this year, partially due to cold night time temperatures in the greenhouse shortly after planting them out. Leaves blackened and withered. Plants very slow to truss up, and even slower to ripen. Two types only this year and yield was very poor. 

Just one tomato plant left at this stage and I’m only now seeing T. ‘Black Russian’ starting to ripen. But these are a really tasty tomato. No Bolognese or chutney with these (not enough of them anyway). There are only 5 tomatoes on this plant. So looking forward to these on my salad. They have a lovely rich and almost smoky taste.

The Kniphofia was growing in a friends garden for years and then came to live here for about anothe 5 years. This year it produced a flower. I know there are many different varieties but wonder if anyone can identify this.

The other photo is a weird plant with greenish spikes showing no indication of flowering.

Thanks

I have a number of grasses throughtout the garden growing along side pererrials and shrubs. I like them growing like that as they are so flowy and informal. Recently in Woodies I purchased a couple more to add to my collection. Stipa Giagantea which I divided and made 3 and have planted at the top of my water feature.

I also got Stipa  arundinacea… love the colour on this plus the label said easy to grow and maintain. ( picture 1)

Picture 2 show another one I got for €2 but unfortunately it had no name. Has anyone any ideas.?

Since deciding the Grasses bed was not going to work, I started clearing it out. I dug it over last evening and will be adding some bags of last years leaf mould tomorrow, thinking and placing some plants over the next while.

Added an album of some colour in the garden at the moment.

Love this evergreen shrub It lends itself greatly to judicious pruning too. Lots of tiny purple berries coming on it now. Not sure if they are eaten by the birds. But the berries contrast so well with the yellow foliage.

This geranium is relatively well behaved, upright to a height of 1.5 – 2 feet, lilac blue flowers held above the divided foliage. It flowers constantly all Summer and Autumn if it is deadheaded.

Does anyone know the name of it?

I had given up on this flowering this year, and had made a note to move it. Went checking on it this evening and was really delighted to find this flower. Quality not great as it was getting dark, but what an end to a fabulous gardening and rubgy packed day.

This border was developed fairly recently – 2 or 3 years ago – and it has been looking rather sad of late so I spent the day working on it.

I fell in love with Astilbe chinensis ‘Purpurlanze’ when I saw Fran photos of Jimi Blake’s garden so I ordered some by mail order from the UK. I’m getting another one from Mt. Venus – so I set about taking out all the plants I had used as stop gaps – Geranium phaeums, Geranium macrorrhizum ‘Ingwersen’s variety’, Sweet Cicely and also removed some Bergenia Ballawley. I then cut back/reduced any plant that were encroaching on others and planted the 4 Astilbes, moved some tall Campanulas back a bit, moved a smaller Astilbe forward etc.

Anyhow, you get the picture. I put some manure in with the Astibles and watered and mulched some of the bed. Tomorrow I will finish weeding and edging it and mulch the rest. 

At least now you can see the nice fern at the front and lovely Pulmonaria ‘June Blake’ will have space to bulk up.

I have two big trays of plants to give away to a local friend and potted up some plants for the January get together as well.