Month: February 2016

I think what has to be my three top Primula are just starting to flower now.

I’m very excited to have my new 2016 brochures. As you can see there’s plenty going on in our garden this year. We are just about to launch a new garden trail – the Ballyhoura Garden Experience. This will be a lovely compact trail, everything within a 30 minute drive and well worth your while to visit Co. Limerick in the coming months! I’ll keep you posted as soon as we are ready to go with that. 

Three plants that are looking good in the garden at present are Magnolia stellata ‘Leonard  Messel’, a small tree that is covered in star like flowers in early spring.

The primula is Primula ‘ Marie Crousse’ with deep green leaves and flowers that appear outlined in white.

The third plant is Anemone pavonina, which I bought many years ago at Ashwood Nursery in England. The nursery in Altamont Gardens also had them for sale a few years ago during the snowdrop week and I bought a red one at that time. I have grown more from seed from these two plants and I am happy with the resulting flowers.

I have just been googling when Gardener’s World is returning to our television screens and it seem to be next Friday at eight thirty. There has been no gardening programmes on the television at all this winter, which is a shame, as it has been a very long winter.

I enjoyed the new BBC 2 programme ‘ Big Dreams, Small Spaces’ last night. The gardeners were novices, but took on the challenge with great enthusiasm and both gardens were very pleasant places.

I am sure RTE will be treating us to ‘Super Gardens’ in the next few months. Last year I managed to stay with it until the second programme, but will I get that far this year?

Did a little ‘pottering’ in the garden yesterday and today. One task for today was to dust off and move the garden ornaments back out. This is a job I really enjoy doing every year.

It’s nearly like meeting old friends LOL

What a better way to start the weekend by musing over beautiful photos. I’ve lots,  need to seriously declutter but I do love looking at them all. 

Have a great weekend, whatever you do. 

Did some more seed planting today… So my little nursery is starting to look a little full. The nursery being my bedroom windowsill! Boxroom at the back, great sun and very warm. Perfect for germination!

The first batch of marigolds have sprouted and are developing second leaves quite nicely. The Monarda (Bee balm) have sprouted and we’ll see how they do. One solitary chive had poked it’s head above ground. Not holding my breath for more given my record with chives!!

So today I planted second batch of the experimental marigolds, I couldn’t find a suitable tray so I substituted with these microwave tubs… Built in lid so I think it’ll work. 

Planted Sweetcorn in the toilet roll inserts, when they sprout and get strong enough I’ll just put them straight into the veg patch without having to disturb the roots. Hopefully the toilet roll will decompose or would I be better to slide them out of these? 

Finally got some Agastache started, didn’t realise they wouldn’t be flowering till next year when I purchased. Oh well…

When batch 2 sprout, batch 1 will move to the second nursery window in the hall which isn’t as warm, but gets equal sunshine. This will prepare them then to make the gradual move outside.

What a cracker of a day today. As soon as lunch was over, we both got stuck in to the garden – just in case!!! We finally have the jungly grass strimmed and mowed. Very patchy looking but that’s what I love about grass. It always bounces back no matter how bad the winter has been.

I tidied up pots of stuff in the greenhouse, and had the door open all afternoon. It was a relief to finally get the patio weeded. It’s the power-washer now to remove all the algae and green. Probably tomorrow. I weeded the surface of all potted plants and planters. Then top-dressed the lot.

Raked my Hosta bed of all cat poop and any left over stems from last year. Hmmm, I suppose now that there is bare soil once again, Holly will re-do her poo! But tomorrow I hope to have the chicken wire sorted out and cover the whole lot to protect it.

My tomatoes have now been sown – ‘Minibell’, cherry tomatoes, and ‘Moneymaker’. Also Thai Chilli and Chilli ‘Hungarian Wax’. There’s no going back now. Gardening is in full swing.

Planted these out a couple of years ago after having them indoors. Scillas are starting to appear, I had to put the branches near them so I wouldn’t walk on them on the way to the compost bin. And on Fritillary has flowered, some more in the back garden with buds. Spring is definitely on the way!

The last day of February is a bit of a washout here in Waterford. The weather over the month has been a bit of a mixed bag, but saying that there has been some glorious days. The Lane is awash with snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis left and Galanthus plicates right). The snowdrops don’t show up too well in the photos unfortunately. 

The Rhododendron ‘Christmas Cheer’ is still flowering since December and Camellia ‘Donation’ has had an extraordinary amount of flowers and still going strong. However, the latest shrub to start flowering in the lane is Corylopsis pauciflora with it beautiful pale yellow flowers. This shrub is a lovely addition of any garden small or large and it also has a beautiful autumn colour.