Month: March 2016

Isn’t the year passing fast, and in a few days time we will have passed the spring equinox? The early spring flowers have come and, in many cases, gone.  The snowdrops are gone as are many other flowers, and the daffs  and crocuses are past their best, but I think among the plants that last best in early spring are hellebores and camellias. Would you agree?

About an hour ago I submitted a post, but the photos failed to upload. Here is another effort, and I hope the photos get through, as they are the ones that refer to my previous post.

This Spring has been a great year for camellias,  as they are covered in flower. The Lane is where I grow all my camellias as it is shady and has a nice moist soil which they seem to like and they don’t suffer from lack of water during the summer when the flower buds are forming. Here are three that are looking their best at present.

…..I saw a host of golden daffodils. 

A quote from my favourite poem.

Our journals in the early months of the year tend to have great entries about early arrivals of daffodils of various types as we wait impatiently for them to strut their stuff. So here are what I call “lots of little hosts” – over the years they are bulking up well and every year they perform their magic of banishing the winter blues!

I didn’t get much done today. And Dad wasn’t available for lunch so myself and Steve headed out to Donabate for lunch – a place that I haven’t been to since my early childhood. It brought back so many great memories.

Got some new Dahlias last week – pompom ones (red, yellow and orange) which I’ve never had before. I just think the petal formation is so perfect and I couldn’t resist!

Everything got a good soaking in the greenhouse. Hope we’re nearly finished with the frost so I can start bringing stuff outside.

No gardening time tomorrow so I’m promising myself I’ll let nothing get in the way for Tuesday.

My mother used to despair of my approach to the garden …. she was known to exclaim “would you not let the poor plants get settled before you go moving them ….” but i was never very good at doing what I’m told!

The history of roses in my current garden is a saga of constant indecision …. 

The first rose I got as a gift before the house was complete had to survive in a pot for ages.

I bought a few more over the next couple of years just because they appealed to me.

Then there was another gift. And then I tried taking “slips” and was surprised when I succeeded with them. By then I felt that a special “Rose Garden” was called for and since my attempts at vegetable growing were less than successful I decided to assemble all the roses in the raised beds in the lower garden. That was in Autumn 2013. It involved moving the roses from various locations and replanting them in the chosen area. 

They seemed happy enough and I minded them carefully for the next two seasons. But guess what?  I wasn’t happy with the results. My vision of a massed profusion of roses with the air full of the divine scent just didn’t happen. I looked back over the photos from my Open Day and the roses were largely ignored!!!!

On a visit to Gash Gardens last year I was interested to see how they have incorporated their roses into mixed borders so you;ve guessed …. the roses are on the move again! It has taken over a week but most of the roses have been happily relocated! Not much to see yet, and the Rose Trellis border is still to be filled in with various “plants in waiting”. More of them are now along the Clematis Arches where they should be able to add to the colour in that area.

Now next task is to get those raised beds ready for another attempt at growing some edibles LOL

Jacinta, here is a close up of the flowers of the Azara which you saw at Roath Garden Centre. The smell of chocolate over the last few weeks has been amazing. It smells like hot chocolate. Ann (Lady gardener) was here last week and she could not get the smell at all, but I have found that most people who are around the garden will ask where the chocolate smell is coming from.

My Fritillaria ‘uva vulpis’ are beginning to flower now. Pity the crocuses around them are now going off. But the miniature daffs are a good combination. And the Fritillarias are bulking up a bit too.

I recieved a plant of this off Rachel last year while at Fota and at the same time got to see and smell her one in flower. Really thrilled to get it and I did all I was advised to do and a grew to be a healthy plant with leaves, obviously no flowers just yet. So a few months ago as advised I took out of the pot and stored dry in a paper bag on top of the kitchen cupboard until now.

The reason I have this journal now is that I was thinking of this plant recently and thinking I would pot up soon and lo and behold I got the Irish garden today and reading on Rachel’s page didn’t she have a bit on them and what to do and when to pot up. So took mine out had a look at the two fine healthy bulbs that are starting to shoot. Delighted to see now I can pot up and water and remembered from last year that I will not water anymore until I see it coming up out of the soil.

I am determined to get this to flower in a couple of years.

After weeks of near-panic in the Shoosmith household as the spring tidy-up was delayed and delayed due to bad weather, it’s good to have more or less caught up with ourselves. Borders are weeded, veggies sown (in the poly anyway) or planted and compost has been turned. The last week of calm dry weather has been a real bonus – how sad it’s nearly over, I’d only just got used to it! 

It’s been so good to be back outside working. I’m in the process of edging all the beds and Alan’s about to start mixing up mulches – we have leaf mould, turf dust and garden compost that he’s planning to mix and use for top-dressing. 

We also finally decided to properly edge the hedgerow behind the pond garden – it’s a mixture of white and blackthorn with spindle, dogwoods, crab apples and rowans, and in front we’d planted rosa rugosa and a chamomeles given to me by my friend Sharon. It had been left ‘wild’ but I didn’t like the tatty edge so he’s shaped it. I feel he’s been a bit artistically wavy and have (politely but firmly) asked him to straighten out the wibbles a bit. The back will be left wild but the front will be planted up. Pics to follow…

All the daffs in the front garden have flowered at once, unlike last year when they were a lot more staggered. It’s been a great show. Though I’m missing several Pheasant’s Eye which my boss gave me as a ‘bonus’ at the end of the season. They weren’t planted till Christmas so hopefully they’re just a bit late. 

The Good is my favourite Camellia , Brushfield Yellow,  in full bloom and so pretty. The Bad is very sad; my Choisya sundance appears to have some horrid disease probably Root rot and is in a bad state. I have this for more than 16 years and it was so cheerful and flowered well.

I’ve been battling a dose for the past couple of weeks and still trying to get rid of it!! No energy at all. So not much going on outside I’m afraid. 

But I just wanted to wish you all a very Happy Easter. I hope the weather stays dry and the sun shines. I love this time of year. 

Here are photos of my Hamamelis  ‘Aphrodite’ which I bought in January at the get together. Looking great at the moment. 

Enjoy your weekend whatever you do!! 

…it really gets my goat. This is the gateway to an abandoned mushroom farm about 50m from our house. It’s regularly used for fly tipping. I’ve notified the council, who say they’ll investigate it.  Ok, it’s iniquitous that our council taxes don’t cover waste collection (or much else for that matter out in the sticks!), but this is just shameful. Do people not see how beautiful this countryside is and how privileged we are to live here? This is a major tourist route to the coast – what a great image for visitors to take home! 

You can’t beat it, can you? That’s real wealth, when you have bins of compost and bags of leaves and a big pile of loam. It’s real ‘growth’, not this ridiculous economic nonsense.

I see this morning that the British government has approved the use of neonicotinoids again. They should make all government ministers grow their own food for the House kitchens, that’d change their perspective. Not for the first time, I’m bitterly ashamed of my homeland. What a long and ignoble history Britain will leave…

Anyway, back off the soap box, the bed is planted – isn’t it funny how what looked like a big pile of plants all just vanish once you get planting? We will take cuttings and divide them over time so they’ll soon spread. 

We were much amused in the Irish Garden to see that our method of lawn care (doing not much except mowing) is now officially the ‘wild flower lawn’ method and all the flowering plants in it, which are much loved by all sorts of critters, are ‘formerly weeds’. Well, we never did believe it, but it’s nice to be recognised! 

Having had a dry spell for nearly three weeks, we have finished painting the garden furniture just before the rain, which is forecast for tonight. It was a marathon job, but worth it in the end. The seats were easy enough as we were able to bring them into the garage to dry befor painting, so the weather was not a problem. The worst thing to paint was the arbour seat, as it had to be repaired with a hardening liquid and wood filler where it had rotted and of course dry out before it was painted. I am happy that both the seats and the arbour are now all the same colour and they look much better. Will have to now tie the clematis up and hope they have not suffered any ill effect.

Nice day here in Waterford, sunny and bright, hard to believe that the rain is on the way.

Just looking at the photos the all look a different shade, but I can assure you they were all painted in ‘ Wild Thyme’. 

awhile since I,ve visited the site,slack I know.Not much happening around the patch lately more a case of survival after the Summer we,ve had,hottest on record.

Finally had the gum trees felled that were damaged in the snow in August quiet a mess to clean up there.

Trust you all enjoy Easter.

My R. barbatum is looking splendid as it has now started to open its flower trusses. It is a wonderful species and this year has up to 20 trusses, some open and some starting to open. I am so glad to have it in my garden and was very pleased to see this species featured in the March edition of the ‘Irish Garden’. 

My Ribes is also looking quite brilliant and is a stalwart of the garden at this time of year. I have two of them in the garden, one slower to bloom than the other. 

Osmanthus x burkwoodii ‘silver jubilee’, the flowers of which i am showing in the third photo is a great scented shrub and is very garden worthy.

The bulb lawn which up to a month ago was covered with snowdrops is now coloured with fritillarias which enjoy the damp ground at the bottom of the garden. Most have been grown from seed and these are now seeding in the grass. 

The garden got a nice soaking from the rain this morning and it looks the better for it. I managed to cut the grass yesterday even though there was very little growth on it, it did clear up any bits of sticks and leaves that had been left there since I cleared all the flower beds over the last few weeks. 

A lovely sunny day here in Waterford today, so I got Paddy to remove the covering from my Beschorneria yuccoides which has been wrapped up against any cold weather since last November. I have grown this for many years and never covered it during the winter until I lost one of the two I had during the very cold winters a few years ago. It had a beautiful flower last May and I am hoping for the same this year. The reason I got Paddy to uncover it was because I was afraid that there would be any mice living in the straw.

I have 6 Camellias here in my garden. All in pots of ericaceous compost. My C. ‘Wisley’ is the best doer this year. C. ‘Berenice Perfection’ is coming in a close second. Normally C. ‘Margaret Davis’ is my best, with its gorgeous white blooms edged with deep pink, and usually the first to open. Forgot to photograph this one today. It’s growing in a big half-barrel. As it’s a biggy, it got a major cutting back last year. But I reckon too hard. Loads of buds but I think they’re way too small to open at all this year. I’m hoping it will reward me next year better than it has ever done. But sadly, won’t see anything on it until then. We live and learn.

David is staying over for a few days. And Steve happens to have been off yesterday, today, and the rest of the weekend. So David is keeping us both on our toes with garden work.

We took him out to lunch today and walked all around Howth hoping to tire him out. Ha ha!  Yea right!  We were more tired than he was when we got home. Although he stole forty winks in the back of the car. So he was raring to go by the time we pulled into the driveway.

The front door was barely closed and David was out the back door surveying what needed doing.

Firstly, he helped Steve to cut the planks of wood for the raised bed. It will be four planks high and about 6ft in width. Unfortunately it’s too late to get the 7 blueberry bushes in before this years crop. But as soon as the fruit has been picked, in they’ll go. They should be very happy in their new home. Plus it will be easier to cover the whole bed with netting to deter the birds. Where they are at the moment, in the Acid Quadrant, they are mixed in with decorative acid-loving shrubs. So not so effective. So they both painted the planks with Creocote and they are drying now. Can’t wait to see the whole structure in situ. Maybe tomorrow!!!

David cleaned out the Upper Pond, and helped me to cut back U4BA myrsinites in that area (with gloved hands). I did a bit of weeding up on top of the cave. Got the rest of cutting back done.

It was a beautiful sunny day, but the wind picked up and was quite cold at times. Great day to be alive!

There are lots of small flowered plants in the garden but these two are really tiny.

Epimedium ‘Orange Glow’ flowers on the thinnest of stems.  At the moment the flowers are hanging down, so apologies for the fuzzy photo when I tried to hold them up to show you.  The other shot shows their size next to a chionodoxa.

And Omphalodes ‘Starry Eyes’ is aptly named with the daintiest little blue and white flowers. It’s starting to spread gently now in its second year. 

I have these courtesy of Fran and Mary (Gracedieu) respectively, so thank you both for these delightful little plants. 

No of course this is not a piece of salacious titillation. Most of you, I am certain, are relieved! The limbs in question are brown, elegant and belonging to a very tall pine tree in the Scrub. There is a slope below the pine and the gnarled roots come over the ground in places. Scrubber thought it might be interesting to reveal more of them. STOP LAFFIN JACINTA! So he scraped away at the sides and the result has to be seen to be believed. An overgrown nondescript slope has now become an arresting and quite beautiful feature. He also levelled out some of the slope in places and if I can get a photo I will put it up.

The saga of the renovation of the old rockery is finally almost done. Scrubber thought it would be a matter of three days. There was one big boulder in front of another so he thought it might be nice to emphasise one and release the other. But then the one needed to be shifted a bit more and another just might be shifted a bit more and then bit by bit other rocks wanted to move  in. Actually I think it was Cherub Lute’s  first really big project and it ended up taking Scrubber about three weeks to have the rocks readjusted and the soil put back in and theres still some work to be done on the old steps involving the only bit of cement  to be used. A few little conifers helped and some hebes and once the lavenders and catmint come into flower the whole place will look beautiful.

Scrubber’s back held out and there were breaks when for example Scrubber escaped to Elizabeth’s corner and miraculously discovered that a hitherto immovable and awkward rock could be nudged and could become a fine square step down which it was easier to descend and plan for a scheme to finally give that area  the distinction its name requires. Scrubber is thinking Roses and heathers and hopes the lady after whom the corner is named, will approve!

And of course there was the exposing of limbs with which this journal began.

(Daffodils seem particularly good this year. The snowdrops were lovely but perhaps not quite as full as last years. But Spring does seem to have sprung and rhododendrons and later tulips and  bluebells are all waiting to come on stage.)

Wishing you all a very happy Easter and all the joys of the Season. (Have managed two pictures so far.(Limbs and Elizabeths corner) The new stone ‘step’ is the third stone on the left in the top row just iver that upturned whiteish triangular one and beside the gnarled buddleia bush. It makes a good safe step down to next level which at Scrubber’s age is a necessity!

Jimmy has had a busy Easter ;). He got my new pergola finished. It’s situated in the centre of the garden and I love it. Completely replanted this bed as I had a couple of Cistus rose bushes that were getting out of hand. So now it has all sort of Spring flowers and perennials too  also planting some clematis on the sides to grow through the Pergola  

He is also replacing the metal arches I bought last year with smaller wooden arches too as these will look so much better.  Nice day for it too  today, hopefully 😉 

Pictures are bit dark as the weather was hit and miss yesterday!!