Month: April 2016

The weather is so bad here that even the birds are taking shelter! Later on there was a second one on the sloping part of the down pipe and a third kept flying up looking for another space.

I find that since I’ve bcome a bit obsessed with my garden it is very easy to get so fascinated with unusual plants that I come upon that I can completely ovelook some of the common-or-garden plants in my garden. Today i was struck by this young Forsythia which seems to have self-seeded from a more mature plant in the same border. Its flowers are magical and have such a clear yellow that I just had to take a photo! Apologies for the misty photo – at least the rain had stopped before I took it 🙂

Ok – so I’m not really a dedicated vegetable grower but my recent exploits of reinstating the vegetable garden had spurred me on to greater effort.

I may have mentioned last year that having watched Monty transplaning some purple-flowered broccoli I took the notion to plant some. They were only about 3 months late being started but they germinated pretty well so I hardened them off and left them in pots over the winter – just to see what would happen!

And guess what? they started to produce flowerets about 2 weeks ago. 

And since i had the beds ready in the Veg garden i transplanted them and couldn’t resist harvesting the biggest floret and it was delicious!

So today i had a 50% increase in the harvest …..

Note to self: plant the seeds in May this time!!!!

Ah well, the Lord loves a tryier.

Heading out this morning to feed the dogs I hear the welcome calls of the cuckoo for the first time this year in Killylea.  I always feel that Spring has truly arrived when I hear that sound and looking round the garden the perennials all are pushing up at a fast rate and it’s great to see their return too. Looking forward to All the colours of summer.

This one is in a planter, waiting for the new Acid bed to be done. Very pretty Skimmia with lovely supposedly scented flowers. I guess I’ll have to wait for a warmer day for that.

At the 2015 Get together Liztai, Elizabeth, Hazels sister, kindly gave me a small cutting of Clematis Montana white. I have Clematis Montana Rubens and I love how it flowers every year and its so prolific. 

Last year it really only found its feet and put on some growth and I had one little flower on it! but this year I have lots more buds on it and Im hoping that it will be as pretty as its relation! I have it now growing up the centre pergola!

This is how it actually looks in flower!

The paeonias that  I bought last year from Holland are just romping away. Paeonia ‘ Claire de Lune’ is producing lots of lovely flower buds and I was wondering if I will remove some as to increase the size of the blooms. Last year when I was visiting Mount Congreve one of the gardeners was busy removing flower bud from the paeonias in the paeonia border and I decided to do the same and the results were very good. Paeonia itoh ‘ Kopper Kettle’ doesn’t seem to have any flower buds but the foliage is very delicate, a beautiful bronze colour, which should look great with the copper coloured flowers. I have had them in the glasshouse since I got them last October, but have had them outside over the last two weeks to harden them off before I plants them into their final position.

Thanks again Liga for arranging the order and delivery of them.

The beans I sowed last Oct as an experiment are already flowering . Bought from seedaholic and then forgotten about . Lovely aroma off the flowers too. Ive sown the second half of the packet some weeks ago so there should be earlies and laters ! With the weather a little drier Ism hoping to get the second earlies (Queens) in tomorrow . Are the photos posting properly now I wonder with the site upgrade ? About to find out ha ha 

This huge slab has been lying here sonce 1991. Time to do something with it . Would anyone with rock advice suggest a plan ? Maybe a center piece in the front lawn which is mostly grass ? My neighbour will lift with his tractor and loader whenever . Iam thinking a center bed with gravel surrounds and a few shrubs . Easy maintenance !

Good afternoon all,

I have these 2 peris i bought last year, the first as ye can see is fine & very healthy, the 2nd is a little sick looking, it has drooped leaves and has not had any flower, any ideas how to nurse it back to health

Last summer I sprayed off two oval shaped areas in the front lawns to develop them into mixed beds, I dug them to a spades depth before hitting them with a rotavator. Throughout autumn and again so far this spring I added divided perenniels from around the garden and from Bernies. I have literally scores more plants to go in but they are progressing through the potting on stages steadily in the tunnel/coldframe. Just today I picked up 4 loads of muck to spread around as a mulch – works fantastically to keep weeds at bay.

I am really looking forward to seeing all the various flowers at each plants peaks throughout the season but next year will be the real show.

Plantlist is; Caryopteris, choisya, hypericum, caenothus, hemerocalis, lupin, agapanthus, eryngium, schizostylis, aquilega, paeonia, cosmos, dahlias, echinacea, rudbeckia, monarda, campanula (upright type), arum italicum, candelabra, Japanese anemone, a blue flowered iris, daffodills, drumstick alliums, anemone blanda, primulas.

Most of them are in the beds already but obviously the tenders are not, the only things I have to get are some colchicums, I am planting in blocks of anywhere from 5 up to 11, 13, 15, 17 for some plants looking to create impact in the first year but more so next year.

Tomorrow the muck will be spread out so that the birds can pick out as many as possible of the slugs waiting for my next batch of young plants. Heres to little weeding in these two beds for the next two years :-).

the veg patch is almost full! That’s because I carried out some winter gardening this year. Might have to break some more new ground . No salad crops in yet . The rose cuttings in the trench look alive but need a spraying shortly . I must get Dick to advise ?  They will stay in trench until next year anyhow . 

A shrub that was on my wish list was picked up at Terra Nova last week also.

I’ve no thinking to do about where to plant it as I have just the spot for it and it will be planted within the hour LOL as it’s a gardening day today, well till lunchtime anyway.

Enjoy.

My sister Joan and niece Liz called to see me yesterday. Both live in Dublin. Among the gifts there were a Phalaenopsis orchid from another niece Esther and a Clematis. The Phal was in my sister’s house at Christmas but as I travelled by train, I didn’t bring it back to Carlow. We had a chat in the house and went for a walk around the garden. I had eight tomato plants for my sister, Joan and her son Michael who lives next door to her. 

Jackie mention this shrub last week I think it was. The first few flowers are open on mine at the moment. Delighted this new shrub in the garden.

Thanks again Margot.

I planted two largish terracotta pots with bulbs in the Autumn. I used the blue colour co-ordinated packs you can get in Aldi and added in some narcissus – Avalanche I think but maybe Tazetta as well. 

I am really happy with the result. The anemones are Mr Fokker and they are amazing. The Hyacinths were a gorgeous colour as well – very dark blue.

I highly recommend buying these packs even if they only give you colour for a year they are well worth it.

She could not resist the sun today and she has finally opened. I am delighted and excited. I am easily satisfied. 

This little Auricula is planted under a shrub for the last four years, summer and winter. It is a dry sheltered spot and this plant is just triving on neglect.

With it doing so well I be dividinf this one and adding some mover to the area to see how they do.

I totally love the the mis of colour in this one, sadly I don’t have a name for it.

Woodland patch in Spring Glory

This is a newly developed area.  The lower branches of the Dawn Redwood, (metasequoia glyptostroboides) used to extend much lower, but somehow, a snip, and another snip there, just so that I could past, you inderstand, and then somehow, the hand saw came out, and I cheered when I realised that I now have a woodland area, albeit very tiny.  

So here we are in its second spring season, and the pheasants have not dug it all up as last year. 

menu_order Please

Can you tell me, please, what this lovely little plant is, carefully sited in the glade.  New this  season, but was planted some time last year.  Too tired to go through my notes. 

The flower buds emerged a week before the leaves. 

Four years after planting five bulbs of Erythronium ‘White Beauty’, and long after I’d given up hope, I spotted two small leaves appearing from one bulb last week and now have two flowers.  

It’s a pretty little thing and I suppose even a 20% success rate is to be welcomed. Now just to figure out what to do about the fritillaries planted later in the same spot! 

Pulled up the blinds this morning (6.30am) on another glorious morning and there it was a FULL MOON just above the horizon in the south west.  By the time I got the camera out it was fading.  Then I open my computer and there’s Fleurette’s Journal on the same subject except that her full moon was last night!!  And it’s Earth Day too today………………….

Photos of two lovely daffodils in my garden yesterday!!

I was introduced to Cerinthe by Hazel when we first met almost 3 years ago. I had never heard of those before. 

Since those first seedlings Ive had Cerinthe every year. From seeds Ive sown but also from seedlings that I find in the garden, since the original were planted!

Today I spotted my first Cerinthe seedlings in flower this year. Arent they just lovely little plants and they will go on flowering for months and months!

So thank you Hazel for such little beauties to begin with!

This Kerria japonica Pleniflora, has never failed on me whether the weather was wet or dry, cold or warm. This year it is really good. I have it in several parts of the garden, front and back. it is also very easily propagated usually using the roots. By the way Dublin and Kerry will be playing to morrow in the League Final. I wonder how many Dublin gardeners have this plant which could be called after their rivals, The Kingdom. It also bears the Kerry colours, green and gold.

The hot/sunken part of my garden is my favourite place.  But when the soil was being excavated it was piled at one end in a steep bank. Grass brambles and all sorts of weeds flourished there until I got fed up with it. So I put on my mountain Goat outfit and the attack started. My aim is to terrace it and plant more hot colours and spikey stuff there. Then a load of manure had to be brought but Edward helped me with that.  So nearly finished and when this cold weather goes the planting can start. I hope to show pictures later in the year when hopefully my plan is in operation and I can remove my goat horns!!

Sorry my Album has appeared in duplicate and I can’t manage to delete the second lot!

Rachel kindly gave me this orchid last June when I visited her. She gave me the name of it which I was sure I would remember when I got home, but of course I didn’t. It is starting to come to flower now and would love to know what it is called.