Month: August 2016

I have to say I don’t like late summers – they’re invariably dull, damp and full of flies. But I love it when there’s that first tang of autumn in the air. Yesterday was glorious, fresh and warm. We’ve had very little time for gardening lately so I wouldn’t dare put pictures up of the borders, but I did get a few snaps of the berries and haws in the front wall border. It’s a great year for berries of all kinds this year. The cotoneaster in the last picture was a tiny slip we brought from our old house, it has now topped the wall and is spreading over the other side. 

Bought Elodie and Pink Expression from Lidl.  I don’t think Elodie is what it says on the tin!!!  All the same I’m happy with the lilly in Photo 1!!

I was delighted to see this in the garden today and think it is a Painted lady but I’m not certain. There was a Red Admiral too but it didn’t wait to have a photo taken.

‘Is Mr Scrubber EVER going to come back up out of the Bottoms again ?’ asked Cherub Cymbals a little anxiously.’ He has a lot of Glanbia stuff waiting to be put in still’ said Statue Scrubber.’ ‘Well acshually’ intoned Micilin’ It has been said thash you can take the bog out of the man but you cant take the man out of the bog’ 0r shomething to dash effect; He has been down there an inordinash amount of time, admittedly’, If he’s not careful growled G Nome he will falll into that deep muddy patch and Garden,ie will be one less!’

All because there has been such a lot to clear, Yesterday for example there was a very large branch that needed removing; the day before  a weigela that needed a complete deliverance service from huge briars and monstrous sedge, And today-planting of darmera and a bog ranunculus? got yesterday on a visit to Sweeneys in new Ross, Theres som rodgersia still there that I covet so a return trip will have to be made, And believe it or not before I finished up today I hit a rock! It was like old times, Crowbar made short work of it and it was rolled down to the bridge. Then another not quite as big and one Scrubber thought was as fixed as fixed could be just eased itself out so effortlessly youd think it had been practising, Then where that came out there was a very big rock but Scrubber could see it was balancing nicely and could easily be coaxed to lean forward and present a better face to the world! This was easily done and in behind was filled with lots of bog garden muck and mud so that grass will grow soon, Scrubber was so pleased. I mean its nice to plant stuff or even build bridges, Cutting down big branches is a treat but moving big stones is ‘your only man!’ and I thought I had run out of them!

Our pair of Pigeon chicks have finally fledged and gone and we miss them, They reminded me of the O Donovan brothers-dont ask me why! They stayed a few days after vacating the nest. The same nest would get two out of ten in a nestbuilding competition. Such a flimsy thrown together thing and yet two big chicks survived in it!

Now no rocks tomorrow-just get in the last of the plants. Anna has given me a small red leather handbag! It holds my phone,and my camera and I hang it near where I am working down in the Scrub. Deadly handy as we used to say long ago! and yet such a simple idea.You can see it in the last picture! Just over from it to the right about a meter  you can make out the stub of the big branch cut off yesterday.

Number one item is the Mirabilis Jalapa Variegata which Rachel gave me in 2013 with strict warning to protect it over the winter. This is also known as the “4 o’Clock Plant” and when she gave it to me Rachel mentioned this second name and said “it flowers at 4 O’clock or something like that”. Well I was a good girl and carefully lifted Mirabilis Jalapa Variegata each year and it produced these lovely flowers each year. But also when I lifted it last year the plant decided to break into three so this year I have a lovely display right outside the windo so I can see for myself what all the “4 O’Clock” business is about – the flowers open wide to greet the sun and guess what? They CLOSE at 4 O’Clock!!!! So thank you Rachel for this truly lovely plant – well worth the trouble of bringing it in over the winter!

Number two item is 20 bags of wonderful compost/soil from my dear sister Elizabeth. She is having to dismantle a large part of her front garden to accommodate some renovations and I have benefited by these 20 bags of compost/soil. The best use to date has been to do a big overhaul of the Jardiniere and to replace the top layer of old compost with this new stuf! It looks worlds better already! So thank you Elizabeth for the great compost! I have several other projects that will benefit rom your generousity!

Instead of diving into the Bog Garden again I took the day off and Anna and I went over to Bunclody, We had lunch in the golf club there and if you havent been, its a wonderful building overlooking a great pond and rolling fairways. The food was very nice, simple, hot and tasty and the service was friendly and prompt. It was the first time Scrubber had ever eaten in a golf club and I’d return there. We had a choice of two gardens-the local Big House garden which we had visited before and Lucy’s Garden, a private garden on the mountain road from Bunclody. We decided on the latter and found it easily. The owner Erica was exceptionally kind and accompanied us all around the magnificent beautifully kept garden. We tasted Mulberrys and figs as we went and there seemed an abundance of everything unusual .Gleditsia Magnolias (The largest in carlow!) Davidia Involucra-I may have the names wrong, There was one particularly beautiful tree with blossoms that looked as if they were made of wax whose name I forget, Paulownia and many more.

The owner Erika could not have been more obliging and made us both very welcome, We will go back in May to see the blossom. Erika’s home was originally that of Miss Booth the famous botanist-I have her book on the flora of County Carlow. Its hard to find nowadays.

On then to Altamount where I had reserved a copy of Norah Burgess and Danae darling’s book A tale of two gardens. It was mentioned two weeks ago in the times (Irish). Roger Miller kindly kept me a copy. He was away but a very nice lady named Ingrid was in charge and had my book and sold me a beautiful rose Lobelia, Id have liked to buy lots more,

Home and planted my lobelia. I mentined yesterday that I had shifted a big boulder to show a different plane, Looking at it today I realised I could bring down a big blue ceramic tub and it would look well on it. I couldnt carry it so I carefully rolled it down to its new location. Was very pleased. What a lovely day to be grateful for and i am.

Today I tackled the job I like least in the entire spectrum of gardening tasks – tidying the shed! I’ve been putting it off since Spring and every time I couldn’t find something in the chaos I promised myself that I would tackle it. 

How does the shed get into such a state? And the surprising thing is that there wasn’t actually a lot of junk to discard – but the recovered space is amazing!

So when this job was done I needed to cheer myself up – so I did a bit of harvesting! Monty described how to check if your apples are ready to harvest – grip them firmly and twist – so I did! Some of the ones that came off hadn’t been listening to Monty as they were definitely a bit young to be breaking out into a brave new world!

Went indoors and had a bite to eat but it was such a pleasant evening that I couldn’t resist going back out for an while. This time it was cutting back the over-enthusiastic geraniums in the Hazel Grove. This is a very necessary task before the hazelnuts start to ripen and fall as otherwise most of the crop ends up as an unexpected treat for the wildlife! I had a lovely surprise while I was doing this task. There is a Sidalcea that I don’t remember planting at the edge of this area and it hasn’t flowered until this year. And guess what? It is WHITE!!!! I remember buying a white Sidalcea a few years ago and assumed it had just failed as it never appeared. I have nurtured this one in the Hazel Grove thinking it was a self-seeder of my pink one so I was delightfully surprised when it turned out to be the long-lost white one!

Recently I came across “Nuttery” as the name to describe my “Hazel Grove” – so what’s the verdict? Which name?

Having a quiet few hours to myself tonight and it is great to catch up on a few of your journals and see all your albums… seeing them always gives me inspiration and motivation to get out and about in my own garden.

Looking good today was and some of my summer favourites:

 Hydrangra:These are in my garden from day 1 and were the first plants I ever planted. Well to tell the truth my mum gave me 3/4 long slips and I just stuck them in the ground and off the went. Love their colour and form and no fuss reliablity!!

Monarda is flowering away now for quite a while and today it was a hive of activity with about a dozen  or so  bees enjoying it.

Lastly cant remember the name of this but i received it from Mary (Keego) a year or so ago. Again its been flowering for ages now and I love its colour and also that it stands stong and tall with out any staking.

After seeing Jacinta and Steve tackle their ivy last Friday we were inspired to tackle three ‘Miniture’ conifers that have been an eyesore for the last number of years. The area is up above our patio and these conifers are next to a lovely holly hedge and the only reason they have survived for so long is because they were providing shelter for the hens and duck. Yesterday we were visiting Altamont Gardens and when looking around the garden centre, we came across some large holly trees at a very reasonable price, so it was decided the conifers would be coming out this morning. 

Paddy started work at about ten o’clock and by lunchtime he had cleared off a lot of the branches and had started to bring them up to the compost bin and shred what bits he can this afternoon. The bigger branches will be used for firewood over the winter. The fun will start when he will be removing the stumps over the next few days,  which I would think will take a while. 

I was surprised by the width of the holly hedge, which must be there about twenty years. It should look nice when the new holly trees are planted and after a few years they will provide a nice backdrop to the patio and also provide shelter for the hens.  In the meantime we will put up some windbreak on the hen run.

Take your choice of either phrase. What Scrubber is rabbitting on about is the length of growth his walnut trees put on this season. Normally he trims them back twice in the year but of course having the pair of pigeon chicks meant waiting. I asked Anna to photograph me with two representative branches! There were about fifty of these in the circle. The good thing was that they are easy to tidy up after, being long and light enough but that job is half completed and tomorrow sees it done, I also cleaned around the box ballas and the stems of the walnuts and then strimmed the alchemellia Mollis that borders the grass circle and edged that. Which was all I had time for today, Ill clear up tomorrow and plant some clematis that fell into my boot lately when visiting Glanbia, I must remember to close it!

Theres a very nice grass in a shop not far away {Graignamanagh} and a little bamboo as well, I dont know if Bamboo would be out of place in the scrub? Perhaps near the Lord Buddha? Its small and variegated and the grass is Miscanthus Zebrinus, They are both generous sizes and only 22Euro for the two so I might be tempted! Someone reminded me Jacinta I think of eupotoria? Joe Pye weed so that might suit the bog as well. Open to suggestion. I dont want Gunnera as its too massive, Darmera Peltata will do nicely instead.

Hope I dont have to go to Graiguenamanagh for any messages tomorrow as I dont think Id be able to resist!

It was nice just to have one area to tidy up completely and by tomorrow that should be looking well. Now I have to download some pictures but Ill just stick this up while Im doing so! Very sorry for some reason the laptop refuses to process my camera. I dont know why. It has done so up to this. Any advice warmly welcomed. Laptop is HP Pavilion. It tells me ‘the wait operation timed out’ whatever that means.Ill put up some other pics that I downloaded a while back.

It all started with a casual comment from a guest that she loved my garden because it was wild! Now I know I like close planting and self-seeding and no lawn and stuff but I was taken aback that my garden struck someone as being “wild”. This prompted me to look at various areas in the garden with new eyes.

First victim was the Birdhouse Border – the one with the multi-stemmed birch tree underplanted with Saxifrage. The saxifrage has gradually been invaded by grasses and any attempts to remove the grasses was just wrecking the saxifrage so a more drastic approach was needed – see Photo 1 – I’m still undecided what to use instead of the saxigrage but I have ordered some Tulips for Spring interest and maybe I’ll put some hardy geraniums in for later interest. I would welcome suggestions!

Next area is the border where the “Rose of Sharon” Hypericum Calycimum has been smothering the shrubs in the border. The desperate action is to cut it right to the ground and dig out the bits that were strangling the shrubs! I have no doubt it will be back in full force next year!

But the third area was inspired by Peter’s recent adventures in the Soggy Bottoms. My Hazel Grove (ok – NOT the nuttery!) has been difficult to manage – first there is the annual invasion of the Celandine, then the Geraniums took over so the area became impenetrable – not the best when Hazelnuts need harvesting. Now I can’t get my strimmer to work (the string keeps breaking) so I resorted to the Cultivator and it made short work of everything on the ground – well almost! Anyway the object is to be able to see the hazelnuts when they fall and in Spring I’ve no doubt that the Celandine, Geraniums and Violets will return!

I think I should be careful which area i work on next …. recklessness is the mood at the moment LOL

I was so excited earlier in the year when I spotted my first fox here EVER. But dawn was just arriving and I could then only really make out his silhouette. But just now, much later than normal, he travelled all along the back walls and the sun was really enhancing his beautiful russet coat. He stopped on my neighbours shed roof just long enough for these photos.

Thinks have definitely been progressing positively in the last few weeks. Steve has been off work sick for quite a while now. So he’s getting necessary jobs done before the winter sets in. Sorry, shouldn’t be talking about winter when we’re only a third of the way into Autumn. He returns to work this week so he’s anxious to get a bit more done.

Himself and Derek have been tackling the Ivy. And the last bit (behind the greenhouse) was finally removed today. I can even fit in behind the greenhouse now, just about!!!!   LOL. Blank canvas now, and lots of plans for the patio. Hoping to get it re-paved, and take a small bit off the lawn. This will also give me drier access to the greenhouse during the wet weather.

Steve went in next door to chop the remaining Ivy from their side, and Derek hauled what he had cut through back over to our garden. Wouldn’t leave our rubbish for the neighbours to dispose of. And even though they’re not gardeners, they are very glad to see the back of it. I’ve decided on the shrubs that will be planted into the raised bed up at the greenhouse. Not planting climbers, but shrubs that have been in pots for a few years, and will grow to a decent height but can be kept neat and tidy with ease. I hope to have tropical plants dotted around the seating area for next year. So happy that we’re both agreed with each others wishes for this area. Now, I’m NEVER talking about Ivy again. Happy days!

I watered everything in pots today and gave things a final tomato feed. Weeded pot surfaces, and dragged pots from the end of the garden up to the patio to get an idea of what it should look like when all the hard surfaces have been re-done.

Apologies for not posting in the recent past but i did log in every few days and read the latest journals.

This evening here are some late summer flowering plants for your delectation.

The first is a photo of the flowers of Clethra alnifolia ‘ruby spice’, known as the sweet pepper bush. They have a lovely scent. My one is now a decent sized shrub and  it is a good addition to any garden.

The second photo shows my Kniphofia, aren’t they wonderful at this time of year.

The last photo is of Hibiscus ‘angel heart’. When they flower well Hibiscus are great in the late summer season.

I went round the garden yesterday taking photos for an album (will put it up later) when I spotted two totally out-of-season flowerings. The first is my Magnolia which has produced 3 flowers and the second is a pretty double helebore from Lidl that refused to flower in the spring!

 I don’t do much in the front garden but the usual cutting of the grass and tidying around, so at times it looks quite neglected. As we get some harsh winds coming down the main road some of the plants get wind burned, so it’s hard to know what to put out there that will survive. 

Out the back I had a Kilmarnock Willow which we bought when we first arrived. It wasn’t doing much these past couple of years and I wanted to get rid of it, but Jimmy wanted to keep it. So he said why not put it in the front garden. 

So he duly dug out a circle and it was planted up yesterday evening. The borders were tidied, 5 bags no less, of debris, cuttings, and grass clippings. I under planted it with some Heuchera and Tiarella. Also planted lots of Tete a Tete and Snowdrops for Spring. 

The garden looked so much better after its tidy up and the tree will grow up in time and hopefully look a lot better than it did in the back garden. 

It is just ten thirty and Paddy has taken out the last of the three conifers and is he glad. He worked very hard and was like a man on a mission to get them out. He took two out yesterday (Tuesday) and was out this morning before nine to tackle the last and the biggest one. Now, the nice work can begin, spreading compost and planting the five hollies.

I love Hydrangeas. I have always loved them.  For 25 years I had a magnificent display of them in my garden in Dublin so when I came to Laois I bought some and assumed they would do what Hydrangeas do best – just get on with it and produce masses of flowers for me.

Well they say “pride goes before a fall”. The first pair I bought only one came through the winter of 2009 and it really struggled and failed to flower at all for the next couple of years. Then I got some from kind .iers Dick and Headgardener. One perished and the other just sulked for a bit but finally produces huge blossoms but a maximum of 2 each year! Another gift from a visitor to the garden produces one flower but hides it under very healthy looking leaves.

Seduce by the pretty pictures in the Catalogue I purchased Vanilla Fraise two years ago. Year one – 6 inches high and no flowers. Year two I thought it was a goner but it came on after I gave it some TLC and a good mulch of my very best compost and lo and behold – for such a small plant it is doing its thing very well – and I noticed last evening that the characteristic pink is starting to show! I’m so glad I had faith in that delicate little plant this spring!

For every down there is an up and the fairly wet summer has been great for the Rhodos and they have grown very well as a result. If my Rhodos are happy, i’m happy.

I really love the tall scented lillies, the one shown is in the north/west garden. Some Sedums can be seen about to flower in the background.

The next two photos are of two species Rhododendrons, R.tsariense is a slow, moderate grower with beautiful, small foliage. while R.arboreum ssp cinnamomeum is a tree forming species with equally beautiful, larger foliage.

a bit of jealousy going on here I think. No sooner had I featured my indoor Amaryllis than the outdoor ones started putting up buds!

I don’t like PAINTED WALLS as a rule. I prefer ‘au naturel’. And once you paint, it has to be repeated a couple of years later. Maybe that’s the reason I don’t like PAINTED WALLS. LOL I’m a Lazy Lucy! White would be my last choice in colour for a wall. But with the Ivy, and the half Bamboo fence now gone, the bare block wall is looking pretty grim. And a patio needs to look bright and crisp, in my humble opinion.

Today I took it upon myself to send for masonry paint and brighten it up, at least until the blue posts are affixed. And I suppose with the Marine theme in mind for the patio, a base of white on the wall will be nice and fresh looking behind the blue planks. And if the planks are delayed, at least I have a nice bright wall over the darker months. The new raised bed will be from the greenhouse to the first pier, about 6ft. So I might just about get two shrubs in, but it will be worth it when I regain my little bit of privacy.

I was late in starting the painting. Hope to give a final coat tomorrow. I think the painted wall really highlights the shrub in the second photo. If I hadn’t already planned on having blue planks, I think I’d have painted a mural. But, c’est la vie!

I’ve had this Hibiscus about 5 yrs now, or possibly more. Last year it produced its very first flower. But it disappeared overnight before it had fully opened. Opening up very nicely now and I’m soooo delighted with its colour. Think it’s H. ‘L’oiseau Bleu’.

Some flowers doing their thing for this time of the year, we have gotten a good spell of weather recently with the odd bit of rain so it’s keeping things fresh but I do feel the turn is not far away as the mornings have been quite cool. I see all the spring bulbs are in the shops now and they are calling to me but will wait till next week as we will be up in dublin Zoo with the little man so will call into Johnstown to see what they have.

1st flower is Lily ‘Speciosum Rubrum’ and is a great late flowering lily when most others are gone over and again like most my lillies the petals curve back on the flower which I really like.

2nd is Galtonia ‘Viridflora’ which has reliably come back for me the last two years, really love it. I think it’s very like a hyacinth.

3rd and last photo is of my only Canna in the garden ‘Tropicanna Black’ which stays put and comes back relaibly evey year and starts flowering in late august. It has bulked up so well that I will divided it this year to move around in the garden.

The weather during August has been very dry with only two days rain and not very much at that. I hope the camellias and rhododendrons will flower well in spring due to the lack of water to swell their flower buds. You can see from the photos that the grass is also struggling with brown patches. The Eucryphia was covered in flower this month and lasted for a long time. 

Magnolia grandiflora is at present in flower with is beautiful waxy flowers, a real treat. There is also a few late flowering clematis scrambling up some trees which add a little interest now. Anemone japonica ‘Prinz Heinrick’ is an attractive double pink flowered anemone, not loved by many, but I would hate to have a garden without them as they can add so much to the Autumn garden. 

I have uploaded a photo of the gate which leads into The Lane and for most of the summer the arch over it has been covered by Rosa ‘ Zepherin Drouhin’ and Clematis ‘ Atropirpurea Plena Elegans.