Month: September 2016

As our gardens are turning to shades of Autumn now, the leafy plants are taking centre stage with stunning colour.

Bit of a miserable day and much cooler. Walked to my nearest vegetable supplier today, he also sells plants. So bought Chrysanthemums and Violas to dicky up a planter and window box.

Worth the walk to the beach this morning.

Have a great day.

…while Elizabeth was staying with me!

My Rock Garden was originally created with rocks excavated from the site and dumped in that area of the garden. A hasty decision about placing them had to be made because there was a mini-digger available to do the task but the result was less than pleasing to me! I ended up with two far-to-regular rectangles which Brendan remarked were like graves! I managed to sort one out with strategic movements and planting but the second one was still far too grave-like.  Elizabeth and I discussed solutions and i suspect Cherub was hiding in the shelter belt rubbing his hands with glee!  Not needing much encouragement I removed all the plants and started chucking the smaller rocks about as the reconstruction commenced.

Cherub was definitely needed as the redesign required two very large rocks to be repositioned to reduce the regular rectangle to a more natural outline. It is amazing what two determined little women armed with a pickaxe, a jemmy and a basic understanding of fulcrums and things can do! He also showed me that a pickaxe can be a perfect lever in the right place!

Inch by inch, with Cherub providing exactly the right stone to prop things up the rocks just had to give in and the Rock Garden is now a much more pleasing shape – at least to me anyway!

The Album “Rock Garden Reconstruction” shows the before and after views!

A wild and windy day here in Waterford today. It is sunny and warm enough but the wind is very strong. I went out to the garden just before lunch time to take my photo of The Lane and noticed there were a lot of leaves down and the rest of the garden was in the same state. Most of the late perennials are standing up well to the gusts, so hopefully they will continue until the frosts. The dahlias have responded well to my constant deadheading this year,  as has the penstemons. The sedums never fail to impress and the nerines, cyclamens and colchicums are all now starting to flower. With any luck, gardens should keep going for another few weeks with flowers, berries and the colouring of the leaves. Plenty yet to come.

Can any of you please identify these two plants we saw at Mount Stewart gardens earlier this week?

The first made a lovely mound of soft foliage and flower and I’m not sure whether it is a shrub or perennial.  The second (photo 3) looks like a salvia and was in a large planter with other plants. 

Loving this hydrangea which I bought in Carlow Arboratum during the summer… It is in flower now for ages putting on a great display at my front door…. snowy white all summer it is now turning slightly pink! I think I will keep it potted up for now as I don.t know if it would survive my clay soil.

More containers  at the front door are pretty viola’s and have been flowering their wee socks off for ages.

Also loving sedums at the moment prolonging colour in the garden for another while.

Love this time of year when my one and only Pampas Grass (Cortaderia selloana ‘Splendid Star’) is starting to open its plumes. This is a good one for a small garden, and will also do very well in a large planter. The thing I like most of all about this is its variegated foliage.

What an awful day here today. Let’s hope tomorrow will be a lot nicer.

There is still some nice colour in the hot area with Canna and Dahlias. The yellow leaved Cortaderia has lovely plumes I love to watch them develop.

I am very impressed this year with the Autumn colour of the leaves of my Stewartia pseudocamellia, most attractive. I also have been noticing the scent of Viburnum bodnantense ‘dawn’  which is flowering at the minute.

It is my time of year for deciding what Rhodos to order from Glendoick, decisions decisions. I will keep you posted.

Talking of Rhodos, it looks like my R.niveum will flower for the first time next spring. I am really looking forward to seeing the flower colour as this species divides opinion as to whether the colour is attractive or not. I grow it for its foliage but am curious as regards the flowers. 

The saxifrage around Colin’s tree had become infested with some sort of creeping grass over the past few years so I decided to solve the problem once and for all. 

The tree had its canopy raised which made dealing with the people who might be interested. 

The grass was removed for now but it was a painstaking and difficult task – come back Scutch Grass – all is forgiven!

I’m happy with the layout now and will be planting lots of Spring bulbs until I see whether I’ve managed to get rid of the grass or not!

Finally – congratulations Monty on your very practical view of grass in the garden – Mine just got basic care!

What great weather today and I have spent most of the day in the garden cutting down any plants that have gone beyond their sell by date. We have two Yuccas in the garden, both about twenty five years old, which are flowering really well this year. They do look exotic and match the beautiful weather we are enjoying today.

I rarely see even one jet trail in the sky, but this morning the sky was full of them!!

In my very first garden in London I inherited some Sedum Spectabile which I knew then as the Ice Plant! I learned about dividing plants with them – but I don’t remember them self-seeding! SoI have alwasy had a soft spot for this undemanding plant.

My Sedum Garden is at its best in June when all the low-growing sedums are in flower but I really value the taller ones at this time of year. They are far and away the best butterly magnets in the garden. I am delighted to find that there are three different colours among the ones in the photo!

And the little sedum in photo 2 is one that found its way into a planter rather than into the Sedum Garden – it is also a late one but I have no name for it.

The third photo show Cotinus ‘Grace’ and Verbena Bonariensis – two plants I had never even heard of before I joined this site! I just love the blue against the dark foliage of the Cotinus. There are two Cotinus in the garden, this one and Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’ but neither of them produce the signature flowers that give them their name of “Smoke Bush” – I cut Grace back hard this year but have let Royal Purple grow undisturbed. Any suggestions how I can persuade them to flower?

Had a productive few hours in the garden yesterday. It’s getting easier now to keep the garden that bit tidier. During the last couple of months I had started to cut back stuff that was going over. But only cut them down below what was still in flower. So now that plants are beginning to die back, I’m more able to get in between them without too many risks. So they got cut back further yesterday.

Removed lots of weeds that had been annoying me, and lots of creeping buttercup. Every year at this stage I discover things that I had forgotten about as things just grow out of hand. So yesterday was a delight. Found some lovely primroses in flower that would have gone unnoticed if I had left it until later to tidy up. I concentrated mainly on my North-facing border. And took great delight in shaping my Lonicera nitida ‘Bank of Gold’. It’s a great little shrub for a dark border. I didn’t get it all finished, so today I’m hoping to work my way down the garden.

I havent been in the garden for the past couple of weeks, but today I took a little wander around to see what has popped up!

To my delight my Saxifrage Rubrifolia has flowered. I nearly missed it. I got this as a tiny slip and it is really coming on great now. I think the flowers looks like little stars, but the actual foliage is just beautiful too.

The second photo is of a butterfly. I think its Red Admiral. It was on my Buddelia bush in the front garden and it almost looked as though it was stuck on it. It didnt move for ages and then when it did, it did a full circle and almost ‘posed’ for the photos! I was able to almost touch him. When I had finished with the photos he just flew off. Very strange as generally they dont stay around once they see you coming, so really delighted with that.

Last photo is another little Aster in flower here. I dont have a name for it nor do I remember where I got it!!  I have A.’Little Carlow’ but this is different. It has very small leaves and a beautifully formed flower on it. The flower is a delicate purple, almost blue in colour. A nice addition to any garden at this time of year

It was a really lovely day outside today if a bit windy. Tomorrow looks good too, so Im hoping that eventually I can get out there and do a bit here and there and try to put some order on the garden!

Hope you are all enjoying this nice weather!