Month: February 2017

A couple of Pulmonaria, one I’ve had for ages , and a lovely one with silvery leaves that Elizabeth gave me a few years ago, and Bergenia, which I’ve also had for ages and is quite an ordinary one but still welcome.

To tell the truth Scrubber was just a fraction dispirited today. Especially when G. Nome remarked unkindly ‘Only a very foolish person would drag tarpaulins full of WET leaves to where one pretends one has a proper composting facility’. And then when Micilin Dee valiantly started to speak ‘And YOU! Say nothing or you’ll have a mouthful of beech leaves to contend with!’ He didn’t mean he would stuff them in himself but poor Micilin was almost submerged by last night’s leaf fall and the leaves were up to his chin! Oddly enough Cherub Lute didn’t seem to be around earlier.

I went out this morning and first I decided to gather up all the cuttings from the quince that I had trimmed a few days ago and that the wind had scattered. Thorny bits they were too. But  while retrieving them I realised the wire rake was a useful tool to roughly clear the border-it takes out grasses and long stems and quite a lot of weeds. So I did a little on the long border. It began to mist but not enough to hinder work. I then tackled the side border and another very dirty one and was quite pleased with the rough beginning I had made. But as Elizabeth commented there was such a lot of rubbish of stems and branches and weeds that I had to make lots of tarpaulin trips to the ‘compost heap’. Then I put in the two new roses and put in compost as well to settle them in and a pittosporum down in the scrub and transplanted one of the semi-standards which had become a normal rose bush due to my stepping on it last year!

There was a lot of cleaning and dumping , really just preparatory work but as the bones of the garden underneath emerged I was quite pleased. Then down to Scrub and cleared a path and emptied lots of tarpaulins full of wet very heavy leaves. I know I should have done them before this but other things (rocks) intervened. Thus occasioning the rebuke from G. Nome who is about as considerate of other’s feelings as a certain new incumbent of the Presidency of the USA.

But as evening drew on and dusk approached and the Scrub began to look quite magical I began to relax and then suddenly, without any fanfare or warning, he was there beside me! Cherub himself. I nearly fell over backwards but he just smiled and explained that it was most unusual to revisit a garden but ‘Mr Scrubber, the Scrub is a magical place in Spring’. I was gobsmacked and noticed Cherub Lute standing a little distance away grinning all over his face and cherub Cymbals was dancing up and down in his excitement. Cherub surveyed all around and commented on the new rock wall (which was an extension of the last project he had supervised). He approved the sweeping changes made to the bottoms and I gave Cherub Lute full credit for that. He admired the new bridge and the majestic head of the Lord Buddha ‘Remarkably serene’. He also thought the changes we had made to the rockery and steps were very fitting and a definite improvement and he nodded sagely as Cherub Lute listed all the new plantings in the bottoms and further up the scrub ,Guelder roses, Dogwoods, Astilbes. Irises, Primula Florinda and the junipers. He particularly like the skyrockets and one blue arrow in the main lawn. ‘I knew I left you in good hands’ he said softly but not so softly that Cherub Lute wouldn’t hear the compliment. And he blushed to the roots of his curly hair.

And then, just as suddenly, Cherub was gone and there was a quietness and peace all around. All I heard was a final almost whispered phrase-‘And don’t worry about G.Nome’s comments. He has a great variety of opinions but in fact knows nothing about gardening!’ .What a visit!

On their way to the airport last summer, Terri and Alan dropped in for a quick visit, with some very welcome bits and pieces – pepper plants, and some bedding Begonias (Begonia semperflorens) that I usually throw out after they’ve done their thing. The peppers performed beautifully and I got a load from just one plant. I was a bit lazy on account of the new knee and didn’t even bother to discard them. The same with the Begonias.

I was out for a very short while today as it never stopped raining. The Begonias had been left in the greenhouse over winter and are now sprouting again. Didn’t think they’d survive, even though we’ve had a very mild winter. Just saying…… So they got a drink today and a very diluted dose of tomato feed.

The first pics show some lovely Daffodils in full bloom on the roadside very near me.  They have been in bloom for at least the last week and a half.  I ment to have taken a photo last week before the end of January, but had passed by before remembering to stop and take the photos.  Having parked in the gateway of the house, the lady of the house came out to see what I was doing. I said I was taking a photo of her very early Daffodills.  She said they were alright, but the ones beside the other gate pillar she said bloomed on the 17th December two years ago.  How early can you get !

Second photo show the new seed potatoes chitting nicely on a nice dressing table. First job completed.  Now let’s hope all this rain stops so I can get at some of the outside jobs done.   Ivor….

It wasnt easy to settle down to the humdrum of daily gardening but I determined Id go out and start on the weedinfested side bed and work my way round to the rockery. And yet by five o clock the bed was still unwed! I first brought in therubbish  and papers to the skip. Then I emptied the ash bucket-I fill in under the slabs in the squelchy path. One ashbucket makes a firm base in the boggy ground.

Then I decided to stake the little roses more firmly as three of them were flimsy enough. I brought down some leaves to compost and on the way back-well we wont go there but  a lot of my day was spent at it. (Slight height adjustment!). Then I raked leaves from in front of Micileen Dees place for which he thanked me very graciously and more leaves from the rockery—so many many leaves!

Lastly I edged the wood path again and it now has a fine defining edge with which I am pleased. My back is telling me that  I may have been a touch too enthusiastic in dumping those leaves but I was so encouraged by Cherub’s visit that I went at it with a vengeance. The back has NOTHING to do with the height adjustments mentioned- things were not moved more than six inches at most!)

Such a great day today after all the recent rain and wind. But I only got a short time to do a bit of weeding and cutting back. This has been the first time that I didn’t get things cut back in Autumn, and it’s a mistake I won’t make again. It just seems to be endless at this time of year, especially when time outdoors is in fits and starts.

I was delighted to see that my Galanthus ‘Spindlestone Surprise’ is almost out. It’s multiplying well since acquiring about three years ago.

Pieris ‘Forest Flame’ is looking lovely. And my Grevillea is starting to open already.

Well the weather was good to us today in Carlow. Just a small spit of light rain, only lasted twenty mins or so.  So the glasshouse got it’s clean and all the weed seedlings got their cumupins, I hope.  Hope to carry on again tomorrow weather permitting.  Tidy more leaves up, empty out all the compost, mulsh up the Rubarb, two plants are peeping through already. On the list goes.

Pics show herself put to hard labour, yes I did some myself, got a bit wet and I stank of Jeyes fluid. However the effort was well worthwhile. It shines now as nearly the same as when I assembled it. Cheers………..and yes. I will have something to wash down the “Jeyes”  !!

………in everyone, as the saying goes. 

But also when the sun is shining the flowers respond to it too. And as yesterday was a fantastic day sunshine wise the flowers certainly responded. As I was coming in the front garden I couldn’t help but notice these little crocus in full bloom because of the sunshine yet it was very cold. They were wide open and just beaming. It was lovely to see them even though they are so small amongst the taller plants. 

Also responding were the Snowdrops. They too were wide open and looking very elegant. Usually they are more closed but again as the sun was so bright these opened up to welcome it in. 

Unfortunately, today is not so good. Rain forecast, hasn’t hit here just yet!! Busy day ahead for me so probably won’t get my seed sowing done today but I’m hopeful this week to get a few things down. 

Enjoy the week ahead! 

I’ve been a bit busy the past few weeks oveseeing Elizabeth’s renovations. My car can find its own way to Dublin now – and every day going up and down I had to pass my favourite haunt – Johnstown of course! Most days I was in too much of a hurry to stop, or was tired and anxious to get home but one day … it had to happen … I wasn’t under time pressure … and Jim in Johnstown had told me the plant i was looking for had come in … and I still had a balance on my Gift Voucher … and Elizabeth was with me to lead me astray … Nuff said.

Exochorda Macrantha The Bride “The Pearl Bush” now lives in Gortnalee! 

Other people do great “un-boxing” videos but I can only manage an “un-wrapping photos” set 🙁

We didn’t get home till almost dark but I couldn’t resist going out and potting it into the spot I had chosen for it beside the Pergola!

Unpleasant weather in these parts today and the frosts of the last couple of nights has done a job on R. christnas cheer and the flowering Camellias. Such is the life of an East Limerick garden and more buds will open to compensate for the lost flowers so all will be well again.

Unsurprisingly there is little change in the R.bureavii bud and I reckon the bud watch photos will be like watching paint dry until Vesuvius finally erupts. Patience required.

It never ceases to amaze me how shrubs can attain a fine size without I really noticing. Viburnum tinus ‘eve price’ is now a very fine specimen and looks great all year round.

The third shot is of a combination of R. cephalanthum crebreflorum and a primrose. To my mind there is something very attractive about this photo.

The polygala myrtifolia was an expensive purchase from Lidl last spring, and I havebeen very pleased with it.  It has flowered almost constantly since April last. Inthink I should trim it into shape in a month or so. 

 I see the picture is ipside down again!  So you will all have to stand on your head! 

This Diosma “Silver Flame” is a super plant.  Little starry white flowers and they just keep coming and coming.  The soft foliage is aromatic.  When the flowering seems to have come to an end, I give it a short back and sides to keep it from becoming too lax and tomkeep it within the bounds of the allocated space.  It is planted against the conservatory.  

All 3 pictures are upside down.  Some day, when I am in area with super speed broadband, I will try to resend the oictures to see if the problem is  very very slow upload.

Our weather this past couple of weeks has been so different almost every day. 

Wild wet and windy yesterday, a bit frosty this morning and it’s to be sunny today, fingers crossed. 

We had a very heavy frost here on Sunday morning. Everywhere really did look great and when taking photos it can make the garden appear so beautiful, even in those places where it’s not!! 

So here are a couple of photos from Sunday morning in the garden after the frost!! 

The first photo is a Heuchera with the frost on its leaves making it appear like white lace. 

Second photo is the picture that greets us every morning, our borrowed backdrop and when the sun shines it’s even more beautiful. 

Last photo is my Tree Fern and how the frost sits on the fronds. I love this photo!! 

Ok, it was freezing when we got back from Tenerife late Saturday night, but it was great to wake up to sun on Sunday morning and go and have a look round the garden. I never expected to see tulips in flower, though! I had lettuces sown by lunchtime, but haven’t got much done otherwise because, having yomped up volcanoes, clifftops, through forests and up thousands of steps with not a bother, I tripped over a twig in our local wood and banjaxed my face and arms. Pride goeth before a fall, no doubt!

The Herbaceous Border below my deck is one big job in Spring to get it cleaned up and tidied. It rebukes me every time I walk past it until I give in and get tidying! It takes nearly a week to get it all done a couple of hours a day but it is well worth it when it is done. There are a number of small early tulips there which really welcome having space to strut their stuff! 

Puss takes a great interest when I’m down on my kneeler weeding but the other day I was really amused – I just stood up to empty the bucket of weeds into the wheelbarrow and Puss – the total opportunist – hopped onto the nice warm kneeler! 

I think that the weeding of this border is time really well spent – it serves as an encouragement to proceed with the rest of the tidy-up! And next year I will DEFINITELY do the cutting back in the Autumn ……LOL

P.S. The Heathers are out too!

Finally got around to putting up a January Album – a bit heavy on the Helebores but for me these wonderful plants constantly delight me especially at this time of year when I am impatient for everything else in the garden to get going!

Next session in the garden will deinitely see all the helebores having their leaves trimmed 0 except for Helleborus Argutifolius and Helleborus Foetidus. Neither of these appear to suffer from Blackspot but the rest are definitely improved by removing the leaves!And just to make a point – here are a few more of them!

Things are starting to come alive in the garden this month. It’s hard to avoid trampling on teeny buds emerging and the shoots of perennials coming through. 

On closer inspection when having a look around, I spotted my little Anemones, in amongst the debris of the garden. Tiny blue flowers and soft fermy foliage coming through the soil. They seem to spring up in the strangest of places. It’s hard to remember everything in the soil, especially when they are so small and don’t last all Summer long. 

Also coming along nicely are all the Tulip bulbs I have grown in pots which line the path of the greenhouse. These have been shooting up since before Christmas. I hope I will have a lovely display. These are the bulbs I purchased in Mr. Middletons warehouse sale back in Autumn. 

In the third photo is the lovely foliage of Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’. This has little blue flowers and looks nice against the foliage. 

So just a few things coming into flower. Soon the garden will explode with colour, well I hope it does! I really am so looking forward to seeing what the seasons bring and how the garden will look.  Each year it’s getting better and better. 

My lovely Kris Kindle present has just exploded into bloom. Thank you to the giver.

Life is very busy at the moment with grandchildren and I haven’t been doing any gardening.  But it can wait, as like the plants the little ones will be all grown up before we can blink!

I found some photos on my phone that I had taken a couple of weeks ago when I noticed these rich reds.

Good colour for cold wintery days!

It was so cold and damp yesterday I went up to Liam in Morgans Garden center and bought a packet of my favourite Toms, Gardeners Delight and Moneymaker.  I returned home retired to the garage with radiant heaters on and seeded up the Toms. I had a few Corgettes and some Cucumbers left from last year, they got seeded too.  First pic shows all seeded in the garage, second shows them all cosyed up in the hot press, Enjoyable and good afternoons work I thaught.  Then I read journels of members sowing back in January. Am I too late !

Third pic shows an indoor Begonia that I have had for donkeys years. Its parent belonged to my Grandmother and I would say her’s before her.  I damn near killed it last year, I thaught it was dead.  I cut it back, repotted and supported it in a bigger pot.  It slowly came back to life and would appear to be flourshing and it is, but it still has this habit of producing a black burnt leaves which I pull off eventualy when it covers more than thirty percent of the leaf.   Anyone had simlar experience ?   It’s potted in a mix of soil, homemade compost and regular shop compost.  Feeding is priopartry plant food and of course “Worm Tea”. 

We are under pressure to get work done in the garden for an upcoming garden visit next week by a gardening club. The weather has not been kind to us over the last few weeks, so with only a few days left Paddy was out cuttting the grass today in freezing cold weather. Since Thursday last the cold wind has been dreadful. Snowdrops, cyclamens and iris are getting whipped by the gusts. A little sun would be so welcome to help bring plants into flower. In Janurary plants were doing well, but now growth seems to have come to a stop. The hellebores are also feeling the cold which is disappointing as there are one plant I always look forward to flowering.

I was reading in Gracedieu Lass’ journal that they cut the grass as they have a group coming to see their garden. Well, not wanting to be left out I cut the grass today. Mind you I have no-one coming to see the garden, the Cat who has been taking up residence over the last few months has decided to take a holiday so at least He will see the difference when He returns. I hope He appreciates the effort. Different strokes for different folks.

The latest photo in my R.bureavii bud watch series is featured in photo no 1.

The second photo is of berries on my Aucuba which is getting to be a large shrub at this stage and what a fine shrub it is, evergreen with attractive foliage and these big berries to be admired.

The latest Camellia to flower is one of eight (two sets of four) that I planted as a kind of hedge in 2012. The four that this one is part of will all flower this year but the other four are a different Camellia and won’t flower for another year or two.

When I got back from my walk down the Royal Canal in Drumcondra this morning, the sunshine tempted me out to the garden for a bit of essential maintenance.

Finally got the Christmas tree cut up and deposited ‘over the wall’. That’s cleared the patio. Everything is growing at the rate of knots. Opened up the greenhouse and I gave everything a good soak. Left the greenhouse open for about 4hrs.

Outside, I cleared up a lot of debris that hadn’t been done earlier.  Two black bags full. And it’s made a visual difference already. The grass could now do with a second cut to make it look a bit more ‘loved’. But that can wait until the weekend maybe.

The Campsis that Gretta bought me in France the year before last had been kept in the greenhouse all winter. I have yet to see it in flower. So with lots of growth on it, things are looking good. I may start to harden it off in the next couple of weeks, depending on the weather.

Third photo is a plant that Mary gave me in Summer of 2015. Lovely no maintenance plant, and turning a lovely colour. I accidentally broke a couple of bits off it today, so they got planted into the same planter in the hope that it will bulk up a bit more.

Evening all. The rise in temperatures is welcome and it was a lovely day today.

Camellia ‘debbie’ is the latest of the Camellias to flower. This is reliable bloomer, year after year.

The Hellebore in the second photo is probably my favourite of the Hellebores in my garden. I love its simplicity.

The third photo is of a bud on the species deciduous Azalea, A. quinquefolium. I have this for a few years at this stage and I adore it as it has beautiful foliage and I have read that the flowers are delightful, so when it reaches flowering age there will be another treat in store. The red bud is quite stunning and seems appropriate for St Valentines day.

Sometimes gardening can be cruel but we learn from it and come back from it and go again. I bought Wendy’s Gold a few years back at a Keith Wiley talk and was so over the moon that one I got a yellow snowdrop and two that is was only €10 for two bulbs I think at the time. I has done so well the last couple of years and was finally A nice small clump with 7+ flowers appearing.

But this morning on a quick look I noticed one very unhappy plant so I dug up and enquired about it on a snowdrop group on facebook and found it’s a virus and nothing can be done only to get rid of it which was fine for one flowering bulb. But on inspection this evening the whole clump has it some bad and some only slight but I can’t risk my other snowdrops getting it so All of my Wendy’s gold were dug up and disposed of with great heartache. Also it was my absolute favourite one and really looked forward to seeing it in all it’s glory in a few days but not to be.