Month: August 2017

Globe Thistle, I grew it from seed last year and this is its first time flowering. Herbaceous Potentilla that I discovered when I dead-headed the Shasta Daisies, I grew it from seed a good few years ago and it self-seeds a bit. And Rosa “Whiskey Mac” that a friend gave me some years ago. I thought it had died earlier this year, I think I pruned it late, but it suddenly took off again.

Here are a few photos of dahlias doing well here at the moment.

I have always liked dahlias for their pzazz and continuous flowering from July on.

I have a lot of them in pots but I plan to move some of them into the open ground next year as I think they would do better there.

Earwigs have been having a field day as well. I tried setting traps but that didn’t really work.

I am also going to get some new colours as the bright yellow and red Merluza just doesn’t fit in.

Overall, though I am very happy with their performance and I wouldn’t be without them.

While in Sligo this weekend, we accidentally discovered a Garden Centre that we hadn’t spotted before on Holy Well Road, close to Carraroe. Great place, and they propagate most of their own plants. Their polytunnels were filled with seedlings of all kinds. Their Begonia baskets were just to die for. Nearly tempted, even at this late stage. But then, Begonias last well into the autumn and sometimes well into winter. However, I declined, and chose a lovely Heuchera ‘Delta Dawn’ (photo really doesn’t do it justice), and Echinacea purpurea ‘Pow Wow Wild Berry’. Two good-sized plants for just a tenner. You’d probably pay about €8.99 for each of them in the likes of Homebase or Woodies.

Hopefully, weather permitting, they’ll get planted out tomorrow. Pretty miserable here since getting back this afternoon and I believe tomorrow isn’t to be much better. 

I’ve been promising my Musa basjoo a bigger pot for the last two years. It looks like it’s NOT prepared to wait until next year. It’s put on great growth this year so maybe it deserves a treat.

Mary here is the Abutilon which I bought in Lidl last year in April. 

Dont they look very similiar? Now I’m wondering is mine actually an Abutilon? Whatever it is it’s still a beauty 😉 

I took these a while ago when they were in full flower. 

Will this weather ever improve and these grey skies lift? Constant rain here all morning and after all the rain over the last three days the plants are bent to the ground with the weight of water. I know I should not complain as the garden is slowly falling into autumn, if a bit early this year, well maybe a month earlier. Always sad to see summer coming to an end. Who knows maybe we will have an Indian Summer but the evenings are still long enough to enjoy the garden, if only the rain would STOP.

Hello everyone – At this time all Summer I have been out in the garden snatching those precious hours between work and bed time. Not this evening grey skies and torrential rain. Despite this evening we have had a lovely Summer lots of sun and lots of rain a gardener’s dream. 

I have been very busy. I am back doing the plantsperson course with Jimi Blake and loving every minute of it. Jimi is so enthusiastic, such a great plantsman and so easy to listen to and learn from. Visiting Huntingbrook every month and seeing it evolve as the Season changes has been one of the highlights. We of course get to visit June’s regularly and have visited a few other great gardens along the way. The final bonus is the other like minded gardeners on the course who hopefully will remain friends long after the course is finished.

In my own garden I also have been busy. The Vegetable garden and tunnell have been very productive and since the first strawberries in Mid May we have had a constant supply of fresh fruit and vegetables. We are currently enjoying tomatoes, Plums and new potatoes as well as the continuous supply of lettuce, courgettes, peas and cabbage.

In the flower garden we have added in a new border. The idea behind the border was to try and do a prairie style planting. I wanted to use existing plants in the garden and so not spend any money on plants. I had beeb taking slips and divisions for the prior year and the border was planted up in April. When I had it planted I decided it was not big enough so we have now extended and I will take material this Autumn from existing stock to plant in next Spring.

The rest of the borders are contantly been tweaked and I spent last Saturday evening just walking around ( which I seldom do ) with a note pad and pen making notes of plants I want rid of, plants that need dividing etc.

I have when time permits been keeping up with all the journals on here and it is great to see the core garden.ier’s staying loyal to the site. I have posted occasionaly on facebook but what can I say it is just not the same.

We have just booked a weekend break to Wexford over the weekend of Alan’s birthday from September 21st to 24th, so we’ll be free on the Friday and Saturday of that weekend. We hopw to visit Altamont, but would also like to visit one or two gardens. Is anyone in that area open to visitors on either of those days? I should warn you we will have the dog with us, but he’s well behaved and could stay in the car in a shady spot. 

Changing the subject, I’m thrilled by the crop of apples on the young trees, though they’re so heavy on the small branches that we’ve had to support one of the trees before it keeled over in the winds. 

Anyone know who all these assignment folks are? Are we being spammed or hacked? Bit worrying, I must say!

But I got a stone chisel today so was able to finish my inscription on the rock! Adear friend arrived in today with a basket of the most delicious and varied tomatoes. Then when she heard Anna was going to make tomato sauce she arrived back with more and some fresh pesto leaves. Isnt it great to have friends like that especially when one is a duffer at growing veg!

I spent most of day digging up hemerocalis? Day lillies which had become a bit too vigorous. I had the ideal place to put them-believe it or not it was the bog. I tried them last year and was rewarded with a few lovely blooms so next year I should have a lot more.

So between uprooting, transplanting and replanting the day passed quickly. Oh and Tom Jones asked me to include her picture. She is a perfect poser! The name cames as a result of my son’s quirky humour, ;What’s new pussycat’ but Tom Jones is definitely a lady!

The garden is a riot of colour at the moment and I’m really pleased with it. It’s entered its next phase I suppose although still a lot going on. Tidied up the place on Wednesday and cut the grass as it was really in need of a cut. Cut back and deadheaded lots too. Amazing what you see when you are concentrating on weeding etc. Not a huge amount of weeds in the borders, they confine themselves to the grass !! But a few escapees were given their marching orders. 

While up close and personal I found a few beauties. 

First photo is a tiny Allium that has appeared. I think I may have gotten this from Margot a couple of years ago. Of course I’ve no name for it but a lovely surprise. 

I like this combination in the second photo. Sedum Bon Bon and Lysimachia Cletheroides. The dark foliage and flowers against the lime green leaves and white flowers are lovely together. 

Finally my Passiflora has finally put out another flower. Gosh these are few and far between. But so welcome when they do arrive. Will need to rethink their planting  position. 

Well things are gradually starting to slow down. Though only now are the Dahlias starting to flower and no sign of the Cannas yet. Nicotiana is looking very good and ever so big! Several Gingers are in bloom they are a glorious shade of orange .

The gorgeous Maisie insisted that a photo of her should be shown.

We have been at the garden sales locally, having a big bed extension to plant up, and the side of the house is starting to look like Arnotts at opening time on the first day of the sales. Some of the plants are looking very pot-bound and sad, but they’ll perk up with TLC and a good home where they can stretch their roots. Delighted to have acquired some bearded irises very cheap! I will be splitting those in due course a la Monty. 

Took these last week, after a fairly gloomy day it turned i9nto a wonderful evening so we got the camera and took some photos then we spent it in the studio doorway reading our books, watching the sun go down over the Burren. One of those evenings that you do all that gardening for!

I really love this Rudbeckia. I bought it last year in Pergola in Cavan when I visited Mary Keegans garden. I divided it up then and now have two big clumps of it  

It’s so tall and elegant  and sways in the wind. The flowers are just so big and they tower over all the other plants. A really beautiful plant in the garden at this time of year. 

I thought I planted Salvia ‘Wendy’s Wish but I have doubts Can anyone identify this plant? Tks A weed possibly?

Well, it all started about 4 years ago when after a flurry of gardening visits and events I found among the treasures I had collected something with no label and no clue as to its identity. Just a few leaves on a stalk …. so i asked on the site and someone suggested it was probably a ginger and that not all gingers were hardy. 

So I cossetted it for a couple of years – into the greenhouse every autumn, out again every spring. It grew lots more stems and leaves – it divided itself into several plants but that was all it did.

Last year I gave it a good talking to. No more cossetting. Sink or swim you can stay outside in the Tropical Area. 

And guess what? It took me seriously! A couple of weeks ago I noticed one of the stems looked a bit different …. yes, definitely a bud. It seemed to take forever to develop but it finally opened today! And I am so thrilled because Elizabeth7 just put up a photo of the same ginger – so maybe I will get a name for it at last!

The really exciting bit is that four out of the six stems also have buds!

That’s what I call a result!

End of August, how did it come around so soon?  There is still quite a lot of colour to enjoy in the garden: roses in their second flush, autumn berries and leaf colour starting, and many perennials and a few annuals still holding up well.

These photos were taken a few days ago: Penstemon ‘Hidcote Pink’, mixed annuals, and Helenium ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’ which I had wanted for a while and got as a very small plant at a plant fair in April.  Just a few flowers on it this year; I’m looking forward to it bulking up over time. 

These appeared in a container, definitely self-seeded, and tere must have been some cross fertilization going on!

I didn’t get around to lifting any of my dahlias last year and so when there was no sign of “Catherine Deneuve”I was really disappointed but lo and behold – at the end of July she suddenly emerged and this week she has finally flowered. But the colour is not as orange as it was in previous years. Does anyone have an explanation for this I wonder?

Anyway she is still very pretty!

The other photo is Helianthus Decapetalus which was being totally overshadowed in the Main Herbaceous border but with the construction work going on some of the competition has been removed and there she is in all her glory! Dead-heading is the trick with this lovely daisy and I like it because it doesn’t seem to need staking.