Month: September 2017

Following on from Margots journal, I thought I would post a picture of this lovely little plant. It was given to me by Yellow Rose (Bernie) a few years ago in Johnstown. Ive divided it up many times and given some away. At the moment I have a few pots and slips on the go!! And only yesterday I took these two photos of one sitting up on the wall.

The flowers are just tiny and really long stems. But it’s the foliage that I really like too. Soft and almost furry. I leave this out all Summer but have taken it in over Winter into the greenhouse. It flowers forever!! 

I have a patch of raspberries that fruit wonderfully at this time of year. So fas as I can remember I only planted one raspberry cane and since it came without a label i had to wait till it fruited to see if it was a Summer fruitiing or an Autumn fruiting and since it fruited in August and September and even into October I have treated them as Autumn-fruiting so I cut them to the ground in early Spring. They have increased at a great rate and need to be kept under control or they would take over the world!

So what’s the conundrum? Well, this clumb is now about 2 metres by a metre in area but if I was to draw a line through the middle I would have one half covered in fruits, but the other half extremely healthy but not a fruit in sight!

Now I have no recollection of getting a second plant but I am beginning to think that the non-fruiting section must actually be summer fruiting. This could explain the lack of fruit – the summer ones fruit on last year’s growth!

Only one answer – I’ll have to leave the non-fruiters alone this Spring and see if they fruit!

But in the meantime I’m revelling in the delicious raspberries until the frost finishes them off!

It’s great to be still picking lots of blueberries daily. I’ll be doing it for at least another three weeks. They haven’t even been bothered by the birds despite the lack of netting. It’s never been as good as this year.

I know Ireland is renowned for its changeable weather and we seem to suffer  from some sort of collective amnesia when it comes to the weather. Two days of sunchine and we have compeletely forgotten that any other kind of weather exists!

And we are encouraged in this total “living in the moment” by the beauriful butterflies that swarm in our gardens as soon as the sun shines!

So here’s to celebrating the sunshine however brief its visit to our county!

I bought this plant in homebase about 2 years ago ..it was just finished flowering and I only paid €2 for it at the time..It was an challenge to see could I get it to flower again ..I had it in the front porch and just ignored it apart from watering it now and again..it stayed green all the time and a few weeks ago I noticed a growth coming out the side of it and today it produced this flower …I am so pleased with it ….can anybody here tell me what it is called

My next door neighbour is a musician. He teaches music in his home and also in some colleges. And has often appeared on the Late Late show!!

Last week he told me he was shooting a video for an original composition of his. He had shot some footage in the Botanic gardens but was wondering if he could use my garden also!!! He said he would love to use some footage as my garden was ‘something special’!!!! Of course I said yes but I was just so surprised. 

As we had a wedding last weekend I didn’t get a chance to go out and tidy up as he asked me on the Friday. So on Sunday afternoon I spent some time deadheading and trying to get the place in order in such a short space of time, plus exhausted from the long day beforehand.

So on Monday he arrived with a young media student and they spent over 40 minutes taking videos and shots of the garden. It should be ready to view in about 3 weeks. 

How mad is that. My garden!! Something that I just potter around in every day and someone thought it good enough for a video. Delighted I am……… 🙂 

……when the grasses come into their own. Two on my best list are Cortaderia  ‘Splendid Star’  and Arundo donax. 

I love persicaria’s, they just keep going and going. 

But you do have to keep check on them or they would take over!

There is such an Autumn feel to the days now which I love, I love all the seasons, they always amaze me!!!

It’s a whole week since I last posted a journal. I’ve been feeling that the site is going to disappear any day and haven’t had the urge to post anything. And to be honest, in the last week I haven’t been doing much gardening because of family commitments.

But I had another look at my precious annual, self-seeded Nicotiana out in the front, and there are little seedlings of the parent plant, and they are also in flower. I managed to uproot one of them and pot it up. It’s still looking very healthy for having lifted in flower. So here’s hoping it will now grace my BACK for a while.

Is this common, strange, very strange or unprecedented? I was down in the Scrub minding me own business when I noticed that a rhodo which has never been very floriferous, has jst put out one flower  and theres a few more coming. This in September! I thought May was their season!

Only did three jobs yesterday. First lifted a rock to enhance it and to help the little bed around it. It took some time but am happy with the result. Then more work on the well named Long Border! Got about two metres done and divided and replanted. Then i hoed Eileen’s flowerbed with my new hoe. Great bargain in local shop. Went in for handle and got hoe for 8euro with a very strong handle -metal. (Kingfisher). Down and did some weeding in bed beside newly raised rock.

So happy that my strimmed alchemelia mollis has put on a nice show of fresh leaves.

I have uploaded an album of the garden for August 2017

Seriously Ive heard before that as you get older time goes quicker! but this is just unreal. I cannot believe that we are now into September. Already the evenings are getting darker earlier and also the mornings too. You can feel a slight chill in the air, although today was so humid!, it contradicts what Im saying….but overall the days have become chillier in the early mornings!

The garden is still looking great though which is really surprising me. I feel at times its still early in the year. Im still kind of waiting for the Summer to start, if that makes sense. We havent had a bad Summer and my garden certainly could do with the rain we have had because it has been so dry here that plants have been literally falling over even those planted in the ground.  But we havent had weeks of bright sunshine and warmth like you would expect. A day or two each week, but it was better to have that than constant bad weather. 

I hate to see everthing going over now though.  Especially when everything has really done so well. Some plants have surprised me in how well they have done and then others surprised me that they havent preformed as good as they should.

I am making plans now for next year! I have decided that I have plants that are really ‘old news’ to me now. At the start of this garden I wanted everything and I had all sorts. Some of them now dont do it for me now and I want to put other more interesting plants in there now. So thats what I am going to concentrate on this Winter, to reinvigorate the garden for next year and make some changes. 

I spent a good 2 hours in Mr Middletons with my sisters yesterday and bought lots and lots of bulbs. In particular, I bought Fritillaria imperalis, in yellow, orange and dark almost black. I saw them in a garden locally and they were fab so I bought 3 bulbs of each to have a good dramatic effect! Well thats the plan, time will tell!

Overall I was delighted but I spent a fortune, but for me thats ok as this is my hobby, I dont drink nor smoke, so I have gardening as my vice lol

I hope you all like the album

Hello All , I haven’t been away just busy with Honey Harvest and prepping bees for Winter . The harvest was good and I had almost 70 kgs of honey from two hives. The gardening took a backfoot unfortunately but wasn’t totally ignored . One of my new bee friends is a keen gardener and a sister is a botanist so I’ve been getting some nice swops lately . The Greenhouse has produced bumper crop of Tomatoes , Cucumbers and Aubergines and is great on a damp day ! Must catch up with all your journals soon .   

When the children go back to school the weather generally picks up and we get the last days of Summer etc. But this last week hasn’t gone to form and it’s quite wet and misty but yet still warm during the day. 

But after the heavy rain of Saturday night I had a quick look around the garden yesterday evening to see what’s still there. Some plants did fall down a bit but overall everything is still standing. 

And with that rain came some lushness again about the garden. Still lots going on and lots more to come too. I’m really pleased with all the colour and as Mary said we have at least two more months left this year. 

So get out there and enjoy your gardens before the long dark evening arrive 😉 

These three pictures show the colour in the garden yesterday, Sunday, after the rain. 

I got this from Keego (Mary) last year. It’s a real stunner of a plant and coming into flower now. 

I just love how tall it is and the le,on colour of the flowers which are like miniature sunflowers. 

I love it and thank you again Mary 

Spent the day running around in circles and not getting anything worthwhile done. I’m going to have to learn how to say ‘no’ to people.

However, when I was finished doing all that, I got out and watered the greenhouse. It was badly needed as I had neglected it last week. I’m growing Tomato ‘Belinda’ this year and I must say it is the sweetest tomato by far that I have ever tasted.  I imagine they are a cherry type, but maybe I just didn’t give them enough feed this year. Did a bit of seed collecting, and dead-headed and fed Dahlias.

The weeds are growing rampant in my Blueberry bed so that’s a job that needs doing tomorrow. Still so many more to pick. And I haven’t had the need to cover them yet. I thought that having the seven bushes all together that it would encourage the birds to devour them. But so far so good. And maybe it’s good that I’m picking them just before they are ripe.

The third photo is a herbaceous perennial Anaphalis that Myrtle kindly gave to me a few years ago. It’s doing better and better each year and requires no maintenance. Thanks again, Myrtle.

Added 1 new today . €4.99 in Aldi , €12 in Woodies or €17

in Johnstown ! Guess where  I choose .

Clematis x triternata rubromarginata a big name for a small flowered clematis. Today I was working in a woodland area which is behind the arbour in the front garden when the sent of almond was overpowering from this dainty little clematis.  It grows up over the arbour and also covers a Exochorda macrantha ‘ The Bride’. It has a white flower with a red/purple margin which only measures 3cm, but it is packed with scent.

This garden is very small and starting to go to sleep now for the winter, however a white cyclamen hedrifolia is lighting up this shady area for the next few weeks. By Christmas Hellebore Niger will be flowering and will be joined by the early snowdrops in January.

Perfect weather for garden maintenance today. I got all the essential household and family jobs done early to leave me free for the garden. Lots of cutting back done, bags filled, and tidying up. Steve surprised me in the early afternoon by arriving home from work early. So he got the grass cut, that has been put on the long finger a lot over the summer months. And as soon as he had that done I asked him ever-so-politely would he cut back the Lythrum and Carex pendula in the Lower Pond as I couldn’t reach in there myself. So I felt it was my duty to clean up what I had asked him to cut back. It was strewn all over the lawn. Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’ got broken in the process, but who am I to look a gifthorse in the mouth.

After watching Liga’s Youtube video on cutting back pelargoniums, I decided to strike while the iron was hot. Also managed to take lots of cuttings for next year. One thing I learned from this video was that when cutting pelargoniums back, they need fairly dry compost, otherwise they will rot.

I was at the bulb sale in Mr. Middleton’s on Saturday and bought plenty. So I decided now was the time to plant up. Indoor Hyacinths will now inject their intoxicating aroma over the winter months, they’re called ‘Gipsy Queen’ and the photo on Saturday showed a strong orange, which sold them to me. We’ll see. They looked positively ‘peachy’ according to Google. Also potted up Narcissus ‘Peach Cobbler’. Also potted up my much-sought-after Iris ‘Katherine Hodgkins’ into a shallow terracotta bowl, and Erythronium ‘Pagoda’. Google tells me that it takes about 3-5yrs for them to flower. I hope someone can tell me otherwise.

The Hosta bed got a good cutback today, they have behaved very well this year. I’ve just left the ones that are still looking good. 

The greenhouse border is looking well at the moment. It has the wildlife pond in the centre. The border is split up into two main sections – the ‘hot’ colours closest to the patio, the further down the garden it has mainly pinks, blues and lilacs. It’s looking lovely at the moment with Oxalis, Persicaria, Sedum, and ready-to-open Nerine bowdenii.

Yesterday was the first day in ages that I had a bit of time in the afternoon to do a bit of gardening. So I took advantage of the lovely afternoon and set about tidying up, cutting back and collecting seed. 

Its only when you take your time deadheading and cutting back that you really take in exactly what you have. Well for me anyway. 

So I was quite surprised to see these three plants, amongst others, making a comeback. 

The Clematis ‘Cardinal Rouge’ flowered in early Summer with its huge deep crimson flowers. And here it is again, in amongst the dead foliage of its earlier attempts, putting out more stunning flowers. 

Another little treasure is this Silene ‘White Bells’ But it hasn’t stopped flowering since early Spring. Once deadheaded it pops right back up again. 

Third photo is Oenothera ‘Sunset Boulevard’ (Evening Primrose) This was originally seed which I got from Rachel about 3 years ago. Planted them out and basically forgot about them. But here they are self seeded and putting on a great show week in and week out.

So many lovely surprises once you take the time to admire them all.  

On Saturday last I was lucky enough to visit Aras an Uachtarain with the Irish Garden Plant Society. We had a lovely tour with the head gardener which lasted for over two hours. He was very kind to give us so much of his time and I know all the members enjoyed it. Robert(Rhody) who is a member on the site was also there with his wife Kathleen and as always it is great to meet up with them. 

Jackie, your dahlia, the yellow one with the splashes of orange was growing in the walled garden. We learned from the gardener that it is an Irish dahlia introduced by Christopher White, a well known dahlia breeder and he was selling them at Bloom, where you bought yours. However, I missed the name of the dahlia, typical.

To the side of the house there was a Peace Bell erected to mark the Good Friday Agreement and alongside it were three upright Irish Oaks planted by O’Bama, Queen Elizabeth 2 and Mary Mc Aleese,  the week that they were visiting Ireland. There are lots of trees, mainly Irish Oak, planted by heads of state growing throughout the gardens. 

A fantastic Turner peach house has been restored and is planted with old varieties of peaches and vines. It is wonderful to see the scale of it as it covers one side of the walled garden, but a summer house, also designed by Turner, is waiting to be restored.

I will up-load an album later.

The Ricinus is doing well as is the Abutilon. These from a bee friend. The white Cosmos somehow survived today’s monsoon showers . Now that the bee keeping is slowing down it’s time to garden again . Lots of home saved seeds put away today even if some id forgotten to label when collected !

Scrubber was a happy bunny today! He had one major job to do today and got it done just before the rain came. I had intended cleaning the area before the old farm wall in the scrub. It would have involved removing a load of Ivy and raking and clearing the ‘path’ beside it. Its where I put in the new gate recently and I hope to get a photo.

It all went very nicely and the ivy came off easily, Then there was one fairly big rock that I had never tried to move before. It jutted out from the back wall. Out came the crowbar and the large boulder couldnt have moved more easily. A little here a bit there and it slid into place perfectly. On the top of the wall there was a good covering of fine black clay. The ivy had covered it and it was weed free.

There were three large tarpaulins full of ivy and leaves and debris. The small stones went back into the wall and once it was all raked there was a transformation!

Its weird, Cherub Lute in action perhaps. But there are areas in the gardenthat just seem to be in waiting, And then their time comes and one idea leads to another-in this case, the new gate then a little planting around it, then changing one big stone , then another, the very large one today, the nice clay on top of thewall they all add up! I wonder whats the next area there quietly waiting its turn. Has Cherub Lute perhaps a secret and long list? I like the idea of them waiting quietly until their turn comes and they say ‘Yes, It’s time. We are ready’

Then I came in as it was raining and looking through the window I saw a minor miracle. A rose that had long since vanished sent out a long new shoot and there at the top a beautiful pink red rose, This was thefirst rose I had ever planted in my garden so I was so glad to welcome it back! Havent its name but its scented and has a lovely form,

So happy day indeed.

Well who would have thought it was still September…….November it feels like when those winds whip up and those showers get going.

Having said all that the garden is holding its own and really putting on a great show still. I cant believe how much is still in flower and how much colour I have too. But then it is still September and early September too!

Today I had a bit of free time and I planted up some of my Tulips in pots, didnt dampen them, but just wanted to put them in the pots and keep them in the greenhouse for the moment. In another few weeks then I will dampen them and put them outside and hope that come Spring it will be a riot of colour. 

I have some Fritillaria imperialis to plant out which I bought from Mr. Middleton. But there are so many plants still in the spot, like Dahlia and Helenium etc so dont want to disturb them just yet. Ive also some Narcissus ‘Garden Club of America’ which are a lovely flower but the bulbs are just HUGE…..these too need to be planted out but again Ive plants there still so will need to wait another week or so!

I hate to see the evenings getting darker and the mornings too! I loved those early early mornings before the world woke up and it was so bright! Ah well it will come again real soon. 

Today I also potted on some of my slips that I have taken these past few weeks too. As I said before I just cant throw anything out I have to put it in a pot, just in case it becomes a new baby. This happened with my Sambuca Nigra. Cut some of it back a couple of weeks ago and put about six sticks into a pot. Today I checked them out and they have all taken so now I have 6 more shrubs in the making lol. Also lots of new Salvia which again I cant throw anything out just in case ! And my Fatsia are growing fantastically well now too!

So should have a good few swaps come January!

A couple of photos of the garden as its looking now!

I got a slip of this plant from a .ier a few years ago. His name was Matt,  cant remember was his surname Connell, Connelly? anyone know him?  I think he may have had a nursery?

He sent this to me in the post and it has done so well every year. I noticed last year it was getting a bit crowded out and I wanted to move it.. So this year I moved it to the circle where I have the tree stump. Its been growing away nicely but I thought it might not flower after the move.

That was until today I notice, finally, that some flowers are starting to emerge. Its a bit later than usual I think and it has the most fabulous flowers too.  Delighted to see that its not given up on me!