Month: October 2017

What with the building project taking up the last six weeks – and now nearing completion thanl goodness – I was taken by surprise by the arrival of October – Well I was until I stepped outside this morning into a bitter wind! The wooly hat has replaced the summer kerchief, the warmer gardening jacket has come out of retirement and I even got a little bit of restitution commenced on the borders affected by the building.

So I thought I’d start a new theme – what was your best buy this year for the garden?

Mine has definitely proved to be this rose “Just Joey” picked up in a very bedraggled state for the princely sum of €2.99. It was covered with mildew but it had a few buds when I bought it. It is an old favourite of mine but when the first buds opened I was very disappointed as they were very misshapen and not at all pretty.

However I decided to see how it would react to a dose of my new Worm Fertilizer. (The wormery is still limping along – not doing much in the upper stories but producing a good bit of liquid fertilizer. I dilute it 1 to 4 ) I have been pleasantly surprised with the results of this fertilizer on other plants and so I gave Joey a good watering with it. That stuff is magical! The mildew disappeared, the misshapen leaves seemed to straighten out and best of all these lovely blooms reminded me why “Just Joey” was on my wish list!

For €2.99!!!! Definitely my best buy this year!

So what was your best buy?

Last week Myrtle and I went to a fantastic talk on autumn interest perennials given by Rosy Hardy of Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants, a specialist nursery in Hampshire.  

Now most speakers give their talks based around a slide show but Rosy went one better; she came over to Dublin in her van and brought the plants with her!  They were lined up on the platform at the start of the evening and as she proceeded with her talk, she picked them up one by one so we could see their merits in reality, arranged them in a ‘border’, and we could go up after the talk for a closer look.  Rosy did also show slides towards the end of the evening, mainly to illustrate what the plants she had chosen for their autumn foliage looked like when in flower earlier in the year and also show other recommendations.  Her plants were stunning and included quite a few I had never heard of before, including the gorgeous Lespedeza thunbergii shown here (photo from Hardy’s website). 

There was a raffle for a few choice specimens and a good selection of plants for sale too.  Pity the garden here is already too full 🙁  Both Myrtle and I fancied two Amsonias which had lovely bronze foliage but were not for sale, Amsonia ‘Ernst Pagels’ and Amsonia ciliata.  If any of you grow these I’d be interested in your opinion of them. 

A terrific speaker and a most enjoyable evening; if she is ever speaking in your area, go along, you won’t be disappointed. 

The red berries came early on our pyracantha this year and it’s still looking good, though the blackbirds are gradually working their way from the top down!

A couple of weeks ago I finally decided to take out the Lucifers in front of it, after a third year of only producing one flower on a decent sized clump.  I’ve replaced them with Crocosmia ‘Emily McKenzie’ which I hope will do better.  It’s a deep orange, rather than the vivid red of the Lucifers, with attractive mahogany coloured markings.  I don’t know why the Lucifers didn’t do well here; they were not grown too soft and I have seen them looking splendid in other gardens. 

I came upon this carved stone slab today in the grounds of KELLS Priory and ruins Co Kilkenny . The Ruins date back to the 12th Century and later works in the 1500s . The poem is probably later but still interesting to us gardeners today . Try and read the words if you can but clearer images are available from Mr Google .

Yes, very late indeed. But my Impatiens tinctoria is finally opening. I got this one at least 4, possibly 5, years ago by Sumjac here (Terry Smith on FB) I think! This is its first year to flower for me. Mind you, it’s still in the original pot (a big one) and it has in fact rooted through the drainage holes, and into the gravel outside the glasshouse. I’d best look for a decent space in one of the borders. It’s gorgeous.

Two vivid pinks caught my eye today. Yes, I finally managed an hour or more outside at last. Loropetalum looks lovely in bloom and the flowers contrast very well with its purple foliage. Another one is this un-named Aster which is growing under my Taxus baccata.

I know it’s not unusual for primulas to have a second flowering in autumn, but Pulsatilla?  Certainly a first time for me, and there are two more buds coming on it. 

Love this time of year when the pompom-like flowers of Fatsia japonica ‘Spider’s Web’ are showing.

Its been a long nine weeks. My decking had become so dangerous that I needed to bite the bullet and replace it with something safer so ater a lot of research and planning the project to replace the rather large deck with a patio got under way.

Week one and most of week two was dismantling the deck. Although there were quite a few rotton boards and timbers there were also lots of sound ones so the timber had to be sorted as it was dismantled and indeed there is still an awful lot of it still to be dealt with.

So I won’t bore you with a blow-by-blow account of the project, but for anyone interested might like to browse the album!

The patio project was also an opportunity to add a sheltered pergola outside my back door which I have wanted for ages – and today was the day when the covering on the pergola was finally put in place!

Now all I have to do is clear up the building site that used to be my garden ….. and maybe get a bit of REAL gardening done!!!

P.S. – album to follow tomorrow I hope!

I recently bought a selection of Heucheras to add colour to a dull raised bed.

I’m amazed at the instant splash of life it has brought not only to the garden but the view from inside the house. Its lovely to walk into the room and see them especially on a stormy day like this.

Looking forward to adding more varieties to them as soon as weather improves.

Here we have a later photo of the Liquidambar. I took a photo early on but not very much colour other than green. Then came storms Ophelia and Brian and I was afraid that the foliage was all gone. I would have expected something better if these storms had not come. To day started with fog, not very easy to drive although I did. Later it turned out to be a pleasant day. I took the photo. Here it is. The photos were taken from two views, same tree.

This little lady has been flowering away all summer on the north facing gable of my house . Growing from the tarmac , no soil , no feeding , no watering ! Still flowering today as I removed some moss. Judy goes to show !!

A plant that did exceptionally well for me this year were the Echinacea, I love them, they flower and flower and the bees and butterflies love them!  Oh and they look good too!

Yes and where to start!

Lately I’ve been thinking I need to change some things in the garden as it becomes choc a bloc with plants! Things need moving around, replacing or getting rid of too!! I’ve come to the stage where now I find some plants……..dare I say ….boring!! 

So with that in mind I have noted some plants that are no longer of interest to me and they will be going!! This week has been an absolute beautiful week for the garden, bar Wednesday! So each day I’ve been out looking to see what will be staying and what will be going. Also moving around a few plants that are in ‘the wrong place’ 

The thing about doing this is that you then find hidden treasures underneath. Like this lovely little Primula. Hidden under a Shrub which would never be seen if I hadn’t taken it out. Or find another little poppy like this almost black one, again hidden away. I will keep all the great annuals each year and definitely Cosmos are here to stay as they put on a show right through until the first frosts  

I need to be ruthless….to a point. And then look around at my plants in waiting and release them into the wild so to speak. I want to keep the character of the garden but try to enhance it that little bit more for next year 🙂 

Lately I haven’t been doing much gardening as Dad needs constant attention, and I’m also trying to get together a collection of paintings for a local Christmas Fair or two. But it’s amazing to see that Nicandra ‘Splash of Cream’ is still flowering away, lots more to open and I’ve also gathered lots of seed for next year.

Still waiting for my ONE single Dahlia to open, the others are still looking really good at the moment. Mind you, they do respond very well to regular dead-heading and feeding. But the single ones are preferred by the bees as they have no difficulty in getting to the pollen. 

My half-price trailing Begonias that I bought in Homebase a while back have now started to open. They’re quite an elegant one, and a soft muted mix of colour.

Isn’t it smashing that so many of our summer plants are still performing well at this stage in Autumn. It’s been mild, to say the least. And today was very (almost) humid. Not much time outside today, but can’t believe that my Rhodochiton is still in full flower, and Didiscus that I grew from seed this year, and also Lavatera ‘Blue Bird’, which was one of my best buys this year.

I’ve done so little outside in the last few weeks that I’m really struggling to post anything of interest.