Month: December 2017

I wish you all a very happy New year and plenty of good gardening. I wonder where everyone is gone. I got the January issue of the Irish Garden when I got back  from Dublin on Friday. It was interesting to see the article about Cormac’s garden. One would hardlyfeel that such plants as his would grow in Ireland and yet he was able to grow them in one of the most northerly counties.  I spent a week in my sister’s house, near Clonee on the Dublin Meath border. There was plenty to be done when I got home. I would say that my friend the robin was so pleased that I got back. One of the first things i plan is to get some tomato seed and get it sown. Another, provided the weather is good is to prune the roses.

hello everyone hope you all had a very happy and peaceful christmas. I had a lovely break with all the family but kinda itching to get back to normal and looking forward to getting back to the great outdoors. I am not great when cooped up in the house for long. Looking forward to seeing some of you on the 13th. In the meantime I would like to wish you all the best of everything good for 2018 and may we have lots of gardening get togethers. 

THE CURRENT BANKING CRISIS EXPLAINED BY AN IRISHMAN

Young Paddy bought a donkey from a farmer for €100.
The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day. 
The next day he drove up and said, ‘Sorry son, 
but I have some bad news. The donkey’s died.’
Paddy replied, ‘Well then just give me my money back.’
The farmer said, ‘Can’t do that. I’ve already spent it.’ 
Paddy said, ‘OK, then, just bring me the dead donkey.’
The farmer asked, ‘What are you going to do with him?’
Paddy said, ‘I’m going to raffle him off.’
The farmer said, ‘You can’t raffle a dead donkey!’
Paddy said, ‘Sure I can. Watch me. I just won’t tell anybody 
he’s dead.’
A month later, the farmer met up with Paddy and asked, 
‘ What happened with that dead donkey?’
Paddy said, ‘I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at €2 each 
and made a profit of €898′ 
The farmer said, ‘Didn’t anyone complain?’
Paddy said, ‘Just the guy who won. So I gave him his €2 back.’ Paddy now works for the Bank of Ireland
Not my composition . My nephew,John sent it to me by e-mail just before I went to Dublin.

 

I came back from Dublin yesterday, by train. I only use the car for short distances. I met several of my sister’s family (she had 9 children) I met 8 of them. I got a fair number of presents. I didn’t have room for all. Here is one I got from a niece of mine.

A Happy New Year to all.

I have not done anything in the garden in weeks and was great to get out for a few hours today. Planted a good few alliums and tulips I got half price recently and also got a lot more cutting back and tidying up done with loads more to go. I felt really good after it and hope to get more done before I got back to work on Tues. I have my old laptop back working again so should be easy to use the site again for now. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and also Happy New Year.

I got this cup that’s a pot or a pot thats a cup haha

I got a new Apple macbook and I wanted to see if it would work with photos on here, so here goes!!

This was taken yesterday when I was coming down the stairs as the dogs were waiting to see if I would take them out for a walk!!

 

It is that time of year when I find myself caught between Christmas and New Year Celebrations. I have eaten and drank toomuch and there is no point in cutting down as there is so much left and the New Year is still to come. I have been busy over the Christmas with family visiting, but have managed to get out for a few walks which is always important for me to do, as I hate been stuck in. Gardening is at a stand still apart from a run to the glasshouse to cover plants with fleece on frosty nights. 

I have come across an interesting blog on the site of the National Garden Scheme which I find a nice read in the evenings. The blog was written by a member of the NGS who decided to visit ninety gardens in 2017 as the NGS celebrated their 90th anniversary. The blog is called The Garden Gate is Open.

Spring bulbs that I have planted in pots are pushing up well with the recent mild weather, but I think the next few days will slow things down. We received a gift of some crocus in the autumn from a friend in England and I came across a photo the other day of what they will look like in spring and I am well impressed.

Wishing all the members on the site a very Happy and Healthy New Year and SO looking forward to the get together.

Thats what I tell myself as I lug tarpaulins full of leaves down to the bottoms-yes even now I am still at it! The weather is cold but dry around here and its lovely to see all the snowdrops shoots coming up everywhere. A good time too to collect all the fallen branches and break them into kindling. There’s a marvellous big snowdrop out at present with broad leaves a present from Paddy which I treasure even if I have mislaid the name. I dont go in much for rare varieties but its lovely to have two or three specials among all the others. Its great too when paths re emerge from their leaf covering and the bones of the garden are revealed. I only stay out an hour to an hour and a half but it’s so pleasant. And Mary, this time I have cut away allthe old hellebore leaves. I havent dared to do it in earlier years so here’s hoping.

 

Good day friends on a bright, but perishing St Stephen’s Day.

Sorry I missed saying Happy Christmas, but I hope it was what you hoped it would be.

So now I wish you all the best in New Year 2018. May it be gentle and peaceful, with lots of pleasant garden surprises.

The ‘Honesty Angel’ was a charity donation. You bought the angel, and the gift brought (Honesty on mine) was on a card at the back. Mind you, I’m not decided on whether I like the ‘onsie’ outfit!

Well the big day is nearly upon us and all the rushing around of the last few weeks is coming to an end. I hope all the members on the site have a happy and peaceful Christmas and a great 2018. Looking forward to the get together in Johnstown in January and I am already making a list of what I would like to buy.

This week has been a busy week for me with a day trip to Limerick to see Olivia in her school play. Wednesday we attended a funeral of Michael Gallagher, who was a member on the site, but was a little shy in writing because he felt he did not know much about gardening. How wrong he was. On Thursday we went to Knochroe passage tomb to see the sun setting and to welcome in the lengthening of the days.

Everyone enjoy your Christmas and hope to hear from you all in the New Year.

I’ll keep it short and sweet. I just want to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.

Let’s hope the NEW site will be up and running successfully very soon.

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and a safe, peaceful and healthy New Year. 

We have had a busy few weeks and just back from a 4 day trip to New York with my family. It was just fantastic with plenty of shopping and we went to the show ‘Wicked’ on Broadway. Just out of this world, what a show.  I would highly recommend it when it comes here to Bord Gais. And to top it off and give it that real Christmassy feel…..it snowed too. Amazing!! 

Looking forward to seeing you all at the get together in January and throughout 2018. Sharing plants and seeds etc and enjoying our gardens. Hopefully we will have a new site to share all our stories too. 

Heywood Gardens and woodland walk has to be one of my most often visited garden. The OPW are doing a great job in restoring and maintaining it. The formal Luytens Garden has been replanted and is a delight! There is a small area that seems to have been a sort of labyrinth and every time I go there they seem to have uncovered another little path! With my fondness for paths I’m totally intrigued!

Having strolled aroung the formal area with my HelpX volunteers we were a bit short of time so we just took one short woodland path – but what a shock! Ophelia very obvioulsly paid a serious visit to the woodland! This woodland has an amazing display of native Bluebells in Spring and I am sure they will be there this Spring too. 

I was really saddened to see such devastation among these venerable woodlands. The photos are just a small sample of the damage. I just hope that the OPW will be able to sort this out without affecting the lovely bluebells!

I have had two lovely HelpX volunteers working with me in the garden for the past 5 weeks and as is my usual habit I took them on a couple of excursions locally in their free time.

We visited the Rock of Dunamase on a cold but dry day after the snow had gone and we also visited Heywood Gardens but I’ll put up another journal about that!

Finally we went to the Delta Centre in Carlow where the whole place is lit with fairy lights and open till 7pm this week to allow visitors to experience it! Santa is also on site and their new restaurant is serving tasty food and there is a lovely gift shop too!

The last few days I have been down-loading journals that I put up over the years, but I think that some maybe missing. I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem. The reason that I am doing this is because I use the site as a diary for what I am doing in the garden and also a record of gardens I visit. The journals I am missing seem to be between June 2011 to July 2012, but it could be that I didn’t write anything during that year. I also noticed when I changed my profile photo a few weeks ago that the number of days since I visited was over 280 which is not right. 

A few photos of gardens I visited this summer on this cold bright winters day.

I’m a bit paranoid about venturing out if the temperature isn’t at least at ‘feels like 5 degrees, so in a way, I’d appreciate at least a slight warming – even if not the global kind, so that I could sort out my swaps for Johnstown.

But then, there is a huge advantage in having a cold winter. For a Fuchsia Fanatic like myself, there is a ‘nasty’ lurking in the UK called Fuchsia Gall Mite It isn’t mentioned on the Irish Invasive Species site, so I hope this means it hasn’t reached us. But apparently, a cold winter kills it. 

So it’s truely an ill wind (chill wind) that might be an advantage to some.

We like to leave the seedheads on the stalks until well into the winter for the finches. In these cold days there are dozens of them all over the feeders and the borders, ferreting around for scraps. Now that so few flowers are out it’s lovely to watch them. We had a little snow at dawn this morning after a night of heavy rain, and the poor things couldn’t get at their breakfast soon enough. I took the photos a week or so ago, I’m sure others have much more dramatic snowy photos so I’ll leave them to the Northern contingent!

Today I had a ramble around the garden. Plenty still producing the odd flower, but my Senecio petasitis is looking really nice, despite the cold weather.

Ive been online. Garden hasnt seen too much of me as weather has been very cold and nasty cold refuses to budge despite liberal inhalations of Jameson! Its not ‘flu just a nasty headcold. So I go out and look down and am very pleased to see the shapes of the paths evolving below in the scrub. I did clear a lot of the beds near scrubber’s statue and lots of crocosmia leaves-I just pulled them out so i hope I did right. The arch, gate and obelisks seem to stand out a littlemore clearly as the plantlife fades around them but they are not ,I think, intrusive. I am still without a usable lap top but it will arrive in santa’s sack or in the sales afterwards which might be a better idea so am still without pictures except for this lovely one of Anna pruning expertly!.Or proper e-mail so please bear with me.

 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qWil-l5Sj-rfNkoR-U3DU7NRv24O_Fbb?usp=sharing

This link will take you to the Album on My Drive.

NOTE Dec 6 – Sorry folks, but there seems to be something wrong with the link. We’ll have to be patient while I sort it out.

The focus is a bit blurred on some images – it was a perishing day, so either my eyes were fogged with the cold, or my hands were shaking – But I think the evidence is there – I am amazed that there is still so much colour.

Enjoy – when you can :-S

This arrived in the post for me the other day. A book I haven’t wanted for awhile now written by the late Will Giles an inspiration in tropical/exotic looking gardens in our climate. It was hard to find this book new online and if I did it was crazy prices so I was assured on the Hardy Tropical site on facebook that most 2nd hand ones people got were like new. So I checked Ebay and found one for €7 inc post so bought that and when it came it was immaculate. Have only glance at it at the moment but looks good and has me itching for next spring already to get going.

Yes, we’ve had it relatively mild up until the last week or so. But so surprised that I still have some Marigolds flowering. And my Rhodochiton, which normally gets moved into the glasshouse for winter, is still outside and flowering away.