Month: March 2018
Happy Easter to all on garden.ie. Hope you have an enjoyable weekend and lots of treats from the Easter bunny. Indoor photo as I’m still finding it too cold for any serious gardening. With a bit of luck temperatures might pick up in the coming week; so many garden jobs are waiting!
This plant was given to me by a friend who got the original from her Aunt in Tourmakeady Co Mayo many many years ago.
The Fernery is the real Spring star[/caption]I can’t believe it is so long since I posted here! I have been very busy with non-gaden stuff – and with the sun trying to tempt me out from other duties it has made me quite impatient at times.
However, I am really happy to see that the re-vamp of the Main Herbaceous border is coming along nicely. I think it will eventually give me a more year-round effect than the old version. At the moment it is definitely a Spring garden. The dark Helebores are deinitely the stars of the show. One in particular I bought at Johnstown in January in flower and it has continued to flower splendidly and still has new buds coming along!
My apologies to all my friends on this site for my neglect over the past few weeks – I blame the lack of email notifications for my tardiness – Oh Dear! I can just hear sr. Josephine scolding me for not taking responsibility for my own faults!!!! Anyway here goes to add a couple of photos ….
On my phone I did out a long journal and when I tried to put in a picture I couldn’t and lost the lot!!! So briefly Has anyone else had a lot of blind daffs this year? I got lovely rhodos in Aldi at 9 euros each. Big ones.wI’ll get them into new area once rain stops. Of course earlier journal was much more entertaining !!!
At the minute I have Mahonia, Berberis, Kerria and Viburnum tinus flowering.
Practising putting things up!
Happy Easter & Garden Colour Today ! That was a struggle to find today !!
Hi to all in Garden.ie, It’s been a while since my last post here due to ill health in the household.
Here goes : Goldfinches ,I never had any in the garden in 30 years here until November of last year 2017, On Christmas Day had 21 ? Even made Videos of them,a wonderful sight and treat to view their antics.
See the Video links @ https://youtu.be/uzQ1dK59C9M
@ https://youtu.be/cjsaeCKVD9g and https://youtu.be/GxdXmtbvnQ8
..now i have a problem I wish they would fly back home to Spain,Portugal and their warmer climates.I need to start work on the garden again which has not had any proper TLC in a while.
Has anyone used mycorrhizal fungi when planting . Monty Don uses it all the time and I was wondering if anyone had used it.
I believe it is supposed to speed up growth by encouraging a better root system and better take up of nutrients.
Any advice please.
michael
Hi All, following Craig’s helpful illustrated guide and Liztai’s brilliant step-by-step instructions on photos, I’ve just experimented putting up an album of 6 photos of primulas in the garden. Now I’m having fun! I’ve tried reducing the size of the photos just to see if they might appear with two side-by-side but they haven’t. I’m on the laptop; maybe that wouldn’t work on a mobile and, as the site is now designed for all devices, photos will always go in a single column. I’ll come back and experiment more later, have to go off and do something else now.
I’m a much happier camper today.
Like I suggested before, I have Craig’s directions open in one tab, and am writing this in a second tab.
I wanted to add the picture. Craig said click Add Media button – I couldn’t see it. Back to Craig again – ah he has a little image, back to this tab again – ah there it is – the little images are a great idea Craig.
Went to Add media page, Upload file, No problem finding the file as I knew where it was on my hard drive. Kennedy Primrose
Back on the Add Media page – I can see the picture on the Media Library tab – I also see where I can fill in details, but I can’t remember what Craig said about some of these details not appearing – back to Craig again – ah yes, the Caption is the important one, but the Alt is good for people who cannot see and use a reader of some sort.. Anyway, I fill in the details – now how do I get it on to my journal page – ah yes, the button is at the bottom.
Now I’m back on the page again – and yes, success – there’s the picture, with the caption neatly under it.
but the size of the picture is a bit big – I click on it – it shows ‘handles’ I make it smaller – wonderful – more success!
Now if I could just locate the picture where I want it – I click on it again – some small icons appear at the top of the picture – for a few minutes I’m a bit mystified as to what they mean (I told you I can be very slow at times!)
Then it dawns on me – Reading from left to right, they mean Left of Text, Centre, Right of Text, Left, Edit, Delete. I chose Left of Text, which works fairly well, but with just one picture, I would like to be able to have Centre in Text
The Edit button like a little pencil has a lot more options, particularly if you want to be very precise about the size etc. And there are even Advanced Options, which I’ll have to learn what they mean first before (if ever) I use them.
What I didn’t find was a setting for regulating the Up/Down location of the image. I used Drag ‘n Drop, but for some reason, it only works with some paragraphs, and not others.
Neither could I find how to regulate the space between paragraphs, or the text style. I tried cut ‘n paste from Word, but that didn’t work either.
Interestingly, when I used the Preview Button, I discovered that this editing screen isn’t WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). There are actually no spaces between paragraphs when its posted, and adding a Hard Return doesn’t always seem to work, for some reason.
I’m not on Facebook but I look forward to when the email ‘comments notifications’ will be available again.
Hi Everyone,
A quick Q&A session on getting around the new site can be found here:
https://www.garden.ie/welcome-to-the-new-garden-ie
Thanks
Craig
Lots of things popping up, Hyacinths, Fritillary, Anemone blanda, Chioodoxa etc.
I know that further snow is forecast but this morning I couldn’t help but notice that there is finally a definite air of Spring. The snowdrops have just faded; the hellebores are turning; the crocuses are past their best; the first tulips are open, the heather is in full bloom and everywhere the daffodills. On Saturday I finally spread feeder on all the lawns so that I now cannot mow them until the fertiliser fully dissolves; and then I won’t be allowed to stop!
But the colour of 2018 is finally emerging from the Winter greatcoat that enshrouded everything until now. Ground is getting dry enough to work with. And there is something special about the change of the hour and the arrival of the long evenings. All in all, the sap is rising. By way of contrast I am placing some pictures from the first of March alongside those I took this morning. We have all seen this contrast and have dealt with it as best we can. At this stage we can only do our normal Spring work and hope that any further cold weather will not do any incurable damage. Good luck everybody and keep it up.
Evening all
Three more Camellias for you this evening.
The first is the large flowered C.anticipation, the second is an un-named i’m afraid as is the third one.
The third one is in a row of four of the same Camellias which will be a short hedge in front of the wonderful late flowering R.polar bear.
I’m really discouraged – yes maybe I’m a slow learner, but I feel lost – I haven’t an idea how things work on the new site, and I don’t know where to look to find out. What I’d love is an FAQ for Dummies – a place I could go from the home page, where it would answer simple questions like
What do I do to write a journal entry?
What do I do to add pictures to the journal?
How do I place the pictures with the text describing them?
How do I make an album of pictures?
How do I make an album accessible to other viewers?
How do I find out if anyone has added comments to my recent journal?
How do I find out if anyone has added comments to other people’s journals?
I’m sure other people have questions they would like straight answers to (step 1, step 2, step 3 etc)
There! I feel a little bit better for having named my ‘confusions’ – Hope you read this Craig, and produce something for the ‘bewildered and confused’ including explanations as for example why there is a SLUG (ugh) in the Screen Options button at the top of the ‘Add Journal’ page.
PS since I’m online, I want to boast that I have the fuchsias
‘done’ – Over 60 of them pruned in their raised beds and pots, and another 40 potted up after their winter rest in the big black plastic box. Plenty of promising little shoots. Roll on the summer.
The weather has been such a disappointment these past few weeks. Not knowing whether everything survives or not and if those little beauties lying under the snow will ever see the light of day again.
And sure enough these past couple of days have been beautiful. Its my first real day out the garden in ages. Have a bit of a setback with my eye so need to take it handy, but that didn’t stop me taking a few photos and I can still manage to throw out some orders too 😀
Jimmy moved the tree stump we kept from the tree that used to live outside on the road and it now lives in a better position with other tree stumps down the back of the garden. So into that circle where it came from we planted up a new Tree Fern that I got as a Christmas present from the lovely Margie…….I want to replicate the other circle I have with the original Tree Fern I got from my daughter a couple of years ago, which is doing so well and survived the Winter. So in time I am hoping that these two will compliment each other. Good growth on both of them, which is a great sign,
Thats about as much as I have done now and hoping that the weather, and my eye, will improve soon and I can get stuck in and do lots more!
Im beginning to get the hang of the new web page. Its nice to have it on the lap top instead of the tiny screen on my phone. I think once we get used to it we will like it.
I had a lovely day yesterday. Went over to a dear friend’s a who recently broke her wrist and I transplanted three lavender for her and put in fifteen very bright cheerful primroses which pleased her no end. Just a small act on my part but her gratitude was embarrassing!
Home and after dinner while down in the Scrub, Cherub Lute nudged me towards a path beside the place I was working in last week. Quite casually he indicated that if I cut deeply into the slope I would enhance the path very much and transform the whole area. His method is different from Cherub’s as he leads me on step by step. Of course he realises I am not as young as I used to be and that a bit here a bit there is easier. And then Abracadabra the pieces come together. And a few more stones emerged to line my other path!
But I sometimes wonder will I ever be finished-not that I want to! And sometimes Scrubber wonders is that what it will be like when
we leave down the spade for the very last time-that we will see how it all fits in, this sometimes very confusing life!
Am to buy a harrow rake tomorrow in Ed Sweeneys. Oh did I mention I got an oscillating hoe there last week. I havent used it yet but am looking forward to trying it out. Still have some Christmas presents money!!!
Still not back to full energy levels but getting there. The sun yesterday and today did help me get out for a couple of hours of pottering, tidying and taking stock. All my plants survived the first big snow but there are a few casualties from last weekend’s blast plus some ‘wait and sees’. Lots of spring beauties to bring cheer too!
I’m just attempting to post a photo to test out the site.
It appears that past members are reluctant to submit journals onto the new site. Let’s hope they haven’t gone for good. As usual it’s being left up to the few remaining members, others just lurking in the shadows.
It has been a good week weatherwise, albeit a bit cold. Today it was warm enough to be outside without a jacket. Promises, promises. Another cold night in store for us and a cold Easter too. But after that there should be no stopping us.
Steve cut down the Miscanthus floridulus at the Upper Pond today, it was wrecking his head. And while he had the secateurs in his hand he also hacked away at the grasses at the back wall.
Meanwhile I was doing a bit of selective cutting back in the Greenhouse Pond. It needs for me to actually get in and clear away winter debris. But as it is filled with frogs and spawn, I will have to put that job on hold for a bit longer. Daffs are late coming out here, but one that I have added to the garden finally is N. ‘Rip Van Winkle’. Such a little cutie. So delighted with them. And I also got some of the same REDUCED in Homebase last week.
I thought I was putting in a comment on Elizabeth’s journal and found it had become a journal in itself. I seem to be writing one now with so I’ll continue. Got my new spade from Edward Sweeney _the old one broke and was very quickly replaced for free. So I bought a fork to match and am going to get a harrow in the same range. Had a great day reccentlyou. I cleared a.no there six inches about Fransham rock. I also dug out a ledge from a slope and that yielded a few nice smaller rocks. These i used to line a small path. In doing this i also transplanted some plants at the edge of that path. Everything seemed to follow on so effortlessly. And then to cap it all I saw my first fritillarys ! A great day. Now to see if I can get up a picture
Well done you to get up a journal. So far I am inept!
