Month: March 2018

Quite amazing to have a good sunny day and even feel a little warmth.
Did not do any gardening the horticultural juices are not running yet.
Walked around and sadly the Echiums I thought had survived the big snow seem to have had a delayed reaction and are looking far from healthy. My huge Phormium, Guardsman, also is looking sick and that is sad as I loved it. But then it may stage a recovery. Daffodils are good and cheerful and brave having survived a second outbreak of snow. Their heads may be bowed but they will rise again!I hope that in a week or two when my rib recovers I will get the gardening urge again , can’t imagine being without it.
Hope you all enjoyed sunshine today.

We thought after a short period of mild weather that the real spring was back act mo léan, Ní mar sin a thárla. My second lot of tomato plants were ready to pot up and this took place. While the Beast from the east was with us. I was enjoying the solar energy in the greenhouse and potted 72 plants, Red Cherry.That was done assuming that it would not be cold at night in the greenhouse and true enough the first night was not so cold. Then Met Éireann told us about the following night and yours truly felt that it would be best to bring them into the house. There they lay at the moment Sunday, after been brought into a nice warm house for the night. When I woke up on Sunday morning, I noticed plenty of snow. Looking out the front door, there was the car covered with snow. I asked myself was it safe to drive to Mass, 1.5 miles away. I took the chance and while the road was not perfect, I had to be extra careful. Fr. Tom Little who said Mass had bought 12 tomato plants from me or perhaps Norah who took them off me for him. After Mass , I had a word with Fr. Tom to know how things went and he smiled when he saw me, knowing what I had in mind. He told me that he had them in the house which relieved me.
Yesterday being cold I was in the house most of the time. I watched the parade in Dublin and the the All-Ireland Club finals. The Football Final between Corofin and Nemo Rangers was very one sided but the Hurling Final between Cuala of Dublin and Na Piarsaigh from Limerick finished in a draw even after extra time which I enjoyed and felt was the best result.

It seems I have been successful. First time that I noticed ‘done’ button after ticked chosen photos appeared. Off putting that you see other people’s photos. At every stage of attaching photos, one needs to have a good look at each page!!!!! Nothing good to say as it takes soooooooo long. Thanks Joan for your instructions which prompted me to keep trying!! Tete-a-tete are the daffodils shown. We planted them years ago.

Hi All

Just a quick note to say that even if we’re not replynig to comments, we are taking note and making our way through a snag list. 

If anyone has any direct queries, please do email me at craig@garden.ie 

Thanks

Like many of you, I fear the new site is too complicated and not user friendly; hopefully Craig and the team are reading our journals and comments and will remedy this soon. Meanwhile, to add photos to your journal (from a laptop):
When you have finished typing your journal, click on the Add Media button above left (ignore the line of small buttons directly above your text, no idea why they are there!). This will bring you to a screen of “Media Library” photos; ignore these and click on the Upload Files tab at top left, then Select Files, and choose your photo(s). This brings back a screen showing the Media Library photos (why?) plus yours (ticked) and you can see your photo(s) uploading in the box on right of screen. You can add a caption to your photo if you wish. Then click on the Insert into Post blue button. Your journal screen reappears; click Publish blue button to publish it. Note: you can upload several photos at a time but the box seems to show only one of them uploaded, so if you want to add captions you’re probably better uploading them one at a time and clicking “Save Draft” after each one.
It should be simpler than this!

Trying to find my way round this new site.

What do all those little boxes represent?
For instance : I click on “img”
This is what happens:
Or enter a description of image!!!
So, I then noticed “Add Media”.
Took a look at this, and yes, at last, something that looked familiar. A lovely clear direction to add my own photo.
This I did. I chose two showing my crocuses taken a couple of days ago.
And then what happens? I see dozens of pictures of other peoples photos and my two are busy uploading to this unnamed gallery.
What are Bootstrap buttons?
What is this all about?
I think I shall ask U3A to run an additional IT course next year for members of this site.
I’m off. Things to do!

When the children had grown up and there was no need for a play area I made it into a sunken/secret garden.The garden was not visible from the house ,so I got a veranda style shed (€400) and left the front off ,  put in a bench and seats and most of the plants were there already to screen play area.Lovely place to sit at any time of day,I uses to sit at dusk and watch bats flying around the garden a lovely sight.

Trachycarpus fortunei palm( have it in a pot for my new garden,very heavy but one that size would cost alot,great rootball) An acer and banana plant . You can see a yellow leaved tree to side which is a maple that can take sun but had to leave that after me.Have sourced a replacement.

To left used to be covered in summer with red flowered flame creeper and was constantly self seeding into the gravel.I didn’t think it would do so well in heavy soil, it came in with a scented Christmas box plant I moved from another part of the garden, I divided a large plant I had into 2 pieces.  Tip: mind where you plant flame creeper as it can become very invasive but I love it.

Hidden was large pots with hosta’s and one of my favourite ferns,the regal great autumn colour.

Another favorite spot I want to recreate in my new garden but this time I’m going to add water.

michael

I watched this programme this evening and enjoyed it. Most of it related to growing tomatoes. While my own tomatoes have made great progress and are still in the house, I feel that the time has come to move them to the greenhouse. Weather forecast tells us that for some time the day temperature should be 10 degrees maybe more. i have 32 plants in pots, sewn in January and really big while I have sold18 through the country market. All of these are Alicante. I also have 72 plants, Red Cherry in trays also doing well. They were sown in February. They should be potted up very soon.
I was along to the dentist yesterday to have a tooth extracted and the gum is dealing well. I am to see him to morrow again. I was in St. James’s Hospital to day for a Cat scan in connection with the operation I had last summer, back the same day.

I wonder how the new gardening programme Grow, Cook, Eat appealed to our members. I watched it this evening 7.30 to 8 p.m. The growing part of it seemed good although it moved from spring to summer to autumn. Other parts would not be my forte. Nevertheless, it was an improvement on what we have had for years. I haven’t grown potatoes for years. For some tome, Gerry explained why I had a problem with the stalks during the summer, eel worm so no spuds grown in my place for some time. Last year due to illness no vegetables were grown here. I wonder if I can get back to this aspect of gardening. The spuds they got looked good. It seemed that the programme was not a week to week one but I am an optimist.

Since the launch of the new site I haven’t had any email notifications. Am I the only one?