Month: June 2018

This Iris Iris Sibirica Silver edge certainly lives up to its name! I have it since 2011 and it is a tall Iris and is planted under Cotinus Grace and I have always enjoyed the colour contrast between these two. But this year for the first time i really looked closely at the Iris and was completely captivated by the delicate outline of the flower! Of course if I was using my database properly the name would have given it away – but instead I had the lovely surprise of the details.

I have lots of paths in my garden. It was my way of coping with heavy clay soil inclined to waterlog in the winter. I wanted to be able to access all parts of the garden all year round. The solution was a network of gravel paths that certainly solve the problem. Over time several additional paths have been added – anywhere I find myself taking a “shortcut” through a border becomes a new path.

Thats all very well, but the paths have been rather neglected this year. One particular one is the access to the new Zen garden. It almost disappeared completely!

So after a session on the knees (not actually praying) the wheelbarrow was full to overflowing but the access is restored! Very satisfying to see results from a session in the garden!

 

Hi everyone,
I’ve provisionally arranged an autumn get-together and garden tour at Ratoath Garden Centre for Sunday 2nd September. However, we have got the chance to go away for the winter as a young family has agreed to rent our house while theirs is being built. We have to move out by 28th August as their kids start school that week. We plan to visit our friends and family in the UK before we leave, but we have a bed at a friend’s house in Dublin for a few days if we need it so before we book ferries, flights etc, we really need to know who would like to go to the Ratoath gathering? If there’s very little interest, we’ll cancel it.

So if you could say yay or nay here on or the FB page, I’d be very grateful.
Thanks a mill,

Terri

Yellow: Arthur Bell. Red:Evelyn Fison. Fern: from Martin B

Recently I showed some Rugosa roses which were the only roses I had in bloom and no sign of blooms in the bush roses. Now things have changed. To day, I took photos of the bush roses. The red one is Evelyn Fison, very resistant to black spot but little or no fragrance. The yellow one is Arthur Bell, very fragrant. The other roses will take time to bloom. There is a photo of a fern I got from Martin B in Johnstown some years ago. There was no sign of it for some time but then when the temperature rose, it really shot up. Weather here is great

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Trying out the camera on my new phone. A few pics from this morning.

Hoping that Declan or someone else who knows can identify this insect my daughter spotted in her city-centre yard the other day …. We think it might be a native bee but we are far from certain!

 

And if not – any ideas what it might be?

After some glorious weather, it was good to get into the garden and be able to get some work done. The last week of May was as good as one would expect in the middle of summer with temperatures 20 to 24 degrees. I notice from the weather forecast that it was as high as 26 C in the west.Of course while many parts of the country complained about low temperatures and very wet weather, I’m sure that they welcome the rain at the moment. I thought of the hymn Our God Reigns and heard it this morning. Now the same sound but different spelling so thank you Lord that it has come. Many of you know I have a big garden and to water it with a can, well out of the question. While this is the first day of June, I will have to wait a bit longer to see the blooms.
Well Bloom began with a blue sky but anybody who waited until to day, well watch out for the rain. I didn’t travel. I am more relaxed in my own garden. i was the the Country Market to day and sold 8 tomato plants. There were little fruits to be seen on some. Yesterday and the day before, I took out some tomatoes in pots and they will be ok from now on. Every time I enter the greenhouse I sample some grapes. The ones near the door are quite sweet while those away from the door, same vine will have to wait further. The one fern I got from Martin has made great progress.

Headed off to Bloom with Margie yesterday and we had a lovely morning. It was very sunny and very hot but we made the most of the beautiful weather. Lots to see and do. So we headed to the Show gardens. Yellow and purple was the order of the day. Some looked well together and others, well, lets just say I found them quite bland. The winner of the Super Garden programme, was that even a competition with some of the entrants!, anyway, the guy that won did a lovely job with the loch bridge etc. Have to say that programme should just be scrapped…dreadful this year.

We headed to the plant stalls and as ever lots of colour but not a huge variety. Of course what you see in the show gardens are for sale. Again lots of Lupins, yellow was standing out a lot. But a lot of repetition too. Inside in the Pavilion was the usual stalls of all sorts, not necessarily garden related, but isn’t that what Bloom is all about now, the whole family and not just us gardeners!

We bypassed all of this and headed straight for the plants. Again here you definitely need to shop around. Prices can vary for the same plant by as much as 7/8 euro each. So thats a big difference. Some were offering plants 3 for 20 and they were good value, but others wouldn’t budge and they were much pricier too. I thought less stalls again this year compared to last year. I feel the gardening element of Bloom is definitely been pushed aside a lot more. Lots more space to walk around inside compared to other years. But we enjoyed it and of course bought ourselves a few plants!!

I got a few more Geums which I don’t have here. Also a couple of Thalitrum that I absolutely love!…….

I then was looking at this gorgeous shrub xSinocalycalycanthus raulstonii Hartlage Wine….what an amazing plant this is. Gorgeous wine flowers on tall stems with lime green foliage. I looked at this so many times and just couldn’t make up my mind.  But it was made up for me by the lovely Margie!! So thank you so much, delighted with it 🙂

If you are going I hope you have a wonderful time and enjoy it all. Hopefully this beautiful weather will hold up too!

Here are a few of my purchases ☺