Month: August 2018

curious how the ginger plant will grow on in last photo

To day was a good one, plenty of sunshine and temperature good, also low humidity. In the afternoon, I spent some time at rose bushes where some of the wod was dead and it was pruned. While the number of blooms on the rose bushes is low due to the high temperature and low amount of rain in June and early July, a small number of blooms are good. Some new buds are about to open. i took photos of a few.

Spotted this in the garden this morning so had to get a few photos.

Miss Bateman was undecided as to whether she would appear at Gortnalee this year. She put out a timid toe but a clumsy gardener trod on her so she was seriously offended. However she recovered from her offence and finally appeared much to the delight of her host!

There is a real buzz about Gortnalee at the moment – and it’s not just the bees! Little pots of plants all lined up for their trip to Ratoath, plans being made for the journey – such a good idea to meet up at this time of year when we have stuff to swap! Watching Monty dividing a geranium a few weeks back was a real inspiration. Thank you Terri and Alan for arranging this event with all the other things you have to do for your adventure! I look forward to following the trip on Facebook. Looking forward to seeing you at Ratoath!!

It’s a good while since I’ve been to a get-together. Many thanks to Terri and Alan for organizing this one.

I haven’t done as much gardening this year as I would have liked as I was away a lot, and other things going on. But I do have one or two plants on offer for whoever wants them. I don’t really want to take any back home.

Like Hazel, I have Ophiopogon nigerescens, but only 4 so far from me. However, if I get the chance to pull more up during the week,  they’ll be coming with me too.

I also pulled up some Cautleya spicata last year and potted it up. It’s actually flowering at the minute. That’s definitely worth taking. It’s so exotic looking and it does spread, but it’s very controllable.

I also have a pot of Iris confusa ‘Martyn Rix’, and a beautiful big Iris for which I have no name. It has big blooms in shades of purple and maroonish brown.

And I’m also thinking now that I may give away the U4BA that I acquired today from my friend (E. lathyris).

I have a 30m good quality garden hose that I no longer need! It is a hoselock and has a connector and a nozzle. Just looking for a good home for it!

This morning, myself and Steve were helping out a very good ex-colleague of mine with her garden. Her husband is no longer able to keep on top of his garden, which has now become a ‘wildlife’ garden in the worst sense. And with her working full-time she has enough on her plate. So, armed with industrial-type strimmer, secateurs and the rest, we cut back so much. The ground is very wet, and we left her husband to rake up what we (Steve) strimmed. It’ll give everything a chance to dry out and a further strimming will probably be done during the week, hopefully. I came home with some nice plants, two musas, not sure if one of them is M. ‘Basjoo’ and another one with lovely coloured leaves, similar to one that Dick has. Maybe he could tell me the name? They were both given new bigger pots with fresh compost. I’ll hold off the feeding until next year.

I also got what I think is Dianthus barbatus (Sweet William), which is a short-lived perennial, but the seeds have now been extracted and they’re drying out for sowing next spring.  I also got a lovely U4BA with lovely seedheads. But not sure whether to plant it in the garden. I need assurance that it’s not going to take over.  I don’t know what variety it is.

Well this is it. Next Tuesday we are deserting our garden for seven months. I know, we can’t believe it either! But we can’t have second thoughts or a whole family who are looking forward to living here while they finish their half-built house in the next townland will be homeless and sleeping in a barn.

I confess I’ve been avoiding looking too closely at the garden. If I do I’ll see so many jobs that should be done that I’ll have a meltdown in panic. So I’ve planted out the cold frame plants, put the potted trees in a bed where they’ll be snug for the winter, and then just left the weeds in the lap of the weather gods.

Of course the best thing about a garden for wildlife is that the wildlife is much happier if it runs a bit wild. So all the frogs and newts will be delighted at the foliage that will keep them all from freezing in January. Of course, nobody’s thinking about the work that will need doing when we get home… The tenants may do a bit, depending how busy they are with the house-build. Or they may not. At least we won’t be around to see it!

Just took a few photos to remind us of what we left. The leaves are turning already. It’s time to be off…

If you want to follow our adventures and see what Alan’s painting, I have set up a blog, called The Freedom of Ageing. Please feel free to have a look, give me your opinion and share it with your friends!

A few photos from this week. We’ve had almost no rain here, just brief drizzle, but with cooler temperatures the garden is not looking too bad and there are some nice flowers.

Hi everyone.

I hope to see you all at Ratoath Garden Centre on Sunday 2nd September! Thanks so much Terri and Alan for organising it in the middle of your own travel preparations! It promises to be a great outing and so i thought I’d put up a list of plants I have looking for good homes!

Verbena Bonariensis x 4 Gerby, Jacinta, Gretta

Alchemilla Mollis seedling x 1

Heuchera Palace Purple x 1 Gerby

Sedum Green Mantle x 1 Jacinta

Geranium Magnificum x 2

Choisya (small rooted cutting) x 1

Carex Testacea x 1

Persicaria Amplexicaulis x 1 Gerby

Tetrapanax Rex x 1 Gretta

Ophiopogon Nigrescens x 17 – yes, 17! Gerby

I dug up some strays and when I potted them they became 17 so would make a good edging for a border.

I’m just going to tell Facebook folk to come here to see the list as otherwise I’ll only get confused if people want to put their names on plants!

Really looking forward to seeing everyone – and also to meeting the remarkable John Lord!

Buddleia living up to its reputation, and this guy stayed long enough for me to get a few photos.

Which describes my day. Three lovely swims. And I noticed too day that some river mint I brought in a fortnight ago have taken in the bog.also some lysmachia! Despair re three dedicated looking rhodo dendrochronology turned to hope when I noticed the tiniest of new buds. I dug them up and soaked them in buckets of water. Replanted and fingers crossed!

I put in a large amount of watsonia. A good lot of a small astilbes went into the bog garden. I used them as a border to the squelchy path.then there were some geranium phaeum (Sorry re spelling) which went into new area which I’m grandly terming ‘ the wood!’ Many thanks to the generosion donors!!

Just had time to strim centre plot and in the bog. Now to decide where to put eight brooms that I fell for in glanbia-purchased over two weeks at good price .  I think they will be spectacular next year. But they need sun and poor soil.

I see my emails are temporarily stopped but I presume it will eventually work. Life is too short to worry about glitches!

My 6 year-old granddaughter was visiting earlier this month so I decided it was time she was introduced to the Fairies of Terra Nova. Bit of an excursion as it was a try-out of the new EV (Electric Vehicle) Zoe that has taken up residence at Gortnalee. This was the first trip with a fully laden car and while I was pretty calm about the trip, my son and his wife were suffering fro severe “Range Anxiety” AKA “Will we ever get home or will we be stranded at the side of the road?”

Having arrived at Terra Nova we were greeted by Martin who introduced little Cliona to the first chapter of the story of the Fairies of Terra Nova. She was totally enthralled, as were her parents! Needless to remark we picked up some little treasures for Cliona and still had time to enjoy a cuppa in the wonderful Tea House that Martin built a few years ago.  Deborah arrived home and it was lovely to have a catch-up and make the acquaintance of a wonderful cat whose name I have forgotten!

I really enjoyed the tranquility of this wonderful garden and was enchanted by the many fairies who seem to be invading all corners of the gardens now! I hope the photos give a bit of a flavour …..

And yes, we did get home safely without having to stop of for a re-charge!

I was working on a new area I call ‘the wood’. Now there are only about ten trees in it. Chestnuts sweet chestnut sycamore birch ash.I started to rake under these a few days ago. There was loads of leaves and debris. I also raked around the rocks there and exposed the roots of the trees. Just as I was finishing I looked up and I don’t know exactly how but trees and rocks all seemed to assume what I can only call a presence. Up to this I just knew they were there but this time I realised they had a special quality. They were pine, sweet chestnut, and chestnut but they were more than that. It was quite strange but special… I’ll try to get a few snaps tomorrow . It’s so odd all changed changed utterly….

The ominous notification “Emails Disabled: The Stop Emails plugin is currently active, which will prevent any emails from being sent. To send emails, disable the plugin.” does not inspire me to write a journal but because I really want to remain part of this online community I will take the chance and hope that someone will sort out the email issue. It is disheartening how each glitch that appears to be fixed seems to get unfixed when the next glitch is tackled.

Anyway this is supposed to be a GARDEN journal so I’ll stop complaining ….

On my recent visit to Angela Jupe’s lovely garden in Shinrone I had a great chat with the lady – she is such a friendly person – I just had to take away a couple of plants to remind me of her garden. One of them was very pretty but lacked a name – and she couldn’t remember it either! All she could recall was that it was “one of those plants that was all over Chelsea a few years ago” so that set me a bit of a challenge – find that plant!!!!

I know if I had posted it here or on the Facebook page someone would have come up with the answer but I was determined to find the name myself! It took a while – several attempts to get Mr Google to tell me were unsuccessful – my final ploy was to look for images that might include the elusive plant – and this time i was successful! When I saw the name I wasn’t a bit surprised the Angela couldn’t remember it – it doesn’t exactly glide off the tongue! The description also says it isn’t totally hardy so there’s another challenge! So here she is … Mathiasella bupleuroides ‘Green Dream’