Month: October 2018

I’ve added a new entry to my Blog

Rain stopped play

 

 

I think this link should work

Music

I must apologise for just throwing the link to my new blog to you all for testing! I’m new to WordPress and am still on a learning curve! Since I set it up as “private” rather than “public” it appears as Joan discovered it is necessary to have a WordPress login to access it. I haven’t figured how to make it “public” yet …..

So what is it all about? Well, I find that the current version of garden.ie is not meeting my needs in keeping a record of what happens in my garden. I find that there are so many of my archived journals missing, and even the archive since the new site went live seems to be missing some journals. So I’ve set up my blog to record my activities (or maybe my antics!) in a way that I hope will provide me with the references I need for future plans.

It appears I can link the blog to Facebook – but I haven’t tried it yet! But I also want to share my musings with my friends here who are not fans of Facebook. So if I can figure how to link it here I hope it will help us all to keep in touch.

Did anyone else get an email notification from Webmaster @garden.ie this morning October 30 2018?

This is what it said:

Garden.ie Journal – Comment received on Get together .Photos.

webmaster@garden.ie
11:35 (5 hours ago)
Reply
 to me

Dear Liztai

Please note that tenchmanjohn has added the below comment to the journal entry – Get together .Photos.

Where can I buy Ludwigberger flair geranium?

Regards,

John.

Click here to be be taken to the journal entry.

Click here to view tenchmanjohn’s profile

Click here to stop receiving email notifications for comments made to this journal

Kind Regards

Garden.ie Webmaster

Garden.ie
The first two links gave me a ‘403 Forbidden’ message, but the Garden.ie link went to Garden.ie Homepage.
Just curious to know am I the only one ….
Incidentally, it will be interesting to see if these links are clickable when I publish the journal

This is the link Hazel asked us to click on. I also tried, but it didn’t work.

So now I have opened a journal and am going to use the link facility on the ‘Add Journal’ page.

https://gortnaleegarden.wordpress.com/2018/10/29/frosty-morning/

We’ll see if that works

Hi everyone. I’m trying out something so can you please try clicking this link and see if you can connect to it.

https://gortnaleegarden.wordpress.com/2018/10/29/frosty-morning/

Thanks

Hazel

Wrapped up well against the chill, I spent a colourful afternoon in the Botanic Gardens today.  It was very busy, with lots of people enjoying a bank holiday stroll and the Halloween display.  Here are a few photos.  Happy Halloween everyone!

These two small bird houses for the garden were given as a birthday present. One is already in place the other will probably go up to-day. I am looking forward to the birds using them.

This Yucca is in bloom and I have been pleased that the frost didn’t cause any damage. We only got a little frost so far but to morrow there could be a big change. While the flower can got when the frost comes, the actual plant is quite hardy.

So Summer is over and the garden is now winding down. Although the weather has been lovely this month too. So its hard to believe that we are coming to the end of Summer. Its getting colder now and I need to put the Tree Fern to bed. Put a lot of plants into the greenhouse now for fear of that cold snap appearing out of the blue. Its promised for the weekend. Ive leaves everywhere and a constant battle to keep the path clear, so Ive given up, way too much work for me to keep trying to keep the place clear.

So here are a few photos of whats still flowering away in the garden. Lots of colour going on and I hate to cut anything down. I think I will leave most of it for now and let it die down naturally……….

Not going into competition with Scrubber! After the wall was built there were some nice stones left over so I decided to make a mini rockery between two stumps that are sticking up slightly from the soil. I’ve put in some Alyssum, an Arenaria and a Leontipodium (kind of Edelweiss I think). Don’t know how it’ll turn out but it’s a bit of fun! Joan G gave me a Parahebe at Blarney and I’m wondering would it be suitable?

Hi All,

 

Im coming back to Bonsai as i had a break for couple of years, i would like to get in touch with local gardeners and other Bonsai people.

Anyone ?

The greenhouse got a clean out today . Tomatoes and Melons out and a few tenders in . The empty beds are now home to some Sedum cuttings along with Camelias and an Azalea. I actually remembered to dig up the Canas this year !

Bees really busy today do temp well up above normal .

No gardening has been done for the past few weeks while we enjoyed the company of friends from overseas and a lovely short break in the south west.   October may be my favourite month of the year, especially when we get beautiful sunshine as we’ve had lately … only one rainy day throughout their stay.  Yesterday I got back to work, cutting the grass, deadheading and tidying, and just enjoying the warmth and colour that’s still in the garden, though the wind has taken off all the Japanese maple leaves while I was away.

Backlighting makes the Scabious look more wine coloured than “purple black”

Euonymus alatus (compact variety) … will go even redder before leaf fall

Rosa ‘Amber Queen’

I am frustrated with this site. I am only continuing to post here because I want to keep contact with friends who are not on facebook. So for my friends ….

Amstad

Purple Haze with a glimps of Heatwave Glimmer in the corner

I have a few Salvias in my garden, all from kind friends on this site over the years. At our gathering at Ratoath this year I got some precious slips from Myrtle which I am minding zealously! My first one was from a member called Damo who came to my first Open Day for the club and he brought me a tray of small plants of Salvia Forsskaolii – a huge floppy-leaved plant with brilliant blue flowers – beautiful but a bit of a thug! Then in Fota at a plant fair I bought Red Ensign – a woody one that has come through many winters unscathed! Then Myrtle gave me  Amistad,  ‘Heatwave Glimmer’ and  ‘Purple Haze’ – all doing well!’Penny Lane’ came from a garden visit to Shirley Beatty. Well this year my Greenhouse finally had to go, so I am having to mind these lovely treasures with only a small cold-frame to protect them. The main plants will stay in the ground but with a generous mulch and some fleece, and the “insurance” cuttings will stay in the coldframe, with some bubble-wrap to help them survive! i moved ‘Penny Lane’ a bit late this year and really feared for her but she has forgiven me and is now in flower! I’ll put other photos in another journal.

Penny Lane

After potting up the Canas for indoor safekeeping I discovered the Pineapple experiment had grown roots in the jar of water . Its now in a pot of compost so will be an interesting experiment to see does it root well . Will I need a bigger greenhouse next Spring !!

The Bees were busy today and huge amounts of Ivy pollen ( bright yellow ) and Nectar flowing into hives . The Queens are still laying as temps are well up so far . I added boxes to 3 hives today to allow more space for the Ivy stores and the Queen to lay.

These are in a Summer container that I bought last year for €3 in B&Q at the end of the season. I had no idea what was inside, nor what colour they would be. This year they flowered around May and have been flowering ever since. What a magnificent shade they are too. Almost a peachy orange and they are still going strong. I put them into the greenhouse to protect them from Storm Callum. Not bad for €3!

My goodness its taken almost 15 minutes to add these 3 photos and Ive fibre broadband……It must be awful to upload if you have a slower connection!

Once again I am amazed at the show of Autumn colour and the fruit in the garden. No matter how often nature can repeat this lovely time of year I always takes my breath away when it comes around again. I never tire of it and it never leaves me jaded. It is wonderful. We laid in a stock of firewood and it will keep me warm as I cut it over the next number of months.

The Japanese Acers are just about to lose their leaves and so their colour is at it’s deepest. In spite of th edrought in th eearly summer we have a good crop of apples and it was fun last Sunday to cut up and crush some of them with my grand daughters to make our first run of juice. It was delicious. But we will have to make a pulp of the apples in future to increase the yield of juice. That was the lesson learned.   What a pleasure it is that we can still sit out on a sunny afternoon and drink tea and make plans for next year. I sent off a large order to the mail order people in Kent for lots of new bulbs to plant over the Winter and next Spring. It is so important to keep it all fresh and to keep the colours coming. Anemone, Camassia, Tulips, alliums, amarine, nerines, dahlias and begonias all on thier way to provide continuous colour for all of next year. And until then I can watch this year’s nerines, the mahonia, the cyclamen and then the heather as they colour the Winter. And already the hellebores are taking shape and soon we will see the snowdrops put their heads up and then next years daffodills. You see ! The garden is all about looking to the future and filling that future with plans and hope. This summer we had a couple of open days and they were successful. They also served to cement friendships and to forge new ones. I am always fascinated by people and their ability to open up and create great conversations in a garden. It is neutral and it provides lots of interest to start those conversations. We should all use our gardens more to promote and nurture friendship. After all, gardens and friendship are two of God’s greatest gifts!

A late crocosmia

The rose in Autumn sunshine

Seasonal Nerine Bowdenii

Low sunshine and Liquidamber

Sunshine and the Bishop of LLandaff

Ilex Ingramii and Autumn florescense

Ilex aquifolium in full berry

Acer Palmatum in it’s rich Autumn colour

In my recent madness I took delivery of a load of firewood. I immediately cancelled my gym membership and cancelled all leave !

The Busy Lizzie cuttings rooted well in water. I potted them up a couple of weeks ago.

Despite the cooler temperatures the sunshine of the last couple of days has been so cheerful.

 

This is Elizabeth’s corner..new ceonothus in yesterday

•    Well if your long witty informative journal had just disappeared into the ether…

•    Just when I had got up a photo or two.

•    Where are these bullet points coming from.

•    Lost a huge willow  branch in storm but hope to trim sides and ad it’s still attached at the top I might make a fab arch!!

•    Think I’ll have to use f book for photos.

•    Very pleased with rock edging.

•    Please excuse bullet points.

New stone edging

Closer look

Can you see me 😉

I hope you all got through Storm Calum and without too much garden damage! The winds only reached 32 kmh here so I couldn’t resist taking this little video of Cotinus Grace.

Its October again and the Liquidambar is once more showing colour in the foliage. You may notice an odd branch which is bare and I think it is due to the extreme temperature in June.