Month: October 2018
I don’t think most people realise just how dry the year has been and continues to be . My local River The Kings River has been dry now since early July . A trickle of Water returned briefly some weeks ago but only lasted 2 days . Planting two new Apple trees last Monday the ground is dry 1 foot down . No doubt the rains will return with a vengeance yet !
Just as Scrubber begins to master the new website and it took time so many dear friends seem to have abandoned it. Loads of people whose journals and comments I enjoyed have disappeared from the site. Are they gone to Facebook?
Anyway finally after four days of trying I finally yesterday managed to upended and move the two big rocks and align the with the edge of the bottoms path. It was an inch by inch affair and at times I doubted but in the end it wor key itself out and I am so thrilled. Especially when a rock that was only a few inches over ground is now an impressive boulder and an object of beauty in itself. I finished the line with four separate stones and thought it looked quite Japanese. And today a friend asked might she bring a friend in to walk the garden next Friday. And she is Japanese!
So glad to have all that done as there is a lot of weeding needed. Oh shop around if you need slabs. I got ‘bargains’ at 6 e each old stock special price. However today I got two more in another place new stock 3 75 each !!! Also two nice ‘Japanese stepping stones’ slabs 6 75 each. Glanbia New Ross.
After the long hot Summer my bee keeping ended on a high . My 3 Jars Light Honey won 1st Prize this week end and another class was highly commended . A photo was commended too . I celebrated by buying 2 Katja Apple trees from Frank Alley Dundrum nurseries who was in town at the Clonmel Applefest . Now it’s time to get stuck into a big garden clean up . I have collected lots of seed heads from my favourite plants and flowers so at least I’ve something to get me started next Spring . Still plenty color about despite the morning frosts. I’ve been pressing apple juice some days too and it’s enjoyable . I guess I will soon be trying the cider part of this hobby ! Hic.
As usual, my Hamamelis are out of sync. I have three in the front garden. And they are all different (H. Pallida being one of them, which produces deep red flowers). When I planted them a few years ago I was aware that they required ericaceous compost so they had a good helping of that way back then.
I haven’t top-dressed them with any more since then. And now H. ‘Diane’ is yellow, as are the other two. I wonder if I was to top-dress them with a subsequent dollop of ericaceous compost would it revert back to the original deep red. It’s great to see the flowers now, as the leaves have their autumn foliage which is falling daily at this stage. And if ‘Diane’s flowers remain yellow, so be it. They’re still a lovely shrub to have.
