Archives: journal

hi everyone got alot of work done today. got my veggie sowing started. i sowed carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, and peppers. need to get some onion sets and potatoes. now the pressure is on for hubby to get digging the veggie plot. i was lookin through the seeds i need to sow soon, there is a nice lot for march, i could open a garden shop, it will soon be time to thin out the seedlings that have appeared. so much to do, but as i say its a labour of love.i was thrilled to bits to pick up the march issue of the irish garden, thats my fix taken care of for now. goodbye for now.

I am now a fan of gardening gloves.

I always swore against them before, claiming that I need to feel the weeds to know what to pull. I went to my doctor recently, however, as I have a patch of persistent psoriasis on the heel of my right hand. She strongly recommended gardening gloves so I decided to give them a try.

All I can say is, so far so good. I have managed to weed sucessfully with the gloves and my hands need a whole lot less scrubbing when I comein from the garden. The psoriasis is still there but it’s not being aggravated by the soil, as it normally is.

Like mine – except cleaner!

Bought my soft fruit plants last Tuesday, delighted with myself, trolley brimming with stuff! Have to say, great selection in O’Meara’s at the minute. Bought the Sulphur chips to help my Blueberry bushes.

Thurs. Finished painting the chicken run, what a lovely morning, sun shining, really lovely! Then, I wheeled 20 barrows of horse manure over to my fruit bed and dug that over.

Fri. Headed over to the nearest bog for peat, dug that in where I was planting the blueberries. Drove some posts to support the raspberry canes. Planted all up and pruned some back, God, i fogot how thorny those gooseberries are! Oh, took the strawberries from the planters and put them in the ground, excuse to buy new fresh plants! maybe a new variety as well!!

Sat. In the afternoon, I barrowed more manure over the the planting holes for the fruit trees and dug in.

Sun. Back to the foundations, not deep enough, so dug out more soil. Took it easy today and went for some wood-chips. Got some landscape bark in Lusk’s GC, nice place to visit, done some research there into the the diff. varieties of fruit trees available.

All thoughts are now turning to getting the garden in shape. There is plenty of clearing up to do.The leaves off the Cordyline are very tough! I have trimmed quite a few bushes now. Plenty for the compost bins and left overs.

Plenty to compost

Its a pity she couldn’t push it for me!

Ready for compost

Here are some lovely Eucalyptus branches I trimmed yesterday. Anyone want them for flower arranging? I like to keep the Eucalyptus as a bush as I have seen the trees blown down quite easily.

Eucalyptus trimmings

Hello everyone, built my early birthday present today, my mini walk in greenhouse, put my plants in out of the porch and mam now happy that it will be tidy soon, then into the garden to see what needs doing, did some digging around my snowdrops which are looking so sweet and white at the moment. Hellebores coming into full force (see photos). I have also started to get rid of overgrown plants and done some cutting back, major renovation at the bottom of the garden which is somewhat neglected and need to get the saw out to old buddleia bushes and cut down overhanging trees. My tomatoes are coming on on my bedroom windowsill too. The weather today has been sunny here and quite warm out of the wind which makes you feel better and want to get out in the garden. Worked at the garden centre yesterday and we have had a delivery of new plants which is exciting the only problem is I want to bring them all home expecially the windflowers with their pretty blue flowers and the pale yellow primroses are looking particularly lovely now.

New Greenhouse

hi everyone. how is your gardening going? got some tidying done around the garden today also some late prunning. hope to get some digging done tomorrow. lidl have lovely trelisis on thursday for 12.99 they are wooden ones, must get a few, it will save me trying to make them.will be crippled tomorrow eve but it will be worth it. i am so glad i joined this it is a great way to send and recieve messages from people that love gardening as much as i do. might be a couple of ouches in tomorrow nights entry.

hi everyone finally got more photos done up thanks to my neighbour that let me borrow his usb cord for the phone. didnt get much done with the garden today, not feeling the best, suffer from fibremyalgia, the tissue and mucles all over my body are inflamed and painful. but when it is"nt acting up i some stuff done hope to get some work done. happy gardening.

Another day out in the garden, enjoying the lovely mild spring weather we are having at present. Today, I managed to dig out and prepare the vegetable plot, seed bed and pruned the fruit trees.

I have sown the seeds using egg cartons, plastic trays from shop bought fruit and placed them all on my kitchen and living room window, that happens to be south west facing!..

Well finally I’m just about well enough to get out and garden, it’s hard to know where to start as there is so much to do. March is by far my busiest month, and I’ve made two lists the need to do list and the long finger list which has had very little done with it over the past 6 months.

I have prepared my raised beds and given one over to my kids this year to grow, whatever eclectic mix of plants the decide. I have started to dig further down my potatoe bed to create more space to be able to rotate next year. This I had hoped to do earlier but alas… it means I may have to plant on the same ground as last year which will mean a higher risk of blight.

I finally got to sow seeds this week gone and I’m way behind others but I’ll keep plugging away I planted tomatos, chilli, carrots and peas so far. In flowers I’ve experimented with zantadecia, agapanthus, ricinus, aconitum and carex all collected seed from my own garden. I’ve also planted a pletorah of other seed that frankly I have no energy to dig a bed for yet!!

I’m replacing 4 of my trees that did’nt make it last year, I’m really at the edge of bare root season end and will have to look after them well. I’m also for my sins hoping to plant 6 fruit trees and some dogwood on my hill (since the wildflowers washout last year)

Today I spread some of the remaining bark mulch on my shade bed and around my raised beds and veg patch but still have to weed around the shade bed. I also did a basic cleanout of my greenhouse and installed one of two water butts at the end of the greenhouse to catch all the water that had been running into the greenhouse on downpours.

Just another 23 jobs to go and I’m finished!!!!

New mini Orchard

I sowed some more seeds – a tray each of Corn Flower (blue), Morning Glory & Larkspur (thank you, Lorraine).

I also sowed some more Sweet Pea – a named variety – Melody Rose.

Do you like my Sweet Pea pots, made from toilet roll cores?

Sweet Pea Melody Rose

One of my plants I’m especially proud of. I cultivate it from seed about 9 years ago, and now it is 8 cm thick and 40 cm tall.

I decided to try seeds because nolinas (Beaucarneas) are very expensive in garden shops.

I shared seeds of nolina with my friend and those seeds germinated at the same time, but this plant of mine is now almost twice bigger. I think the success is in light, first of all, and also you must give enough water (do not overdry) and change the pot every year. This all helps to form the shape of bottle.

Nolina grows slowly, but it’s one of the most thankful plants – if you forget to water, it just will stop in growing. 🙂

Nolina (Beaucarnea)

I’ve just got a little ‘first day of spring’ present.

This decoration is exactly what I like – lovely and very useful thing at the same time. It can be filled with water, and helps to keep the air moist. It’s important here, ‘cause we have central heating, and air in our flats is rather dry.

Lovely pink bucket

Well, the spuds have been bought and it is with baited breath i wait for the veg garden paths to be finished. Mind you – we did plant one in a pot just to get ahead – what a rush we are in to get into summer….

We have lots of veg starting off and the minute we get the word – its all going into the garden. oh thanks Rachel for the Chocolate peppers – they are in good company with the chilies and the yellow peppers. Actually last year i grew peppers from seeds in a pepper i had bought and they were lovely, I know you are not supposed to do that but i did… a great success.

The field mice had a ball with the crocus’s and they left just a bunch of yellow ones – thanks guys – with the colour from them and the pansys – it is a little bare but there is some nice blankets of colour.

Still no closer to the daffs being ready – considering the tulips were very late they might even overtake them!

Its still a little early but i am getting ready to cut back all our cornus – we have quite a little collection now – the midwinter fire, a deep red one, a deep red nearly black one and lots of the green ones i propagated two years ago – its definitely worth it to propagate the cuttings – they grow well and make a nice difference this time of the year.

The garden needs a good mulch so hopefully this weekend it will get it – mind you the weather is to turn icy again this weekend – so fingers crossed it will be dry enough to get out – and i shall take some photos to upload next week – gotta see if i can find anything that can make the place look nice – LOL

Good luck to all with their seeds and if you have not done so already – have a big clear out of your seeds and send them to someone who grows things – its amazing what you might get and you know – it makes my day when i get something that i can plant and watch it grow – so – rachel there will be a corner of the garden for "rachels plants"…

The Clivia is flowering.

Clivia

The weather is due to freeze tonight so I’ve brought all small plants in from the greenhouse to my kitchen.

I’m heading out to rescue my Bananas, Hibiscus & Datura now. There’s no point in being too gung-ho and loosing plants!

3:30pm

It’s now snowing out there- cripes!

Back-Up Veg & Hardy Annuals

I was going to move my Agave Americana to the greenhouse a week ago but suddenly my teenage son expressed a fondness for it and a sadness that it would be moving. What a surprise!

I said I would keep it in until its new "leaf" unfolds – something which has been threatening since last autumn but has speeded up in the last few weeks. I guess it is waking up with spring!

Vicious or what?

At last I can show you two of my new raised beds, I hope to have three (was to be 4, but have decided to stick with 3 this year). They have been well fertilised and dug and I am looking forward to filling them (& weeding them!)

New Raised Beds

My potatoes have been chitting for two weeks now, I hope they are doing ok as I have never done this before! My plan is to plant them around St. Patricks Day, they are British Queens so should be gorgeous (if they grow). I was told I would need to protect them from blight, how do I do that???

Chitting Spuds

I planted my rhubarb beside my raised beds, was not sure how deep to plant them but they look healthy enough, I have never grown veg, rhubarb or fruit before so I am learning as I go along.

Rhubarb

Applied the last coat of treatment to all the components(just before the rain started) Managed to cover everything up before it got wet. Waiting for the next good day to assemble it all together.

Another day both wet and cold.Frost on the way tonight and some of these boys need to hit the greenhouse.They have to stay put for another few days at least with the temp at -1 now.Most of them doing well.I just potted on some parsley and some more mari-gold.Sweet-p and tomatoes showing well.Started some more lettuce and some spinach.Come on the mild weather.

Keep them in the heat.

I was out in the sunshine today, more weeding and trying to dig out the giant Allium bulbs that had sprouted up every where. I bent the hand trowel and had to go for the big spade. The two cats were out with me as usual, pity they can’t weed. It started snowing here at 6.30pm !

All play and no work!

Such a difference overnight. This was the sight that greeted me this morning. Its the weeping willow the cats were in yesterday. It has lots of shoots on it and it is one of the first trees to come into leaf.

Look at the difference from yesterday!

Archives: journal

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