Archives: journal

This is Magnolia soulangeana ‘San Jose’, and is putting on a good show right now. It is about 6 feet tall. I thought I would have to wait years for it to flower but it flowered for the first time soon after planting a couple of years ago. The soil it is in is alkaline but it doesn’t seem to mind.

Magnolia ‘San Jose’

So far this year my garden , or attempts to start my garden have been put on the long green finger.

My house construction is almost finished (thank god)

my drive way is at the moment `a duck pond`.

My garden cant be leveled because the soil is saturated .

I have a wild primrose growing at the rear of the house (that to date is my garden) and it smells good.

hopefully soon the weather will pick up and I may be able to get my garden sorted

Not much about spring today, all I could do is check on seedlings; although I see flowers on my strawberry plants hopefully if weather gets warmer I should soon have some strawberries. Also my lettuce and shallots are doing nicely, looking forward to some fresh lettuce.

hi all, first entry in journal in over a year! i am growing a few old and rare varieties of tomato this year, i got the seeds from a company in wales that specialise in varieties that you wont find in today’s seed catalogues, the 3 types of tomato are Ubrikany from the Ukraine, Aurora from Siberia and Amish paste from the USA, have got a fair bit of info on these on the net but was wondering has anyone grown or come across these varieties, would welcome any info, have germinated all 3 and have been quite successful, they are small packets of seed, about 20/25 seeds per pack, but i will save seed from them for next year, name of the company is The Real Seed Company, a great site well worth checking out, and any info would be welcome, regards dave….

rare tomatoes

At least I can get out today. Poor Magnolia – I have lost my flower to the wind and rain last night. Lots of other buds on it – dont know if they are leaves or flowers at this stage. Hope I get some more flowers !! However – on a happier note, My plum tree is flowering, there seems t be loads of flowers which is good as it did not do so well – in the fruit department last year. Pear tree is also starting to bud – If I ever get a pear I will eat my hat!! So far, I get leaves and flowers and then overnight something happens and the flowers die. Think it has some sort of disease – cant seem to get to the bottom of it. Balck and red currants have their flower buds – so coming along nicely.Have to leave it there – on swimming duty now.

Plum flowers

Today I was surprised to discover a new little plant of sansevieria in a pot with bigger one. It has appeared for 2 days.

I’m astonished because consultant told me that this plant is very slow growing so I may use it in composition without trouble with repotting. 🙂 I guess, 1/2 of a year later I will have a great number of such ‘little-VERY-slow-growing’ sansevierias.

New wee sansevieria

added some new photos today. they may be a bit wobbly!!!

I came home this afternoon and as soon as I got the chance, I went to the garden with my secateaurs and picked enough flowers for 3 vases and one small vase.

Thankfully there was no damage from the wind last evening and night. I stood in the greenhouse during the storm yesterday evening and wondered would it survive the night. The noise was ferocious. I was glad to wake up this morning and find it just as I left it – in tact and protecting the seedlings and tender plants.

I couldn’t put the lids on the cold frame during the storm and the seedlings there – which have been in there for a couple of weeks – are none the worse for the abuse. I am almost ready to move some more seedlings out to the cold frame so the sturdier seedlings will be making their way outside and on to the garden.

Bracing ourselves for more bad weather tomorrow. And from Friday I hope to start the most important task – staking perennials.

Happy Gardeining

Tulip-Purissima, Muscari, Daff. Winston Churchill, Hellebore foetidus + purple, Wallflower-fire king

It’s nice to see bees around as I had heard they are in serious decline. This one seems to be fond of Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’ flowers. I don’t blame him as they also have a lovely scent!

Busy Bee

Can’t believe that I have not updated my journal for over a month, where has the time gone.

Well in that time I have sowed thousand of seeds! – mainly for the wall troughs. My husband has come with a brilliant way of putting them up. He measured the distance from the holes and has worked out that in Summer I can put two side by side. In winter if I want to I can take down the two and put one back up using a hole from each of the two troughs so that whether there is one or two troughs on the wall they still appear central – Brilliant!

The new blackthorn hedge is growing well and all the new trees are coming into bud. All the hedgerows around our garden are now coming alive again, which helps to make my garden look better.

Dug out another new flower bed – best one for digging yet only took an hour and half and only half a bucket of stones. Something tells me that this is going to be the only one that easy.

This year I am going to grow my veg in reusable grow bags as the veg plot will not be up and running until next year (still have to dig it!). I bought them from www.selections.co.uk. They are a good website but I suggest that if you buy from them order well in advance as they sell out quite quick. They do restock but it can take a few weeks for some things to arrive. However saying that there reusable bags are good.

I have potato sacks, jumbo salad planter, jumbo vegetable planter and and growbags.

This year I am growing potatoes, carrots,tomatoes, aubergines, caynne peppers and sweet peppers and various salad items.

The seeds I sowed for my wildflower were a bit of a disaster as only the cornflowers came through. So I am going to sow more that I have bought.

Well that’s it for today, don’t want to bore everyone too much. Bye

I have had a couple of requests regarding the websites I have been using to order various goods. So I thought I would set up a list of ones that I use which I have found which deliver to Southern Ireland. I will update this as and when I come across any more. Plus any shops I come across.

www.waltons.co.uk. This site has excellant sheds and other garden buildings. Prices are very good, I purchased my 10 x 10 shed from them and got it half price! Delivery charge was £29.99 – bargain!

www.gardenselections.co.uk. This site is useful for purchasing resable gow bags, seeds, compost caddies and heating pads. Please note that large and over a certain weight items they can not deliver. However they will let you know if you do order something which is too heavy. They also send a free catalogue with your order.

www.eurobulbs.co.uk. This site is useful for buying snowdrops in the green plus many other bulbs. They sell in bulk as well. I have just bought 1000 snowdrops to put around my rock.

www.rhgardens.com. Very useful website, this was where I bought my 24 wall troughs and 50m of greenhouse shading from. They sell many gardening/greenshouse bits.My order arrived three days after I placed it. They are very helpful.

www.thompson-morgan.com. Good website for ordering all your seeds. P & P only £2.49 so a good bargain when buying quite a few packet of seeds.

Lidl. Brilliant for all plants and trees. Everything I have bought to date has gown. Prices are very good.

Knock Garden Centre Roscrea. Excellant garden centre, brilliant plants and good prices. Very helpful people who run it. I have bought some very good plants from there.

It was a beautiful sunny day today so obviously the day to go supermarket shopping : (

I opened the greenhouse windows wide and even propped open its front door.I decided to start hardening off the Sweet Pea that have germinated so I left them outside the front of the greenhouse.

When I got back from the shopping I decided to tip out the compost in the pot where I had unsucessfully tried to grow Datura from seed. What a surprise to discover a single seedling pushing its way up. The pot had been discarded and hadn’t been watered for about two weeks yet this seedling managed to break through. Maybe I was overwatering my Datura seeds. Anyway, I may well have a purple Datura yet.

Hardening Off Sweet Pea

I was looking in the propagation ‘hospital’ to see what ‘slips’ had survived from last year and came across these. Aucuba ‘Crotonifolia’ and Camellias. I tried layering the Camellia branches and waited 6 months without luck. So I stuck the same branches in a pot and they rooted! The Aucuba rooted easily.

Extra Aucubas and Camellias

we have loads of jobs planned for this year, but I was absolutely delighted to find a pair of mallard ducks have started to visit us each evening for their tea!! We seem to be suceeding in creating a wildlife haven and family friendly garden that we wished for.

despite the rain and wind the garden is holding up a treat, we have potatoes and peas showing through John has planted the broad beans out under the cloches. We had a visit from Nephin the other day what a shame it was so wet, Hope to see him again in better weather. We have covered all the bedding up in the tunnel tonight and lit the fire in the propagating house, it has gone very frosty here tonight.We can only hope for a change in the weather.The scented brooms are coming into flower as is the rhodedendron a beautiful red

shame about the weather

Had a quick look this evening at what was sown in the tunnell earlier this year.Delighted with the potatoes [roosters] doing so well.The potatoes,[Roosters]were chitted first inside the house with the lower bed [British Queens] planted straight and no sign of them yet.Quite a dirrerence between both sets of growth.Set some new Lavatera shrubs in place of the wind damaged ones in the garden.Seeds doing well in the house.Weather still to risky to leave some of the trays of seeds out in the greenhouse just yet.Drew up the a list of jobs to be done in the garden tomorrow at some stage.[weather permitting].

Polytunnell potatoes planted on the 14/3/09.

Hello, dear garden friends! Welcome to my wee indoor garden. I have a collection of indoor plants – different sorts and appearance. I love bulbous plants and have red amaryllis, clivia, crinum and since risently – yellow crocus.

I have some succulents – haworthia, 2 kinds of sansevieria, 2 kinds of krassula, nolina, cactuses.

Also on my windowsills there are geraniums, orange trees, dracaenas, kalanchoe (3 colours), codieum, senpolias and chlorophytum.

I always plant something colorful on the balcony, this year it will be lobelias, petunias, dwarf phloxes, pansies. I’m looking forward to have my own garden, and hope to make some outdoor experience this summer.

Good gardening to everyone!

Month ago I’ve bought the bulb of lily ‘Dizzy’. I planted it, watered and started to wait.

Then I become worried – is it growing or not? No sign of any activity… So today I carefully skimmed 10 cm of compost and found out that bulb is growing! Hurrah! I changed high layer of compost, give some water and give promice to wait before lily come up.

I also repotted some plants and wanted to cut orange trees, but discover I have no secateur…

Tomorrow will be the Palm Sunday – Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. As you can guess, we have no palms, so we call this holiday ‘Pussy-willow Sunday’.

Lily is growing!

Have just spent the day in the garden and have come in now to make dinner but thought would have a rest first as every bone is aching! But a very satisfying day!

We got a shed built and I had taken out some plants whicch had to be replanted, and also had some waiting in pots to be planted so a long day digging but very pleased with what got done. I planted a Fatsia which has been in a large tub for over 2 years, it was a big job doing that, also a cerise salvia shrub. Also planted up perenial sweetpea in a pot to wait for the right spot which I had taken from the wall where the shed has gone and some alstomeria for a friend.

Dug a hole to plant back some hydrangea but hit a huge rock so will have to wait for hubby to get a crowbar at it! We live in a granite area and I think the builders buried all the stones in our back garden when the house was being built!

Have recovered enought now to make it to the kitchen!

The Greenhouse is up now the job is to Get the plants in. First i had to make the workbench. very simple to do using some wood i had 2×2 and 2×1. you can buy self assemble metal/plastic ones which i looked at. once the bench was made. i got some seeds planted and put strawberries in hanging bags. next will be to dig and prepare the ground for the tomatoes and lettuce and other plants which i have yet to decide on.

Green House part 2

I am still a bit shaken from this evening’s experience.

My husband got a phone call from a neighbour who advised that she, and her visitor, would like to come and see my garden. They had just been to a garden centre so were clearly in the mood and when the visitor mentioned that she reads my column in the Irish Garden…

I will preface this with 1) I have never had anyone in to look at my garden before 2) I haven’t yet finished the winter clear-up and 3) there is still sewage on my lawn from the sceptic tank disaster of a few days ago.

Anyway, the visitors came and were really very nice and apologetic and only had good things to say.

I do need a stiff drink tonight, however.

Shaken!

I promised to publish pictures of daffodils’ first sprouts on the bank of our river. I’m not sure where are daffodils because I discovered 3 types of plants there. Two of those types are on the picture.

Daffs

Wishing you an Easter fresh with new joys and new promises, and blessed with love and happiness!

This special Easter wish

That comes with love to you

Brings warm and heartfelt thanks

For all the thoughtful things you do.

It also comes to let you know
You all mean more each day
To everyone your lives have touched
In such a loving way.

Happy Easter!

Happy Catholic Easter

Today all Orthodox world celebrate the holiday of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, also known as Palm Sunday.

In Russia it’s called ‘Pussy-willow Sunday’. Branches of pyssy-willow have been consecrated in churches.

Pussy-willow

This mixed lobelia was among my first sowings. Now it obviously need to be replaced outside, or just repotted.

Sowed at the same time pink lobelia looks not so full of life, plants are much smaller. I plan to move all seedlings outside at the end of May.

Lobelia mix

Archives: journal

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