Archives: journal
Sunday I went to Castlebar car boot sale – go for the plants mainly though I do break down and buy odds and sods which I shouldn’t. Got an Acer Palmatum (wrong spelling) for 3 euros – about 18ins high so thought it was a bargain. Spent today finding a place to put it in!! Actually I got up early this morning and made an apple pie, had breakfast and then went out into gdn 9.30. Found a place covered in re-seeded Aubretia to put Acer in. Removed Aubretia and replanted that down side path – got about 8 plants from it!! Then put Acer into really big hole and replaced soil with lovely compost from my compost bins which we emptied last week. There is a really good plantsman from near Pontoon who sells at the car boot sale, so I bought some things from him. He is very reasonable – he told me that on Fridays he’s in Castlebar at the country market.
checked all trees and shrubs that were staked to make sure they were ok. some were bit tight. great to have that done now.
I got about 2 hours done in the garden yesterday evening. – some more weeding and some seed sowing.
The purple and orange avenue beds are looking the best ever now. some sections are looking really well but others need some work. I am experimenting in these beds with planting combinations.
I noticed that there are a good few changes that need to be made. The magnolia stellata was outshone by the daffs and tulips I planted underneath. I will move these around the white border. I think the lily of the valley will be nice underneath. I will ask my mother-in-law for some more – if she can spare it!
I will also move any euphorbia from the pathways. I have been badly blistered on the legs and arms by the sap (it took a year to heal) – I don’t want this to happen to anyone else.
I was snap happy and added lots of pictures to the April 2009 photo album.
Michelle
Cherry tree in the avenue bed
just before it got too dark i ventured out across the wet lawn to check on the emerging veg seedlings. i was both happy and frustrated..the onions, potatoes and beans were up a fair bit but i couldn’t see any sign of the carrots, cabbage, pumpkins,celery…i’m hoping it was because of the light that i couldn’t see them but i don’t think so..
I filled in the space with three wheelbarrow loads of homemade compost and reseeded the bald patch! Now I can ponder on what to plant?
Space for something new!
Finally lifted the lid off the mushrooms. Have to move them somewhere cooler now for a while. The garage is an ideal spot for them. The lid is now suspended about 1 1/2 inches on all four corners for ventilation.
I have to spray the compost lightly daily.
This is getting exciting.
I’m off to bed now. Knackered from doing nothing much today. Oh!Maybe it was all the housework. Ha ha. Not used to it. Gnite everybody. Happy dreams!
mushrooms
Moved into new house with my partner last winter but due to exams and work stuff, I’m only getting slowly started on the garden. It was in a real state when I started as you can see from the photographs. The first step was to take out the crab apple tree at the back. It had a bad case of oozing sap and wasn’t doing well because it had been neglected for years. After strimming the jungle and removing an old overgrown palm, I had to repair and refelt the roof of the shed to make it useable again.Once reroofed I gave it a coat of wood preservative so hopefully we’ll get even a couple of years out of it yet! Plans for May and June include inserting raised beds, (which will allow me to plant out all the veg currently in the cold frame), repairing concrete area and covering in gravel, inserting a gravel path the length of the garden and making a small work area beside the shed with some overhead cover for my work bench.
Down at last
Shuttlecock Fern
Have been up to my eyes in work this week and meetings to go to in the evenings. Hardly had time to look at the garden. Got half an hour this morning so I have fed all the plants in need of a feed. Was depressed before I even went to work this morning. At 7.00am the slugs were having a party in my garden!!! and the grass needs a cut – too wet at moment. I am off tomorrow but the forcast does not look great. Fingers crossed it will have dried up a bit by this evening
beautiful day today. Taking break from trying to tidy outside.
Photo shows effect of sun through sun catcher.. When catcher moves gently from breeze at the window these rainbows dance around the kitchen. makes one feel like joining in the dance. Please sun more of you we need you!!
rainbow
first flower of new plug of streptocarpus. Crystal series blooms for 10 months of year
Years ago I read an article about Diarmuid Gavin’s early career. According to that article Diarmuid turned up to build his first Chelsea Show Garden with borrowed tools and a bunch of friends to help him complete what was to be an award winning garden.
True or not that story has stayed with me for years playing over and over in the back of my mind. The simplicity of Diarmuid Gavin’s plan, which I can only assume was driven by his ambition to succeed, appealed to me back when I read the article and appeals to me even more today.
Inspired by Diarmuid’s determination I will be turning up to build my very first show garden with tools that I’ve borrowed, time that I have stolen* and wood that I’ve begged for.**
There are two main components to the garden I’m building for Bloom in the Park 2009. The first is Stipa Tenuissima a wispy type of ornamental grass that I’ll be using en-mass. The other is good old fashioned timber. As a firm believer in the need to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as we can I set about sourcing recycled and waste wood to use in the build. After corresponding with many businesses around Ireland I settled on two main contenders. One was a privately owned waste disposable company and the other an Agricultural Supplies business in Lusk.
I visited both at the weekend and to see what, if anything, they could offer. The first trip was out to Lusk, on the old Belfast road (R1352) to visit agricultural supplies business Whites Agri. Whites Agri supply all manner of products and have a drive through depot which I think is brilliant, no more lugging heavy loads out to the car on wonky trolleys! I met with White’s Agri Director, Jer, and went through the design and details of Bloom before heading outside to see Whites Agri’s timber-seconds pile. The timber on this pile can’t be sold due to weather damage etc and so was going nowhere until I came along. I have to say I was really pleased with the timber and with the enthusiasm of Jer and Pat White (owner of Whites Agri). Although the timber is damaged there is enough of it that can be rescued and cleaned up to build with. Happy days!
After a Lusk I headed over to the other side of the county to visit the Waste Disposal Company. Kitted out with hard hats and steel toe cap boots I received a tour of the depot and a brief insight into what they do before heading over to the wood pile they had created on my behalf. The pile was huge, about the size of my house. Unfortunately though it was a case of take it all or nothing. Had it all been usable I would have gladly have found a place to store it all but as far as I could tell the majority of it was MDF and the similar waste types. The timber planks that I could see were ruined and splintered. All in all I was disappointed. Although, I am very grateful to the waste disposal company for offering what they could and for going to the trouble of putting what they had to one side for me.
Now all I need is to put it all together and build a fabulous garden…lets hope I make Diarmuid proud!
*(from friends & family who I am very grateful to)
** OK, I suppose ‘asked politely for’ would be more accurate than ‘begged’ but then the sentence doesn’t flow as well!
Supported by White’s Agri, Lusk
Well, we’re 12 months in our home and that means we’re 12 months in our garden. When we moved in the garden was a typical overlooked, underloved space of a busy family who haven’t yet had the time to sit down to consider the benefits of the garden. It would seem that they hadn’t had time to through away the garbage either and that took us months to clear away from behind the shed!
A typical garden lover I had cleared the garden and made it into a more useable space before I’d even considered unpacking the many, many, removal boxes in the hall. In my mind winter is for chores indoors and the rest of the year is for playing outside.
It took all of 2 minutes for me to realise that we were dealing with a clay soil mixed in with rubble, which I assume was left over from the house build 8 years before. Lots of Sand and manure has been dug into the existing borders and so far we have successful strawberry plants (who thankfully made it through winter), lots of red cabbage, celery, brussel sprouts and courgettes. So, all in all the soil has improved. Across from the borgers our mini apple tree is thriving and make itself comfy after nearly 2 years living in a patio pot. It’s a funny little tree that my nana Jean gave us; in the 1st year it gave us 1 apple, in the 2nd year it gave us 2! Your predictions for this year’s apple bounty?
The existing garden layout consists of a crudley laid flagstone patio, a brick lined curving border, stepping stone flags over the lawn, and a gravelled area at the end of the garden which is dominated by a shed.
My plans are to dig up the lawn and correct the drainage (it’s very very bad right now), install a small raised and sheltered decking by the back door, possible raise the beds and install built in rabbit hutches (for our Bunny girls Daisy and Dorris) underneath with access for them to run onto a freshly grown lawn, and a lowered area at the back with bespoke storage, no shed, a built in BBQ and/or a outdoor oven, and an entertaiment/seatig area.
I best get started!
Hope mine turns out this good.
View from the window of picture-gallery
In the original Rapunzel story, the prince jumps from the tall tower onto thorns, which pierce his eyes, and then he wanders for years in the forest, blind and lamenting his loss. They don’t write stories like that nowadays but looking at the "problem area" in my garden this morning, I came to thinking that perhaps I have planted a forest like Rapunzel’s.
The "problem area" is densely planted with Rosa Rugosa. I hate the thing and swear that I will never plant another Rosa Rugosa in my whole life! Before I can deal with the "forest floor" in my "problem area", I first need to be able to see it properly. That means I had to cut down the thorny Rosa Rugosa.
I used a telescopic lopper to cut the spiky rose stems a couple of inches from the ground. The roots will need to be dug out later so I need to leave evidence of where they are, hence my cutting a few inches up. The task took a while and was quite hard but it is now finished.
In the picture, the pile on the left is the pile of Rosa Rugosa branches which I cut from the "problem area". The "forest floor" of nasty perennial weeds is now exposed and so are several other bushes, which had been completely obscured. I had a little go at digging up some roots but quickly abandoned that task. That’s enough for today, I think.
I added plenty of new pictures to my April 09 album, including a shot of the newly dug bed, but I neglected to add Rapunzel’s forest.
Rapunzel’s Forest
The last day of April was glorious here in Mayo. Today I staked up the Peonies as they were starting to drop. I have quite a lot of tall herbaceous perennials that need staking and its a tedious job. I normally use hazel, rowan or sally branches as I have so much of them. I planted a piece of a Hosta I split last year and put it in a shady spot from which I removed a tulip.
Hosta
hi everyone
well garden lovely after all the rain this week. spent tea time yesterday shoveling top soil into buckets and dustbins at my daughters to load into my car yes my car!!! to fill our pond in,they have built there house and are trying to sort out the garden, up too now they have had about 4tons of top soil dropped from a local farm, so they wont miss a few buckets?. need to grass the old pond asp, not this weekend as we are out partying sat and sun, nice one,mon resting
project
Sunday, 21st September, I saw a hedgehog in the front garden. He/she was going into the corner up at the house, which has no way out. I didn’t let the children see him/her as they would have been too curious. I left him/her alone and a couple of hours later, there wasn’t any sign of him/her. I was very surprised as I never expected a hedgehog in an urban garden.
Apart from that, the back garden has filled out. Mind you, why wouldn’t it with all that rain! The front garden has all the hot colours and the back has the calming colours. A dahlia came up in the middle of the main border which will have to go out to the front, along with a couple of gladioli. I have to give the lawn a good feed as it is starting to turn slightly yellow. I have the spring bulbs bought and some of them planted up.
The front garden needs a serious tidy-up. The evergreen tree in the front is going – I am in two minds as to take it out now or leave it until next spring. It gives a bit of shelter to the acer behind it so the jury is still out. I need to get trailer loads of manure for the front. I had a look at the website www.tumbletown.ie and there is horse manure free to a good home available in Swords/Ballyboughal which isn’t a hundred miles away. There is one small problem – well, two actually. I neither have a trailer nor a hitch on the car! Would it smell out the car if I put it into containers and loaded the containers into the boot? Do I dare to try it?
A fellow “Irish Gardener” recommended www.seedaholic.com for seeds. I logged on and was amazed. I ordered 9 packets of seeds for the price of €13.87 before postage. Postage was €0.95 so for the shockingly affordable price of €14.82, I have all the seeds I need to revamp the front garden. Certainly can’t beat that. And to add to that, it is an Irish company, based in Westport, Co. Mayo. Thanks for the tip, “Irish Gardener”.
Easter Sunday, 12th April 2009
Spring doesn’t happen for me until the Magnolia tree flowers. It is absolutely beautiful. I never seem to get photos which do justice to it though. I have put up the best of them in the "photos" section but you simply can’t beat the real thing. The evergreen in the front got the chop in October. The camellia tree seems to have benefited by its departure. I planted 4 roses in the front – 3 with yellow flowers – Arthur Bell, Graham Thomas and Korresia and one with yellow and orange striped flowers – aptly named "Orange & Lemon". I gave out 3 bags of summer bulbs to hubby and children to plant. I pointed out areas where there is nothing growing at the moment. Only time shall tell…….. The back is filling out. The witch hazel tree flowered – I have to say I was disappointed. Every time you see this in a magazine, the photos would suggest that the flowers are hugh. They were tiny – you would have to go right up to the tree and have a really good look to be able to see the detail. I was also expecting the fragrance to hit you as soon as you entered the garden but not so; again up close and personal. Apart from that disappointment, I am pleased with the back. I was delighted to see the peony and masterwort have come back up. I didn’t lift my dahlia tubers last autumn, assuming that the winter would be mild. So, I am hoping that they all survived. This year, my son and I planted seeds in seed trays. We planted peas, lettuce, chinnese pinks, mixed hollyhocks and stripped dahlia’s. The peas took off so we planted them out today. We also got strawberry plants and planted them in a container. So here’s to hoping for a plentiful harvest.
Tulips
Ok I just got fed up looking like Mona Lisa. Here is the real me!
Wasting a little time over an extra cup of tea this morning, tooling around on the internet. There are lots of new little websites popping up everywhere that have to do with growing your own veg in Ireland. I have an interest in this and don’t feel bad at all in mentioning my own website I created (which, by the way, is www.galwaygrows.ning.com) since it is not for profit and only a way for me to meet other keen gardeners really. But there is a lovely site for Irish Allotments (irishallotments.net) and of course there is Lynn’s great site kinvarasustainableliving.com which I really love. It’s amazing what’s out there. There is the Cork Food Web site as well. I really like the idea of having local sites so that you can actually meet the people you are communicating with (and possibly even swap some plants… this is my ulterior motive you see :-). Anyway, it’s great to make new friends who are equally obsessed with gardening and the internet is sure making that easier for us, isn’t it?
I’ve just come back from hols and can’t believe the amount of weeds up in my garden. On the plus side, my spuds and other veggies are coming along nicely, what a lovely sight to come home to.
My plan this weekend is to tackle the weeds before they get any worse, also I have some cabbage plants to go into the ground, so gonna do that this weekend as well (weather permitting), otherwise it’s sit indoors and read my latest Irish Garden magazine.
Happy gardening to all, never thought I’d be as happy to get home from hols to get stuck in.
This project, though in my head for a couple of years, sprang from a ramble round the garden with cups of coffee in hand.
One terrace wall is almost complete – the second longest. Thank you Bobby. It was a lot of hard work as nearest the stone wall the terrace is 2 sleepers high and at the grass end it is flush with the grass. A short retaining wall against the stone wall and we’ll be ready to backfill the terrace with the pile of spoil that is 4 years old.
The stone wall is the original wall between the 2 fields, but it needs some maintenance.
Each hornbeam will have its own terrace and I haven’t decided whether to pleach them in steps or in line with the gradient of the field. They aren’t ready for training just yet but maybe at the end of the year.
That’s the last major hard landscaping idea I hav e for the garden just yet. I’ll probably come up with something else before the end of the summer. Maybe i’ll get some ideas from Bllom and the Hampton Court flower show in July.
The first terrace wall – needs some tweaking
