Archives: journal

It’s raining again, there has been torrential rain for the last 2 days and our pond has reached its max level so if the rain keeps up we’ll have to ensure that the water can drain away and make it’s way via the Mountain water towards Lough Neagh. The downpipes from the indoor arena roof are raising the water level daily now that the drain away has been closed. The kitchen garden appears to be establishing well there’s no need to water and the constant rain is causing weeds to shoot up, I won’t have time to do much weeding as I am teaching all week. The only advantage of teaching is that it allows me to do a bit more plant shopping which will help to fill in the gaps.

The pink standard rose appears to be dripping with buds and blooms as the stems bow under their weight and the path between it and the artichokes is almost impassable. It’s still raining so no chance of getting in a few minutes weeding to night.

We went to the bottom of the garden to see what was happening down there today.  There are 2 oak trees in the boundary down there.  I want to put a tree swing on one of them,  There is a lovely flat area under the oak canopy that could be great fun for the kids to play on.  A mown path from the top garden, and a few stiles will make the route down there much easier and safer for them…….some day.

The remains of our first veg garden on this site are down there. Its like a n elephant graveyard for the greenhouse that was crushed, mangled and torn on the 4th January 2005.  There are tons of raspberries that have spread over a good big area and the cob nuts that I mentioned before are swelling nicely.

Overall the gardening is getting alot easier at this time of year.  The weeds, though rampant are easy enough to pull up.  There is a massive section to be weeded in the cutting patch, but I think if I tackle them tomorrow morning they will be relatively easy to manage.

There are a good few plants to go into the garden yet; nicotiana sylvestris, some zinnias and stock.  Oh I don’t think I ever mentioned the orange geums that Rachel sent me the seeds of! Fantastic germination rate and the seedlings are flying and will be ready to go into the garden in 2 weeks time.  Most of these will go into the front garden where at long last I think I have a handle on the couch grass!  Thank you Rachel for those fantastic seeds.

We’re going to west Cork for a week or 2 in a very kind friend’s camper van so the fantastic Lauren will be on watering duty.

 

We had a great day today. First we went to visit a friends lovely garden. Then we went on to visit another garden in Kilmacteige Co Sligo proceeds of which went to the Donkey Sanctuary in Sligo. Have a look at the photos

The May issue of Gardeners’ World magazine had a section called “Hanging Out”.  In it, three different suggestions for hanging baskets were given.  One was called “Playing it cool” which was made up of plants with white flowers and silver foliage.  The second was called “Falling leaves” which contained trailing plants.  The third was called “Scent of summer” which contained fragrant plants.  I decided to attempt this one.  The plants needed were as follows:

 

Heliotropium arborescens ‘Butterfly Blue’ – common name: cherry pie

4 Nemesia caerulea  or Nemesia ‘Blue Button’

4 French lavender Lavandula stoechas

 

Armed with this list, I headed off to my local garden centre.  They didn’t have those exact plants so I purchased instead:

 

Basket 1

1 Lavender ‘Munstead’

3 Nemesia ‘Nemo Blue’

3 Verbena ‘Deep Violet’

 

Basket 2

1 Lavender ‘Hidcote’

3 Nemesia ‘Nemo Blue’

3 Petunia sunfinia ‘Patio Blue’

 

While they aren’t exactly as it said in the book, I am delighted with them as the scent from them is amazing, despite the fact that they haven’t really filled out yet.  I will be keeping an eye out for more suggestions in future.

 

By the way, if anyone wants the list for either of the other two, contact me and I’ll forward them to you.

all my photos are from a mobile phone, as if you couldnt tell. so here is what i think happened today. weather was crap. check out my photos…………I won.  

check out new photos

No gardening for me today instead we went to Powerscourt Gardens in Wicklow.

What a fantastic place.  The only draw back was the weather it was awful. I have uploaded loads of photos, some of them did not come out great as they were taken on the run.

Did manage to stop into the garden centre (for a look) but come out with  pots and pots of stuff . It’s like I have an addiction at the moment i can’t pass a flower, I NEED to have it.

 

There has been some talk of addiction lately on the site and last night, as I burned the midnight oil on garden.ie once again, I began thinking about the users of the site, and especially all the insomniacs as noted by Mairin.

There is a lot of jargon related to websites, forums and blogs. My husband was telling me about ‘Lurkers’ and ‘WUMS’ (wind up merchants) and some other terms that were completely new to me.  So I began thinking about horticultural equivalents.

Users of garden.ie could be divided up, as plants are, depending on the manner in which they function. 

Firstly we have the ‘Trees’ – the constant year round stalwarts of the site – the leaders.  Their journals may be a little barer in Winter but they are there providing a framework for the site.

Then we have the Hardy perennials – those who have a constant presence on the site, but are much more active in the spring and summer.

Then we have the Tender perennials – those who would like to be on the site more but don’t quite manage it for one reason or another.

And there are the Half hardy Annuals  – all the faceless members who registered in good faith but have never been heard from again.  Another botanical term for them would be Monocarpic. (flowering and fruiting only once before giving up the ghost)

I would suggest that there are no ‘Wums’ on garden.ie but I may be wrong. I suppose those who have experienced losing their heartfelt 500 word journal entry might beg to differ.  In garden terms these would have to be those perennial weeds that constantly frustrate us – just when we think we have them licked they reappear.  Garden.ie does not experience computer viruses but if it did it would probably be computer mosaic virus.                       

These groups can then be further divided up depending on their growth habits

To begin with they can be divided into those with nocturnal and those with diurnal habits – the midnight bloomers versus the sun lovers. 

The Exotics – those who specialise in the unusual and can teach us all a thing or two.

The Shade intolerant  – those who use the site to overcome their frustration when it is ungardenable outside.

The Mediterranean – those who don’t like their feet to get too wet for too long.

Fruit and Veg growers  – for whom the productive garden is the apple of their eye.

The self-fertile – those organic gardeners who like doing it for themselves.

The Climbers – those whom the site has encouraged to rise out of the undergrowth with ambitious plans and ideas and reach for the sun.

The Epiphytes -the closest thing to a ‘Lurker’ – those who read the site but don’t feel the need to put down roots and get involved.

Of course there are Hybrids that exhibit characteristics of all of the above.

And, as in any good garden, a good mix of most of the above is always best to provide year-round interest.

Many of these active users should be awarded an AGM ( Award of Garden.ie Merit) for their strong performance and good growth habits.

Thankfully there are no cacti analogies to be made in relation to the site – there are no prickly users!  Although there are thorny issues that are raised every now and then but they are usually rendered thornless with the help of helpful commentators.  All in all, on garden.ie, there is an all-pervading spirit of ‘live and encourage to live’ and long may it continue!

Sunshine, showers and some dullness. This is a very brightly coloured, low growing spreader (has run through a whole bed) that has a very strong scent of orange peel. I love the smell but not everybody does. It disappears underground in the winter.

guess what is behind the bookcase?

his lordship!

Thankfully the rain held off until I got home from work. I got a nice red dahlia with tips of white. So I planted that in my red and yellow border. It’s planted very close to my compost bin.

While doing that, something caught my eye. Something orange. Well lo and behold I pulled out a pot of something rather pathetic which somehow got squashed in behind the compost bin. It has been there I’d say about 4 years and still in its original pot. It’s called Mitraria coccinea. It’s supposed to be an evergreen but I’d say there are probably 10 leaves altogether on it. I didn’t realize until I looked it up on the computer that it is actually a climber. Maybe that’s why I could never find the right spot for it. I do now though. It takes partial shade and a very moist soil. So I am going to plant it in my shady border.

I did a small bit of weeding. And watered and fed everything in the greenhouse. I’ll NEVER be able to eat all those courgettes. The peaches are ripening nicely. I was salivating at the thoughts of eating them. Last year was the peach tree’s first year to produce fruit of any decent size and I only got 3. This year I will get about 8. Can’t wait for them. Strawberries are coming, fast and furious. If I eat all of what I have grown, I’ll end up like a baby elephant.

I also got a great bargain in work today buying 2 nice pots for my canna and my musa. Terracotta-coloured fibreglass for only €15 each.

the round head cabbages are coming on well. i’d say another 2 or 3 weeks and they’ll be on the table

i never photoed this before.

Got a pleasant surprise today, on close inspection of the lemon chili plants i noticed that they had set quiet a lot of chillies! each plant now has about 2 dozen 1" to 2" chillies! have taken about 16 courgettes from the 2 plants in the greenhouse and they are still flowering strongly, have almost finished with the broad beans and have been enjoying them for the past 6 weeks, have let the last of the white radish go to seed in order to save the seed, have tried some of the first early spuds we are growing in bags and although they were lovely they seem later than previous years and the yield not as good, onions look great this year and should provide a good crop for storage, spinach is growing strongly and have used a lot already for soups for the freezer, carrots and the second batch of turnips are coping well and will no doubt find their way into the soup pot, both french and runner beans are flowering well and look forward to their usual large crop, tomatoes are all doing well and we are really looking forward to getting the fruits into the kitchen, all 3 of the large varieties are excellent for cooking with, we look forward to blending them with the herbs and chilies…………

I just love these Angels Fishing Rods……… this is a medium sized one.

After the regular morning chores (animals, tunnel, kitchen/house/washing machine etc) I decided it was time to do some serious work on the run for the chicks which I’m expecting next Wednesday, so the pressure is on. But on a day like this even work can be pleasant and it all is so much easier. Another coat of paint tomorrow and the whole thing can be put together.

A few people have asked me how to have a garden and keep animals at the same time. I hope to give a few tips on that in the near future (rainy days). 

The run on the picture is the one I took totally apart ’cause 2 wet summers in a row rotted parts at the bottom. Will post a picture of the 2009 version when it’s done.

It is possible now to add a comment. It was my fault, I had ticked the wrong preferences. Sorry.

Went up to bed for an hour after work. Couldnt keep my eyes open. By the time I came down, the evening was nearly gone. I managed to pot up my canna and musa. Also, I decided against planting my newly-discovered Mitraria coccinea into the border. I think it might benefit from a bit of cossetting first. So I potted that up so I can keep a watchful eye on it. That’s the extent of MY gardening today, I’m afraid.

Off tomorrow. Must cut back a load of ivy growing rampant behind my greenhouse.

After a quick check arounnd the garden it was into the tunnell to fill up the new beds.All were given a mixture of compost,riddled clay,manure,fert.Handy been able to reach all beds with ease and no long streaching to reach them.The tunnell floor was swept and also given a good washout.Next to do was check on the coldframe and see how the new growath was coming along.Sprayed the potatoes with Di,945.Did not get to put some rose clear on the roses but will be first on tomorrows agenda.No more work in the garden now,and time to look through some garden notes.