Yes January can be a tough month to get through with gloomy daylight , post Christmas blues , shite weather … need I go on ?! When I titled this Thank God etc. it reminded me of a time Snezana and I were in New York and really hungry this particular evening we passed a fast food chain called TGIF which neither of us had heard of before … we don’t get out much … in we go and order almost everything on the menu , chips, burgers , onion rings , you name it we loved it … our waitress , a small black lady had to work hard […]
December of course is so busy for most people with family , visitors , food preparation enough for three sieges , effing and blinding because the Christmas Tree lights won’t work and the generally bad weather that hardly any work gets done in the garden and of course it is a good month to take off out there as basically everything is dormant and even gardens need a rest ! I often tell visitors to the garden that our garden would have a different design if we didn’t have deer traipsing through it every day and taking a bite out of anything that takes their fancy be it trees , […]
An in between month November , not quite hard winter and still some hardy perennials poking their heads up but counting down the time before the first frosts blackens everything and none more so then my favourite plant , the gunnera . Not everone’s favourite , the gunnera and not suitable for all gardens as it is huge after a few years in the ground , a monster really which needs space and to be close to water and I have seen garden visitors shudder at the sight of a fully grown gunerra ! I have always loved the plant since I first saw it in the 1970’s in the […]
October was a total wash out in gardening terms in Ireland , heavy rain and the ground at Old Spa Road is saturated , so wet that I won’t be able to get a final cut on the grass … not a major catastrophe but I do like to have the grass neater throughout the winter months . And speaking about keeping things neat the leaf blower will be in full operation for the next three months … now a few copper beech leaves look very good in photos in nice autumn sunshine but our paths and driveway are covered to a depth of several inches with willow leaves , […]
Back in 1985 I first read Robin Lane Fox’s famous gardening book , Better Gardening , where he advised planting a quince tree and he specifically recommended a variety from Yugoslavia called vranja but it wasen’t until twenty five years later here at Old Spa Road that I actually bought and planted one … gorgeous it was when in May it unfurled it’s young leaves , a real knock out of a small tree however by July the leaves had gone all mottled and sick looking and so it continued for the next ten years that I gave up and cut it down . The quince was sacred to Aphrodite […]
What’s not to like about August in Ireland , nice reasonable heat with a drop of rain mixed in , perfect growing conditions for the garden where the plants are just edging past their best but still looking good and a good three months before the really cold November weather clicks in . We had spent the first week in August in Croatia in the heat wave and it was such a treat to be back on home in Old Spa Road in normal Irish weather that we got carried away and actually worked together ! Rarely we work together in the garden as if I ask Snezana to help […]
July was for us a total contrast in weather as Ireland was a wash out with rain for the entire month whereas Croatia was a furnace with an average of 38 deg. searing heat on a daily basis … however gardening work has to go on whatever the weather ! Gardening by it’s very nature and purpose is interventional and artificial as we are shaping nature to what we perceive is beautiful and practical . In Old Spa Road we took a naturally wet land , a bog really or what local people referred to as “ the swamp ” and repurposed it as an informal garden . We drained […]
Gardening in June is a favourite time for me with long light filled evenings leading up to the longest day of the year on the 21st and it seems a crime to be indoors before 9 pm ! We spent a few weeks in Croatia adjusting again to Mediterranean gardening but learning from past experience to not over water the rosemary and lavender but before we left I tackled what has been a problem now for a few years at the garden at Old Spa Road, a wooden decking patio in the Lower Field which we built out over the stream in 2006 and which was actually the first project […]
May is my favourite month in the garden , everything is fresh , green , the growth is spectacular, the hedges are full of whitethorn in full bloom and the whole summer is ahead ! The Euphorbia wulfeni along with hostas are the stars of the May Garden and as striking architectural plants are hard to beat in UK and Irish gardens as our damp changeable climate suits them . Unlike hostas that are plagued by snails the euphorbia has no pets or animals that eat it probably because if you cut or bite a euphorbia it exudes an acid that stings … the gardener that breeds a hosta that […]
It’s Hosta month this April at Clonmel Garden Centre as they have their largest collection of hostas ever in stock , all the old reliables , June, Gold Standard , Big Daddy and all presented in great condition with small leaf growth and nothing forced under glass as can often be the case in April with hostas . If we didn’t have deer coming into the garden I would have a huge collection of hostas , my favourite plant but unfortunately we have a lot of deer who over the years visiting the garden have developed a sweet tooth for hostas . I try and find nooks and crannies that […]
