April is for me the most exciting month in the garden , winter is finally over and new growth and the first flowers of our native plants are coming into bloom and for me the best of these is our common wall flower which not only is great to look at but the smell of a wall flower is unique and transports me back to ten years of age and an old fashioned cottage garden my Grandmother Nonie had created in Ballintaw , West Limerick , where I spent most of my summers in the 1950’s . Nonie also grew roses but they never registered in my mind like the […]
My Gardening Week Week Ended March 24th 2016 …. Shredding for Ireland this week !
Some plants like old loves stay in the memory forever and one plant that certainly has been with me for over thirty five years is the giant gunnera and is one of the first architectural foliage plants I think of for any wet land planting scheme . Mostly gunnera is too big for small gardens unless you build a corner planting around it and the big drawback is that when it dies back in late November it leaves a gigantic hole in the border and I solve that problem in this garden by mainly having it as a waterside plant where the gap is not as noticeable and of course […]
My Gardening Week February 18th 2016 ….. Bosnian Memories
I received a lot of response in the last blog to the photographs from my time in Bosnia , a wonderful country where I worked for ten years from 1996 to 2005 and whose culture , history and people I loved and continue to love to this day . I drove into Bosnia for the first time on March 5th 1996 from Belgrade just weeks after the war had ended , crossing the Drina river border between Serbia and Bosnia at Zvornik . The next fifty miles took me through the front lines with burnt out tanks and devastated villages and towns all along the road , it was seven […]
My Gardening Week February 5th 2016 … Happy Ten Year Anniversary !
The garden is ten year’s in existence in 2016 and started life on January 6th 2006 when I drew out on the ground the outline of the design with garden hose for the immediate back garden constantly viewing it from an upstairs window until I got the curving design I wanted for the new lawn just right… happy innocent days ! And a view ten years later in 2015 I had just arrived back in Ireland after thirteen years working in the Balkans and my final posting with the EU in Sarajevo . I left Sarajevo at 6 am on a snowy bitterly cold Saturday morning on the 19th December […]
My Gardening Week December 31st 2015 …. Happy New Year 2016 … Sretna Nova Godina … Bonne Annee !!
I always feel the garden is dreary in December , the old leaves are still hanging on the trees and clogging up the ground and while normally I would be on top of this with the leaf blower however this December I am on crutches for a few weeks recovering from a hip problem so am more conscious of not being able to actually do a clean up … depressing ! December in Ireland has been full of unusual rain , heavy persistent H2 O bucketing down on a daily basis and the poor people in the west of the country have had an almost biblical Noah’s Ark flooding . […]
My Gardening Week November 22nd 2015 …. a lust for life !
A Walk in the Garden earlier this morning . Gardens never stand still and constantly evolve be it through neglect where the garden just reverts to an overgrown jungle or just changed over the years as the owner or owners hand it on or if the property changes hands . In the case of famous gardens which are created like in the UK say Hidcote in the early 1920’s or Sissinghurst in the 1940’s and which then are taken over by the National Trust and remain continually open to the public , a decision has to be taken as to whether to continue with the style of their famous owners […]
My Gardening Week October 19th 2015 ….. Fame at last Playboy Magazine next ?!!
Late October is the month all the garden writers say we should enjoy for the berries and the autumn colours … it is the time of long nights drawing in , smoke from open fires and the clocks going back at Halloween … well they would say that wouldn’t they as they have copy to fill for editors and don’t write anything depressing etc !! Well for me I walk around the garden and along with the great autumnal colour I also see death with the plants hunkering down in advance of the harsh winter winds and knowing we are looking at below zero temperatures and realising that the optimism […]
My Gardening Week 9th September 2015 ….. Cameras Lights Action !
The September 2015 issue of The Irish Garden featured a six page illustrated article on the garden written by Shirley Lannigan and needless to say we were thrilled to see it publishe. We had known of course for some time that Gerry Daly as editor of the magazine had it in mind but nothing was definite even after Shirley came to the garden in July and interviewed Snezana and myself nor indeed were we given any advance notice until a friend rang early on the morning of August 21st to say the September issue of The Irish Garden was in the shops and Petrovska garden was in it ! After […]
My Gardening Week August 21st 2015 …… Ronaldo winked at me !
A few weeks ago on a visit to the Clonmel Garden Centre Snezana fell in love with two pots which had only come in the previous day ….. lucky for us as these pots , greek amphora style with handles , are difficult to source and are of a type I have been searching for over the years but never came across since I last saw one for sale in Dublin in the late 1990’s when I was between gardens . They are show stoppers and immediately found their place in the garden … careful positioning needed as I like pots not in your face but to come subtly into […]
My Gardening Week 25th July 2015 ….. OK it isen’t Legoland !
It is July when traditionally gardens are at their peak , the perennials are in full flower , shrubs in blossom and the trick is now to keep it going until the first frosts in November ! Rodgersia and hostas are at their best in July and although both like damp conditions I have these planted in dryish soil in the front garden although I water regularly on hot days . Well the new paths in the lower field have been inspected by Snezana who is currently home on leave from OSCE duties in Eastern Ukraine …..and who reluctantly conceded that the finished project which had gone ahead without her […]