Spring is definitely in the air this week although the ground is still too wet from all the rain we have had to unleash the mower … more time to admire the lovely colours of the weeping willow and the wall flowers in the front garden . The latest addition to the garden was this quirky one off modern terracotta vase which Snezana fell in love with in the bargain bin corner of Glenconnor Garden Centre earlier in the week . Peeping through shrubs or in a quiet corner the simplest of stone or terracotta pot can brighten up a corner of the garden and bring a smile to the […]
My Gardening Week March 24th 2014 ….. Antiquities in the Garden
Antiquities in the garden is the title this week …… no NOT me but a beautiful quern stone …. a few months ago I was in Pauline Hegarty’s garden at Kilmacomma just outside Clonmel , a lovely garden which featured in Irish Gardener last year and well worth a detour if in the area as they say in the Michelin Guide . Pauline had just come back from a visit to her childhood home in Clare with a pair of ancient stone grinders and as I admired them so extravagantly she promised to put the word out to see if another such piece came on the market , one such […]
Happy St. Patrick’s Day !
I wasn’t planning to write a gardening blog today but as it is March 17th and every radio station in the world is blaring out a St. Patrick’s Day message this morning so in honour of my irishness here is a short St. Patrick’s Day themed piece ! When living abroad and asked where am I from or when most people pick up on my accent and ask what part of Ireland are you from , the second statement is always “ it is so green ” and I always answer yes it is very green but the price for all that greenness is that it rains every day …. […]
My Gardening Week March 9th 2014….. Jeyes Fluid and Zen Buddhism !
As I mentioned in my last article yellow fever is full on now with daffodils everywhere , 27,000 varieties bred so far and by bred I mean artificially created by specialist growers over the last hundred years , mainly for commercial reasons as the public’s taste changes for different colours and larger flower heads . Different colours really means either variations on yellow or white but for my own taste I don’t take much heed of specialist varieties as in my view yellow is yellow and I just buy in bulk sacks at the garden centres but I do try to keep the colours separate so one area will have […]
My Gardening Week .. First of March 2014 … The Hills are alive with the sound of chain saws !
Trees are down everywhere after the recent storms in the Clonmel area and hardly a laneway has been unaffected and apart from the cleaning up operations some people are panicking and chopping down perfectly sound trees which are close to their houses as they have been given a sharp reminder as to power of nature and the damage a fallen tree can do to your house . That said it was sad to see a group of mature silver birch cut to the ground on our lane which were in no danger of falling and had many years of beauty ahead of them which was a real case of throwing […]
My Gardening Week …. Venice in the Garden Mid February 2014 !
The garden is like a scene from Venice at the moment as large parts of the wood are under water from all the excess water coming off the mountain due to the almost month long rains we have had in Ireland . Water always looks nice in garden photos and in the meantime it won’t do any lasting damage to plants . The hellebores are at their best right now and have many more weeks of blooming left in them . There are still no daffodils in flower just now but they are ready to come on the scene in another week but there is still colour in the garden […]
My Gardening Week ….. St. Brigid’s Day !
At last I am back digging in the garden after a brief spell under the duvet during the recent awful wind and rain and I was kicked into action by the kind of gift every gardener loves ….. several boxes of plants dug up and divided by another gardener . My gardening friend brought along some of my favourite plants which have become congested in her own garden , dermera and giant primulas which will go into some wet areas and a beautiful geranium which I had admired in Altamount Garden in Wexford during a visit there last summer . There is also a huge clump of geranium which I […]
My Gardening Week ….. January 28th 2014
I have been concentrating on the specialist golden willows this week first by admiring their deep golden and red bark colour which really stands out in deepest winter where there is little leaf colour around and it is now that the willows and dog woods come into their own and earn their keep . But I am also examining the branches and shoots for any sign of willow blight which disfigures the plant and it is now that the third part of the pruning mantra …. dead , damaged or diseased … the three D’s as it is called comes into effect . On willows especially the golden and deep […]
A Walk in the Garden January 16th 2014
All these photos were taken in a thirty minute spell on a sunny day in mid January and my purpose was to highlight winter colour at a time of year when the sun is low in the sky but with the right light and particularly if water is included in the composition you can forget the biting wind and the freezing temperature !!
My Gardening Week January 18th 2014
I bought some nice primroses in the January sale at Johnstown Nursery this week , the new irish bred chocolate green type as distinct from the common olive green leaved native to Ireland and the UK . This new variety has been on the market for the past three years and has been a marketing sensation, the variety has been patented so the plant can only be produced commercially under licence which has made the individual plant expensive at seven euros each ….. seven euros for a primrose or cow slip as they are known locally and which grow wild along ditches and hedgerows ? Which is why I resisted […]