March marks the time of year when gardening turns serious ! That extra hour of daylight , new growth beginning in perennials , trees and shrubs with daffodils and tulips in full bloom and beads of sweat on the forehead as the wheel barrow is taken out of storage , the effing and blinding when you try to start the mower for the first time since last October ! During March I added to the new water area planting at a furious rate adding cuttings of houtania along the wet edges and geranium slips in the drier banks for ground cover and then adding a path of concrete paving slabs […]
My Gardening Month February 2021 … Lost in Montenegro !
February is a month of mixed messages , an extra hour of daylight for the gardener and while on the one hand all the senses are shouting stay indoors , snuggle up to the duvet and binge watch Netflix , the practical side ( don’t you just love this voice ) is saying get out there and start cutting back ! It can be a balancing act in trying to get the most out of the winter structure of the perennial grasses and the striking bark of the willow and dog woods but I like to get all the hard pruning and cutting back done by the end of February […]
My Gardening Month 31st January 2021 … January is not my best loved month !
A new year , a new decade and hopefully the much promised vaccines will banish Covid and give us back our normal lives . January is always for me when the garden starts again to grow , the shortest day of the year has passed , the excess of Christmas behind us and by the middle of the month with each day there is a little stretch in the evenings and lots to do in the garden also … that said January for me is a month to struggle through and one I am glad to see the back of ! First snow drops of the year in the front […]
My Gardening Month December 2020 … a Bastard Year gone by … but a Happy New Year , Sretna Nova Godina to come !
A phrase I read recently to describe this past year was that 2020 due to Covid has been a BASTARD YEAR , sums it up perfectly and God love anyone who has lost family or loved ones to the virus but good news for January 2021 with the roll out of the vaccine and hopefully we can all get our lives back on track again . December is such a busy month with the festive preparations that it is hard to find time to spend in the garden but with the leaves all down it is a good month to examine the structure of the garden in it’s pared back […]
A Tale of Christmas’ spent away from home
I love Christmas , always have , the lights , the present buying , the kids excitement and anticipation , the christmas playlist all around the house and the non stop blasting out of umpteen versions of Mary’s Boy Child , I love it all even the tacky elements and the plastic Santas ! While working abroad for fifteen years with the EU I missed spending Christmas at home because of work commitments for many years . The first was in Skopje , Macedonia in 1994 , a mainly Orthodox country so their Christmas is on January 6th and our day of the 25th December went largely unnoticed and it […]
My Gardening Month 30th November 2020 … here’s hoping for a Covid truce for Christmas
A report out this month on the Covid situation in New York cites three main factors for the rising infection rates , attendances at pubs , gyms and large home gatherings . One could argue that any or all of these are necessary for mental well being and I am sure that gym and bar owners take as many precautions as they can to keep their business’ alive with regular cleaning and wipe downs but complacency does creep in even with the best of intentions and the infection is passed on . Apart from complacency what amazes me in Ireland is the seemingly absolute need for alcohol where the entitlement […]
My Gardening Month 31st October 2020 … The diggers are back in town !
Half way through October Ireland went into level 5 for a six week lockdown in a last ditch effort to short circuit the recent rise of Covid so that life can return to somewhat normality for us to be able to link up with family and friends again to enjoy Christmas . Most people have been scrupulous in following the social distancing rules , wearing face masks etc. but of course there have been the yahoos who insist they must drink in pubs in large numbers and celebrate wildly after football and hurling games , no need to mention who of course but the rest of us older people have […]
A Month in the Garden September 2020 … a few weeks in another Covid country .
I was in Croatia for three weeks in September looking after a garden there that I first planted some years ago and it took a while to adapt to a new Covid environment not to mention travelling on a plane for the first time in these scary times . Getting through Dublin Airport was a doddle , almost totally empty, hand dispensers every 20 metres , everyone social distancing and wearing masks and it felt very safe . The plane was half empty and lots of space for social distancing in fact I had a row all to myself and again it felt very safe apart from the fact that […]
My Gardening Month 31st August 2020 … the Fear is coming back .
Even though we are no longer in lock down Covid has not gone away and as the young are partying like mad the numbers contacting the virus have shot back up and along with it the fear and shaming of people who go abroad for a holiday even though most EU countries have lower Covid figures than Ireland . August has been wet , gardens are semi flooded , lawn mowers have been idle and Autumn has come quickly with falling leaves everywhere . One of my favourite garden writers , Stephen Lacy , in a recent article titled “A fresh pair of eyes on your garden can throw up […]
My Gardening Week 31st July 2020 … the Virus in the Age of Madness
Apart from a worry that Covid could spike again we are all approaching normality but at least as a result of the pandemic we have adopted better precautions at safeguarding ourselves such as hand washing and wearing face masks in shops and these measures will continue at least until a vaccine is found . I visited a garden last week within a group of five friends and even though we were outdoors all apart from two wore a face mask … I choose not to wear a face mask as I still draw the line at outdoor use in lots of space among people I know , who are not […]