Category Archives: Gardening

Apr29

Tulips Again?

Posted on April 29, 2014 by heretherebespiders

I’m amazed – the two tulips are still going strong. Opening up now, and have weathered some pretty high winds, too. I took this shot this morning before I went to work. I was late, a bit – but flowers don’t last forever. Unlike the daily grind…

Everything else is growing like mad – no flowers yet, really, but the clematis is tall, the roses are all fresh red leaves, the sweet pea never died off in our mild winter and is already taller than the wall out front… I could go on but I should have been in bed about an hour ago!

Apr25

How…What… Plants are Friggin’ Weird.

Posted on April 25, 2014 by heretherebespiders

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iDJ got me a heated electric propagator. So far I’ve killed a lot of corn, grew a few tomatoes and a few super hot pepper plants growing in it. The heat makes stuff shoot up instantly or rot to mould instantly, so I’m still figuring it out.

Last week, I popped in some sunflower seeds, and also something I figured would be hard to grow: Buddleja, or Buddleia – otherwise known as the butterfly bush. I got the seeds free from my mother-in-law, of course. And I’m damned glad about the free part! We were at a garden centre over the weekend and holy shit – €4.99 for a pack of seeds!?!? No. Even worse that they wanted €7.99 for one plant I can grow from a tuber or bulb for €5 for three. Anyhoo, it is the most expensive place around, but also the only dedicated plant place around.

I’ve rambled.

The Buddleia. It’s a damned bush. So I expected some rather sturdy seeds in my free packet. Ah, no. They were tiny; so very tiny they were smaller than grains of sand. My only choice to get them started was to stick my damp finger in what looked like dust, dabble it on top the soil, and hope.

Hope worked. Or my green fingers did, who can say for sure? Either way, the tiny little sumbitches are growing.

I’m not sure how to explain just how microscopic these seedlings are. Do you see the tiny white things? Those are beads of what we used to call styrofoam. Not sure what it’s called in these post-CFC days. No matter, the beads themselves are tiny. Wee. Itty-bitty. Minuscule. And my buddleja bushes are way, way smaller and so very fragile looking. I have no idea how I will ever transplant these buggers!

Have you seen a Buddleia bush? They are quite large!

(Photo credit http://www.seedterra.com)

For true scale, I also planted sunflower seeds. Just take a gander at these ginormous things:

The sheer wonder I feel about growing from seed, hopefully visualised. If these tiny babies live, I will have enormous bushes for decades from the wee sprouts, but only one late summer batch of flowers from the big mofos.

Apr19

Tulips are Better than None

Posted on April 19, 2014 by heretherebespiders

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Two autumns ago, I made a half-hearted attempt to move my tulips into containers, as they get no sun where they are and rarely bloom. I missed a ton of bulbs, and never finished the job. Also, my husband’s gardening uncle tried to throw cold water on my tulip-growing efforts by telling me that they wouldn’t come back more than twice, so we’d wasted our efforts even planting them at all.

Well.

We both were wrong.

I started digging up at this end of the row – for sure I thought I’d moved these. Nope.

How wonderful! A lovely surprise, strong and healthy, in a dark space along a very dark wall at this time of year.

Plants are amazing. I can’t even kill them when I want to!

Apr7

Spring on my Step

Posted on April 7, 2014 by heretherebespiders

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I’m sick – again – this time with a stomach bug one of my co-workers brought in last week, courtesy of his daughter. Fine one second, using the bathroom in all kinds of noisy ways the next. Let’s just say it’s a good thing I can barf into the sink while still sitting on the toilet…never thought there would be a bonus to a tiny bathroom but there you are.

So. I’ve been sitting on these pics for a few weeks. The daffs are in full bloom now, but they looked this this not so long ago:

And a close up:

The black lilies are ahead of the pack – they are really shouting for joy at the sunlight and warmer temps.

The ones out front don’t get as much sun, so they aren’t as large. My beloved tigridia isn’t doing a thing – I’m wondering if it even comes back. I had a gentle dig and the roots aren’t rotten, but also not showing signs of life. Damn. Ah, it’s hopefully okay – I have hundreds of seeds that I saved and they are coming up!

Mar11

Damn that Talented Hubby o’ Mine…

Posted on March 11, 2014 by heretherebespiders

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…and his spiffy ‘real camera.’ Imma just going to put these here.

Dammit.

Really, iDJ? You’re just showing off now.

That jerk. How dare he spend his lunch hour taking really awesome flower pictures just for me (and you)!

Mar1

First Green Stuff Post of 2014, or: Spring!

Posted on March 1, 2014 by heretherebespiders

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I’m having way too much fun with my other frosty photos, so I’m not ready to put them up here yet. I think I’m going to have to be a jerk and watermark the hell out of them – they are that spiffy (to me, anyway)!

Instead, I’m going to give you a bit of spring.

Anyone over this side of the pond knows that snowdrops come up first. We got these a few years ago from a cheap supermarket packet, and they are really coming into their own this year.

We won’t talk about the disastrous state of the paint on my wall, or my finger being in the pic, or the fact they are blurry as hell, okay? Okay. They make iDJ and I very happy when they come up and let us know that it is, indeed, spring in Ireland.

Next are the crocuses. The purple ones bloom first, for some reason. Have a couple orange-yellow ones now, and a variegated purple – but no decent pics (as if this shot qualifies as decent, considering one of them has been beheaded). I meant to seed the whole front ‘lawn’ with these, but damn, the ground was hard and muddy and rocky and we only ever did a few. Mice ate the rest of the bulbs that I didn’t plant. Oops. I don’t think they really like it there much – no sunshine at all this time of year. Oh well.

More crocus. Or is that Croci?

I’ve also started some seedlings – early ones. Stuff that needs more time of being alive before it can make tasty food for me and mine:

Corn! I now have a wee heated Aldi propagator, and so I started corn and tomatoes and super hot scotch bonnet peppers for iDJ. Put them in the propagator Sunday the 15th Feb, and by the 18th, I had two corn plants this tall. They have now been potted out in big pots as they outgrew the prop. quite quickly. But only three of 12 germinated, so I will have to try another batch. Should still have time, I hope.

Peppers, or tomatoes? I honestly can’t tell when they are babies. Sort of like how a Chihuahua pup and a Great Dane pup will look identical when newborn. They aren’t in danger of outgrowing the propagator any time soon, but it does concern me that they have to lean so far over just to get any of our sunshine this time of year.

I was meant to start the peppers back in December but I wasn’t ready.

I’m now feeling bad that my seedlings are much larger! If I took daily photos it might be fun, but also potentially quite boring. “Watching grass grow.”

Jan25

Help needed from Ireland and England!

Posted on January 25, 2014 by heretherebespiders

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What the HELL is tearing up my garden?

All along the walls in our back garden, something has been digging. This was a month ago:

This was two weeks ago:

It’s much, much worse now. What the hell could it be? It’s not birds, or cats, or our dog. I doubt a fox or badger would come in our wee space – the gate is very low and the space is small and reeks of dog.

Could we have a resident hedgehog? What the hell else could be doing this? Helppppp 🙂

Nov30

Last Gasp of the Flowers?

Posted on November 30, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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It was gorgeous today. Sunny and about 8 degrees C, which feels warm to me at this time of year. In the last two months – officially winter here – we’ve had one day of sleet and hail, and about three so far where it got near to zero and there was frost on the car, and the grass. The wind barely made its usual horrendously damaging appearance in late October, and November has been equally placid.

Of course the rain never really goes away, it is Ireland, after all.

Last weekend it was also lovely, so I borrowed iDJ’s iPhone to take pictures of my remaining flowers.

The rudbeckia is still going strong. I am so impressed with how long one bloom can survive. They are very welcome; now more than ever with their warm autumn coloration.

More rudbeckia.

Galliardia is still in bloom, too.

I’m fascinated with their huge puff-ball seed heads, too. I’m leaving them to mature, just out of curiosity.

Now. This is something that really fascinates me! This is the stem of just one of the many black lilies that I grew this year. This one plant has not only made seeds, but seems to be growing bulblets all along its stem. I’m boggled. I think it is quite possible my garden next year is going to be overrun with black lilies. We may just have to dig up the whole front lawn (no great loss) and plant it with lilies and tigridia. I have no photos of them, but I have hundreds of tigridia seeds. Anyone in Europe want to have a go at growing them from seed? I’ll post them to ye.

The strawberry / raspberry patch is looking distinctly autumnal, and dammed ugly to boot.

One of my blueberry bushes always has incredible colour for fall. And it takes fall to heart: leaves everywhere.

I don’t know much about lavender. I grew these from seed last spring because I was told it was hard, and I love a challenge. They are blooming now, is that normal?

I had an absolutely terrible time trying to get the phone to focus on the lavender blooms. Oh well.

Some real colour to finish off with! The violas, a first for me this year. I expected tiny wee plants that were good as a border around another lavender plant. Instead they got nearly 2 foot tall, choked the lavender to death, and seeded everywhere when I wasn’t looking. As they are still beautifully in bloom, I can’t complain. Those little cat-whisker faces just make me smile.

Oct25

Cyclamen!

Posted on October 25, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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When I was very low with my depression, my mother in law bought me a living plant. It was one I’d never had before, a cyclamen. It was in bloom in June, but went dormant.

Well. This thing has gone craazeee in the last month. We keep it in the bathroom (kitty-free-zone) and it makes me smile with every visit.

It actually has twice as many blooms now as it did when I asked iDJ to take this photo! I think I’m a convert.

Oct8

Still blooming!

Posted on October 8, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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I still have flowers! Lots of them! I think it is quite appropriate that my late-autumn blooms are lovely autumn colours, too.

Would you like to play a game? Two of these shots were taken on iDJ’s iPhone 4s (by himself) the rest on my iPhone 3s (by me). Which two?

Rudbeckia (black-eyed-Susan), anyone?

Whoops! A little wonky, let’s try another.

Whoops, a little blurry! Oh well.

A bloom size comparison between the Galliardia and the rudbeckia.

What is possibly going to be my last sunflower of the year. We will see, the first plant had buds all the way down the stem.

There’s the goddamn carrot pic I was looking for! Yummy 🙂

And that first tasty ‘mater!

These things are still going, the former mystery plant now identified as Mimulus.

Just to be contrary, my last photo isn’t shades of orange and red, but of a pink Tigrida – yes, these are still blooming, too! Not as prolific these days, but I’m well impressed with these guys.

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