Category Archives: Gardening

Sep27

Dinner and a conversation

Posted on September 27, 2013 by heretherebespiders

Hubby has his Internet radio show every Thursday. It’s from 8 to 10 our time, and then he has some bits n pieces to finish off afterward, so we don’t get to eat until rather late.

Last night I decided I had the time to pick some fresh herbs to put on the pork roast, and he decided he had the time to chop them for me (I dislike chopping them, not sure why as the smell is amazing). I brought in oregano, basil, rosemary, and thyme, and added two garlic cloves that were also home-grown. I always pick too much! The pork was nearly crusted in greenery (I also add salt and black pepper, can’t grow them).

I got ambitious then, knowing that we’d have more good green stuff than necessary, and I decided I also had time to make a salad. We’ve not had one in ages, as hubby never seems interested when I say I want one.

I didn’t use the rocket (arugula) I grew, as it has gone all tough and leggy and seedy. And I forgot I had it. So, boring old iceberg lettuce from the supermarket. With my only four ripe cherry tomatoes – one the size of my pinky fingernail – and a sliced carrot from the Stupid Girl raised bed. That carrot was so damn tasty and sweet! For the dressing I added a bit of dried chopped garlic and my leftover cut herbs into a bit of white wine vinegar and let it sit. I didn’t need to add the fresh herbs; the point of putting anything in the vinegar is to rehydrate a dried spice – so if you don’t have fresh spices, toss everything in the vinegar, whatever is to hand. I don’t measure, sorry – eyeball it! I decided this time to add the fresh ones as the cutting board was hogging all my counter space.

The pork cooks for about 2 hours… when the meat is done I let it sit on a plate, and add water (or sometimes flat Pepsi) to the pan and swish it about to turn the yummy caramelisation flavour into a bit of jus. I add olive oil to the vinegar and swish that about a lot too, before pouring over the veggies. Simple and tasty!

Hubby likes to rate our meals out of 10. Usually he just rates his own cooking, the little egotist. I asked him for his rating of my dinner this time, as he kept saying how great it was.

“The salad is a 9.5! But, it was so good that the meat got lost. So the meat is only an 8. I give the overall meal an 8.”

“Wait, what? How do I get downgraded from a 9.5 and an 8 to an overall 8? Did you forget how averages work?”

“I’m sticking with an 8. The salad overshadowed the meat, sorry.”

A disappointing result. So much for not showing interest in my salads, eh?

Sep15

Autumn Fell

Posted on September 15, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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It was beautiful yesterday. Sunny, warm, calm.

Today I was woken up by the distinct sound of gusts of wind hurtling around the house, accompanied by something falling over out front.

Sigh. Get up, put on rain gear, grab iPhone to document damage.

Rudbeckia, flattened. This is the one plant that over wintered from last year. I know it got too tall for the recycled salt-box, but my plants always get bigger than I expect them to. Now propped up in a calmer corner.

Sunflower down! Again, too tall and in a rather light-weight salt-box ‘pot.’ Also moved to a quieter place.

Sunflower 2 down! This one is more worrying. It’s in a heavy pot, and instead of falling over it bent over at the stem. It’s not broken, though. Now hiding behind me, propped up by a dead olive tree. I had to hold a leaf with my lips as I couldn’t hold the heavy pot and steady the stem at the same time, too windy!

Noooo… My stargazer and black lilies! That pot is HEAVY, dammit! Okay so the plants are well over a meter tall… my poor plant-babies.

Augh! Black lilies and Tigridia! They aren’t that tall, I didn’t expect them to go over. Maybe my little Mayo GAA flag is to blame.

Not the cosmos, too? It hasn’t even had a chance to bloom yet. Had this one snuggled right up to the house, thought it would be safe there. The pot is chipped now, too.

While writing this, there was a blast of wind so strong I had to say ‘holy shit.’ And now the sun is trying to come out.

Ahh, Ireland in the Autumn!

Sep10

Falling into Autumn

Posted on September 10, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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The growing season is winding down in Ireland now – for us, autumn officially starts at the beginning of August. My blueberry bushes believe it’s fall – their leaves are starting to turn. The raspberries believe it too; no more fruit to be had this year. The wild blackberries are amazingly prolific and in nearly full-fruit – any ideas on what I can do with them are more than welcome (I don’t have access to canning equipment). They are everywhere in Ireland, it’s crazy.

My cherry tomatoes are lush with fruit, but every last one is still bright green.

I also found two itty-bitty tomato plants growing out front, where I put down some of my home-made compost earlier in the year. The blighted ‘maters I had last year must have had a few viable seeds. Or maybe they are from the year before? I might dig them up and bring them inside just to see what happens. Mystery ‘maters!

Terrible pic (these are all from my iPhone this morning, and the sun doesn’t hit the back wall until late in the day). But! Can you see it? I have an ear of corn forming, finally! Of my five surviving cornstalks, this one went for gold first. I see one other that might be thinking of getting corny, too. I’m rather assuming that, like the tomatoes, they don’t have a hope in hell of ripening in time. Ah well, I still try.

My first gaillardia flower! Lovely colour for autumn, of course.

Second one, blurred, sorry! They are a bit slow to bloom, not like my rudbeckia…

This photo is weeks old. Every single rudbeckia bloom is still in place!

Today.

Of course there are some new ones.

Each Susan has her eye blackened in a slightly different way. What a terrible nickname. I’ll stick with rudbeckia – the word is much more fun to say, too.

Second sunflower! Hubby took this and has had some photoshop fun – our neighbour’s house isn’t quite that bright of an orange-red! I think we can forgive him, since the contrast is pretty damn cool.

Aug24

Ginormous lilies

Posted on August 24, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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I again have new blooms to share! These are more lilies of the Aldi set, and they took the longest to mature. Now that I see what they were working on, I understand why the long wait.

Last weekend, when I thought that one petal peeling off from the bottom of the bud meant they were close to blooming.

Wednesday, when I saw that they weren’t ready yet, and needed to change colour a bit more first.

Thursday, when those same two flower buds had gotten so huge I needed something to show scale – my big calloused man-hand will do…

…but those two didn’t compare to this bud. It was near to bursting with promises of beauty.

It hasn’t disappointed!

Same angle, sorry – but first pic was Friday and second was today.

Something better than my hand for scale. I promise I was nearly touching the petals with the measuring tape when hubby took this picture. Over 8 inches across, or around 21cm! Quite wonderful to have outside my front door.

Nearly forgot – early edit – this is one of the smaller ones that has also opened. I shouldn’t play favourites!

Aug21

Bloomin’ Late Post

Posted on August 21, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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Ugggh, I am incredibly far behind on posting photos of my most recent blooms.

This is the only Tigridia I’ll bother with. They’ve slowed down, but nearly every day there are one or two new ones, shrivelled by the time I get home from work, of course. I have no idea what I’m to do with dozens of photos of slightly different flowers.

You can really tell this was taken with the new SLR camera, wow! Here’s a new one, for Tom (and possibly his mother) – my giant red sunflower, from seed. This was day one that it opened. Day two the petals went droopy a bit, and now it is more of a rust colour, but the centre is getting larger and larger. It’s also not very giant. I can’t be arsed to measure it, but it’s in an 18 inch high pot and barely reaches my shoulder, and I’m 5ft 8in. Can’t be arsed to do that in metric, either – sorry! I’m under pressure to make dinner tonight…

Broad/fava beans. The pic doesn’t give scale – the long one was really, really long. But even it only had six beans inside – a lot of messing about for hardly any bean goodness. The dog loves the pods, so at least they didn’t go to waste.

Cosmos! Of all my seeds it seems only the white ones bloomed. This one has an interesting cupped petal…

…while this is the more traditional form that I’m familiar with.

More rose photos. These two bloomed together. I found it interesting the way they matured. Here, they look very similar.

A day or two later, here is the left bloom.

And this is the right. Both stunning and smell like a little bit of heaven.
Or my grandma.
Not too dissimilar.

The white roses aren’t as big as last year. It’s a climber, and has gotten really leggy. I think I’ll have to prune, and I’ve never done that. No sign of new growth on my lavender rose, but at least the leaves are all still there and I’ve kept the black spot away. Wonder should I try to move it?

I’ve saved my favourites for last, of course. My first dahlia, ever. From the Aldi set of bulbs and tubers. I have to say I’m impressed with the quality and variety Aldi had on offer. Most of the lilies, the dahlias, the Tigrida, the … Oh hell I’ve forgotten! The Babylon 5 spaceship-looking pineapple flowering thingie… Something like Euconomis. Anyhoo, all from Aldi.

Since I’ve never had a dahlia before, I didn’t expect them to be so sloooow to open. It’s been a week and this first bloom still isn’t open all the way.

Getting there! Seems we shoot it daily, it is ever changing. To be honest it is much further along today, but it’s dark out now.

My current favourite – more Aldi lilies.

What I like best about these is that the black has a raised texture as if tar has been spilt on the petals. I need to ask iDJ, with his superior photography skills, to try to capture the texture better. These blooms last a long time, too, but turn more orange red than dark red as they age.

Yes, I have more to come, but it’s my bedtime soon!

Aug18

Mushroom Mutt

Posted on August 18, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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Uuuuugh.

Had a slight panic earlier this evening. iDJ was running the BBQ, so I didn’t have much to do but shuttle plates, when needed. I had sunshine for a bit so was out front soaking it in, but when the sun set behind the mountain, I moved to the back yard to be with hubby, his beloved Weber grill, his music, and the very annoying dog.

I expect the dog to be very annoying when we grill. 1: The amazing food smells 2: The hubby feeling guilty about subjecting her to amazing food smells and giving her a ton of treats (usually carrots – but she knows he’s a pushover and works it) 3: Hubby is in and out and in and out and she has to, has to! follow him everywhere.

The last is actually the most annoying factor. She’s an indoor dog, really only outside to do her business in the tiny-ass garden, and for walkies. As such, she’s never unsupervised. But she doesn’t really want to be outside – not unless daddy is outside too. I am not her favourite human, probably because my hands are not made of treats.

Anyway.

The food was nearly done, and I had one eye on the dog who was snuffling around my strawberry / raspberry patch. Hubby and I got talking and I noticed that Neko was near to us and still snuffling. Then she wandered away, and I spotted that something was missing.

There had been a little group of mushrooms in the grass, and now they were gone.

Ohshitohshitohshit.

Our food is cooked and getting drier by the minute, but we both rush to do what we can: me to find my fungi identification and Irish Wildlife books, and hubby to scour the back garden with a flashlight, tongs, and plastic bag for evidence collection. He also did Internet research to see what signs of trouble we should look for.

Neko seems perfectly fine. She ate normally, she’s sleeping normally, and I hear no sounds of intestinal distress (a sign we know well, with her). The thing is: this damn dog loves veggies. Carrots are her favourite treat. Radishes? NOM! The ends of celery, the trimmings of courgette (zucchini!), the rind of a watermelon? Yes, please, and thank you!

So, it really should have occurred to us that she might go grazing in our back garden. It has: but only to the point where we didn’t want her to realise that blueberries are awesome. Or raspberries. She’s already figured out tomatoes, dammit. We never thought she’d realise fungi could be edible…

Not sure if she’s dammed stupid, or dammed smart.

I had a bit of playtime with her, with the intention of sussing out her mental state.

She always splays her forelegs out like that, and yes, she always looks that pleadingly pathetic. No wonder hubby is the big sucker of the family.

That just does not look comfortable, mushroom-highor not.

Aug5

MORE Tigridia

Posted on August 5, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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Wowsers, Penny!

The Tigridia bloom may only last a few hours, but they make up for it in sheer proliferation.

That’s hubby’s hand, to give you an idea of size. About the same as a star-gazer lily, or any of my black lilies.

iDJ getting artistic. He took all of these shots.

Every flower is a little bit unique.

Sometimes, the yellow ones are a bit wonky.

Sometimes, not.

The red/pink ones can be wonky, too.

But usually they aren’t.

I was disappointed at first, but the unceasing blooming has certainly made up for the short shelf life. There were more today, and there will be more again tomorrow, I see the buds that are ready to open.

Jul26

Timid Tigridia

Posted on July 26, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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Huh. I’m a bit bummed out. I had no idea that the Tigrida iDJ bought for me is a very, very short-lived bloom.

This was open when I went to work, at 9:30 am.

This one, too.

But by the time I got home, at around 6:50, the blooms were shrivelled and limp.

It seems that if I can’t get a photo within the 6 or so hours the blooms are open, I’m out of luck.

By the time I get home, they look like this.

How sad that I only get a few minutes with each amazingly beautiful flower.

Every one is unique – see that strange tongue running down the petal? I have no idea of what use that might be… A bee landing-strip, like an orchid? I’m sure I will never know, having them so far from their South American home. They are undeniably beautiful, I just wish I had more time to appreciate my ‘jaguar flowers.’

Jul20

And We’re off to Mayo in the Green, in the Green

Posted on July 20, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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Where the plants are glistening in the sun!

We’ll start off with a tried and true standard, the cornflower. I have them in many colours this year. There’s pink – very tiny blossoms.

A faded-blue-jean blue.

And, what was described as red.

They aren’t what I would describe as red. Oh well. I’ve planted one box in the red and blue cornflowers, with white cosmos. Red white blue, repeat. Nothing at all had bloomed in time for the 4th of July, so I can just hope I can get a decent photo for next year. None of the cosmos are blooming yet, except for one wonky looking flower I stuck in between my hostas. It has just four petals. I can’t embarrass the wee thing by taking a photo; it’s too sad.

How about some edible stuff? My first ripe raspberry. We ate it Friday morning. I shared. The second one that came ripe I ate all by myself. Shhhh.

Broad beans! I don’t have very many that are ready to eat. When I googled ‘when to harvest broad beans’ I found that you can eat the whole pod when they are young, or let them mature and then they become, through movie magic, fava beans. Shame I don’t like a nice chianti. Or a not-nice chianti. Or any kind of wine. But we did eat six pods on Thursday, which delayed our dinner quite a bit as I decided to cook them in the juice left over from the pork roast (with some extra garlic). I really liked the whole pod, when it was a younger and smaller one. Hubby had the oldest longest one, and I told him to open it up and just eat the beans, to see what that was like. He said it was a whole different taste. I ate his discarded pod. Nom! A bit fuzzy but there’s nothing like fresh veggies, especially when you’re not a huge veggie fan to begin with.

First garlic pulled. Now, this isn’t bought seed garlic, it’s whatever we got at Aldi or Tesco and it went off/started to grow, so I stuck it in the ground. Woot! Looks great.

Roses! These were taken last week, I think the bushes look even better now.

I trimmed off all the leaves that had black spot since these pics were taken.

Hope that helps. I paid for Rose Clear and have been using it, but they still haven’t looked that healthy.

The blooms look great! There are two bushes out front, but they look like four as the colours change between bud and bloom. Salmon becomes soft pink, red becomes a light fuchsia.

The damn white rose out back has bloomed at about 6.5 feet high. I can’t enjoy them way the hell up there! I think I’ll have to cut it back. It’s a climber, and seems dedicated to being a tree more than a bush.

My lavender rose bloomed finally. It’s gone now, so photos are all I have.

The plant is barely a foot tall, but looking good this year due to the feeding and Rose Clear. Fingers crossed I don’t have to worry that it is dead next spring!

Remember these? Euconmis. The packet was spot-on. Little weird pineapple space flowers. I watched this grow, and it amazed me daily. I’ve regretted that I didn’t take a photo a day of it.

But, very late in the game, there is another coming up! So I still have a chance to document.

I’ve saved the best for last. My first black Lilly has bloomed! It did so overnight. The first photo was at about 10 am.

This is around 4, not much change. But just look at it! Wow! iDJ really did an amazing job finding these beauties for me. Wow!

Jul3

Bloomin’ July

Posted on July 3, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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I have flowers! Not all of my little green friends are awake yet, but I do have my first cornflower bloom:

Soon I’ll be overrun with them, so it’s good to appreciate the very first one to open. Hello!

My violas from seed are blooming – I expect there will be a lot more to come, as they have really increased in height this week – odd, because it is cooler and much less sunny. I think they have cat-whiskers.

The first lavender rosebud. It’s been a bud for days and days and days, and I couldn’t wait any longer to take a picture before it opens. I’m fascinated that the outside of the petals is a dark rosy fuchsia, but it will be so pale when open.
There’s also the dying remnants of my daffodils looking horrid in the background. And…what’s that purple blotch? Could it be? Yes! It is my first clematis bloom. Sadly it was beat to shit by the wind so that’s all you’re going to see of it. But the plant is now one year old, and over 6ft tall in places, so I expect more out if it.

Not flowers, exactly, but my radishes are starting to bolt (make flowers) so I pulled a few. Then, oops, I left them on the kitchen counter for a couple of days and they shrivelled like prunes. Not edible. Not edible for me: but the dog loves them. Go figure.

Do you remember the field full of yellow iris from my last post? Well, they are like a weed here, they’re everywhere right now. Including some we dug up and stuck in our own garden.

First of my lilies. They always bloom before the yellow ones, and no sign of my fancy ones being ready to open, yet (I did have to save those from aphids today). I think I’ll have to split these out next year, that pot is a bit crowded.

What greets me outside my back door – the lilies, and Sweet William. Did I say that it was phlox? I was phloxing wrong. Sweet William. I won’t forget! Even my neighbour complemented me on these, and was surprised to learn I grew them from seed. Hahaha!

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