Category Archives: Ireland

Jun22

Munching and Meandering in the Garden

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I finally have strawberries coming ripe in my new planters!
Slugs or something still had a nibble, dammit. Ate them anyway.


And the raspberries are ripening, too! I have a LOT of these this year, and while the wind is doing damage, the sheer weight of the fruit is bending/breaking them more. Our soil is mostly rocks, and I didn’t put in anything to tie them to, like an eejit. They are also really dense, so I’m going to have a lot of trouble finding the ripe ones every morning. I didn’t think this one was quite ‘done’ yet – but a bird did. It was gone the next morning, entirely! Argh. Need to make a scarecrow!


These glowing orange, shop bought lilies are always the first to bloom, every year. Even better, they are the first ones I ever grew or owned – iDJ bought them for me, oh geez, about 9 years ago? We didn’t have many plants then. He was just learning that I preferred growing flowers to cut ones. I can’t recall now, but seeing what time of year they bloom, they could have been a ‘moving to Ireland anniversary’ gift.


What the hell, tomatoes? Come on now, we don’t have a lot of time left!


The big hosta is in bloom. Flower stalks aren’t as tall this year, I’ve noticed. And the purple one hasn’t even tried yet. Hrumph. 


Another mutant. It is SO much larger than the other violas. No idea why. 


Rose…


Wild daisies. Dog Daisy? These are everywhere on the roadside right now – love them. So when they moved in, I let them stay!


This one is on purpose: one I grew for himself. My first shasta daisy from seed, started last year, and it did naught until now. Do you like shasta daisies? Yes? No?


Going to end as usual on my very favourite of the week, and in this case it is my favourite rose. It’s very hard to get a pic of this where the colour is accurate! 

One of Aldi’s finest bare-root roses, and I don’t know what this is called anymore but it is lavender, not pink. I’ve been struggling for years with this one, and right now there are a record four blooms/buds! One of my treasures. 

Jun14

Flowers (and Some Not-Flowers) in June

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New Gerbera Daisy. Hubby bought me…six. They were on sale, and my batch of seeds did nothing this year. I won’t complain! This one, however, is very sickly. Not sure what to do to cure it. Gave it a good overnight soak indoors, then outside now that it is cooler and raining again (sigh for me, good for plants). I think it even looks rather cranky!

That’s a lotta gerberas. I have no idea if they will overwinter here – but I think not. So now I need to find some room inside for them when it gets cold again.


More foxglove (digitalis). Still going strong, but losing blooms all over the driveway. Sad.


More pink roses.


First white rose of the year! Such big blooms (it is more a tree than a bush, this rose) and smell amazing. I might only get a few this year as I’m battling black spot and rust on this beast. 


I’ve forgotten what this is. But it’s blooming. 


First rudbeckia – I think – it overwintered and now I’m not sure what it is! Might be the other thing I grew from seed…ah well.


Clematis! These are growing up the grey willow. A good 16ft or 5m up the grey willow! Shame it is so thick you can’t see the well. 


Oh, and we finally finished the trellises! Now to get those new clematis growing up them to cover that ugly wall. That’s Neko’s ball, by the way. And sometimes I play with Neighbour Cat with it – she likes to chase it, too.


California poppy! Love this thing. It’s in several places now, and I don’t mind a bit, unlike the Duggar Flowers. 


We got the yellow one on heavy discount as it was nearly dead (waterlogged). Glad to see it is coming back.

Some not-flowers:


Any idea what this is? I didn’t plant it. Found it in with something I had grown, knew it wasn’t a weed, and moved it. Arborvitae?


This is garlic that I apparently missed when I dug them all up last autumn. It seems to want to bloom. I’m a bit baffled by the curling stem – it didn’t start out that way! Should I be letting this happen? I have enough garlic now that I don’t need more, so I thought I’d let it go and see what happens.

Best for last! 


I have pinto beans! I took these pics on Sunday (they are much bigger now), when I went outside for the daily perusal of plants, and was just thrilled to bits.

These are genuine Colorado ‘Bill Zee’ pintos, sent to me by the lovely, loving, and wonderful Linda over at Life on a Colorado Farm in the bottom of a classic bean-bag (no, not the kind we threw at each other as kids). If you don’t know her blog already, GO. Farming, rainbows, dogs, cats, cows, and the occasional happy grandchild or family get together. I’m proud to call her friend. 

I am so pleased to be able to have a connection via the soil to someone so far away. I just hope I do these accident-beans proud!

Jun8

Scorchio! 

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Points for the reference.


Our high on Sunday last – 32.5C, or about 90.5F. And only 10% humidity so…yay! 

We had a bank holiday this Monday, so I spent all three days outside. I am super proud that I didn’t put on a pair of shoes for three whole days! Yes, my feet were filthy. Yes, I loved it.

Got lots of garden-work done. I think I’ve finally finished ripping all the grass and weeds out of the annoying and awkward strip to the left of our driveway.


I goofed – thought these were nicotania. Foxgloves! Gifted to me by iDJ’s uncle who is also mad for gardening. Behind them, wild ivy and my not-sweet pea from seed I gathered in the US many years ago. It always comes back, and doesn’t spread. Once again I’m trying to get it to flop over the wall instead of smothering plants on this side. The ivy helps by giving it something to hold on to. But the wind usually comes straight at the front of the house, so every year it is a losing battle.


But I’m optimistic; so right below the pea, I planted broad beans. Silly me!


At the other end of Awkward Strip, I dug out my purple callas finally – after 10 years – as they hated it there (now potted, and in a sunnier place). Put these yokes in: Aubretia ‘kittie blue’ (look purple to me) as they are meant to spread and bloom for ages. Still some unhappy dianthus there under the roses, but it is so full of clover, moss, and grass that I might dig it out next year, too. Depends on if the dianthus makes an effort this year or not. I used to like it, but it’s just not been happy the last few years (it got mowed two years ago and never forgave me). 

In between, not pictured – a peace rose, and my first ever peony. Also these:



These are osteospermum ‘cool purple’ and ‘margarita pink flare’. I’m super proud of hubby for picking these out, and after I showed him how, he planted the pink flare all by himself. I think of it as his plant now! I really hope they both get well established and come back next year as they are meant to (I don’t really do annuals). 


Some foxglove close-ups, as you do!


It’s a bee-butt! This welcome visitor showed up while I was taking snaps. She sampled just about every flower!


My first rose of the season! Yes, the bush has a terrible case of black spot, and possibly orange rust. May have to hack the hell out of them this winter. I’m too timid with the pruning. 


Damn Duggar flowers are everywhere. 


The Sweet William has lost its sweetness for me as it also gets everywhere. But the top one isn’t a variety I planted. It’s evolving. Triffids, I tell you!


The blue Primrose, after looking a bit raggedy, has come back for another show. It also is looking more purple than blue, but part of that is the camera. It just can’t get a good pic of this beauty. 


The mini irises out front are going strong. They are so tiny! And in another annoying spot in the background, my massive hostas. 

But the real show-stopper this year is…

Now, I can’t seem to find the post where I planted these to find out what the heck they are! Four different bearded iris, but only one came up into bloom this year. I love it! The one stalk had eight flowers. Wow! They are massive blooms, big as nearly both my hands.

I have more, of course – but think I best end with the best.

May21

May-bee Flowers (and Showers)

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I haven’t been posting as much as I want to – too many other things keep getting in the way. I like to use the blog to remind me of plant-progress from year to year, and so I’m not only failing the people who might be interested; I’m letting down myself, too.

So let’s get back to the garden. It rained off and on all day here, with one memorable hail-shower. It seems to have finally cleared, at nearly 9pm, and I got this as a reward.


Yes, I maxed out the colour saturation. I don’t care.


Caught a bumblebee choosing between raspberry flowers. Had at least four bees in the patch at any one time (between showers) today. Yay!


My azalea has a ‘sport’. It is all white, except for that one branch. Odd. Anyone know why the leaves look so…yucky? I’ve only known azalea in Florida, and they were massive and healthy there. I do have proper feed for it, and I see no obvious pests.


Columbine aka agualegia is blooming, and the hail took out a lot of the blooms before I took these today. These came from seed of the purple and white plant, so it is curious that one is different than the other. No neighbors nearby are growing them. 


Poor lilac. They are in bloom all over right now – not my baby. Might have to repot or put it in my dirt-strip out front. 


Native primrose is doing well! Spotted it in bloom all over the coast of Mayo this week. 


A present from my mother-in-law, isn’t it colourful?


New clematis…Mrs N. Thompson


More new clematis…Pink Fantasy


Pink Fantasy looks funky when not entirely unfurled! There is a third new one but it isn’t blooming yet. These are all waiting on our lazy arses to finish the trellises along the back wall so they can feel real soil, not just pot-dirt. 


Nicotiana from last year is HUGE now. This one is at least 4 ft tall, and so many buds. Can’t wait. 


Rosemary is blooming again. Don’t see how, when it is strangled in dog fur like that!


Whoooo bought some fun garden ornaments this year? Not me – hubby!


He also picked out these flowers, osteospermum, and dug the grass and rocks out to plant them here. Solar kitty is from last year – he glows green!


Isn’t that beautiful?


My favourite is the dragonfly. Hubby has good taste!

Apr26

Projects Done and in the Works

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Please forgive photo quality – these were taken with my iPad.

We had some glorious weather last week. It inspired iDJ into garden-helper mode. Not that I couldn’t have done this myself, but to be honest: I obtained the materials and had ideas of what to use them for, then stalled out.

They might not look like much yet, but he made trellises out of wood laths for us. These laths were packing material for something that came in to us at work, and I grabbed them whenever I could. Thought I’d use them for the fire, but they don’t burn well with the fire-door open (spit and spark so not safe for cats trying to bask). Then I wanted to make trellises out of them, but my attempt at using recycled twine failed last year. The cheapo staple gun we bought wasn’t up to the job either. So nails it was, and I’ve little patience with nails. Thankfully he does! One of the many ways we make a good partnership. 


The mostly-assembled trellises, along the wall we intend to screw em into. Three will be two-high, with an extra lath in between, and then a high one inbetween for plant-spread.

Once he had made them, we remembered that we had also bought garden-specific paint. We had ideas of painting other things, not trellises. The paint was 3 for the price of 2…we only needed one but couldn’t resist the fun colours. So! I’ve now painted them in yellow and green. No pictures yet. Next time I’ll paint before assembly; laths are way easier than grids. We still have to cut the larger bits of wood (also recycled: in-box supports for the oven we bought in 2006 and finally installed last year) that will space them nicely out from the wall (these laths are less than a centimetre thick). Then I paint the cut ends, and we drill and whatnot. His job. 

Then we plant! He already bought three new clematis. They were on sale…he loves clematis.

I just have to pressure-wash the wall (and the shed, and the house). It’s okay, I love love love pressure-washing. So satisfying! 

We also did this:


My new, and substantially smaller, strawberry patch. One of the first things we did when we bought the house was to plant strawberries at the base of this shed-wall. I never upgraded them and they became elderly and no longer produced. My fault, I hate killing plants. Then he got me raspberries. I like them a hell of a lot more than strawberries! So last year I dug out and murdered all my old strawberries. I also stuck some bearded iris in there,  because I was running out of room and ideas for where else to put them (left of pic: we will get blooms this year and I’m so excited).

I was strawberry-less. Then…we went to a garden centre we’d not been to before. In October. I asked about the three little lonely leftover pots of strawberries, and surprisingly found myself gifted with them along with our purchases. Don’t know about you, but I have to love a place that hates to waste or kill plants as much as I do. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a good place for them anymore! This is the sunniest place in the garden so they had to go here, but how? 

I wanted terracotta strawberry pots, but cut in half for wall-mounting. No such thing could we find. These planters hopefully will do the trick. Out of reach of most slugs (and I dosed them with pellets), liberally topped up with more old Christmas tree needles, and screwed into the wall! I hope they are happy there. And that the corvids don’t figure out it they are a nice and safe buffet.

Apr17

I Did Garden Stuff Today! 

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Some of my country was frosty today. I even heard rumours of snow. But not here! Today (between hail showers) we had lovely sun and not too much wind.

Of course, I was out in the garden as much as possible. We even had the grass mowed; first go of the year, thanks to iDJ’s wonderful uncles and their gas mower. They even took away the clippings, which was very welcome to me, as my compost bin is full to the top.

Digging out some of that black gold is a job for another day. Maybe tomorrow, if it stays nice.

I used the hail-shower time today to start some seeds, finally. More gazania, more rudbeckia, and trying yet again with the coleus and zinnia that have failed to germinate year after year. Just for the hell of it, I am also trying lilac seed I collected off of a friend’s tree, ancient broad beans, and pumpkin seeds that I saved from the past Halloween. These are in homemade mini-greenhouses on the best windowsill (sorry, cats). More Gerbera daisies, and some funny fuzzy sunflowers called ‘teddy bear’ that hubby found, liked, and bought for me. He does love his sunflowers. Also something called ‘honesty’ which I don’t have high hopes for, but hey; you never know.

I trimmed a lot of tiny bits of dead wood from my three blueberry bushes, and put a layer of needles from last year’s Christmas tree on top of the soil. Supposedly they are good for acid-loving plants. I still have most of a bucket of needles left over, too. Want some? They are premium: mostly dog-hair & random-strands-of-tinsel free. 

  
Glad to see the best of my three blueberry bushes is making flowers, too – by next weekend I should have some happy bees sampling them.

I also gave some needles to the azalea my mother-in-law got me two (?) years ago. It’s not been a very happy plant, and tries to flower in November for some damn reason, but this spring it seems to be settling in and realising that it has to live here.

  
Not the healthiest looking thing, is it? Weird furry leaves, too – can’t blame that on the dog. At least is it blooming at the right time, finally.

The clematis is going gangbusters. I’ve not given them any attention whatsoever. I’d say some of this is at least 12ft (3.66meters) high. 

  
I think I am going to (try to) kill the grey willow they climb on, and use its corpse as a trellis for way cooler plants. The birds love this tree as there aren’t many other trees nearby. I had plans…but my lilac from seed is now six or seven years old and still only a foot tall. It won’t do. Then again, if it wasn’t in a pot…

  
Raspberries are making flower buds, too! And spreading out into the grass like weeds. Dammit.

  
The tallest one there is six foot (nearly two meters). It is entirely new growth from last year, so all of this will make fruit. I’m going to be up to my eyes (literally) in raspberries.

  
New lilies from last year are coming up fast!

  
As are the old red-and-black ones that have been in this pot way too long now. Going to have to do some heavy culling and sharing this winter.

  
Dammed slugs have eaten the entire tops off of my yellow lilies. Hence all the blue pellets you see in all these pictures. Sorry but not sorry – I do poison the little sumbitches. I have thousands in my garden, and no chickens or hedgehogs to help.

  
Another thing the slugs have been at: the nicotiana I grew from seed last year. They did fuck-all in 2015, but overwintered well and are now getting big. 

But. There was an awful lot of leaf-litter gathered under those big leaves: from the sweet pea that you can see on the far right (it’s not any variety that makes sense), and random plant-rubbish blowing into the drive. So it was slug-heaven under those nics until today. I cut off most of the raggedy leaves before taking this pic, and obviously was liberal with the slug pellets. 

And don’t you love the ivy? I love the ivy. I didn’t plant it. I didn’t have to: its Ireland. My neighbor, however, hates it. It’s technically his wall, too. Oops. All I know is that I don’t have to paint that part because leaves.

  
Something the slugs don’t eat: garlic. I really thought I’d gotten it all last year – I harvested about a kilo. Clearly, I missed these. Still: slug pellets because they are eating the hell out of the two native primrose I stuck in this planter (which aren’t doing much but getting eaten, at the moment).

  
Lavender is coming into bloom! Had a bumblebee around today seeing if these were ripe. 

  My columbine (aquilegia) went from basic leaves to this in a week. Caught me off-guard. I haven’t even been around with the peter’s special yet. Tomorrow…
  
Last-meet Katy! She’s a flamer, but don’t hold it against her. Been an indoor plant for about a year now, and so top-heavy it isn’t funny. She’s a kalanchoe that I think I got for about 30 cents when she was done blooming. Shame that people just don’t have the patience to care for a living thing when it isn’t ‘pretty’. I’m glad I do – repotted once, needs it again, and she is quite the stunner. 

Apr5

Ex-Flowers

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I need a kick in the pants to get me into this year’s gardening! Part of getting started is talking about it here, which I haven’t done yet this year. Yikes.

Himself and I have only just now realised neither of us took one single picture of the snowdrops. I could swear I did! He could swear I did, too. Maybe I did with the ‘real camera’? I’m sorry, but I can’t be bothered to go get the memory card right now. Damn thing is filled with a billion pictures (that neither of us have looked at) of our town’s Paddy’s Day parade. So; no 2016 snowdrops. 

Next up was the crocus, which I kinda half-arsedly stuck in the grass patch out front a few years back. They come up half-arsedly, too. 

   
   
End of February, these are. Kinda almost past the time they were blooming, too. 

Next were my miniature daffs.

  

I also have tiny purple iris in this pot – so at least it keeps going for a while with blooms!

  
Whoops – this was in December! Forget what the hell this is. Got it super cheap, along with the beautiful black grass. Tulips are planted (transplanted) below these, and coming up now.

  
Not our garden. But hubby took this and I love it. I’m sure he did some photo-whatever-magic, too – the colours are just a bit to bright, aren’t they?

  
Lastly – our wee daffodil patch in the darkest, wettest corner of the garden. I’ve never bought a daffodil bulb – these all came from our lovely next door neighbors who know I’m a sucker for anything green and will plant anything! Over the years they have spread quite a bit, and they do make us happy this time of year. 

For an awkward corner I sure have managed to fill it. Three rose bushes are under this tree: the white one is an ugly huge beast but I love it and have trouble convincing myself to cut it back. The crocosimia live here, too, and you can see a bit of clematis coming up through the truly awful grey willow I allowed to move in. (Confession- I accidentally grew it from wild seed, didn’t know what it was, and moved it there) It’s massive, the other neighbor hates it, and lawsy me but it makes a mess in Autumn! The little birds and the clematis love it, however, so I haven’t had the heart to try to murder it. I wanted a lilac there! Oh well. Any tips on how to kill it, but leave the structure behind so I can put my new wisteria there? Yes, I do know I’m asking for major trouble with the wisteria.

Apr1

No Riding!

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Someone had a bit of fun at work today. Being as it is April 1, it could have been anyone!

The target? Our recent health and safety rule to disallow using pallet trucks as skateboards in the warehouse. It is a bummer as skating around was so much fun! Oh well. We understand all the reasons why, and are being good about it.

Signs went up. I really want to know where the image came from! 

Doesn’t the image make it look fun? (It is!)

But, um, it’s Ireland, and the word ride is used in…a unique way here. Suffice to say, you don’t offer someone a ride in your car. You offer them a lift. Otherwise the snickering drowns out the rest of your sentence. 

Sex. It means having sex. Nearly always. I think you can still say ‘ride’ and not mean sex if you are talking about a vehicle with two wheels, like a push-bike, or a motorcycle, or a scooter (and didn’t I go all Irish there, with push-bike? It’s a damn bicycle).

In any case, a pallet truck technically has five or six wheels, so riding one puts it clearly into the giggle-zone. Maybe it’s because I’m a blow-in and was laughed at way too often in my first few years here; but after a decade here the new signs always give me a niggle of a giggle (a blow-in is someone from somewhere else, it might be the next county over, or the other side of the planet. It’s an affectionate term, but also reminds us blow-ins that we will never be local, ever).

So…back to the point and less of the Irish version of English: someone had fun with one of the signs. Can’t imagine who it was.

  
Now, the “artist” could have gone with a more suggestive drawing, but decided to be more subtle instead.

Happy April 1!