January Highlights

Walking to my favourite tree on a bright still day.

Driving unexpectedly through Narnia - Islandmagee didn't have the slightest flake of snow but twenty minutes drive away, on the back road to Ballymena was like a different world. (Pity I couldn't be bothered stopping and  getting out of the car for a decent photo...I must be the world's laziest photographer...must try harder.)

Discovering a forgotten hellebore planted years ago, now completely buried under a viburnum tinus.

At last, redecorating Susie's bedroom for her 13th birthday...my baby's a teenager  :( ...

Lowlights - refraining from alcoholic beverages, refraining from chocolate (both short lived). Self assessment, car tax, mot and repairs (after failed mot), the weather...oh stop moaning I hear you say...ok,ok ...yeah it's February!

Mud Glorious Mud

I suppose I should be thankful that our garden is not under a few feet of snow or minus whatever temperature at night but the incessant rain means that we can't even work the raised beds never mind the ones at ground level. This week we have laid the old hawthorn hedge - it had become tall and spindly with lots of dead wood at the bottom - there are climbing and rambling roses planted along the hedge but they didn't really have much to scramble through so hopefully the rejuvenated hedge will lend some support - I can't wait to see how it grows. 

We planted a few new "old" roses in the autumn:

Bobby James - A huge rambler (in excess of 12 metres!) with semi double, creamy white flowers.

Dainty Bess - Ruffled petals of soft pink. Apparently makes a lovely cut flower, according to Rayford Clayton Reddell  in his wonderful book on Cut Flower Roses, "Although each blossom has only five petals, they're broad, wavy at their edges and deliciously fragrant.....petals range from silvery pink to dusky pink and surround dense clusters of maroon stamens - not a big deal unless you know that more than 90 per cent of rose stamens are some shade of yellow." I can't wait! Watch this space!

Ghislaine de Feligonde - a beautiful soft yellow double rose that (hopefully) will flower throughout the growing season.

Rosa Multiflora Platyphylla - "Seven Sisters Rose" Rambler with abundant blooms varying in colour through many shades of pink.

Our roses have been pretty poor, in general, the past few years but then the summers haven't been great so here's hoping for a better performance this year.

Shades of green enjoyed at the start of the month, before the atrocious weather barged in and upset our precious winter tranquility - that's January for you.

rosa multiflora platyphylla

Weather Woes

 Our plant order arrived yesterday from the lovely Future Forests in County Cork. Bang on time - fantastic service as usual. As most plants come with bare roots, they need to get into the ground asap and so I was well prepared and headed out in full thermal kit plus salopettes etc - I know it's January but the weather really is woeful - everywhere you walk, you squelch. By the time you dig a hole and walk to the wheelbarrow to get a handful of grit, bonemeal and compost, the hole has filled with water.

Somehow we managed to plant the following

3 Indian Bean Trees (catalpa bignonoides)
3 Pride of India (koelreutia paniculata)
2 Turkey Oaks (quercus cerris)
3 Vine Maples (acer circinatum)
3 Alder (alnus glutinosa Imperialis)
2 Sweet Gum (liquidambar)
3 Lime Trees (tilia cordata)
5 willows (triandra, pentandra, purpurea, fragilis, sekka)

Still LOTS more to plant but have been carefully "heeled in" and hopefully the weather will improve in the next few days.

Here's another photo of the shady garden in Spring 2012 mentioned last week, just to have something to look forward to.

And I can't wait until I can walk through the orchard and inhale the scent of summer.

Flower Choices

I've been planning and pondering over my cut flower plants for 2013 and, as always, I'm torn between trying out some new varieties that look exciting and sticking to the good old reliable stalwarts.

On the perennial front, very few people seem to want the hot colours - heleniums, crocosmias etc in red, orange, yellow tones so I'm going to dig out all of the hot stuff and move it to the new prairie bed, but I can't do this until say end Feb / early March depending on the weather. This will make room for the more popular colours - pinks, lilacs, blues and whites.

Catmint, Centranthus & Toadflax are all reliable perennials & make great cut flowers.

I've already sown some annuals in the autumn, to give them a head start - cornflowers, larkspur, ammi, gypsophila, nigella, salvia & the annual lupin.

Pink cosmos, achillea & applemint.

Ammi, snapdragons, feverfew & pink dahlia - all worth growing and do well in our wet climate - here's hoping for a drier summer.

Btw ....it's raining cats and dogs yet again :(.

Plant Of The Month

Flowers in the garden are scarce at this time of the year but that makes them all the more special. The hellebores are beginning to bloom and they are so beautiful - no two look the same. 

They're quite modest so it's best to come down to their level and appreciate their beauty close up. They don't have much of a vase life, especially when they first open, but as each flower starts to go to seed, they  last longer as a cut flower - the corsican, green flowered, types last the longest, especially when heading to seedpod stage - I had them in a vase for ten days last year. All are beautiful when used to provide a floating arrangement - simply cut the flower heads with no stem attached and float them in a shallow bowl to adorn your table.

Quite a few will readily self seed and the baby seedlings can be moved to their own space - you can then wait with anticipation until they surprise you with their unique flowers - depending upon which parent plants the bees have visited. 

They are easy enough to cultivate if you just remember that the heavier your soil, the more sunlight they can tolerate, the lighter, sandier the soil the more shade they need and the Stinking Hellebore (foetidus) which doesn't stink grows best in shade and makes a wonderful border plant.

Would love you to share your favourite winter flower with us! x

January Tasks In The Garden

I'm in a list writing mood - have written a rather lengthy one for things to do in general at Kilcoan Gardens this year - I like to aim high but don't mind if all of it doesn't get a tick - isn't the tick the most satisying part?!

When I look at photos of the garden, I cannot believe how much it has changed & developed over the past few years but I still feel that there is so much more that I want to do and NOW! But that's the beauty of gardening - you really can achieve that instant makeover look with a new border or in some neglected corner....far more exciting than boring old housework.

Here are 2 photos of the cottage garden - one taken in March and one in July - how nature can explode forth into such growth is amazing.

January is a great time for planning and dreaming of the months ahead, browse through your seed catalogues, check out garden ideas on pinterest, borrow a book from the library and check out what style of garden floats your boat. I like the English country garden look with sweeping borders....I can dream on.

If the weather is pleasant enough, you can work through a few tasks in the garden.

• If you have left your borders untouched before winter, to provide shelter for wildlife, you can start now to cut back perennials (still leave a messy pile in the corner for wildlife), clear weeds and mulch with compost or leafmould but be careful not to damage emerging spring bulbs - it's been a mild winter so far and some bulbs will be showing.
• If you have a greenhouse or sunny windowsill, you can sow some salad crops for young leaves.
• Finish pruning your fruit trees click here for useful advice from the RHS.
• Garlic can be planted outside now - you can buy it from garden centres or online - simply break the bulb into individual cloves and push into the soil 10cm apart. See here for further info.

Happy gardening!

The Lovely Poppy

I've decided Poppy's gonna feature more in my blog - my daughter Susie is a bit miffed she doesn't get more of a mention but hopefully she'll not read this (only joking Susie!). We got Poppy from the Animal Shelter when she was 6 months, in August 08 - I can't believe she's 5 next month :(

We didn't know what we were looking for - I grew up with dogs on our farm but I refused to take one on  until I was having my change of career and could be with the dog 24/7 cos dogs are people animals - they like company. When we arrived at the shelter, most of the dogs were jumping against the wire doors of their pens, barking like crazy - but Poppy was cowering down at the back of her pen, behind her bed. We asked to see her and, when she was let out of her pen, she lay down at our feet and rolled over. I just cried....and I'm not sentimental about animals, having been brought up on a farm, but she has such kind eyes - everyone who comes to our house just falls in love with her - she knows how to gaze at them adoringly so that she'll be pampered all evening with scratches and strokes.

Although she's hyper, she loves to sleep!

Playing rough with her best friend Belle!

 Poppy a la Bagpuss - looking on at the birdies in the garden.

Her party trick is playing keepy ups with a balloon and then catching it by the little tied end! She loves to chase birds, she runs in her sleep, she is spoilt clean rotten and I love her to bits!

Back in the Garden

I feel so good this evening, after my first proper day back in the garden - sore muscles and a happy head! Fresh air and exercise have left me on a high...I'm going to write my first "to do" list of the year - I need to set dates for all of my workshops and open days, draw a map of the garden, order seeds and some more perennial plugs and make a huge list of garden tasks.

No.1 New Year's Resolution - Keep the polytunnel tidy! (I wish) In fact, just be more tidy in general - I spend more time looking for lost tools, gloves, seeds etc - I need a better system...mañana.

Back to today, I cleared the raised bed in the polytunnel except for the ranunculus which are coming on nicely, cleaned out my water barrel and then headed out to the garden.

The shady garden is the oldest part of the garden - the rest was simply fields full of horses and livestock. The shady garden was planted with basic shrubs - berberis, laurel, bay, fuschia, holly, potentilla and, to the west, a row of the dreaded Castlewellan Golds, all approx 22 years ago. Bit by bit, we have added a fern and hellebore "stumpery" at the south end (facing north)

This is the door to the faerie house in the stumpery....I would love to be able to go through the door!

  ..............and two small beds in front of the C Golds - we tried grasses but they just looked awful so they were replaced with more hellebores, spiraea, hydrangea and golden choisya.

Just last year, we splashed out on a mature multi stemmed white birch tree to plant in a circular "white" bed in the middle of the garden, underplanted with variegated honesty, white toadflax, white aquilegia and white bulbs - anemones, alliums, crocus, snowdrops.

Today, we cleared the fallen leaves from the beds, weeded, cut back the old hellebore leaves (to prevent blackspot) and lopped some of the overgrown shrubs. We also lifted the old stone edgers as the shrubs had grown over them and they were covered in years of leafmould. We are going to extend this border and plant in front of the potentillas - we need more colour - it's all too green - I'll keep you posted!

(This was taken in 2010 with Poppy in the way as usual- all too green!)

And promise to take better photos tomorrow - I've discovered that, when the light is poor, my iphone takes terrible pictures.

What a Year

2013 here already - December flew by as usual. I love the new year - I love looking forward to it all and, as with most gardeners, am ever the optimist when it comes to the weather...surely it has to be better this year. I walked round the garden today in the afternoon, midwinter sunshine. The hellebores are starting to flower and the bulb tips are starting to show....snowdrops, crocus, narcissus, iris, camassia. There really is so much to look forward to!

 

But first, I thought I would look back to some of my favourite flowers from 2012.

 

 

Happy New Year! x