The Merry Wreathmakers

We have been having a wonderful time of it. Lots of lovely girls arriving at the barn for our wreath workshops and I'm amazed at their creations, truly.

We don't make it easy for them - no ready made fir wreath rings that only need a few bits and pieces stuck on. No sir, we start from scratch and, at first, it can seem rather daunting. But then, piece by piece, it starts to make sense and take shape.

And I love to see the girls' sense of achievement when they've finished - they've learnt something new and sometimes, they don't quite believe that they have created something so beautiful themselves at the first attempt!

Foxglove Love

Last week we were finally planting out the foxgloves into their final positions in the shady garden, bottom of the orchard and shady side of the cottage garden. We have never grown them on so well before so that we are hoping for a great show. That said, they are the size of large cabbages and therefore harder to squeeze in.

Beloved by bees, they are such a welcome sight in early summer. I love that the self sown plants vary considerably so that you never know what you might get - yes normally the common soft mauve with drooping bells on one side but sometimes, if you're lucky, they produce whoppers with beautiful markings and flowers towering above your head.

This year, we have sown lots of Suttons Apricot, some Excelsior, a few whites (they didn't germinate well) and a row or two of Candy Mountain whose upward facing blooms are packed tightly around the stem...supposedly perennial but I find that none of them is truly perennial. That said, I grew the grandiflora type last year - some of them flowered this year, indeed are still flowering - some of them not yet but still showing bonny clumps of foliage which is a good sign.

Foxgloves are an edge of woodland plant, and like dappled shade, although we have seen them thrive in full sun. If they like where they are, they will self sow quite happily however the foliage can overshadow and smother smaller plants nearby so that it may be preferable to sow into a holding bed and transplant in the autumn when there is more room. They seem to resent being transplanted after winter, in spring - it's best to let their roots settle in their final position no later than now.

Irish Mist

Just back from a fabulous weekend in Donegal. There's something about crossing the border into Donegal, passing through Letterkenny and heading towards one of the many beautiful "corners" of the county....you immediately feel relaxed, the pace of life just slows right down. With regards to scenery, you literally are spoilt for choice, from Portsalon through to Portnoo and many others along the way. We had never been to Downings before and the weather was on our side - wall to wall blue skies and sun, bitterly cold at the beach.

We drove round to Dunfanaghy and along the way passed Doe Castle at Creeslough - you can read more about it  here 

There are some beautiful gift shops in Dunfanaghy, especially Olivia's which, although small, stocked some lovely bits and pieces.

We stayed at Downings Bay Hotel and although it was quiet (the time of year) the staff were faultless, rooms spotless with really comfortable beds and the food superb.

For a treat, we headed to The Singing Pub as we had read great reviews on Trip Advisor and we certainly weren't disappointed. The Greek salad starter was zingy and full of flavour but the star of the meal was the seafood cataplana - a medley of fish and shellfish cooked in a copper sealed dish with a creamy sauce, served with saffron rice - I will drive back for this alone....delicious. 

Autumn Sun

A beautiful day today.....calm and sunny...the calm before the storm due tomorrow.

I really should have been outside but, yesterday, I was determined to complete all of the polytunnel work which should have been already done - potting on hardy annuals, perennials and wildflowers.

Cutting down the applemint which was completely overrun with brown mint leaf beetles - the larvae had been devouring the young nepeta and clary sage as well. Unfortunately, I didn't realise that they were a pest and merrily let them take over the entire tunnel!

They're not much of a problem in the garden but in the confined space of the tunnel, it's a different story.

My posts have been pathetically scarce of late - I must do better.
Jobs to do within the next month (do you think if I write them here, it will force me to complete my tasks?!)

• Plant tulips in crates to force in the tunnel for Mother's Day and spring. 
• Plant up spring bedding including bulbs.
• Cut down and burn all peony growth (to help prevent peony wilt).
• Plant remaining narcissus (bought in the sale) in the meadows.
• Move a few roses to more suitable positions (Ghislaine de Feligonde, Agnes & Mme Alfred Carriere.
• Take rose cuttings for favoured varieties....Hansa, Ispahan, Bonica, Cerise Bouquet to name a few.
• Finish transplanting the foxgloves & wallfowers to their final position.
• Move some Lily of the Valley to the side of the lane

The kitchen sink....I could go on forever but this is a good start!

I'm still drooling over online rose catalogues....I had hoped to buy 10 new varieties but having spent so much of my budget on bulbs and bare root plants, I think it may be only 6 or 7 - you can't get a rose for less than a tenner these days. Such a difficult choice with so many beautiful varieties but, then again, it's good to have a want.

A beautiful mix of roses from the garden.

The deliciously sumptuous Ispahan.

Mid Autumn Tasks

It's been a busier month so far than I thought it would be but we are getting on top of our "To Do" list, although, as any gardener will agree, the list is never completely ticked off! It's an ever evolving, changing list of tasks, and trying to get to the bottom of it is like trying to find the end of the rainbow.

Anyways, at least the rain has arrived (of course it had to bring along the wind and gales) and yet the ground is still like concrete six inches under, even after ten days of rain and showers.

In the tunnel, I'm potting on hardy annuals and perennials grown from seed. For the ornamental garden, we have more lupins including the yellow Chandelier and Gallery Yellow together with more of the fabulous The Page. Achillea Cerise Queen are coming on well as are the nepeta grandiflora Border Ballet.

Our bulbs arrived last week which has kept us busy. I always think I've ordered plenty but, in 4 acres, they don't go far. Muscari Peppermint and narcissus Bittern have been planted into pots for spring displays.

The new meadow area in the centre of the main garden is simply an area that was previously mown, with young trees scattered through. Today we cut a path through the middle and planted the following:
100 narcissus Lothario, 100 narcissus Tresamble, 50 narcissus Hawera, 50 narcissus Thalia & 100 snakeshead fritillaries.

The Hawera were intended for the side of the lane but I haven't gotten round to clearing back in order to make room for the bulbs....and, as usual, I've "robbed Peter to pay Paul"

We also added a few more ox eye daisies - about 30 in total now. I can't wait until spring.....I cannot think of a better way of spending your money than on bulbs - they should thrive for many years and delight us each spring!

The orchard last spring.

September Scenes

What a beautiful month.......autumn has barely shown herself.
Will October bring us a kaleidoscope of foliage colours before the gales arrive?

Let's hope so.

Mist & Mellow Fruitfulness

What a beautiful autumn so far....and yet still no rain for longer than I can remember!

There is not much we can do in the garden except weed, water and deadhead. We can't move or plant anything out until there is rain forecast, so that there is a lovely sense of leisure in the garden. The birds, bees and butterflies are in abundance in every part of the garden - I have never seen such flutterings!

In the polytunnel, the recently sown hardy annuals are growing strongly, as are the hardy perennials such as lupins, achilleas, nepeta and physostegia. There's lots of "potting on" to be done and beds to be cleared of hardy annuals that have finished flowering.

The good weather has lulled me into thinking that summer is still with us - I haven't even thought about buying bulbs yet and also have a list of bare root plants to be ordered.

There's nothing like writing a blog to make you realise just how much needs done!! Must get my skates on - will keep you posted!

In the meantime, make the most of this beautiful Indian summer!

A Beautiful Day!

What a beautiful day - it seems all the more precious now that we are into September.

We were cutting the meadow areas around our newly planted trees - these areas will only be cut once a year, rather like a traditional hay meadow, to prevent pernicious weeds such as dockens, thistles, brambles from taking over. But it was like making hay on a beautiful summer's day - so feel good! The area beside the prairie border slopes to the sun and is quite dry so that I want to introduce some narcissus and also dianthus carthusianorum which I've grown from seed - it needs clean country air and a poor dry soil - our soil is not poor but I will give it a go. I have some ox eye daisies from a kind gardening friend and will these as they flower all summer....must get out my Christopher Lloyd Meadows book for some inspiration - our soil is similar to theirs although we wouldn't get the same amount of sun or heat but it's a wonderful book for anyone wanting to start a meadow. 

I was also sowing some seeds, hardy annuals - cornflowers, annual gypsophila, and ammi visnaga. And hardy perennials - delphiniums, verbascums, veronica and thalictrum. 

Tomorrow I want to clear out the polytunnel and have a tidy....I also need to have a sort through this year's stock of plants - throw out those not worth keeping and pot on or feed the rest. 

Long may the good weather continue! (With a wee drop of rain overnight please!!!)

Happy Gardening!

Euonymus planipes with their beautiful fruits.

Rosa rugosa hips - great for vitamin C....dry and store for tea or make a rosehip syrup.

The prairie border still looking good!

Late Summer

A strange time we are having in the garden, with such a mild year, the garden has rushed ahead of itself. The gales have arrived early so that August felt like September. It appears that we are in for a week of settled weather and I'm looking forward to it.

Actually I'm looking forward to winding down....our last group visit came yesterday so that we can now relax a little and plan ahead. I want to extend the prairie border to the very top of the lane - not an easy task in that it is quite steep and rather rocky but sure we'll give it a go. 

We are also going to put in a pond between the laid hedge and new trees in the "top field". Before that, we have a LOT of meadows to cut, acres in fact, and the machine that we need to hire (rough cutter) is being repaired at the minute. On the plus side, the delay means that there are still lots of seedheads for the birds and lots of knapweek and hawkbit for the bees!

   
Hydrangeas in the "old" autumn border.

   The prairie border.

   The hot bed in the cottage garden.

Happy Gardening!

Autumn Border Update

The border that we started last October, to mirror the old autumn border, has been filling out nicely. We made the border the lazy way, with no digging see here and then left it to stew all winter.

In March, we started planting bits pinched from other parts of the garden - crocosmia Emily McKenzie, anthemis EC Buxton, campanula glomerata, various geraniums, astilbe Purplelanze, oriental poppies, salvia nemorosa caradonna, iris Gerald Darby, hemerocallis, persicaria, hydrangea Magical Amethyst and dahlias Painted Girl & Blue Bayou.

We also sowed some newbies from seed - lupin The Page, verbena hastata Blue Spires, veronica longifolia Antarctica, achillea Summer Berries, sanguisorba menziesii, echium Blue Bedder and various annuals to fill gaps - cosmos, lavatera (disaster...far too big for an exposed site).

Yes we have filled the border pretty well but it's a bit mishmash - we need to link it more to the "old" autumn border which has a good deal more shrubs - hydrangeas, fuschias, grasses. It's quite difficult to strike a decent balance of permanent shrubs / grasses and perennials - not many shrubs like to be surrounded by perennials. For example, conifers will resent it, turning their foliage brown but shrubs such as berberis can hold their own and sambucus can be useful, either cut down hard each spring or with a raised canopy. 

For background, red stemmed dogwoods, rosa glauca, deutzia and physocarpus are good choices (we have 5 physocarpus Darts Gold already planted). Focal shrubs could include coloured berberis, cotinus or clipped golden euonymus to make a full stop at a corner or end of the border. Choice of grasses depends on your soil type and personal preference but I would avoid ones that run and choose gentle self sowers like the lovely hordeum jubatum which will gently fill gaps through your perennials without taking over.

All in all, the one thing that I have learnt when planting a new border is that most plants don't mind being moved so don't be afraid to experiment and.....enjoy!

Onwards and Upwards

What a week - temperatures soaring, no rain, almost too hot to garden but we struggled on knowing that, for our open weekend, we needed to have the garden looking shipshape. Friday we saw temperatures reach 26'C which is as hot as it gets for us. But I walked around on Friday evening and basked in the beautiful warm air, balmy evenings beating the heat of the overhead midday sun anyday. The garden was alive with the swallows and blackbirds, followed by the bats. It couldn't get any better.

Then the rain came...proper heavy straight down, soaking wet rain....and it didn't stop until Sunday evening. The thing is, we need rain....but couldn't it just wait until after the weekend??! One thing we can't control...the weather. Nonetheless we had a small group of very keen gardeners who were determined to tour the garden whatever the weather. And we've been really lucky this year so far with visits - all dry days bar the Giro D'Italia day. 

Anyway enough moaning....onwards and upwards - it's strange but I feel rather invigorated and more gardening obsessed than ever before. I have spent the last few hours researching old roses in books and online, yet again, discovering some wonderful new blogs from around the world like this one http://www.mooseyscountrygarden.com/ and http://bloomingwriter.blogspot.co.uk/

I love making rose wish lists (Baltimore Belle, Lupo, Jacques Cartier, Old Blush China The Countryman), rewriting, taking a few out (not good in the rain) adding a few more (longer flowering, good scent). There are a lot of rugosas not yet tried such as Sir Thomas Lipton....in fact, there are just too many to choose from - how lovely!

The new autumn bed starting to fill out.

Rosaraie de L'Hay

Ispahan

Summer Days

Time, as always, has passed by in the blink of an eye. Anyone ordered their turkey yet? 

The beauty of gardening is, as dismayed as I am at the weeks rushing by, there is always something to look forward to. 

The majority of the old roses are coming to the end of their flowering period - our open weekend is coming up and it has made me consider whether we should hold it slightly earlier next year but then, we would miss out on the prairie border coming to a peak with the crocosmias, rudbeckias and heleniums. And the hot bed in the cottage garden is only starting to reach its full glory with the dahlias, liatris, crocosmia, heleniums.

That said, I've been looking at longer / later flowering roses (all suggestions gratefully received) to prolong the season. To some extent, it's a difficult time on the flower front in certain areas, as the oriental poppies have been cut down, the foxgloves pulled out, the lupins are over, except for the wonderful "The Page" although they are one year old plants so I'm not sure if they will flower earlier next year and so go over sooner. Alchemilla mollis and early flowering geraniums have also been cut back - we try as much as possible to keep interest in all parts of the garden at all times but of course this is something that can only come with careful planning, years of experience, predictable weather and is rather difficult to achieve. 

Fortunately most visitors look at the garden with a less critical eye than mine and the feedback makes all of the hard work worthwhile!

If you are looking for inspiration and advice on successive flowering, it's hard to beat the late great Christo Lloyd, for example, cutting your oriental poppies right down and planting a bedding dahlia or cosmos beside it. I didn't pot my dahlias on enough so they were slightly starved and checked at the time of going in and haven't done much since (in just over two weeks) but then if I pot them on into big pots, it's more difficult to dig a big enough hole. I do wish I had potted on more c

osmos and kept them back to fill gaps - oh well....there's always next year!

No Time To Stand & Stare

Be careful what you wish for.......

Before my change of career, I dreamed of an idyllic life, a little garden business, less hours, more time with the family, more relaxed. How did I end up with a seven day week, four acres, farmer's arms and a permanently sore back.

I've started this post three times now, around midnight....and fallen asleep each time before I've finished. But I'm actually in a better place now than two weeks ago...I felt a little panicky, as if I was never going to get on top of things whereas now I'm just happy, and feel so lucky to have job that I love with no commute and no boss.

The feedback from visitors is amazing and so encouraging....it makes the long hours worthwhile, as do the results - the garden's looking lovely, even if I do say so myself!

The Garden In May

What a beautiful time of year in the garden, the most exciting as we revel in the daily surge in growth and blossoms. The greenest green and such pristine foliage, free from rust and mildew...for now! Mind you, it's hard to keep up with nature....plants just want to grow so there is incessant potting on and planting out.

This week, we planted 12 rudbeckia Marmalade & 9 achillea Cloth of Gold in the prairie, 5 peony Sarah Bernhardt in the new autumn bed. Lavatera, cosmos & snapdragons in the old autumn bed. 12 dianthus carthusianorum, verbena rigida & salvia Hot Lips in the sunny, dry front garden border. Thalictrum lucidum beside the pond, thalictrum Elin, euphorbia martinii and nicotiana sylvestris in the shady garden. Orange wallflower, gaillardia & dahlia Bishop of Llandaff in the hot bed (cottage garden). Crambe cordifolia in the orchard.......do you think perhaps we have a slight problem..of the plantaholic variety?!

A few photos taken this evening.

Sorry, can't stop, must go aplanting!

Gimme More

I do wonder if my appetite for plants will ever be satiated. There are entire plant families out there that I'm only just discovering. Although I'm usually quite happy to stick to those that suit our little peninsula - heavy clay over limestone - windy with very little frost.

Campanulas, geraniums, astrantias, verbenas, phlox, primulas all do well with us but we have created shady areas that were never before planted and this has opened up a whole new world of plants to us.

Having just returned from the Garden Show Ireland, I'm feeling rather giddy - like a child in a sweet shop, the more I saw, the more I wanted and it was perfectly fine (I kept telling myself) to overindulge as I no longer spend any money on clothes (just recycle what I already have) and I don't go out much (sad old me).

Just a few of the treasures I have brought home:

Thalictrum lucidum - Shining Meadow Rue - 3-5ft with handsome foliage and airy, creamy, fragrant flowers in summer. Apparently an easy plant that requires no staking - watch this space!

Jovellana punctata - sprays of unusually marked flowers from spring until autumn, growing to approx 5ft and attractive to bees and butterflies. Prefers moist soil in part shade....I haven't decided where to plant it yet..mmm.

Rosa Pleine de Grace - A vigorous rambler, free flowering with a strong clove like fragrance. The flowers are followed by clusters of orange hips.

How excited am I???

A Perfect Patch

This week, I have been delivering my "Cut Flower Patches" which contain annual and perennial plant plugs for people to plant out in their garden and which will hopefully give them beautiful blooms to fill their home all summer long.

If you fancy growing a few cut flowers for your home, why not give it a go? It's one of the most rewarding and "feel good" pastimes, believe me! With this in mind, I thought I would share with you my top five plants for cutting in May.

Tulips - The sheer variety of colours and forms makes them a dream for hand tied bouquets - easy to grow and easy to arrange, although they don't reliably bloom in following years. I find that the doubles last longer both in the garden and the vase.

Alliums - Purple Sensation & Roseum are the stars of the onion family. Even easier to grow than tulips and they will return each year, gradually increasing in numbers. The bees love them and they last for ages in a vase.

Hesperis - (Sweet Rocket) This lovely biennial smells superb, especially in the evening, and once planted, should self sow thereafter.

Lunaria - (Honesty) Another great biennial, similar to hesperis, easy to grow in poor soil, it's available in purple and white. There is also a lovely one with variegated foliage.

Erysimum (Wallflowers) Finally, a biennial / short lived perennial available in many different colours, a beautiful scent and loved by bees!

Roll on May!!!