A Perfect Day

Yes the gales certainly did come at the start of the week - the garden was blown to smithereens and I was truly fed up. We tidied and restaked and tidied some more so you can imagine how peeved I was to find that a gale warning was in place from Friday evening right through into Saturday afternoon, right in time for our open weekend.

And the gales they came with torrential showers - you start to think, "Am I wise in the head?"
More staking and tidying.........then the crowds came in droves. Today the sun shone and it was fabulous.....the feedback from the visitors was amazing and of course I'm on cloud nine, exhausted but happy.

Enthused and invigorated, I'm ready for lots more lovely visitors, about 18 groups of visitors coming this month and I can't wait.

Tasks between visitors this week:

Plant out remaining hardened off annuals - statice, amaranthe, scabious, snapdragons and perennials - agastache Globetrotter, nepeta grandiflora Border Ballet and penstemon.

Plant out rest of veg - peas & beans (and sow more lettuce etc).

Sow biennials - hesperis (Sweet Jane), digitalis (Foxgloves), dianthus (Sweet William) lunaria (Honesty) erysimum (wallflowers).

And best of all, enjoy the garden! Roll on summer!

May Summer Begin Now

It seems, when I look back at my blog, that I'm obsessed with the weather but then, what gardener isn't?

I'll keep it brief....average temperature of 8'C, a frost the like of which we haven't seen on our peninsula in living memory, frequent hail stones and now severe gales forecast for the next two days. 

We are opening our garden for the National Trust UGS next weekend so you may understand my frustration. June is our busiest month for visitors and after all of our planning and prep, I just want the garden to look its best.

OK so enough moaning, on the positive side, the trees are growing well, the yellow rattle has germinated well in the new meadow area and last year's newly planted areas are starting to take shape.

And I'm happy cos that's what we gardeners are - apparently we are the happiest profession in the UK. (Bankers are the most miserable...nuff said.)

Here's hoping for a wonderful June!

The front garden filling out.

Persicaria Superba, a thuggish but useful plant at this time of year.

Chelsea Week

Isn't it so exciting? It's Chelsea time and I'm dying to see all of this year's trends / designs. A sneek peek this evening hinted towards the natural look staying very much on trend, which I love of course.

Back at Kilcoan Gardens, things are still slow. We had a lovely workshop on Saturday with 11 amazing girls.....and the sun shone!! It's to warm up this week so here's wishing for some surging forth of plants as we are opening this year for the National Trust Ulster Garden Scheme on 6th & 7th June and I'm so hoping for a great display.

We are still very busy potting on, hardening off and planting out but this week should complete the bulk of the work...just in time for the whole process to start over again with the biennials - I'm determined this year to do a better job of filling the current hungry gap with more honesty, wallflowers and hesperis. 

The veg garden is woefully behind as always, just not enough hours in the day and it always get put to the bottom of the "to do" list....I need a wee retired grandpa to come in and take it over....any takers anyone?! Tomorrow's priority will be the veg - planting out brassicas, direct sowing carrot, parsnip, beetroot and anything else I can think of. The peas & beans are almost hardened off so that they can go out at the end of the week.

What else, what else.....I need to make a new list! 

Polemonium looking lovely in the cottage garden.

The orchard with geum rivale, camassias & Pheasant's Eye narcissus.

Confessions Of A Plantaholic

Wind....with a side order of gales. Anyone else tired of our spring weather? Yes I know that April was lovely but it was cold....cold and dry - I don't really feel like I've enjoyed any spring weather as yet - I have yet to strip down to a t shirt. 

The plants are strangely behind in someways (late narcissus still not blooming yet camassias are all out in time). Rosa Canary Bird has usually flowered by not but not this year, and yet, the rugosas appear to be on track for blooms any day now.

What have I been up to? A sore back from a silly shovelling of topsoil Thursday week ago has slowed me down a little but I've got plenty of willing helpers for which I am very grateful. 

Last week, I potted on more of the autumn sown perennials: aquilegias, astrantia, thalictrum aquilegifolium, white catananche, pink and white physostegia, nepeta grandiflora Border ballet, purple & white veronica longifolia. The spring sown perennials are also coming on well - agastache Globetrotter, veronica longifolia Pink Shades, also some penstemons and dwarf hollyhocks. Gosh, it's only at times like this when I start to list what I've sown that I start to get quite excited.

Confessions of a plantaholic - a few more plants just fell into my path / hand / bag when I was at Garden Show Ireland last week....polemonium Purple Rain & Henriette, geranium Blue Cloud, epidmedium Warleyense, calamintha nepeta, brunnera Mr Morse, aruncus aethusifolius, mukdenia rossii, filipendula purpurea, lunaria redviva - where am I going to plant them all??!!

Still so much to do....I can feel (another) list starting...where's my pen?!

April Flowers

April was a lovely month for the most part, pretty cold but lovely. The entire month was spent getting the garden ready for our first open event last weekend and we were lucky to have so much dry weather that we were able to get lots of painting and sorting done.

On the other hand, lots of new plants and bareroot hedging in dire need of some water, so we were glad to see the rain arrive, but it's bitterly cold.....only 2'C this morning and just yesterday, gardens inland were telling of overnight lows of -6'C which has played havoc with their lovely emerging spring growth. We have taken a slight hit - some of the hydrangeas have been affected but we should be grateful for our milder but much windier micro climate.

Plants looking lovely this month... the pulmonarias have been wonderful, some favourites - Opal & Roy Davidson. The cowslips, polemonium Lambrook Mauve, lathyrus alboroseum, ranunculus Brazen Hussy, euphorbia martinii and amygdaloides purpurea are all looking lovely.

My favourite new narcissus has to be Blushing Lady, I was worried it would look a bit brash but it's a subtle blush and the scent is superb.

Lathyrus alboroseum

Cowslips by the pond.

Polemonium Lambrook Mauve

A wonderful evening in April.

Autumn Bed Update

Progress...the new autumn bed has been revamped and replanted - I can't wait and yet I wait with trepidation - will it work? The lovely thing is that, if it doesn't work (design wise), the bees and butterflies will still love it and we can reuse the plants elsewhere.

Despite the woeful weather, I'm feeling rather upbeat, Things are slow but little bits of plants are popping up everywhere.......pulmonarias, erythroniums, newly planted late flowering narcissus, epimediums, lathryus vernus, fritillaries, muscari. 

Back to the autumn bed, I've tried to keep it simple. Fewer plant varieties in bigger blocks - here are a few of them:

Veronica spicata Red Fox
Liatris Kobold
Monarda Beauty of Cobham
Achillea Cerise Queen
Lupin The Page
Iris Dear Delight
Molinia Variegata
Pennisetum Hameln

The bed is not easy to design, as it's an S shape, simply because the old autumn bed, which started a kidney shape was extended to an elongated S. A few gatecrashers are there including dahlia Blue Bayou, hydrangea Magical Amethyst and fuschia Mrs Popple. There are also a few anthemis, astilbes, persicarias, salvia nemorosa and sanguisorbas.....watch this space!!

A pic from last summer, in its first year, of a small section showing lupin The Page, anthemis and echium Blue Bedder.

And the list goes on

I've made yet another list, as you do......so much to accomplish before April when we open the garden. With the best will in the world, my list's not shifting, as in when I look at my list on the laptop each night, I'm not able to tick off any tasks, yet my days are filled with "must do" garden jobs.

Last week, we planted more bare root trees in the front fields, in an attempt to soften the wind which whistles up the stable yard and blatters the autumn beds - alder and field maple. As I've said before, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is now (old chinese proverb) and I'm hoping they will grow pretty quickly. A hornbeam hedge has been planted behind the cottage garden as the fence is already 18 years old - hopefully in about 7 years time, the fence can come down and the hedge will provide the shelter from the westerly winds. A hedge beats a fence every time...cheaper, less maintenance, wildlife friendly, longer lifespan.

We have also added species roses to the boundary hedges to add colour and provide more food for wildlife (100 so far).  

My bareroot plants have all arrived for the new autumn bed..........for another blog post - gosh I need to get them planted. But also lots of potting on needed, in the tunnel, of autumn sown perennials:

Lupins The Page, Chandelier and Gallery Yellow
Achillea Cerise Queen
Veronica longifolia Pacific Ocean
Verbascum phoenicum
Everlasting sweetpea
Catananche caerula alba
Aquilegia Dragonfly Mixed
Thalictrum aquilegifolium

and others that I can't remember.

It's bitterly cold and folk say "It's still only March" but I would love to work without my salopettes, thermals and furry hat......oh the freedom of it! Roll on an idyllic spring!

A queen bee on muscari last Tuesday 

   Hellebore at the bottom of the orchard.