Roses, Hydrangeas and Poppies for some summertime beauty.

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Mominthegarden

Mom in the garden. That’s me. Except I haven’t been able to get into my garden very much the past few weeks. This, unfortunately, is making me quite grumpy! So I’m simply going to post a bunch of pictures that make me feel like I’m in my garden. 🙂

I hope you like them. And that they make you feel happy too!

Dana

A cluster of my climbing roses (Zephirine Drouhin). I’m so happy with their brightness factor on our fence!

I really liked the lighting on this Zephirine Drouhin Climbing rose.

This is my sister-in-law’s Tiger Rose. I think it is amazing! (and I really *need* to get one!)

What a splash of color this beautiful Tiger Rose adds to a garden!

Evening sunlight softens the color tone of my Burgundy Ice Floribunda Rose.

Evening sunlight on my Iceberg Floribunda Rose. I can’t resist taking pictures in the evening!

Fuchsia is a very popular plant in Ireland. It’s not uncommon to find it growing in hedges in the West. It was introduced to Ireland in the mid-19th century from Chile & Argentina. (This picture was taken in County Mayo).

Is it any surprise that I have a picture of a Hydrangea? I love their high cheerfulness factor!

Yep, another Hydrangea picture…

My Clematis ‘Bagatelle’ (Dorothy Walton). This picture is for my husband 🙂

My poppies on a glorious morning!

A different view of the poppies.

Marigolds to finish the post with.

A beautiful visit to Kylemore Abbey & Victorian Walled Gardens, Connemara Ireland.

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Mominthegarden

Kylemore Castle.

The first full sunny day of our holidays beckoned us to visit Kylemore Abbey & Victorian Walled Gardens. It is simply beautiful, and if you are in Connemara it is well worth the visit. www.kylemoreabbeytourism.ie Admission for our family of five was 33 euros (about $40). The first worker we came across was a lovely Irish girl who informed us that midgets (very annoying, small mosquito like bugs) love the Connemara area, and that the best defense for them was spraying on Skin So Soft (an Avon product)! She kindly handed us her bottle and said “here, you can spray your family”. So then we were armed to enjoy our day at the Gardens.

Kylemore Abbey sits on 1000 acres with woodland, lakeshore, and the largest Victorian walled garden in Ireland. The castle was built in 1867 by Mitchell Henry (as a romantic gift!) for his wife Margaret. Tragically, Margaret died in 1874. In 1877 a Gothic Church was built on the property as a memorial to her. It is often described as a cathedral in miniature due to its proportions. It is beautiful, with pillars of stone from the 4 provinces of Ireland: red Cork marble from Munster, black Kilkenny marble from Leinster, green Connemara marble from Connaught, grey Armagh marble from Ulster.

The 6 acre walled gardens have been restored to some of their 1870s majestic splendor. They only have plants and vegetables which grew in Victorian times, growing them all from seed on the grounds. So far, two of the original 21 glass houses have been restored. I was surprised to learn of the exotic fruits they used to grow in them. Fruits such as bananas, melons, grapes, and figs were grown and sometimes shipped to England. The garden is divided into two areas; a kitchen garden and a flower garden, with trees and a stream dividing the two.

Since 1920 Kylemore has been home to a community of nuns of the Benedictine Order. They are the directors of the Kylemore Trust, keeping a close eye on how the Kylemore estate is run today. In addition to their spiritual daily routine, they run their farm and make handcrafted products such as soaps, sweets, and jams.

This is just a small glimpse! There really is so much more to this beautiful gem of an estate. It is well worth a visit. We were very lucky to have a lovely sunny day to explore the grounds, and some Skin So Soft to protect us from the bugs 🙂

I must get back to my garden plans … they need some adjusting after this visit!
Dana

View of Kylemore Castle from the far side of the lake. In order to preserve the family’s privacy, Mr. Henry had the main road re-routed to the far side of the lake, and used the original road, which runs in front of the castle, as his personal access road around the estate.

The Gothic Church. Note the stone which comes from around Ireland.

The Gothic church is often described as a cathedral in miniature.

View around the lake at Kylemore Abbey.

The gardens captivated me! They were incredibly neat and tidy, with so many different sections! I’ve tried to give a glimpse of as much as I could. We were lucky to manage some photos with very few people – it’s just how the flow of people moved. I hope you like the little virtual tour!

The flower garden side of the walled gardens.

Flower garden side of walled gardens. The designs are exactly as they were in the original gardens.

The kitchen garden side of the walled gardens.

View of the mountains from the kitchen garden side of walled gardens.

Some of the cold frames. All of the plants at Kylemore are started from seed on the grounds.

Artichokes.

A splash of color.

Couldn’t resist a picture of a purple flower…

Beaches in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland.

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Mominthegarden

It’s summer vacation time and we had the opportunity to explore a bit of Ireland as a family. We decided to head to the West, choosing to explore around Connemara, County Galway. The landscape in Connemara is so beautiful and unusual. The surrounding mountains frame it perfectly. There are rocks everywhere: making up the landscape, walls, houses, even the beaches! And of course there is the sea, which is beautiful from any angle. At 14, 12, and 8 years old, my kids still love playing in the sand & water at the beach. Thankfully, it doesn’t matter to them whether it is cold or not, or even if it is raining, because Ireland is not known for its heat (or sunny weather)! Some of the beaches in Connemara are incredibly pristine, and the water, I kid you not, was turquois. They had a ball… while I was wrapped in a blanket. 🙂

One beach we visited was completely covered in stones, with no sand at all. We had to drive through a pillared gate to get to the beach and the sign appropriately read “stones” in Irish (clocán). It was a short visit, but so neat to see. Here are pictures from some of the beaches, and some wildflowers. I just bought a fantastic handbook of Ireland’s wild flowers. It is great to be able to put a name on all of the flowers we so often see!

Will you be visiting Ireland any time soon? What are you hoping to see?

Happy Summer!
Dana

Errislannan, Connemara.

Irish sign on the stone beach in Errislannan.

A beach of stones in Errislannan, Connemara.

Stone wall with bell heather in Errislannan, Connemara.

Ballyconneely, Connemara.

Wild flowers of ragwort, pyramidal orchid and wild carrot, and my kids playing on the beach in Ballyconneely.

A pristine beach in Ballyconneely, Connemara.

Kids work.

A pristine beach all to ourselves in Ballyconneely, Connemara.

Sea Holly blooms in June, July & August. Only found by the sea, sandy strands and on the front of sand-dunes.

Sea Holly – an Irish wild flower.

The Pyramidal Orchid, an Irish wild flower, flowers from June through August, and can be found in dry grassland and sand-dunes.

On another day, on another beach in Ballyconneally (in the rain). Connemara.

Three happy kids on a sunny day in Cleggan, Connemara.

: Stones in Cleggan, Connemara.

Poppies and other flowers from the garden.

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Mominthegarden

My poppies have bloomed! Just like a child, I’ve been checking on them every day, wondering when they’d finally bloom. The wonders of gardening for me is not knowing if the seeds you planted will take! They are planted by my ditch rock wall. I planted way too many seeds! The upside of that is it crowded out weeds. The area right next to the poppies is in need of some serious work. The weeds are super strong. It’s going to be quite the battle! But for now I can enjoy the bright blooms of the poppies, and worry about the weeds another day.

I hope your garden is full of wonderful blooms!
Dana

Early morning fog in Sheepwalk.

I woke up very early one morning and couldn’t sleep. A peek out the window enticed me to take a walk around our garden. It was so beautiful! These four pictures were taken around 4:00 A.M.

Early morning pre-bloom poppies.

And here come the blooms!

Poppies!

Poppies.

Some other plants have been flowering too. This Bergenia is so pretty! The leaves are somewhat large and hardy, and turn a burgundy color after their green start.

Bergenia flowers.

Bergenia plant & flower.

This hydrangea was given to me at the end of last season. It’s so pretty in with my lavender.

Hydrangea.

We’ve had some really windy days recently. The poor roses! I’ve been cutting some to save them from being battered!

Hybrid Tea Rose Pink Peace.

Hybrid Tea Rose Silver Anniversary with lavender.

This climbing rose is at our front gate and seems to be quite happy.

These are some pictures I took of blooms in the garden. My camera is broken (two cameras, actually!) so I’m using a zoom lens that I wouldn’t normally use. It was challenging, but I think I captured some color, which was my goal!

Summer flowers with lavender.

Summer flowers.

Marigolds.

I love Marigolds. They are so bright and cheerful! They remind me of my childhood when my mom would save their seeds and use them the following year. I did that with these, too. 🙂

English Lavender in full bloom = Lavender Wands!

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Mominthegarden

Lavender Wands.

It’s July and my lavender is in full bloom. Just brushing past it gives off a wonderful scent. This usually happens in the evening as I’m pulling off slugs from the neighboring hosta and lilies, so it’s a welcome reprieve from such yucky work! I came across lavender wands a couple of years ago, and have decided I really like making them. It’s fun to work with my hands, and it smells so lovely during the weaving process. It’s not difficult to do, either. I gather a handful of stems, tie them together, fold the stems over the blooms, weave the ribbon, and finish with a little bow! 🙂 Here are a couple of pictures of the process:

I like my wands nice and full, so I usually collect between 19 and 23 stems. Look for stems that have some flowers open. Inevitably, one stem will break in the folding-over process, so I’ll end up with 22 which works well for the weaving since I work with them in twos.

Tie a ribbon at the base of the flowers (not too tight or you’ll break the stems).

After you gather your stems and peel off any greens, line up the blooms and tie a ribbon at their base. You can use 3mm, 5mm, or 6mm size ribbon. The wider the ribbon the less weaving you’ll have to do. I think 5 mm is perfect. I figured this out after making lots of wands with 3mm!

Folding stems over the flowers.

Next, hold the flowers in your hand and fold two stems down (gently, so they don’t break), put ribbon either over or under these two, and bring two more stems down. I use two stems, but you can use one or three. I found one to be too much work. Then repeat the process, bringing the ribbon over and under the stems.

I had a lot of fun making these, and putting together a rainbow of colors. You could hang these in your closet, or put them in your dresser drawers, or leave them on the window sill of the bathroom! Because I have so many, I have mine in a vase in my family room. They will last for years. I am going to try and sell them at a fair coming up in a few weeks. We’ll see if there is any interest for Lavender Wands!

English Lavender in full bloom.

I can’t be 100% sure of the type of lavender I have since I didn’t plant it. But I believe it is an English hybrid (Lavandins), probably Abrialii. This variety blooms after English lavenders finish their blooming and it lasts to mid summer. They really have a strong fragrance, and are great for drying too, since the flowers are easily removed from the stems. After the blooms are finished the stems should be cut by about a third to promote fullness for next season.

I really appreciate having such a lovely and fragrant plant thriving so easily. What a bonus to be able to bring some of it inside and enjoy it all year long! What do you think, would you use a Lavender Wand?

Dana

Organic Colleen Spuds … Delicious!

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Mominthegarden

Vegetable gardening is still new to me. I am learning so much! But I’m delighted that some things have turned out really well, despite my not doing things perfectly correct. Take our spuds, for instance. The early organic variety called Colleens were our first potatoes we planted and we were so excited. But we had more potatoes than allotted space in that bed. So we squeezed them in. Yeah, I know, that was silly. But we’ve just started eating those Colleens and oh wow! They are delicious! Have you ever dug a spud fresh out of the ground and had it for dinner? If your answer is “no”, then you haven’t lived. 🙂 And this coming from a girl who really was not a fan of potatoes before moving to Ireland four years ago…

(For our second planting of potatoes we used more space, by the way.)

Our rainbow chard is finally coming along. We’ve had it a few times for dinner. I sneaked it into some pesto last week. Otherwise I just saute it with garlic and olive oil. I’m still waiting for our peas. They are so pretty, but not quite ready to eat. I have lettuce in planters on our deck. I really like that the kids just pop out the back door and pick what they want for their sandwiches. They also like to raid the strawberry patch, which I am perfectly O.K. with! I’d rather them be eating the fruit than those darn slugs…

My parsley is really doing well. I picked some tonight just to see if it was fragrant. I wish I had a scratch and sniff app on my blog! It smelled so nice! I am going to have to find something to cook tomorrow that calls for parsley. The other greens in the pictures below are my parsnips, and some carrots. Slowly but surely, vegetables are growing.

Ireland has had a very wet summer, so I’m lucky that the veggies haven’t just floated away! I hope you’ve had nice summer weather where you live and garden!

Dana

It was so easy to dig the potatoes up. One plant has enough potatoes for dinner for our family of five. I am so hooked!

My two potato beds. The early organic Colleen variety are on the right, and main crop organic variety Sarpo Mira on the left.

The peas are so pretty, but not quite ready to eat. This organic variety is called Karina.

Rainbow chard with garlic & shallots in back of bed.

Organic Rainbow Chard on the chopping block.

The parsnips are doing really well.

We usually eat parsnips with carrots (more carrots than parsnips), both of which I’ve planted. But only one row of carrots have taken while three rows of parsnips are thriving! There will have to be some creative cooking this fall!

Italian Giant Parsley grown from organic seed. Can you smell it?

From organic seed Buttercrunch lettuce on our deck.

We have a couple of containers of this lettuce on our deck. My father-in-law started them from seed for me and then we put them in these containers. I find that they do better here than in the beds, and it’s easier (for the kids) to quick get some to eat!

These are a few of the uneaten strawberries from our garden. It’s hard to keep them long enough to photograph!

Black Velvet Nasturtium which we grew from seed.

This was my first year growing flowers from seed, so I was happy with the result … flowers!

Black Velvet Nasturtium grown from seed.

You might notice that almost all of the pictures have water droplets in them! We’ve had so much rain, but thankfully there is usually an hour or two which is dry and sometimes even sunny! Such is weather in Ireland – it packs everything into each day!

Black Velvet Nasturtium grown from seed. (not sure how this non-black velvet one got in here!)

Weeding … and new blooms in the garden!

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Mominthegarden

Weeding, it’s like housework, it just has to be done! I confess to much preferring being outdoors and weeding to being inside doing housework, though. Today I had the privilege of listening to my kids play on the trampoline with their friends while I was pulling weeds. Lots and lots of weeds. Funny how the kids never want to pull weeds with me. We could make a game of it; something like “let’s see who can pull the most weeds!”. I’ll have to give that one a try tomorrow…

I’ve mentioned that our garden is in a constant state of change as we grow it, learn, and figure out how we want it to look eventually. The area of our “fruit orchard”, I just have to put that in quotes since the area is so small we call it that affectionately, is not the shape we want it just yet. We discovered this year that we’ve planted too close to the fence, so we’ll have to bring that area back a tiny bit. That lovely black carpeting (read: ugly) is where we’ll have stone paths eventually. We planted more asparagus this year, so that space was expanded. We’re planning on two rows of peas for next year, too, since they are growing so nicely. When we get the shape and size finally right, we’re planning on enclosing the area. I really want a small white picket fence. Can you just see the pretty pink climbing roses along the fence with white hydrangea? I’m sure I’ve pinned something like that from pinterest!

Back to reality, and our current garden! The first of my Dutch Iris is blooming, and I think it is so pretty. The first of my roses has also finally bloomed. The sunlight this evening captured it so brilliantly. The mess in the middle of my front yard is my next garden project. I have to kill the grass (with newspapers & cardboard). I’ve also put the sod which was dug up from other places in the yard there, to incorporate it into the new garden. There’s no point in wasting perfectly good sod! I’m glad my husband is a patient man, and doesn’t mind the mess involved with killing the grass the slow way. Good things come to those who wait 🙂

I hope you don’t have too long to wait for blooms in your garden!
Dana

The above picture is the “before weeding” look of the fence line.

Now you can actually see the hedge!

A look at the “orchard” at sunset.

I thought the peas looked so pretty!

I am looking forward to eating our zucchini!

O.K. that’s a lot of pictures for one Dutch Iris … but it feels like I waited forever for it to bloom!

Finally! Roses in my rose garden!

I discovered these in my garden … I think they were given to me, and this is their first year blooming!

We grew a bunch of Calendula flowers from seeds and they are just now showing us how pretty they are!

This is as close as I’m going to take a picture of the big mess in the front yard! At least the sunset is pretty 🙂

Nursing Hydrangea Selma back to health.

Posted on June 17, 2012 by Mominthegarden

Now that is a gorgeous hydrangea. Hydrangea Selma, to be exact. Even the leaves are a beautiful burgundy color. I took this picture when I bought it, just as it was going in the ground two years ago. And that is the last time it bloomed. Even the leaves haven’t really grown well. I’m stubborn, though, and I refused to give up. Recently, a shock treatment of compost seemed to give it some life, but it still didn’t seem quite right.

Nope, the above picture isn’t what it looks like now. This is what it looks like now:

Oh yes, it is not very pretty! I spoke with someone at a nursery this week, and finally decided to take some action. We (I mean my wonderful husband!) dug a circle around the plant, and lifted it up with as much of the roots as possible. Then we dug out a circle 3 feet across and 3 feet deep. Just as suspected, the soil was very heavy clay, wet, and in need of some air. We made a mixture of 60/40 topsoil to peat/compost and added that to the hole. Then we replanted the hydrangea, adding some more compost. I will be keeping a close eye on our patient.

My husband hard at work digging in the above photo.

After we finished with the hydrangea, we planted a few more plants that I happened to pick up at the nursery. (Ever go to a nursery and *not* buy something?) They are rather small, but I really liked their personalities! The first one I call my silver plant (official name Convolvulus Cneorum). I saw it and wanted it. Plain and simple. The next little round one is Chamaecyparis p. “Boulevard”. It is difficult to see in the picture, but the branches have a lot of texture, and the color is a little unusual greenish bluish yellowish (unofficially). The third plant, well, I didn’t get the name of it. But I will be returning to the nursery soon and I’ll get it then!

This garden, unnamed at the moment, gets a lot of wind. It just whips around the house right at this point. Our Japanese Maple has suffered terribly from this. It is completely naked. Not one single leaf. It needs either a lot of wind protection here, or to be moved. I’m planning that we’ll move it this fall.

Below is my silver plant at the nursery, and then in my garden.

Below is a picture at the nursery. I loved the texture of this shrub.

Here is my tiny version.

I liked this taller one to have a variety of shapes in the garden. It should grow to about 1.5m to 2m.

I know they are small now, but I like watching them fill in and grow instead of buying full size (read frugal gardener).

We have had a lot of gray days, and a lot of rain. So I searched through my photos for a cheerful picture to share. I found two pictures from when I visited “Fred’s garden”. He is a friend of my husband, and has an amazing garden. His words of advice to me were to have a master plan on paper to start with, and grow it from there. Here are two pictures of some of his beautiful poppies.

I hope you enjoy some sunny time in the garden! And for all those Dads out there, I hope you have a wonderful Father’s Day today! (maybe in the garden?)

Dana

Matching Stone Walls at the Front Gate.

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Mominthegarden

I have a plan for our garden. A few of them, actually. Implementing them is trickier than thinking them up though! Then of course, there are changes that have to be made after the original plans don’t work out. I’m experiencing it all while creating our garden! Take our front gate, for example. I planted two lovely hostas there that the slugs completely demolished last year. Completely. So this year, I’ve been on serious slug alert. Every night I go out at 9:30 (it’s light here until past 10) and pick off about a half a dozen slugs from the two hostas. Every night. But it’s working and the hostas are surviving! I had also planted some prim roses opposite the hostas, but decided that they were too much work to try and save from slugs. So today I dug them up and cleaned up that little garden. I’m going to wait until the fall to plant something in the prim roses’ place, unless the perfect plant presents itself to me! The climbing roses which I planted earlier this season on both sides of the gates are doing well. Just as the rain came, I was finishing up a second stone wall, which I think closes off the garden (nicely if I can say so myself?). I really like the stones and the fact that they are from the neighboring fields. It was only after I was sorting through the pictures that I remembered that only one side of the gate fence is painted. It’s been a busy time in our family and we’re looking at the fence painting be a summer long project! Good things come to those who wait, right?

I hope you don’t have to wait too long for your projects this summer!

Dana

Here is a look at the painted side of the fence and the new stone wall. There is a small climbing rose plant on this side of the fence, while the peony plant is peeking through from the other side of the fence. (The stone in the middle is covering our water pump cover.)

Looking at the new stone wall from our driveway.

You can see the raindrops on the stones.

The hosta & climbing rose plant (and unpainted fence!).

The second hosta and climbing rose plant (and unpainted fence!). The little teeny guy below kept me company while I worked, despite our cat trying to play with him.

A look at the entrance. I sure like the painted fence better than the unpainted!

The winds proved too much for my purple sensation allium. So rather than leave them bent to the ground, I cut them and put them in my favorite vase. I’m glad I still get to enjoy them for a wee while longer!

A summer peak at the garden: Peas, Potatoes, Parsnips, Carrots, Cukes, & Chard!

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Mominthegarden

When the weather is nice in Ireland, the weather is super nice in Ireland! We were finally free to spend a full day in the garden! I love working in the garden, everything about it: pulling weeds, gathering rocks, planting, weeding, watering (ok, this doesn’t have to be done so much here), getting rid of slugs, more weeding. I just love being outside and being a part of a living, growing, and changing garden. We’ve been “growing our garden” over the past two years. It is in a continuous state of change and development! There have been some learning experiences, too. I have a few plants & trees that aren’t happy where they are and I need to find out what will make them healthy again, possibly just changing their location.

Our raised vegetable beds are starting to look productive. I think the veggies are slow growing this year. We could use more heat, for the plants and for me! My shallots are the happiest! They at least look impressive. Our potatoes are growing nicely, too. I’ve taken some pictures of the baby growth of what I have so far. I like tracking it from a young stage to full bloom. You should see carrots, garlic, onions, and parsnips. My other beds have zucchini & pickling cukes in them, but they didn’t get photographed.

Walking away from the raised beds will bring you toward another part of the yard, what we fondly refer to as the Fruit Orchard. I was happy to see the start of apples and, for the first time, pears! Our two year old blueberry bushes are also looking very good, and are full of fruit. We’ve put a net over the strawberries in the hopes of keeping out the birds. I’m not sure if it is good enough for this job, but time will tell. We’ve added bits and pieces on to this garden continuously! I think it is almost at the right size. Our plans include a few more changes over the next year, and then it will be “done”!

Although called the Fruit Orchard, we do also have vegetables in this section. We have Pacific Purple asparagus, but only 4 plants have survived over the past two years. So we just expanded that section by adding 10 Grolim white asparagus. I know it’s a long slow process with asparagus, but hopefully it’ll be worth it! This year my husband planted peas for me. He used some chicken wire and bamboo sticks for the plants to grow on. Slugs love pea plants, by the way… I visit the plants every evening to save them from being someone else’s dinner! We are attempting to grow some watermelon this year. Ireland doesn’t have the best climate for this fruit, but I guess I have to prove that to myself!

The final set of pictures are just showing my boxwood hedging. I finally cleaned them up a bit. They really needed some trimming. Actually, I just had to take some pictures of the beds that I had spent hours weeding! My star flower of the moment is my Allium (purple sensation)! I love it! I’m afraid that the garden it’s in is not thriving. My hydrangea is only now showing signs of life after some compost shock treatment, and my Japanese Maple has been ruined by being in the line of our (gale force) wind path. Big sigh, lots more work to do!

I hope you are enjoying steps of progress in your garden, too!

Dana

These are pictures of our back yard, including the raised beds and potato beds. I have to say that the kids have really helped in expanding the stone pathway. It’s a tedious job, but I love how it looks! (and it’s character building, right?)

Here are some pictures of the vegetables growing in the raised beds: shallots, garlic, rainbow chard, onions, carrots, and a very fuzzy picture of parsnips.