FRIENDS OLD AND NEW As the soil warms up, the garden takes off and friends old and new start to show their faces.

This old article seemed apposite as on Saturday two old friends Lois and Caroline were over bearing plastic bags for plants. I gave them lots of stuff, and happy to say it was all quality and any apt to run wild were given with all due caveats. Some gardeners are very mean about sharing, but I think it is a great idea – if you lose your own you can get some back from your pal (unless she is particularly mean, in which case drop her).

One of the deep pleasures of gardening is the camaraderie amongst gardening friends. Yes, there is often a dreadful competitive element to plant collecting, who is first to get their mitts on the latest “in” plant, who has the best specimen, the most unusual colour, the choicest variety, and often these are guarded with a parsimony that would make the pre-salvation Silas Marner blush with shame. However, the sharing of plants with a like-minded friend – especially one who understands and appreciates the gesture – is a source of delight and deep gratification.

 

Like a cocktail party in full swing, the summer garden is a babble of friends and acquaintances jockeying for attention, the old reliables mixing with the superstars – the elite crew presents from seriously smart gardeners, which is always a huge honour. I have some lovely snowdrops, a present from Robin Hall of Primrose Gardens in Lucan, given to me on a visit with my mother-in-law when I was just starting out, and a common or garden teasel, which originates from a seedling given by Helen Dillon,

therefore elevating it to precious status.

 

Almost every plant in my garden has a story, one which adds an additional layer of interest. Sometimes it is unbearably poignant, a memory of a friend now gone, but living on in the delicate hues of a healthy plant. Others are bittersweet – a memory of a friendship that has cooled off or even irredeemably fractured, the sight of the first shoots opening the floodgates of memories, perhaps reinforcing the rift or even prompting the phone call that precipitates a reconciliation.

 

I have a couple of beautiful roses, Zephirine Drouhin and New Dawn, which my mother grew from slips from her own plants. Now crippled with arthritis, she is unable to manage the heavy work necessary to keep the garden going and her once beautiful patch is now mostly in shrubs for ease of maintenance. Please do share your plants, and remember that innocently “taking slips” from strangers’ gardens is actually theft and a cardinal breach of garden etiquette. I have a sedum my aunt gave me, which though lovely, still makes me wince with shame as it was given

with the recommendation that it was a superior creature because it “came fromBlenheim Palace”. So Jack’s muscari, Janet’s hellebore, Sarah’s auricula, Isobel’s primulas and my darling ma’s roses, welcome to the party once again and long may you live and thrive.

down to the earth Get to know your soil type and you’re on your way to high-performing plants. down to the earth Get to know your soil type and you’re on your way to high-performing plants. down to the earth Get to know your soil type and you’re on your way to high-performing plants.

These are all old articles I thought I would post:

After yet another stinker of a summer, you might think, what is the blooming point? Well, the beauty of gardening is that there is always another season to look forward to, and gardening in this climate really is a triumph of incredible optimism over the miserable Irish weather. Autumn is a great time to make plans for next year. Take a good, long, hard look at the garden and be your harshest critic. Work out what you have got wrong and be ruthless – whatever didn’t perform this year, take out and either donate to a friend or pot up and give to your nearest charity shop or jumble sale.

 

When plants don’t perform, it usually means that they are unhappy in their surroundings, which is why it is important to read a bit about where they originate. A plant that is native to woodlands is not going to do well in a sandy garden on a windswept hillside by the sea; likewise, a plant that is native to the Spanish mountains will not thrive if planted in a soggy bog garden.

 

Broadly speaking, you will have clay, sandy or loamy soil. Clay soil is heavy and frequently waterlogged. This soil benefits from the addition of gritty material to improve drainage, but is generally very fertile. You will find keeping Mediterranean or alpine plants tricky. A sandy soil is very light and free-draining, so you will need to add lots of organic material to improve fertility, and you are best going for drought-

tolerant and seaside plants. A loamy soil is the perfect growing medium, and if you have it, you are very lucky and can grow almost anything. Soil Ph is the other major consideration when planning what to plant in your garden. You can buy Ph soil-testing kits in all garden centres and if you have an acid soil, lime lovers are out. Go instead for all those plants many of us would love to grow but can’t without a lot of faff and bother and importation of copious amounts of ericaceous compost – rhododendrons, azaleas and blue hydrangea will create a lovely Robinsonian wild garden look. If you have an alkaline or limey soil, it tends to be chalky and needs plants that will not just tolerate but thrive in such conditions. Limey soils are perfect for creating wildflower meadows and will take lots of drought-tolerant species and are suitable for Mediterranean-style gardens. 

GARDEN PARTY As you get set to spend more time in the garden, make sure you’re ready for any unwanted guests.

Plants are like people … Well, so much for my waxing lyrical about the joyous party that is the garden; I forgot to mention the gate crashers and other tricky customers that inevitably show up to make a nuisance of themselves – weeds. My particular bugbear is that absolute pest, oxalis, an odious little pernicious uninvited guest. Similarly, hairy bittercress has that “it’s only me!” characteristic of a bore, popping up on top of the rhizomes of irises, in pots, and anywhere you really don’t want it. If you leave it too late, it will have developed seed pods and the

second you touch it, they burst, pinging thousands of their irritating offspring into the surrounding soil. This year’s stop/start weather seems to suit them just down to the ground – a few days of heavy rain, then sunshine, allows them to germinate, then a few more days of rain keeps us out of the garden and gives them an opportunity to put on growth. Infuriating. Some of these party poopers were actually invited into

the garden in the first place, plants like Japanese anemones, which I initially loved but now hate with a passion. It is like a really annoying ex-boyfriend, who every time you think you have got rid of him turns up to stalk you at the most inopportune moment, insinuating himself right into the middle of an otherwise lovely gathering. While in this anthropomorphic vein, what about delphiniums? They are like extremely

beautiful, refined, but ultimately incredibly tiresome women; high maintenance, needing rich compost (as opposed to men), staking and constant protection from slugs and snails. As friends, you put up with them for years until finally a eureka moment happens and you are able to say “no more!” and cut them out of your lives. I am replacing mine with steadier, ever-reliable and easy alternatives, Aconitum napellus ‘Arendsii’ and a really good campanula persicifolia or glomerata ‘Superba’. Both of these plants will provide the height and deep blues of delphinium without the constant care and attendance the latter need. July can be a tricky month. The garden is often neglected for long periods of time due to holidays and away days, the early flowering stars are over, and the great late summer/early autumn stalwarts – dahlias, heleniums, crocosmias and rudbeckias – are not in flower yet, so fill up with long-

flowering and easy standbys. These are the old dependable friends, ones we often take for granted and don’t nurture as much as we should – acanthus, achillea, anthemis (all the As), knautia and lychnis – all easy and long-flowering, drought-tolerant and can manage without staking or much faffing around, and slugs hate them. Happy gardening, and fingers crossed the sun will shine on us.

Plants are like people … Well, so much for my waxing lyrical about the joyous party that is the garden; I forgot to mention the gate crashers and other tricky customers that inevitably show up to make a nuisance of themselves – weeds. My particular bugbear is that absolute pest, oxalis, an odious little pernicious uninvited guest. Similarly, hairy bittercress has that “it’s only me!” characteristic of a bore, popping up on top of the rhizomes of irises, in pots, and anywhere you really don’t want it. If you leave it too late, it will have developed seed pods and the

second you touch it, they burst, pinging thousands of their irritating offspring into the surrounding soil. This year’s stop/start weather seems to suit them just down to the ground – a few days of heavy rain, then sunshine, allows them to germinate, then a few more days of rain keeps us out of the garden and gives them an opportunity to put on growth. Infuriating. Some of these party poopers were actually invited into

the garden in the first place, plants like Japanese anemones, which I initially loved but now hate with a passion. It is like a really annoying ex-boyfriend, who every time you think you have got rid of him turns up to stalk you at the most inopportune moment, insinuating himself right into the middle of an otherwise lovely gathering. While in this anthropomorphic vein, what about delphiniums? They are like extremely

beautiful, refined, but ultimately incredibly tiresome women; high maintenance, needing rich compost (as opposed to men), staking and constant protection from slugs and snails. As friends, you put up with them for years until finally a eureka moment happens and you are able to say “no more!” and cut them out of your lives. I am replacing mine with steadier, ever-reliable and easy alternatives, Aconitum napellus ‘Arendsii’ and a really good campanula persicifolia or glomerata ‘Superba’. Both of these plants will provide the height and deep blues of delphinium without the constant care and attendance the latter need. July can be a tricky month. The garden is often neglected for long periods of time due to holidays and away days, the early flowering stars are over, and the great late summer/early autumn stalwarts – dahlias, heleniums, crocosmias and rudbeckias – are not in flower yet, so fill up with long-

flowering and easy standbys. These are the old dependable friends, ones we often take for granted and don’t nurture as much as we should – acanthus, achillea, anthemis (all the As), knautia and lychnis – all easy and long-flowering, drought-tolerant and can manage without staking or much faffing around, and slugs hate them. Happy gardening, and fingers crossed the sun will shine on us.

Digging out horseradish

Troubleshooting

My lovely friend Iseult has pointed out that I have posted twice on one topic and that this blog is not very clear, so please stick with it and I will try and sort it out. The best laid plans do tend to go awry, and my tenuous belief in Karma is often stretched to the limit. Take this morning: Clodagh and I decided to use her iphone ap (see, am not a technophobe at all) and go ‘from couch potato to 5K’ in 8 weeks. Now anyone who knows me will understand that jogging and anything involving greater exertion than lifting cake to mouth and chewing is an alien concept to me (I do make an exception for the garden, where I work myself to the bone like a navvie). Anyway we started the other week – a gentle stroll and one minutes jog at intervals, needless to say the jogging part seemed to go on forever and purple faced and wheezing we just about managed to complete the programme. I made sure before starting that the ambulance service was on speed dial lest one of us have a stroke or heart attack. We survived. Today we set out in very jolly form and before we got to jog my neighbour, who is the oddest and crossest man you are likely to meet appeared with his overly excitable and untrained mutt. The dog clearly has sheepdog genes somewhere in his multi-ethnic background as he immediately started to round us, another jack russell and my poor little scrap of a dog up, he then ran into poor Clodagh, knocked her to the ground causing a very sinister cracking sound to emit from her knee. No apology was forthcoming, the dog was not put on a lead. Clodagh gamely tried to hobble along and we then had to abandon our enterprise. Doomed. So Clodagh now at home with pack of frozen peas strapped to knee and I am going to make the most of the weather and do some weeding and try to get the hang of wordpress and blogging.

tootle pip!

A really great book for gardeners

Weeds, Weeding (& Darwin) – The Gardener’s Guide by William Edmonds
Frances Lincoln

This is a really fab book and exactly what I have been looking for for years, a comprehensive guide to weeds and wild flowers which grow in the wrong how place. It is full of pictures for identification and ways to get rid of these pesky inaders.
Weeds are infuriating to gardeners, but the fact is that weeds are just another plant. The ones that are most infuriating are native wild flowers and exotics that come from a similar climate. They love the conditions in our gardens, are adept at self-propagating and are vigorous so tend to run amok. William Edmonds, the author of this book sees Charles Darwin as his mentor. Darwin was intrigued by the nature of variation in plants and how this related to which plants thrived and survived. Informed by Darwin’s insights, and by over thirty years of gardening experience, Edmonds describes and illustrates one hundred significant garden weeds, arranged in the order in which they have evolved. For each there is a what to Do and a further chapter sets out the pros and cons of twenty tried and tested approaches to weeding. Learning to recognise, understand and deal with each weed will take you well on the way to coping in a relaxed – even enjoyable – tussle with these devilish despoilers. Weeds, Weeding (& Darwin) is an enlightening guidebook for every gardener.

Jobs to do for May & June

Jobs for May & June

• Sow seeds outdoors especially edible corps like radish, rocket, spring onions and mixed lettuce which you should sow in small batches re-sowing them on a bi-weekly basis to ensure regular cropping.

• Continue to murder as many slugs and snails as possible.

• Top dress spring bulbs that have died back to feed and swell the underground bulbs in readiness for next year’s display.

• Weed as if your life depended on it and whatever you do, stop them from seeding
•
Fill gaps with summer bedding such as Nicotiana and tender leaved perennials.

• Cut back the perennials such as oriental poppies, and early flowering geraniums. Cutting them back hard to the base as soon as the flowers are over will provide a fresh crop of foliage and in some cases a second round of flowers later in the summer when things lose that fresh green that is so plentiful now

• Grow your own strawberries

• Keep an eye on the sweet peas tying them in and pinching out the shoots to encourage branching. In dry weather water well or you’ll see the buds aborting and energies wasted.

• Chelsea chop late flowering perennials like asters and Sedum specatabilis to encourage later, more floriferous and less leggy plants.
Jobs for May & June

• Sow seeds outdoors especially edible corps like radish, rocket, spring onions and mixed lettuce which you should sow in small batches re-sowing them on a bi-weekly basis to ensure regular cropping.

• Continue to murder as many slugs and snails as possible.

• Top dress spring bulbs that have died back to feed and swell the underground bulbs in readiness for next year’s display.

• Weed as if your life depended on it and whatever you do, stop them from seeding
•
Fill gaps with summer bedding such as Nicotiana and tender leaved perennials.

• Cut back the perennials such as oriental poppies, and early flowering geraniums. Cutting them back hard to the base as soon as the flowers are over will provide a fresh crop of foliage and in some cases a second round of flowers later in the summer when things lose that fresh green that is so plentiful now

• Grow your own strawberries

• Keep an eye on the sweet peas tying them in and pinching out the shoots to encourage branching. In dry weather water well or you’ll see the buds aborting and energies wasted.

• Chelsea chop late flowering perennials like asters and Sedum specatabilis to encourage later, more floriferous and less leggy plants.