Playing with water!

The Postman brought me a parcel today! I have got a bit hooked on online shopping and as I am expecting a few different deliveries I had no idea what was in this packet!

I was delighted to find it was a pair of tiny solar fountains, one for each pond! It was a beautiful sunny day so an ideal day to test a solar-powered item. I hurried out to try it out but alas the pond was so full of gung that it wasn't able to work properly. So while I tackled the pond the little fountain happily sprayed in the air in a bucket of water!

It was a perfect day to do a job like this, warm and sunny. I rolled up my sleeves and got cracking. The bucket beside was quickly filled up with pond weed, dead leaves and as much muck as I could lift. I resorted to a sieve to try and separate the gung from the water but it didn't really work. A bucket came into play to empty the pond and as the water level fell what was revealed was a really surprising number of stones large and small! 

It is over ten years since we built this little pond and I haven't really done much maintenance on it. I tried a water-lily in it but it didn't thrive so I ended up relocating it to the Stream Pond where it was much happier! I have a vague memory of putting a layer of stones in the bottom of the pond when it was new to camouflage the pond liner but judging by the pile of stones I retrieved many stones must have fallen in unnoticed over the years! The piles of stones either side of the pond were fished out today!

The cleaning of the pond took longer than I expected and by the time I had refilled it the sun was going down and my new toy was no longer spouting water! I shall have to wait until tomorrow to see it in action in the much cleaner pond!

But when I was drawing the curtains I saw the pretty Fairy Aoife illluminated by the light fountain my daughter gave me a few weeks back! She looks much happier in her new location among the potentillas of the Burren Garden!

A bit of real gardening

 It was bright and sunny most of the day today although there was a bit of an East wind keeping things cool - but I was delighted to be doing a bit of "real gardening" today - well, almost real gardening! Last Autumn I transplanted all my Hollyhocks to the Tall Herbaceous border beside the Shelter Belt and I had a plan to make supports for them from the great pile of bamboos that have been gracing my patio since last year. I considered various types of wigwams and piramids but that kind of support didn't work well last year. In the end I made trellis from the bamboos tied with the inevitable cable ties and secured them at each end to sturdy hazel rods also harvested last year. I am delighted with the results particularly since I also got round to weeding these borders and tidying them up! 

I am hoping I will be able to secure the Hollyhocks to the trellis as they grow so they should make a great backdrop to that area of the garden.  The soil seems pretty awful in these borders so I sprinkled on some of the "Soil Renew! stuff I got from Mr Middleton last year. I hope to see marvellous things after all that TLC!

One other thing - there is a notice on Blogger saying that email notifications will cease in July - not sure how that will affect people accessing the Blog.

April showers may come my way

 Today I was busy until about 4 pm so when I was free to go out I was delighted to see that the sun had come out after a heavy shower so I togged out in the gardening gear and set out to put the finishing touches to one corner of the garden that needed work after the recent removal of the hedgerow beside my garden. 

The spuds were planted a couple of weeks ago but haven't appeared yet. I was too late to get some more of the Hornbeams that are already there so I felt I needed to put something in place to reduce the feeling of being so totally exposed! 

Since it was time to cut back the willow fencing it seemed an obvious solution to extend the rather rickety willow fence at the end of the garden up to where the Hornbeams begin.

Most of that was completed yesterday but I had some good long willow branches left over so today I tried to patch up the old willow fence and was really feeling I was making progress when the lovely sunshine vanished and the heavens opened! Of course, typically, there were only a few more pieces to secure so I had to stay and complete it. 

It was probably less than ten minutes including the dash to the shed to put the tools away but I was soaked to the skin! Not really feeling like singing "April Showers" just at the moment - more like "Singing in the Rain"!!!!

Happy Easter

 The past few days of sunshine have really brought the garden into Spring with a bang! There are still some projects in progress but they are moving along now and before too long I'll be able to feel that normality has returned here to Gortnalee. In the meantime I am taking time out from the project work to just enjoy the fabulous colour! 

Spring Fernery

Close-up of Snakes Head Fritillary

Omphalodes Cappadocica 'Starry Eyes'

Grape Hyacinths at the small pond

Happy Easter to all!

Big changes at Gortnalee

 Its been a bit all over the place this past week at Gortnalee. The farmer next door had the hedge that forms our boundary cut back a few weeks ago and it was clear that the hedge had been completely destroyed by brambles. Last year we had a situation where two of the original blackthorns broke off at the root - they were competely dead.  Most of the other original blackthorns were also failing. 

Puss kept a close eye on the digger man 

There was nothing to be done to revive hedge plants over 100 years old! The farmer decided to remove the whole hedge and the bank replacing it with a stock-proof fence instead. I am really ambivelant about it all. The hedgerow was such a haven for wildlife even if it was a nightmare to manage. 

In some ways it feels like how the garden was when we first came here - the wind whistling through and the whole place feeling really open and bare. However, it is only one side of the garden - the rest of it is unchanged. I have already planted the boundary now all I need is the patience to wait for the new shrubs to grow.

I have extended the Laurel hedge down past the seating area we call the Coffee Corner so that it will once more be a sheltered spot to sit with the best view of the garden - it will just take a while! The rest of the boundary border is Escalonias that I tried to grow there when the hedgerow was behind them and they are already looking happier to have space and air! 

The lower garden is still a work-in-progress but already I am making plans ....

And there was I thinkg the garden was NEARLY finished ........

Project almost complete

Getting rid of the boardwalk has been a heartbreak for me as it was a real feature of the garden. Here is how it looked when the boardwalk was removed!

The first stage was to map out the new path for what will become the bamboo walkway. It was a terrible job because the bamboo roots had penetrated under the boardwalk and didn't want to be removed! The path builder had recently aquired a mattock and it proved to be the perfect tool to clear the ground but it was really hard work!

The new pathway follows a similar route to the boardwalk and will eventually have the edges planted up with low-growing plants.

I still need to access the lower area with the wheelbarrow and the raised beds where the only edible plants live!

There is still a bit of work to do - The pathway to the compost area needs a bit more work.

I had some help from a great teenager the past couple of days - he perservered through hail rain and storm to barrow tons of gravel for me to finish off the groundworks of the replacement for the defunct boardwalk!

Here you can see the great job my helper has done in refreshing the whole area! I'm sure he didn't count the barrow loads but I bet he slept without rocking that night!

There's a Project in progress

 I mentioned that the Boardwalk that was a feature of the garden has had to be removed because the timbers supporting it were showing serious rot. The project to replace is is well under way but for the moment I don't want to reveal too much until it is finished!

So here is a bit of a sneak preview - these hollow blocks are part of the solution but they still have to be filled with compost and planted. There are a lot of them! I originally thought I would plant them with sedums, campanula and other rockery-type plants but now that the project is progressing I have had a change of heart. 

I heard mention of the benefit of planting Dahlia from seeds and it occurs to me that these pretty and floriferous plants would look good in the blocks - there won't be enough soil to maintain them for more than a season but the just might fill the bill.

When I spotted these Cosmos seeds I remembered that last year all I had of these great plants were a few casual self-seeders so it is time to replenish them!

When I buy seeds it always seems to be a major task to start them off - and I am not known for my success in this area! This seed tray was a Lidl purchase ten years ago - some years it doesn't get the dust brushed off, but this year it is back in action! It took a total of 15 minutes to fill them with compost and then I brought the planter indoors. Less than 10 minutes saw the two packets of seeds were planted and the lot set up!!!! Not really a major task after all! 

So for further developments watch this space!!!!

I'm sharing this with my garden.ie friends and also on my Facebook account.