Working away steadily

 This time of year I try to get out into the garden for at least part of the day but it is very frustrating when I get stuck into clearing a border and the light goes! This week I have managed at least an hour or tow most days and I have done a complete make-over on the Buddha Garden where I removed an un-pretty conifer that was taking over the place. 

The planting opportunity this gave me inspired me to give the whole border a complete makeover. The conifer wasn't the only unwelcome item - there were Japanese Anemones spreading furiously and there were a number of self-seeders that needed sorting out. So the Anemones were assiduously removed (no doubt there will be lote more to weed out in the coming months!) the seedlings of Thalictrums carefully lifted and transplanted. There are beautiful Canterbury Bells in the border but they were getting out of hand too. I was delighted to find that the Geranium 'Ann Folkard' has increased enough for me to divide it. There are multiple Schizostylis  (aka Hesperantha) in white and two shades of pink that are aiming for World Domination so I thinned them out a bit - they are beautiful at this time of year so any with flowers were left undisturbed - and some have new buds just coming on too! I spread the seedlings and divisions right across the border so I look forward to a more colourful display next year! 

The most satisfying part of that kind of a project is when I spread the whole area with a decent mulch of compost. All done and dusted till Spring! 

This time of year the pollarded willows are looking their best - as the weather gets colder the stems redder and redder! They provide a great dash of winter colour and will be there until the Spring!

Winter gardening for me is very satisfying - next job will be to do a tidy-up of herbaceous stuff all round the garden - and the challenge will be to keep on top of the shredding!!!!

Bright couple of days but no gardening

 The past couple of days have been lovely and bright with only a small number of showers but I didn't manage to get out working in the garden. I went for a short walk round the garden today but it was too cold to stay out for any length. I need to root out the thermal Gardening Gear!

But on my stroll around I took a few photos. I did some tidying and transplanting a few days ago moving the Holyhocks to the back of their borders and the plan is to build bamboo trellis to support them properly.

While down that part of the garden I was struck by the hardy Salvia 'Red Ensign' which is still full of flowers and looking very well in the sunshine.

It is surprising how much colour we can find in the garden even at this time of year.

The Buddha Garden

The buddha garden reminds me of a year I spent in Cambodia. Keeping it looking good has certain challenges. The hawthorn hedge behind it is a bit of a challenge so part of the tidy-up today involved removing a serious carpet of leaves from around the Buddha. My plan for the border round the Buddha is that the Rhus behind it will eventually imitate the Bodhi Tree that is part of the Buddha tradition. There are already a number of bulbs in this border but I want to add more colour. I had a number of Tulip bulbs that I had in pots last year so I replanted them around the Buddha having weeded and tidied the area. 

Buddha looking neat and tidy

I did some more work in the Buddha garden but it was getting dark so photos will have to wait till tomorrow! However I had taken photos of Mahonia 'Charity' just coming into flower, and also a photo of Hypericum calcyninum which has just decided to flower too!

 Mahonia 'Charity'

Hypericum calcyninum

Today was bright and sunny if a bit cold, but one of the tasks I carried out was to remove a small conifer that had outgrown its space and was not adding anything to the border . At this time of year I get great satisfaction carrying out changes to the garden that I have planned earlier in the year and even when the weather only allows brief spells in the garden - but the original design of the garden with the many gravel paths is of great benefit when gardening in the Autumn.

Unglamorous task

 Some of the task we have to do in the garden are far from glamorous. Onc of my borders has been seriously infested with Vetch for the past couple of years and just pulling out bits when weeding wasn't getting me anywhere so I decided to bite the bullet and empty the border as far as possible and remove as much of the dreaded Vetch as I could. Some plants were removed, the roots thoroughly cleaned, and a new home found for them. The vetch is easy enough to spot in the soil as the roots are a vivid white so several buckets full were removed. One plant I want to retain in that border is a sizeable clump of Alstromeria. This is how the border looked in August.

So the task of clearing the border was quite a big one! I removed several Geraniums and an Osteospermum and cut back some saxifrage that was full of Vetch. The biggest job w as to lift the Alstromeria and separate the vetch from the roots. 

Ugh! Vetch trying to strangle the Alstromeria! 

This time of year, between the short days and the monsoon rains it is hard to get any task completed in a timely manner so it took several days to do the clearing out. When that was complete I added some tulips to the border. There were some from previous years as well as daffodils but they had got rather sparse so i topped them up! I also tried out the little dishes that you can use for tulips - I might be able to prevent the Vetch from strangling them next year! 

I am under no illusions that I have seen the last of the Vetch but there is a possibility that I might be able to keep it at bay a bit after all this work! All that is left now is for me to give it a decent mulch! 

November 2020 - late blooms

 This year I have noticed lots of odd things in the garden - flowers blooming early, or random blossoms appearing very late in the season. Penstemons are new to my garden. I have acquired several of them this year and apart from the delight they have given me all summer they have continued to flower right up to this month!

This one I think is Penstemon "Evelyn"

and this one is Penstemon Garnet 'Beard Tongue'

Both of those photos were taken this month - on a rare sunny day. They are still looking good as I write this despite a virtual Monsoon over the past week or so!

There were other random flowers still bringing colour to the garden that day. 

Leycesteria

Geranium Maderense

Alstromeria

Late Rose

Geranium Sanguineum Striatum 

Japanese Anemone Honorine Jubert

Some of these plants are supposed to flower in Autumn but more of them are definitely Summer treasures! Maybe Climate Change will continue to give us these bonuses!

Introducing my garden

 This blog is all about gardening - in particular it is about Gortnalee Garden in County Laois in Ireland. This garden was begun in 2009 - we had built our home on a little over half an acre and the garden surrounds the house. It was the corner of a field and had a crop of turnips growing in it when we purchased the site. We had moved from Dublin in late 2007 and the challenge my late husband Brendan gave me was to design a garden without lawns. He was retired and his ambition was not to have to start mowing lawns again! 

The soil was heavy clay - very different to what I had experienced in Dublin, and presented many challenges. During 2008 we laid in gravel paths to all parts of the garden so that it would be accessible in all seasons and this proved to be a very good decision. 

This is a view of the front garden taken in April 2014