She Must Have Been a Very Quiet Woman!

We left home shortly after eight on Tuesday morning and headed for Birr Castle Gardens with the Head Gardener at the wheel and I at her side with Google Maps on the 'phone to navigate. Birr is not a huge distance from us, a journey of just less than two hours, but it brings us …

A Time of Plenty in the Garden.

There is a need for a little extravagance, a need for a treat after the long winter. Christmas is suitable positioned in mid-winter to give us respite from the long weeks of darker and colder weather, a much-appreciated rest and a time to indulge, even over indulge, in the comfort of family company, of good …

Make Do and Mend

In the middle of WWII The British Ministry of Information produced a pamphlet, Make Do and Mend. It was aimed at housewives and gave advise, suggestions and designs aimed at prolonging the life of clothing coming to what would have been considered the end of its life, worn and torn, threadbare perhaps and which previously …

We have broken the Barrier.

There have been and will be again, no doubt, further inconsequential discussions on when spring starts, whether it be on the 1st of February, the 1st of March or indeed, yesterday! The 1st of February has been the traditional first day fo Spring here in Ireland, St. Brigid's Day. Meteoreological spring based on the annual …

Spread it like Monty, she said!

It echoed through my mind all afternoon as I wheeled barrowloads of compost from compost heap at the top of the garden to the Evodia Bed near the lowest part of the garden and I cursed Monty Don with every step. Poor Monty didn't deserve the abuse I hurled at him at all for none …

A Farewell to Snowdrops

There are still snowdrops in flower in the garden, in full flower and in good condition, but they are the last stragglers at the end of a long season which started here with the first flowers of Galanthus reginae olgae 'Rachel Mahaffy' at the end of September. While the first flowers were prized and a …

Something a Little Different for St. Patrick’s Day

Certainly, this is something which was beyond my imagination not too many years ago, has only recently become possible and now, suddenly, it is commonplace. I am off this afternoon, virtually, to deliver a gardening talk to the Winchester Garden Club in Maryland, USA! The timing is quite suitable: What will be a lunchtime talk …

Shifting ‘Helen Tomlinson’

She was due a move and she would have to admit to that herself. I had noticed the signs as early as last December, that overcrowding that comes from some years of being left undisturbed, of being allowed to increase numbers unchecked to the point of overcrowding, to the point of spilling bulbs onto the …

Good Timing!

We visited Mount Usher in Ashford, Co. Wicklow, earlier in the week. A beautifully bright morning after so many dull, wet and miserable days prompted a snap decision and we were on our way within thirty minutes. There have been major road developments on this route in recent years and though we have encountered them …