Paddy Tobin, An Irish Gardener
Our garden, gardens visited, occasional thoughts and book reviews
A Review of the Week in the Garden: Any hopes or delusions that summer might continue for a while longer, that autumn and winter might be kept at bay just a while more, have been blown away by the chilling breezes of the past two days. Working in short-sleeved shirt in the garden is suddenly … Continue reading Six on Saturday, 26/09/2020
Orchids by nature are inclined to be variable and identifying them accurately can be quite a challenge. Those who come to an interest in orchids from a non-botanical background quickly find that their previous experience of colour-organised identification guides is now of little relevance as their search for identification moves from colour to morphology – … Continue reading Britain’s Orchids – A New Book!
It has been a beautiful week, a week of recovery, of new flowerings and the start of a new season. After an extraordinarily wet period, with two storms and a great amount of damage done to plants, it has been wonderful to have a week of beautiful weather and the opportunity to work again in … Continue reading Six on Saturday, 19/09/2020
I'd be sipping my glass of wine - I imagine it might be a Beaujolais nouveau; it's what I fancy at the moment, anyway - and I'd be holding the book open, at page 130, and wandering the room. Everybody is happy, cheerful, as everybody is on occasions such as this. Everybody is cheerful, positive, … Continue reading We’re Launching!
Another week has passed and the air is certainly a little more chilly than we have been used to. The evenings are certainly cooler and the days are clearly shortening. It brings to mind that summer is passing and we ought to appreciate and make the most of the remainder of the season. During the … Continue reading Six on Saturday, 12/09/2020
Hot off the presses, An Irish Nature Year, is a collection of 365 short, quirky and fabulously interesting articles from Jane Powers. This is Jane's third book and is, by and large, a selection of her nature notes from The Times. She is the one who cannot pass a wildflower, insect, bird or whatever without … Continue reading An Irish Nature Year.
Sunday last was one of those days; one of those days when it strikes you that, when gardening, we are on a repeating cycle, day in and day out, year in and year out. There was a touch of the Hokey Pokey about our day with one plant going in and and another coming out. … Continue reading The Ins and Outs of Gardening.
It was not an especially good week for gardening. I seem to have been occupied with other things, some garden-related but I feel I have done little hands-on gardening this week. Nonetheless, the grass was cut and edged and I made good inroads into tidying up the vegetable patch in preparation for winter. The damsons … Continue reading Six on Saturday, 05/09/2020
The morning was following its usual routine. Breakfast was over, a leisurely affair with time to browse the latest news from the various sources - morning television, The Irish Times online, Journal.ie, Breaking News, Google's latest offerings etc - and we went off in our separate directions. I go "upstairs", which people always consider odd … Continue reading Lockdown Hooch.
It was a matter of coincidence and contrivance and social conscience that brought these three together and apart but, regardless of the circumstances, they added up to an enjoyable day. Word had reached us that the Meadow Saffron was in flower in Inistioge, an annual event we look forward to and go to see each … Continue reading Fish, Saffron, And Chips!
