Practically Tropical!

When the fog, mistiness and cloudcover cleared this morning there was that wonderful feeling in the garden, that mixture of warmth and moisture when you feel that if you threw seeds on the ground they would germinate, sprout and grow in a moment - a bit like the line from Oklahoma, "the corn is as …

A Crabapple with Memories

Malus floribunda, a flowering crabapple, has just begun to open its blossom in the garden here and, as it has each year for over thirty years, it brings back very pleasant memories. Malus floribunda, the Japanese Flowering Crabapple The rear gate of the boarding school I attended in the late 60s was exactly across the …

No Day for Still life.

It was a day that would skin the b..ls off a brass monkey, as I have heard such conditions described on many occasions. I was out in the garden this morning for about two hours, shredding material for the compost bin, and came in feeling absolutely miserable. It was perishing out there with a dreadfully …

My Mind is Boggled.

Given that I am now in my late 60s, I suppose it should not come as a surprise to me that certain aspects of modern life leave me bewildered. It has been a feature of society through the generations that older people are generally considered to be "out of touch", not quite "up to speed" …

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 …