Wednesday 6 June 2007

A STROLL IN THE GARDEN - JOY FUREY


This week we are in the garden with Joy Furey from Fahan. Joy has created a haven for a wide range of wildlife in her garden as well as a place for the family to play, sit and relax.

How long have you been tending the garden?
Ten years. The garden was a field before then surrounded by mature sycamore and ash trees.

What is your favourite plant?
I would have to say the pink clematis that grows along the fence and up to the top of a large Hawthorne tree at the edge of the garden.

What is your favourite feature in the garden?
I have a water feature that is very relaxing. I also love the variety of birds that come to the garden. We have robins, great tits, wrens, thrushes, doves, rooks, jackdaws, magpies, blackbirds, sparrows and even the occasional sparrow hawk. (They all have to eat!)

What is your favourite season and why?
Autumn for the wonderful colours.

What work gives you the most pleasure in the garden?
Weeding and tidying makes the biggest impact and gives me the most pleasure.

Any irritations in the garden. How do you cope?
Cats can be a menace in the garden. They are bird killers as well as pets and could also torment our over wintering hedgehogs. I have installed a sonic device in the garden to deter the cats. It seems to work.

What is your best gardening tool?
The Weed Twister. It makes tending the borders a pleasure. Four spikes twist around at the end of a long handle. Just push the spikes in, twist, and the weeds come right up!

Top Tip for spring?
If the birds in your garden are not of the passerine type (perching birds) then put plants in the garden, which have berries on them. Holly, mountain ash and rose hips attract all sorts of larger birds to the garden.

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Any plans for the future?

To retire and spend more time in the garden!


PHOTO: Joy gets to work on the weeds with her trusty Weed Twister tool.

Horticultural.

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