A STROLL IN THE GARDEN - MARY DIXON

This week we are in the garden of Mary Dixon from Buncrana. Mary’s garden is set in one of the most beautiful areas of the peninsula with views of the Swilly and backing on to Swan Park.

How long have you been working on the garden?
I have been working on the garden for over fifty years. When my husband and I moved into the three hundred year old farmhouse the garden was a wildernesses. The whole area was full of brambles. I remember I started from one end and slowly worked my way across the ground digging it over with a spade.

What is your favourite plant?
I love hydrangeas. I have a selection of them in the garden such as the mophead ones and also a climbing one that covers a rock at the front of the drive. Of all the colours I like the red and white ones the best.

What is your favourite feature in the garden?
There is a place in the garden where I always sit so my family had a pergola and seat built especially for me. That has to be the best spot in the garden!

What is your favourite season and why?
The summer, because I enjoy the colourful flowers in the garden.

What work gives you the most pleasure in the garden?
Seed sowing in late spring. I particularly enjoy staring the sweet peas and godetia.

Any irritations, how do you cope?
Mare’s tail (horsetail) it is very hard to get rid of. I tend to apply a contact weed killer to the fresh shoots that come up. There are three on the market, Verdon, Hedlan spray and Tetral. All of them have to be used with extreme caution and put directly onto the leaves.

What is your best gardening tool?
The spade. It has served me well

Top gardening tip?
Get help if you can’t cope!

Any plans for the future?
I would like to set up more low energy lights around certain areas of the garden to give it more depth in the evenings

Horticultural.

ME AND MY MOTOR -ROBERT GURNEY

It is Me and My Motorbike this week as Robert Gurney from Ture shows us around his fabulous 1976 Honda Goldwing GL1000. For the last eighteen years Robert has run the Auto Electrical Repair shop in Ture (also known as RG Rebuilds) He specialises in alternators, starter motors and diesel pumps. Robert has a lifetime of experience and enjoyment with the combustion engine.

How long have you been interested in bikes?
I have been passionate about bikes for years. I used to race bikes on the track. I was in the Foyle District Motorcycle club and was the Irish champion on 250 and 500cc scrambler bikes three years running in 1973-4 and 5. The bikes used for scrambling at the time had to be adapted from basic road bikes. Boy were they heavy!

Any plans to change the Goldwing?
Not likely! I always wanted a Goldwing with a sidecar and I am not letting it go now!

Is it reliable?
Very, If it does break down I will be able to fix it myself too because there are no complicated electronics.

Best thing about the bike?
The tow bar is very handy. It allows me to attach the trailer tent to it and away I go. Don’t forget the two-seater sidecar too.

How does riding the bike differ when the sidecar is on?
It is totally different and takes a bit of getting used to. When you turn the bike you have to lean in the opposite direction or the steering gets really heavy.

Any modifications?
The wheels on the bike are made especially for carrying the sidecar. They are stronger and have flatter tyres.

How is the sidecar greeted on the road?
There is a lot of interest in both the bike and the sidecar. It is amazing just how many people have never seen a sidecar before. Thankfully cars give me a wide berth as they are not sure what they are passing!

What would you really like to be driving around in?
I have owned Rolls Royce’s, a Lamborghini, and numerous other cars and motorbikes. I can honestly say that my favourite is the Goldwing!

Motoring.

VEGGIE DELIGHTS

I’d just like to mention all the wonderful produce that had been coming from the vegetable patch over the last couple of weeks. Most fruit and vegetables seem to be ready for harvesting a lot earlier than usual. The first thing that I noticed was the fact that the calibrese (large headed broccoli) has not only matured, but also gone to seed. These plants are supposed to mature in autumn, but I’m not complaining, as they were delicious.

The kids have got tired of strawberries as they have been put under their noses once too often and we’re busy making blackcurrant jam. We have also had our fill of rhubarb for a while so we’ve made jam out of the latest batch. We only have one plant but if it is picked regularly the amount you get off it is amazing. For the last couple of weeks we have had a constant crop of mange tout, the peas where you eat the pod as well. It seems ridiculous that the shops are selling mange tout that has come all the way from Cyprus when you can just walk down the garden to pick some. The regular peas are cropping heavily too. The raspberries are coming thick and fast and we have also been enjoying beetroot. I will get around to pickling some soon but we are enjoying simply boiling them up and eating them sliced. Once the root has been cooked they peel easily with just a flick of the thumb. Watch out though as you will get a mouth full of red teeth when you eat them. A friend of mine says that they are delicious if they are sliced and fried with onions after they have been cooked. This sounds so delicious that I’m off into the garden to pull some up and do a bit of experimenting in the kitchen.

Horticultural.

COMPOSTING DO'S AND DON'TS

After reading the lead story in a recent edition of my favourite newspaper (no, not the Derry Journal), I got a bee in my bonnet about how we, as a society, deal with our waste. As I’m sure you are aware, most landfill sites are now filling up and it is becoming increasingly difficult to find new, suitable sites. Up to 30% of our domestic rubbish is organic kitchen and garden waste, which could be composted. When our old potato peelings and grass clippings are dumped in landfill sites they rot down and create vast amounts of methane gas, which causes long-term environmental problems. So I thought I would like to do my bit for the community and perhaps set up a scheme where I could supply and demonstrate the use of compost bins. There is nothing like compost for healthy gardens and plants! However, Donegal County Council is one step ahead of me. It already provides good quality bins at a heavily subsidised price of around ten pounds, although at the moment you have to travel to Lifford to get one. They are organising local “sale days which will include demonstrations on how to compost waste from both the kitchen and garden. Compost bins will be on sale as well as worm bins (including worms) and soil activators! The Council sale days will be advertised in all the local papers. The first one is in Stranorlar on Thursday 26th of July at 4 pm, then Letterkenny on the 27th at 4pm. The sale will be hitting Inishowen when they come to the community school in Carndonagh on the 28th July at 1pm.

Most kitchen or garden waste will rot down eventually, even if it just put in a pile at the bottom of the garden. The art of good composting is to speed up the process, this is where the containers come in, with the use of an activator to heat the compost, you can have a soil like compost ready for the garden in as little as six weeks in summer!

What to compost
It is possible to compost most organic matter, but in practice you may need to be more selective, as our weather isn’t always favourable for getting hot compost bins.

Do compost
Kitchen waste, such as vegetable peelings, eggshells and tea leaves.
Twiggy prunings but chop or shred them first.
Grass clippings (not too many at any one time)
Dead and discarded plants.
Most weeds.except for perennials such as docks.
Straw.
Small quantities of shredded newspaper.
Wood ash.

Don’t compost
Inorganic material, such as plastic, glass or metal.
Diseased plant material.
Cooked meat or fish, which can attract vermin.
Thorny prunings, which are unpleasant to handle.
Woody and evergreen prunings, unless shredded first, as they rot slowly.
Roots of perennial weeds, which can survive.
Vacuum cleaner dust; it can contain harmful chemicals.
Glossy and coloured paper, which may contain chemicals.


Common problems
Weeds appear after applying compost A heap needs to reach at least 55o C (131oF) to kill off any seeds within it. Only the largest and best managed are ever likely to reach this temperature, so it is probably wiser to leave out weeds that have set seed.

There are large quantities of unrotted matter The most likely reason is that you haven’t included enough sappy material. If you need more, try a greengrocer for vegetable waste, or use a nitrogen- rich activator such as dried blood. Turning the heap should help.

The heap becomes smelly and offensive This is probably because it is too wet or too much soft waste has been added without mixing it up with fibrous material. Keep the bin covered. Adding cooked food can also cause nasty smells.

Wormeries and leaf bins
Even if you have no garden, you can still compost kitchen refuse using a wormery. This relies on brandling worms to digest the waste. The bin can be kept inside or on a patio and organic debris added in small quantities as it arises. A rich liquid is drawn off which makes an excellent houseplant feed, leaving a small amount of fine compost. If you have a lot of trees in your garden and collect a large amount of dead leaves in autumn, then it is best to compost these separately as they rot down more slowly. Round them up in a wire mesh cage, chicken wire is ideal, water in dry weather and two years later you will have leaf mould, suitable for conditioning soil and for enriching potting composts.

Horticultural.

CUTTING FLOWERS

Photo: Young honesty (top) Lupin (below)

This week a row of streetlights has appeared on my road and one of them is right outside the front garden. I must confess it is taking some getting used to. You should see how the marigolds glow in the orange fluorescent light! I don’t have to switch any indoor lights on in the evening, and I’m able to go on my midnight slug hunting expeditions without my torch. I know it will be safer for the kids walking home on those long winter evenings, but being the old traditionalist I’ll miss my stargazing.

My tunnel is a pleasure to be in at any light at the moment though, all because of one plant, an aromatic lily (Lilium Henrii) this striking flower has an almost overpowering scent that fills the tunnel. Originally these plants were from China (I managed to salvage this one out of a skip last year) and they prefer well drained soil .As they are bulbs they can be prone to rotting if conditions are too wet. The best time to get the bulbs, if you grow them yourself, is in late summer-October is probably the best time. Pick healthy bulbs, not bruised or shrivelled. If you are out visiting garden centres in the near future it’s worth checking out the flowers in full bloom, or you will also see them in florist shops in cut flower displays.

Cutting flowers

Cutting flowers and decorative leaves to take indoors for arranging is one of the pleasures of gardening. This form of summer pruning generally does no harm but there can be pitfalls. Taking too much, not only diminishes the garden display but it can also harm next year’s growth. Of course some keen flower arrangers grow flowers specifically for cutting and it is worthwhile putting aside a bed for this purpose. Of course as I mentioned last week sweet peas love to be cut and some flowers such as Lupins and Delphiniums if cut at this time of year can encourage a second blooming. Deadheading flowers can prolong displays too but of course it is not practical for all plants for example, Poppies, Honesty and Chinese Lanterns are often grown for their seedpods.

Horticultural.

KILDARE GROWERS SHOW

My vegetable patch has had a serious growth surge over the past week. From a distance the area looks full and lush, but on closer inspection this is mainly because of weed growth, the dock leaves and thistles look very healthy indeed. I decided to wade in and dig out the invaders before any of them go to seed. Clearing the ground was very similar to treasure hunting as I found my long lost watering can and my favourite garden spade, which I haven’t seen since late spring. I’ve also found loads of potatoes, which is very strange, as I didn’t plant any this year! I must have had some potato peelings in my compost. I found a clump of rhubarb that I didn’t know I had too. Julie had put in a crown that she had got from a neighbour. Some plants have unfortunately disappeared; the peas and leeks just couldn’t compete in the thick undergrowth. My biggest success story this year is the garlic; they’re so large you would swear they came from a supermarket!

Kildare Growers Show
Last week I made it to the Kildare growers show in Kill, Co Kildare. The venue is a great opportunity to talk shop with other people in the horticultural industry. There were in the region of 150 companies exhibiting their products. I decided to concentrate on finding out about watering and heating systems when I first arrived. When I had all the relevant catalogues pushed into my carrier bag I was free to wander around aimlessly to soak up the atmosphere and have a look at what new products are going to be on the market in the near future. Here are a couple of things that caught my attention.


Lighting
Lighting for the garden is getting more popular. Every year sees new designs. There is even a small light to brighten up your hanging baskets when everyone’s tucked up in bed. I spotted some very sturdy granite and steel posts that had bright halogen bulbs enclosed in the tops, one of the designs, called “Rusty” was exactly that, a light attached to a 1m rusty steel pole, don’t laugh, but I actually thought they were good value at about £200 each, (top quality rust) There is a good range of solar lighting on the market if you can’t be bothered with all that electric cable buried in the garden. Most of the ones I saw were plastic and a bit wobbly, but I’m sure they are o.k. as long as the children don’t try to pole-vault over them. These have the advantage of easily being placed anywhere in the garden and you can move them around to suit your mood. I was assured that we have enough sunlight to power these lights all year, but I haven’t tested this out for myself yet.


Bamboos
Bamboos are very trendy at the moment. Most varieties are actually well suited to our climate, although some need protection from the salty winds we get. These plants, (like the rusty pole), do seem a bit expensive at first, but after the initial shock of parting with your hard earned money, give very good value. A carefully chosen plant will give a lifetimes pleasure with the soft rustle of their leaves and graceful movement. Some species are quite invasive and are best grown in large containers on the patio. The plants range from a groundcover to over 10 metres tall so you wont be stuck for choice.

Horticultural.