IDEAS FOR THE GARDEN

I must say I am enjoying the Diarmuid Gavin gardening programme on the telly. He is going around and designing gardens for the adventurous amongst us then letting the whole thing be televised for our enjoyment as the owners savings dwindle away to nothing as costs spiral. It might not be that bad though when you hear the news about householders now regularly spending upwards of €100,000 euro to get their garden into an instant maturity. The gardens might not even be a permanent feature either. Some adventurous people even change their garden as often as they would the colour of their walls in the front room, usually every couple of years. The smoking ban might have something to do with it. I was at the yacht club in Fahan there a week or so age to see a friend singing in a band. The place was packed but the crowd were tightly bunched up on the veranda outside, leaving about ten of us in the building listening to the music. It wasn’t an insult to the band that everyone was outside; it was a very warm evening and the patio was a place to feel cool as well as have a smoke. Gardens therefore have taken on a different role over the last few years since the ban on smoking has been in place. When designing gardens a few years ago it would have never occurred to me to include a sheltered smoking area, now it is a necessity especially if the house occupier doesn’t smoke indoors or they have a lot of friends over who smoke. The other thing I like about the garden is Diarmuids’ ability to hand the design over to the client and let them work out the finer details. It doesn’t concern him what sized nails are used for the patio or how poles are secured to the ground. I like that, as when I did designs I would ponder and concern myself with every nut bolt and shovel full of earth that was moved. It was a lesson for me to learn that after I had done the design it should be handed over to the landscapers to make it a reality. This gives me time to sit on the patio and ponder life’s greater mysteries, or at least where the plants are going to go.

BERBERIS

This is a pyracantha (I didn't have a pic of berberis) I'll swap it over when I do!! (thanks for noticing!!)

The most often seen berberis is the hedging type berberis thunbergii, but even this has variety- the green leafed and the purple leafed (Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea) types. These make great hedges and are good defence as they are spiny and not good to walk through! They clip well and grow up to 2m high if left alone, but make a good hedge about 1m high. The green variety in particular has lovely autumn colour, the leaves turning a brilliant orange red. There is even a rockery version of the purple leafed variety that grows to only 60cm high, and grows into a lovely ball shape that can be trimmed well. Evergreen types are around too and one of my favourites is the Orange King. This plant is a magnificent specimen shrub with fabulous deep orange flowers in late spring. The evergreen leaves are narrow and rigid, a dark green that compliment the flowers brilliantly. It needs space to grow as it will make about 2m in height and about 1.5m width when mature

CHRISTMAS CHEER

BUNJULUNG

HOOKED

HOOKED ON GARDENING QUESTIONS

I am all in a quandary. It all started about three weeks ago when the weather turned colder. I thought I could compensate for outside gardening pursuits by joining forum pages on gardening websites. I could still immerse myself in the world of horticulture and not get cold or muddy. All well and good you might say, if you just stick to one website forum. I have joined six of them now and I am totally hooked! I can ask any gardening question and within minutes there are loads of answers from knowledgeable gardeners from around the world (There are some daft ones too of course!). I can even answer a few queries too. I didn’t realise just how much I was getting hooked on these sites until two things happened.

Number one, Julie referred to herself as a technology widow to a friend of hers (ouch!). Number two the broadband connection that delivers all of this glorious information to my screen has disappeared. What to do? I was forced to find other forms of entertainment. I did a bit of housework and actually talked to the rest of the family in between meals. I also ventured out into the real garden that I had forgotten existed and did a bit of tidying. Not too much mind you as I am a big believer in leaving all of the old dead stems of the perennials intact to allow for insects to over winter and for the birds to feed off of the seed heads. I did clear the paths though as I don’t care for wet stems tickling my legs as I go out to get the coal.

GARDENING FORUM
I have this great novelty on my blog site at the moment. It is a map of the world and it pinpoints where in the world people are looking at the site. It is really addictive! In one day people from America, Germany, Holland, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Northern Africa, Japan, Philippines, Pakistan, Malaysia, Canada, Sweden and Australia had all been looking at what I get up to in my tiny garden in Inishowen!

JOIN IN THE CHAT

If you are not too busy doing the Christmas shopping why don’t you join us on the forum site on http://www.inishindie.blogspot.com/ Together we can put Inishowen on the gardening map!