Fantastic Gardens to visit in Limerick

Beautiful new feature at Knockpatrick

Lads while the weather is good get yourself off to see some of the loveliest gardens our fair county has to offer and find inspiration for your own garden (or work for your other half for the winter). In the last few weeks I have taken students to two of the best in County Limerick at Terra Nova near Dromin, Bruff and to Knockpatrick gardens near Shanagolden. Both very different but with a few crucial things in common, warm welcomes, a great passion for plants and stunning gardens to see.Here are some recent photos from both.

Knockpatrick

Super tall Sue poses with the Rhododendrons

Tim and Helen impart wisdom in the woodland garden

lush cherry blossom in the arboretum

 

stunning views from the deck of the terraced garden

Check out last years blog post here for more information on the garden and the fabulous pair who own it. Tim and Helen use the money raised on garden visits for the Cystic Fibrosis unit at the Regional Hospital in Limerick so all visitors are contributing to a great cause.

Terra Nova

one of the many lovely peonies

looking across the pond to the Thai hut

Deborah takes the tour to the newest part of the garden

Gorgeous arbour in the front garden

beautiful specimen plants including golden bamboo

Check out last years blog post here on Martin and Deborah and the fab garden at Terra Nova. This year they are doing a whole series of garden events as well as open days and guided tours including; picnic Saturdays, treasure hunts, and a twilight garden party in August! check it all out here. 

The Longest Days and the shortest nights

Outstanding laundry and gardening weather

How do they do it in San Francisco?
Day after day of belting sunshine and blue skies.. I don't know about the rest of you but I'm physically a wreck! Short hours of sleep, long days of "two workdays" during the day (the one you do away from home and the one you do in the garden) that finishes only when the last ray of light disappears as you nod off standing upright with the hose in your hand watering the vegetable garden for the 155 time that week!! So I'm burning it at both ends and this morning I am beginning to feel like an arthritic old lady as I bet you all are too!

Yesterday I saw my first field of hay in Herbertstown. It brought on a right burst of memories which of course led to a pang of nostalgia for home. Memories of raking stray bits of hay in the evening sun after the tractor had collected it into piles and my mother teaching us the special knots she used to secure the cocks of hay. I wonder will all those skills be lost now that everyone seems to be making silage? There was great craic in making hay too along with the hard work and on a quite evening across the field you would often hear our neighbour roaring "get off the fecking cocks!!!!" when he spotted the kids climbing on them and jumping off them! Silage is handy but it's not half the craic!!!

Cows Parsley on our back road

And if agricultural nostalgia is your thing this season could not have a better romantic /nostalgic image than fields of flowers. Everywhere you look there is an astonishing display of wildflowers on a scale I have never seen. In the hedgerows and field boundaries, in the field behind the house, Hawthorn are covered crown to root in creamy white flowers. Cows parsley is high and massively abundant lending clouds of whiteness to both sides of the road and the fields are literally bursting with seas of yellow buttercups. I know the weather was rubbish in March and April but whatever it did to the grass it suited the wildflowers. They are so beautiful this year.

Hawthorn, cows parsley and fields of buttercups

In the Garden the burst of heat has triggered lovely growth especially from plants like the potatoes and peas that seemed to be in a holding pattern for weeks. I'm not sowing all the potatoes I had planned as I didn't get round to it and stopped worrying about it when I realised there are a number of new crops this year looking for a home that have to be catered for. I'm outdoor trialling asparagus peas, cucumbers, tomatillos,  musk melons, and Hopi blue sweetcorn along with the usual trialling of different types of pumpkins and squash and the ridiculous but somehow necessary growing of many many types of courgette, lettuces and salad crops! The idea is to broaden what we grow. To grow strange and weird stuff and see if its worth growing again.

Endless rounds of transplanting and running out of pots

In the glasshouse this includes golden berry pineapples, cucamelons, achocha, vampire chillies, *naga bhut jolokia (*worlds hottest chili and most frustrating fecker to grow), Spanish sweet Ramiro peppers, miniature chocolate peppers, and several types of cucumber, melon and tomato. Everything is growing great so far, fingers crossed we will get them all to fruit and better yet get to eat them all, though I'm not eating that bhut jolokia. "Burns on the way in ,burns on the way out"-that my philosophy! Seamus and the chili nuts can have at it. He is throwing a Chill con Carnival in September for Johnny who gave us the glasshouse, Dace who helps out in the garden, and Manie who feeds and boards us in Malahide. Collectively I am calling them the chili nuts as they all love chilli's- the hotter the better! I plan to take the videos and photos of them trying to eat the naga jolokia! If you want to see what it does to people click here for a hilarious, disturbing video of a crazy person eating a whole one.

watering late into the evening

Weather update; According to met Eireann the glorious sunshine will last up until Tuesday,after that temperatures return to "normal" (thats insulting! surely sunshine and 22 degrees should be normal for June?)and rain arrives, so make the most of it!!!

The Crazy Chicken man

One of Seans beautiful roosters (his photo not mine)

Jack has a unique knack of finding the strangest, most unusual and most interesting people in the county. Yesterday he talked myself and Leslie into going with him to visit his friend Harry who lives down the road from Sean. Sean specalises in breeding some of the rarest chickens, ducks and fowl in the world. He lives on what I can only describe as a (three quartes of an acre) zoo packed with chick nurseries, egg hatcheries, various houses and enclosures for his fowl and a pretty canal running right around that is home to many many types of ducks. There are even goldfish, and a bar! All in all one of the most unexpected places I was at in an age. But Seans pure joy and enthuasim for his birds is the most breathtaking of all. He used to be a posh chef, now hs a chicken man. Probably the "crazy chicken man" to everyone in the neighbourhod.

"dancin at the disco bumper to bumper"-chick disco

He sells these birds to other chicken enthuasists and if you are gardening you can't escape the fact that every second person growing their own wants chickens too, so the chicken trade is a lucrative one. Holding a three week old fluffy young chicken I almost got out the wallet myself but thought the better of it as I pictured explaining to my husband where the chicken came from while Ginger chased it around the house! Leslie is the real chicken enthuasist. He could rattle off breeds and discuss which ones to cross with which. I could see by the glint in his eye he was sorry to have to go. If he hadent promised to milk 90 cows he would still be there discussing chickens with Sean!

I was asking about which layed the tastiest eggs or made the most delicious roast chicken. Turns out Sean prefers a delicious Duck-a sensible man. Chicken breast is the most boring meat alive. Once I got him going though he gave me a great recipie for chicken breast with a posh sauce that he swears by . So he is obviously still passionate about food. He planted loads of fruit trees but his wifes pigmy goat ate them all! Needless to say when she went to hospital to have their daughter the goat got his marching papers.

Some delectable ducks

We left the tour delighted with all we had seen and learned (my brain was exploding with chicken facts) and I was surprised how much chicken care has in common with vegetable care. I think I could actually look after a few chickens( maybe even a few tasty ducks too!!). It's amazing how fragile the freshly hatched chickens looked and how strong they got after even just a few hours. That was the coolest thing, seeing baby chickens at the various ages in the chick nursery. If chickens are your thing go see this guy;

Sean, the crazy chicken man myfeathersdale.webs.com

Swimming in a sea of broccoli

only 3 plants!

Last year the indomitable Tom sowed a tray of what he thought was Summer purple sprouting broccoli, a very useful veg that will cut and come again for months throughout the summer, and so one which I am always banging on about and recommending to anyone who will listen to me!

It turned out in the end (after consultation with the seed packet) that they were Spring sprouting purple broccoli and suddenly their value sank. After all Spring purple sprouting broccoli takes 12 months before it starts producing spears so its a bit of a lazy arse as far as I am concerned.I put three plants at the end of a bed and abandoned them to their fate. The caterpillars found them in late summer and dined in style trimming them down almost to the stalks. They recovered a bit and stood into winter doing nothing and looking a bit forlorn. Around March I stood over the three plants anxious to liberate the space for practical and essential onions. But I spotted a few small heads and decided to leave them be for another few weeks......now most amazingly here we are in May and its still going strong. Actually its the most outrageously productive sprouting broccoli I have ever grown. I cut one spear and five more appear, cutting it just serves to encourage and drive it on exponentially. I'm giving it away to beat the band and I only have three plants! 

pick them small and keep them coming

If you have the space it's not too late to sow some for eating next March/April and May. But be sure to sow the Summer purple sprouting too, it's fantastic long season makes it a great summer veg. All need at least 18 inches apart and a few plants will be more than enough to keep you dining in style for quite a while.

May Day-get your Gardening good luck for the year

Sea of yellow at the teaching gardens today

Yesterday was May Eve. It also happened to be one of the most glorious days of the year so far. My little brother, home from Boston is taking the credit, so when he leaves next week I hope it doesn't go back to shit.Apart from the importance of fine weather there is huge importance to the start of May itself that all but passes unnoticed nowadays. The 1st of May was a key day in the Irish farming calendar(and all over Europe too). Across the country hiring fairs were held where men found work according to their trade. Landlords negotiated new contracts with tenants and people on the land mushed pagan and Christianity together to ward off the living and the fairies while guaranteeing fine weather and a fair harvest!!

Exciting stuff isn't it? I love a bit of Pagan in the garden.
Depending on where you lived (and how superstitious the whole neighbourhood was) different methods were used. My Grandmother in Galway (and her neighbours) grew a particular tree in one of the fields. Each May eve a branch or two was cut down and pushed upright into the ground in the garden around the house and in one of the farm fields. Depending on which county you lived in different types of tree were used. My mother doesn't remember what Granny's tree was but" it had soft leaves like a willow".I'm thinking it must have been a fast grower considering two whole branches were lobbed of each year!

The children of the house decorated the tree with bunches of wild flowers. My mother remembers picking buttercups and primroses ( she thinks it might have been important that the flowers were yellow). Granny would have kept blue duck egg shells for weeks and brown hens egg shells too. These were put on the tree as decorations and finally the whole thing was blessed with holy water. This May tree acted as a powerful fairy and misfortune repellent. As an added protection Granny would never give eggs, butter or milk to anyone that day for fear of them taking the luck of the year with them. My mother remembers her hunting away anyone who made the mistake of showing up on May eve!!!

In Limerick on May eve they had a thing for lighting bonfires from the highest hill, in Tipperary they blessed each field with Easter holy water. Some superstitions or "piseogs" as we call them were so complicated that you had to prevent neighbours milking your cows or stealing eggs on May eve (out of spite and bad mindedness) while also staying up all night to guard against the fairies running off with your sons! What an exhausting day it must have been if you took all of it seriously!!

My May bush

In the interests of a good nights sleep and not turning psychotic in suspicion of my neighbours I decided to stick with the May bush, making a very basic model from a piece of hazel, one lonely broken eggshell and a few dandelions-my grandmother would not be impressed!-and to add insult to injury the holy water is yet to be found to bless it! As meatloaf said two out of three ain't bad.

So happy May day to all gardeners and farmers everywhere. May the luck of the gardening year be yours from today onwards.And if you get a chance perplex your neighbours by building your own may bush.

PS; in the last half hour managed to locate a bottle of holy water-the job is now complete!

Volunteers wanted for sweet pepper trials

Minature bell peppers in the cold frame

Lads if any of you are interested in the minature sweet bell peppers or the long super sweet Ramiro Peppers I am looking for volunteers to participate in a trial of one or both. I have germinated the seedlings and am currently growing them to pot on in the next few weeks. Once potted on they will be looking for homes, ideally under glass or plastic, or at a push a very wrm sheltered patio outside. All you have to do is grow them, feed them and report on the yields. Let me know if you are interested!

Grow you own in Montenotte

Pat out the front working on the clean up

Last weekend I had a lovely visit to the posh end of Cork. Joe and Dace have taken up residence in a georgous old apartment that is one part of an enormous old house with period details and amazing views across the river from it's steep terrace and beautiful south facing slope. When I googled the history of Montenotte it coughed up a wikipedia page explaining that in the 19th Century wealthy merchants and prosperous middle class families colonised this hillside to create beautiful houses set amid spectacular terraced gardens. A walk around the neighbouring streets with Dace on Sunday morning opened up vistas of old walls, railings, gate lodges and gardens bursting with camellials, azelas and other acid loving plants.It's a beautiful part of Cork city and I'm beginning to see why people call it monte-snotty! there is still lots of money(old and new) in the houses on that hill.

A most interesting part of the visit was a meeting with Pat and Declan, Joe and Daces landlords who were hard at work when we arrived out to see the front of the house and it's little terraced gardens. They have decided to clear a derelict plot and invest in a small glasshouse, some fruit trees and shrubs and some raised beds. The raised beds will not just be for them but for all of their tennants too which is a smashing idea. Not since my wonderful gardening landlord in Dalys Cross have I heard of any landlord going down the GIY route and including their tenants in the plan.

The planned site for the glasshouse

Dace who is a brilliant gardening assistant to me whenever she is here has offered to help Pat and as a vegetarian is very enthuastic at the prospect of being able to grow her own salads and herbs for use in the kitchen. It struck me that any landlord being able to offer this to prospective tennants would be on a bit of a winner since so many people have taken up the task of growing their own. So I'm commited to supporting the scheme in any way I can supplying surplus plants if they need them and coming down in another few weeks to see the progress. It's so cheering to see people get excited about growing food and so good to see an abandoned garden come back to life. Viva Montenotte!