My lovely visitors! So lovely to see N and E and so nice to be able to have visitors again.
After thunderstorms all morning.
Diary of the Plague Year: Day 91 14 June 2020: Thunderstorms and Visitors
Tag: West Cork Garden
Diary of the Plague Year: Day 90 13 June 2020: Transplanting
Rain. At last. Woken in the night.
Decided to transplant the cornus kousa, which has been looking more and more unhappy in the gale force winds lately, and replaced it with a cheap and cheerful dwarf cherry from the pound shop.
The cornus went into the orchard by the hedge and already is looking much happier. Time will tell. The cornus is billed as able to sustain wind but I don’t think these categories allow for the West Cork variety.
And managed to snap my spade in the process.
Diary of the Plague Year: Day 87 10 June 2020: New Garden Plants
Rain at last.
New plants in the garden:
Astilbe Chinensis “Glitter and Glamour”
Astilbe “Happy Spirit”
Astrantia “Hadspen Blood” Masterwort
Geranium “Daily Blue”
Veronicastrum virginicum “Red Arrows”
Aruncus “Misty Lace”
Worm Wood Artemisa “Powis Castle”
Catananche Caerulea Cupid’s Dart “Amor Blue”
Sisyrinchium californicum
Heuchera “Black Beauty” Coral Flower
Salvia nemerosa “Sensation Pink”
Salvia Concolor
Phlomis
Diary of the Plague Year: Day 80 3 June 2020: A North wind
After a week of heatwave, a riotous North wind has arrived. It is rampaging through the garden and luckily I staked the new Delphinium I bought yesterday. The wind turns the leaves on the trees and they shine with a silvery light in the sun. The last time we had a North wind like this was last March when all the leaves on my new trees were burnt. This wind feels relatively warm in comparison so I hope the trees won’t be damaged.
Read a bit of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” – we had been asked to find some dialogue that had had a profound effect on us and, having not read it for 3o years, have been lured into reading it again.
The first para:
“Our is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over he obstacles. We’ve got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.”
Diary of the Plague Year: Day 74 28 May 2020: Airing the winter duvet – Summer is here!
Bit by bit I am planting in the flower garden. It is surrounded on three sides by fuchsia so is the only part of the garden with any real protection from the wind, and even so …
Diary of the Plague Year: Day 74 28 May 2020: Flowers in the garden
This year the wildflower meadow is full of daisies and clover. The blue flower, a cultivated version of bugloss, called Anchusa.
Diary of the Plague Year: Day 74 28 May 2020: Mowing paths in the orchard
One of my favourite jobs in the garden. The weather, after the gale force winds, is lovely so I took the opportunity to mow paths in the orchard grass.
Diary of the Plague Year: Day 69 23 May 2020: New Plants
PLANTED 2Oth MAY 2020
Papaver Royal Wedding. Will die back and reappear in autumn. Perennial
Verbena Buenos Aires. Hardy Perennial
Bell Flower Campanula poscharskyana Alpine. Evergreen.
False Lily of the Valley Maianthemum bifolium. Spreading perennial.
Globe Thistle Echinops bannaticus “Blue Globe”. Perennial.
Dragon’s Head Dracocephalum grandiflorum. Perennial
Erigeron Glaucus “Sea Breeze”. Hardy perennnial.
Digitalis Purpurea F1 Dalmatian White. Hardy perennial.
Lamium maculatum “White Nancy”. Spotted Dead Nettle.
Lawn Chamomile Chamaemelum nobile Treneague.
Catmint Nepeta “Six Hill Giant”
PLANTED EARLIER IN THE YEAR:
Cherry
Fountain Grass
Cherry Hedelfinger
PLANTED LAST YEAR:
Viburnum Tinus (Laurustinus)
Magnolia Stellata
Lavandula Augustifolia Hidcote Blue
Eucryphia cordifolia Ulmo
Drimys lanceolata “Red Spice”
Euphorbia amy. Purpurea
Rose Blanc Double de Coubert
Iris Bearded Iris English Cottage
Lonicera caerulea Duet
Cotinus Royal Purple
Diary of the Plague Year: Day 67 21 May 2020: A summer storm
The start of fierce winds that lasted through the night and into the next day.
Diary of the Plague Year: Day 47 1 May 2020: Cherry and Pear trees
Considering it is the first of May it is cold and windy. I got caught in a sudden shower as I was mowing my path through the meadow. The Pound Shop in Clon was selling fruit trees and I simply could not resist and bought a Morello Cherry and a mini-Pear. Chatting to Dutch about trees in general his theory is that it is never really too windy and just to persevere and be patient. With this in mind I am determined to try and find a likely spot for my favourite of all trees, a magnolia. Magnolias hate wind. All the winds of Ireland seem to blow around this house, it is howling as I write this, but it may not be so far fetched. There are sheltered spots, by the front gate for example and actually behind the shed may be a good spot. We will see …. in any case it is all speculation at present as all the garden centres are well and truly shut.
My new toy arrived today, the electric hedge cutter I ordered.
I am trying to galvanise myself into action and go into the garden to put the new trees in water. It’s so damn cold and windy though. I have a Zoom chat booked with Michael at 4 so I will just dash out for an hour. My wildflower seeds have also arrived – I am planning to plant them this evening.
Took out my torn-up cardboard for the compost heap and put the new trees in water. I have realised that as a gardener one is forced to become an optimist. The roots of the cherry look very sad indeed but hey ho – lets see what happens.
THE CREEKSIDE HERMIT 