Gardening with Nature on the Edge of the Atlantic

Category: Wild Flowers

  • Winter Tasks

    The trees on my drive have been given a much-needed trimming to remove dead or dying wood and thin out the crowns so that they do not present a large top-heavy mass of branches at the top of the plant during storms. The branches are perfect for the birds when approaching the feeder and the…

  • Stink Bugs and Other Delicacies

    October 2021 Irish shield bugs are ‘potential’ stink bugs, as they secrete a horrible smell when handled. Apparently, they can also bite. In my experience the smell may be bad, but the taste is foul even when mixed with raspberries. I have been enjoying the latter on a daily visit to the fruit garden and…

  • A Harvest at Last!

    2 August At last, I finally managed to beat the birds to one crop in the garden. The rosehips are just ready for picking for syrup. As the seeds don’t contain any vitamin C, I have gone to the trouble of removing them before making the syrup and placing them on the drystone walls around…

  • Garden Visitors

    6 August 2021 Every year around this time I decide that the Inula hookeri has got to go. It spreads very quickly and when it matures it flops over and covers a multitude of other plants in the herbaceous border. Each year I try to contain it by reducing it to a quarter of its…

  • Up the Walls

    23 May 2021 I have finally weaned the birds off their daily ration of bird food. It was easier than I thought. All I had to do was substitute the sunflower hearts I was providing with the cheaper mixed food and they showed their disdain by ignoring all but the sunflower seeds. I miss the…

  • Bugged and Baffled

    26 April 2021 I have always had a fondness for clematis especially as it flowers so early in the year, but never had a hope of growing one upright in my exposed garden. However, I thought myself very clever when I hit on the plan to use the tops of all the dry-stone walls around…

  • Set a thief to catch a thief

    5 July 2020 Thieves My yoga classes have been taking place at home via the internet during the Covid-19 crisis. The sense of peace and tranquillity that the classes engender have been enhanced by my view out the kitchen window. A row of hydrangeas leads on to the fields on the hill opposite the house,…

  • From one extreme to the other

    27 May 2020 Cornus Kuosa with its tiny central flowers and showy white bracts doing well in the hedgerow at the bottom of the hill. Storm effects The garden is just picking itself up after yet another few days of stormy weather. We have had what I am now beginning to consider the worst conditions…