Author Archives: Ciaran Burke

National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin, November 17th 2012

A beautiful sunny day in the National Botanic Gardens. I was there with students today. Lots of nice autumnal colour, some flowers and fruits too.

Lonicera nitida – learning to love it

I thought it was a box hedge that we were chopping. We had a saw, a shears and even an axe. It was a family event. My dad was cutting the thick stems with the saw while questioning the wisdom of the act. My mother directed the operations, ensuring him that it had to beContinue reading “Lonicera nitida – learning to love it”

Come on baby, light your fire…

Now that the winter is here, hardly a day goes by when we don’t light the fire. It is almost the first thing I do when I get up in the morning. I push the red embers from the previous evening’s fire in the grate and add a layer of new peat briquettes. To getContinue reading “Come on baby, light your fire…”

Tom’s Tom- From red centiflor to little yellow pear

A few years ago we sowed some seed of a Tomato, the variety was called Tomato ‘Red Centiflor’. We purchased it from Irish Seedsavers Association. It grew well, a tasty little tomato. It bears its fruit in big clusters. The trusses, the fruiting branches f tomatoes, are packed with a huge mass of flowers andContinue reading “Tom’s Tom- From red centiflor to little yellow pear”

Finnish Style Cabbage Bake – Recipe

Some of the heads of cabbage in the garden are too big to use all at once. We cut a head of the white winter cabbage today, I was messing around with it when I brought into the kitchen, It was bigger than my head! Somehow from that Hanna was inspired to make a cabbageContinue reading “Finnish Style Cabbage Bake – Recipe”

Euphorbia nematocypha add fire to the herbaceous planting scheme

Sulphur yellow flowers, bushy growth, intense autumn colour and bright red stems. Hardy too. This is Euphorbia nematocypha, a superb spurge for Irish gardens. Each spring the strong upright growth of the red stems is topped with bright yellow flowers and bracts. The flowers last well into summer and give a fantastic display but theContinue reading “Euphorbia nematocypha add fire to the herbaceous planting scheme”