You can hear the light crunch, the shuffle of the fallen leaves, rustling into new formations as feet shuffle through the gold and bronze of autumn’s yearly fall. Kicking leaves and watching them fall again and hearing their rustling call, it is a simple joy. Along the branches, shining globes of brilliant red, the fruitContinue reading “Autumn kicks”
Category Archives: autumn
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.
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”
NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDENS, GLASNEVIN, DUBLIN- OCTOBER 20TH 2012
Every month I visit the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, Dublin with a group of people on The Garden School home study course. This time there was lots of autumnal tints to admire, some berries and flowers too. I was saddened to see that the great specimen of copper beech had eventually succumbed to oldContinue reading “NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDENS, GLASNEVIN, DUBLIN- OCTOBER 20TH 2012”
Testing Soil for pH…its easy!
pH. Two letters, one small, one big, not even a proper word. Yet, it is a term every gardener should be familiar with. Whether you grow vegetables, fruit or ornamentals, knowing the pH allows you to select the right plants for your garden and to maintain soil fertility at the optimum for better crops. pHContinue reading “Testing Soil for pH…its easy!”
Helsinki Granny’s Green Tomato Pickles
Yes, it is the end of the tomatoes, for this year. Cold nights have taken their toll. Limp leaves hang and slowly start to mould, soft under developed fruits drop to the ground and their is an air of melancholic resignation about the plants, their stems twisted around the twines. We plucked the last ofContinue reading “Helsinki Granny’s Green Tomato Pickles”
Ciaran The Gardener 