Unfunny bunnies

Fluffy Bunny Brigade, read no further. Although I am pleased to say that no animals were hurt during the making of this article. However, quite a few plants died in the process. I am beginning to feel like Elmer Fudd from the cartoon Bugs Bunny. I am on the verge of jumping up and down shouting “I’ll get you, pesky rabbit !!!”
We are inundated with the furry destructors and even though I am an animal lover, I am definitely not amused.
When we were building the house, the site traffic probably disrupted them and they kept away. Last year I noticed a few, but nothing to cause alarm. This year they seem to have bred like – well, rabbits. I was going out one morning and counted eight !!!
Recently one night we were coming home in the dark and as we drove in, the garden was covered with the fluffy blighters. It was like a scene from Wallace and Grommit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Only not as funny.
When I was planting our trees, I put rabbit guards around their trunks. A good job too as they would have probably all been eaten by now. Rabbits enjoy nibbling tree bark, and if they strip the bark in a continuous ring around the trunk, it interrupts the flow of nutrients from roots to stems and the tree will die.
I planted out my lovingly nurtured Cosmos seedlings (approximately 200 of them) and returned the next day to ge greeted by bare soil. After executing a comical double take, I ground my teeth and went to buy more seeds. I will be lucky if I have any Cosmos this year as I think it’s a bit late, but we’ll see.
As an animal lover myself, and a believer in good Karma, I won’t be purchasing a large shot gun just yet. But I have discovered a cunning solution to outsmart the cute brutes. I planted my next lot of annuals (cornflowers and ox-eye daisies) interspersed with Nasturtiums. As the leaves of Nasturtiums smell and taste very pungent, I imagined that most rabbits would run a mile. Happily it seems to have worked. Either that or they just don’t like any of these latest plants and they are just biding their time until my new Cosmos crop appears…
During a conversation with our local butcher the other day, I asked him if he might be interested in dispatching a few and turning them into yummy casserole. However he politely declined, probably thinking to himself that I had finally lost the plot.
I would like to point out yet again that I am a soppy animal lover and I was only half joking about the casserole. Even when I see my new furry friends on the rampage like a crowd of lager louts on Saturday night, I still go “Awww !!! Look at the wee cuties !!!” and I think to myself, “well, it’s only a packet of seeds and everyone has to eat something.” Shame they don’t prefer dandelions and docken leaves as we have an endless supply of those…

Weed Warfare Made Simple

Yes it’s that time again. May seems to be the month when everything green suddenly bursts into life. Unfortunately this also includes the weeds. Small, previously invisible and non-threatening weed seedlings suddenly become massive monsters almost bigger than your prized feature plants.
I ask myself two questions:
(1) How did that weed get so enormous without me noticing it before?
(2) Why don’t my prized feature plants grow as quickly as the weeds?
And the answer is: because that’s Murphy’s Law and one of the marvels of gardening !!!
I have two friends (actually I have more than two, but this story concerns just these friends…). One friend is a keen and extremely experienced gardener. The other doesn’t have a garden, but appreciates the importance of neat flowerbeds.
My first friend takes me for walks around their garden accompanied with dramatic throwing up of the hands in horror saying “Oh look at all these weeds !!! I’m never going to get it under control !!!” but doesn’t actually do anything about it, so eventually has to pay people to come in and do a massive blitz over a period of several days. This costs dear financially and aesthetically as the garden maintenance people aren’t in the business of treading carefully – they are of the “quick chop and tidy” school of thought.
My second friend came to stay with me last weekend. We were walking round the garden and she was asking what was what. We came to my rather weedy raised beds of onions. “Are these onions?” she asked “Yes,” I replied. “So these other plants in here are weeds, then?” “Yes,” I admitted – “no one is immune to the blighters…” and before I knew it, we were weeding and chatting and within 10 minutes, I had three beautifully weed-free beds. It didn’t seem like work because we were chatting the whole time. So if you have weeds threatening to take over, perhaps you could get together with some friends and plan a few hours to share the work in each other’s gardens. It is a real case of “many hands make light work” and the promise of a cup of tea and a good gossip is hard for most people to resist…

Sometimes you just have to go with the flow…

When we built our house, I did a garden design for the site. I am amazed that the layout has turned out pretty much as per the plan. It is particularly difficult to design one’s own garden because it is (literally) so close to home.
However, some of my plan is beginning to change now that we are living there. At the patio area, I had planned to have no lawn, just gravel with architectural plants. During the winter however, the area has become rather waterlogged. There is a bit of a bank and rainwater tends to congregate at the bottom. One option would be to lay pipes and drain it, but I thought a more interesting plan would be to channel the rainwater above ground in a rill and have it running into a small pond. Because the area is reliably boggy all year round, I had already planned to use moisture tolerant plants. Now they will be completely at home with their own natural water feature. Open water is lovely, but not ideal if there are any young children around, so if you are thinking of doing something like this, make sure it is fenced off securely or fitted with a reinforced grille below the surface of the water.

Regional differences

I have just come back from a trip to the south of England (work, not fun). I was amazed at the seasonal differences between there and Northern Ireland. The leaves were all out, wisteria and lilac were in full bloom. It was beautiful to see, but served as a reminder to be very wary of planting instructions which come with plants and seeds. Most of these come from England and they must be tailored to suit our climate. Many plants which will be happy to remain outdoors in the south of England for the winter would never survive our winters here. I have carried out many experiments over the years with tender shrubs and crops such as tomatoes, and they just didn’t do at all well. Of course, it wouldn’t be possible for seed and plant companies to account for all regions. But it would be very discouraging for novice gardeners to follow the instructions and fail through no fault of their own. Trial and error is the order of the day. Take growers’ instructions with a pinch of salt and a bucket load of common sense. Try to find out a plant’s natural native habitat, as that will help you to decide if it is likely to thrive in our climate. And even if you follow instructions to a ‘T’ and it’s still a disaster, just put it down to experience. Have a cup of tea and think of all the other things in the garden that you DID get right !!!

It’s a Dangerous Time for Chickens.

Nothing gives me greater pleasure than seeing our hens wandering round our garden. They love to scratch around the flower beds (not always such a pleasure for me) and sometimes come in to the kitchen for a little something…
But this time of year is most dangerous for chickens because foxes have young cubs to feed and so they are on the lookout for prey. For this reason, we have a large enclosed run for the hens and only let them out when we’re here. Foxes are just as likely to come around during daylight as at night. If you think you might like to have chickens, enclosing them safely is the most important consideration. Also, as they do enjoy their freedom, they need a lot of space. They really don’t like to be enclosed all day, so please give it serious thought. They also need their house regularly cleaned out, eggs collected at least once per day and fresh water every day. If you go on holiday, a cat or dog is easier to deal with, but not everyone can be relied upon to remember to close chickens in safely every night while you’re away. There have been a lot of TV programmes recently encouraging people to be more self sufficient. It is of course a lovely idea to be able to supply your own salad vegetables, but animals have feelings and require a lot of consideration.

Beware sudden changes in Weather

I have heard people say that Ireland has more weather than a lot of other countries ! It is fair to say that we can have four seasons in one hour, never mind one day.
For this reason, it is very important not to be fooled by a few warm days. If you have seedlings being hardened off, remember to bring them back under cover each night. I must admit, I was really tempted last week to start planting out, but I forced myself to do something else instead. There is a great temption to get things started as soon as possible. However, all it needs is a sudden hard frost or some stormy weather, and young plants would be killed or severely damaged. I have a little rule for myself never to plant anything out until 15th April, and even then, only if the weather is pleasant. There are plenty of other jobs to be doing, so no excuse for twiddling our thumbs. It’s just such a great time of year: everything’s wound up and ready to go – including me !

Getting to grips with the new website.

I am absolutely delighted to have my new website up and running. If you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. I hope I can keep this Blog interesting, timely and relevant. Today, I have some drawings to do, but the weather is so lovely, I’m going outside first to pot on some seedlings and do a bit of digging with the chickens. If you would like to grow your own veg, now is the time to start. You could sow some salad leaves in pots on the kitchen windowsill. Only sow about 6 seeds, as you might not be able to eat the produce if you grow too much at once. If you have a greenhouse, now is the time to sow tomato, chilli and pepper seeds. Personally, I wouldn’t attempt to grow these outside as our summers just aren’t warm enough. If you have already sown some seeds, eg: sweetpea or beans, start to harden off the seedlings now to stop them becoming weak and leggy. Simply set the pots outside somewhere sheltered and preferably out of full sun. Don’t forget to bring them back in at night. After a few weeks of doing this, they should be lovely and bushy and ready to be planted into their final place around mid-April. I’d love to hear what you think of my new website, so please drop me a line. Bye for now !

Hello world!

I have been running my landscape design business for over 7 years full time. I have always been a keen gardener and horticulturalist, so it is my passion as well as my work. We work on projects of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the smallest roof garden or courtyard, large country gardens of several acres, through to large residential developments, pub gardens and industrial schemes for clients such as Ballylumford Power Station and Mullaglass Landfill Site. Each job is seen as the start of a new adventure and nothing is too small or too big. I have an HNC in Horticulture and Landscape Design and am currently working on a Masters in Landscape Architecture. I also have a degree in Sociology. This is an interesting and relevant subject as it helps to see how different people have different expectations from their own private space.