Manure Heaven.

I have just had the best Easter holiday, and am giddy with the excitement of it all !!! No, I wasn’t whisked away to Paris – instead, I took the trailer to our local stables and stocked up on some lovely horse manure. The very kind man loaded up the trailer with his tractor, saving me valuable shovelling time – luxury !!! I couldn’t believe my luck.
It makes a fantastic soil conditioner – especially if you garden on heavy clay soil, as I do. It helps to break up the lumps of clay, making the nutrients available to plants. Look out for well-rotted stuff – at least two years old if possible. Be prepared however, for weed seeds – it will probably be full of them and seedlings will appear within a few weeks. But this is a minor inconvenience and the seedlings can easily be hoed out.
If you are unsure how fresh the manure is, dig it in really well to distribute it through the soil. If it is too fresh, it may burn the roots and stems of new plants, so don’t put it too close to the plants – just fork it in around them.
Spouses of gardeners don’t really appreciate how lucky they are. If I was given a choice between an expensive piece of jewellery and a trailer of horse manure, I’d be pretty hard pushed to choose. Gardeners only really care about the treasures of the earth. As an example, my friend was complaining about her brother’s extravagance towards his new girlfriend: “He’s just bought her a horse!” she exclaimed. All I could think was: “Lucky her – think of all that manure !!!”

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.