The first of the sunflowers.

Of all the flowers in my garden it's the sunflower that captivates me the most. It's sheer dominance, not just in size but in radiance seems to draw the eye like a magnet and I cannot leave the house any morning without pausing to admire this years first sunflower. Plus there's the suspense and anticipation since sowing on the 26th of February, the worry about pests, drought and more recently wind .......... Yes I know, I don't get out much !!



Heading for the seven foot mark and yet only four and a half months old, the second sowing has almost caught up with the first despite a four week interval.



Here's a strange looking fellow " Spilanthes acmella " or toothache plant also known as eyeball plant or peek-a-boo. Apparently it helps to improve digestion, eases nausea and has strange numbing properties if sucked or chewed. I shall try to trick the wife into trying it, will keep you posted !!



Here's a fight to the life between some violas and some apricot shimmers, sounds like a showband from the sixties ...... Introducing .... THE APRICOT SHIMMERS !!! Technically speaking it's a " Mesembryanthemum bellidiformis " but that's a horrid mouthful ..... shimmers it is then. Interestingly I planted no violas this year and I am overrun with them. Mother nature helping out in the recession I suppose.



And this cheery little bunch are Mexican daisies again a mouthful " Erigeron karvinskianus profusion ". And profusion is quite apt as these lads just keep on flowering. The flowers start out white and then slowly turn pink giving all the colours in between on a single plant. Flowering until October they represent great value for money ( even though the packet of seed was a euro )



Nemophila menziesii var. discoidalis " Pennie black " quite a contrast to a sunflower !!

Flower power.

Here's a taste of whats blooming in my garden at the moment, the recent windy spell has played havoc with the taller flowers especially the cornflowers and the borage. I didn't stake them in time so the flowers pay the price !!

" Blue boy " cornflower



Calendula



" Alyssum " receiving a hug from " Naughty Marietta "



A tired looking borage in the top left corner with in bloom sweet william, snapdragon, naughty marietta and a long suffering geranium. On the way to flowering are a black eyed susan and some petunias.



A cornflower umbrella overhead some alyssum, sweet william and the ever popular snapdragon, with some African daisy to the extreme left



French marigold " Jester " with some lobelia peeping through underneath



Baby eyes or to the botanists Nemophila maculata " five spot " ...... I prefer baby eyes !



Snapdragon with the skeletal remains of an unfortunate alyssum to the left ( a skill in itself that ! )



I tend to go for the hassle free flowers but it never ceases to amaze how a dull spot in the garden can be made into a focal point with some simple planting.

Back in the saddle !! ......

........ Well sort of anyway, life has taken a turn for the hectic and the last few weeks have zipped by almost unnoticed. Illness and weariness have taken their toll, accident proneness has brought new injuries to add to my almost broken body and at the age of thirty three I could put any arthritic pensioner to shame with my list of complaints !! Add to all this the GAA championship, the World Cup and Wimbledon and it's no wonder there's no blogging being done around here !! But with the aid of some sticky tape and a good squirt of WD40 I shall soldier on and quit the whingeing, nobody likes a whinger, are you listening Brian ? ..... Brian ?

So here's a quick update to get back on track. The veggies are flying out of the ground with impressive growth rates in all beds. Summer cabbage, spring onions, lettuce, Swiss chard, baby carrots and shallots are all being eaten and enjoyed at the moment. The only downside to life at the moment is the wind ..... herself reckons it's the shallots and I think she might be right. Not being a previous eater of these little volcano makers I can't be quite sure. Anyone out there experienced this ? Or are ye all too polite to comment ?



The onion bed in all it's glory !



The carrots were a little slow up until last week, they seem to have copped themselves on a bit. There's some unruly parsnips trying to muscle in on the foreground of this shot !



The leeks, I thought they would be bigger by now. A common complaint round here !



My monster sprouts !! I don't even like sprouts ....



" January King " A bit of a show off if you ask me.



And the nicest cabbage I've tasted in a long while " Golden Acres "



That's it for the moment, sleep beckons, take care now.................

Revenge of the weevil

Weevils are voracious feeders on many narrow and broad leaved trees, shrubs, strawberries and bramble fruits. The adults will do serious damage to the leaves while the larvae will feed on the roots and bore into the crowns. This guy somehow managed to land on my shoulder when I was watering some strawberry plants I have in hanging baskets. I thought keeping them off the ground would limit access to pests. Imagine my surprise when I looked over my shoulder to see this guy trying to whisper something in my ear ! I called him Kenneth as he was a bit of a daredevil but he had a definite link with the dark side. I guess you could call him Evil-Ken-Weevil !!



Rest in peace Kenneth.


Some time later while trying to unstuckify a set of extension ladders I banged my elbow. Damn hard too. It swelled up quite badly and I couldn't help thinking about karma and was the weevil going to have the last laugh on me. Speaking of karma I shudder to think what will happen when the slug karma kicks in, I squished seventeen of the blighters last night around my rhubarb and another eight this morning before breakfast !!



Not the greatest photo but Mrs Foxylock got a weakness and had to sit down upon seeing the bulge ..... on my elbow that is, careful now !! Anyway bless her she's a wee bit squeamish. It reminds me of the time I cut open the palm of my hand and she rushed me to the sink to help clean it up, as the flow of blood quickly reddened the sink my beloved nurse took a funny turn and ended up sitting on the bed with her head between her knees !! And then she goes through the whole childbirth thing without so much as a dizzy spell, but that's another story.

Primulas ???

I love primulas, they bring a splash of early colour to the garden when most others dare not show their heads above ground. I'm impressed by their showiness and hardiness, the fact that they are easy to care for and easy to grow are also a major bonus. So it was with an expectant air of confidence that I received my packet of seeds and wasted no time in sowing them, all 35 of them in fact, no need for caution here as this would be a resounding success.



I followed the sowing instructions diligently ...... well O.K. I read the sowing instructions diligently ...... alright, alright I read the sowing instructions .... sort of !! Look, I put them in modules, covered with compost, watered and waited .... and waited .... diligently. Nothing happened the days became weeks that became months and still nothing. I'm impatient at the best of times in fact when it comes to virtues I think I must have been missing the day they were handing them out ! I moved the tray to my cold frame and low and behold two tiny seedlings began to emerge ( cue the alleluia music ) Did I nurture them seedlings I sang to them, caressed them, made promises I knew I could not keep. I gave them a pot of their own.



It was around this time I began to notice quite a discernible difference between the two seedlings but passed it off as nothing. This was a dereliction I would soon regret. Yes I can see you now as you read this the penny begins to drop " Surely not " you think " This cannot be " but you wring your hands in glee the glow from the computer screen lighting up the fiendish smile that now spreads across your face bringing the warmth of my failure to your toes !! You should take a moment to enjoy this feeling because in all honesty there will probably be more to come, my friends I shall not bear grudges and will share in the titters for I have managed to grow a thistle and a rogue parsnip seed !!



Upon reading the instructions some months later, I learned that one should not cover the seed as this inhibits germination. On a more positive note it seems that I may be flush with strawberries this year.... flush ... oh forget it.

Earthing up time.

The spuds have been flying up but the recent blast of icy air has threatened to send this progress tumbling backwards. Gardeners the length and breadth of the country have been racing to ward off the ill effects of frost damage. Luckily I have earthed up on time this year and have no casualties to report ..... yet !!



I still think growing potatoes in a raised bed is a semi ludicrous idea as the earthing up is bothersome due to a simple lack of space. But I do it anyway, Why ? These are the appropriately named " Homeguard " growing reasonably well here, I hope to be eating baby potatoes from these quite soon.



Here we have " Duke of york " and " British queens ", both are doing quite well. You may have noticed the soil difference, this is because it's in a patch of ground borrowed in the uncles garden. I much prefer this method of growing the spud but you need plenty of room, something the uncle has an abundance of ! He made the land available on the condition that I would plant his spuds for him, a small price to pay.



By his reckoning there has been a garden here for nearly two hundred years ! Near perfect conditions prevail here, black crumbly soil, south facing on a gentle slope with shelter all round. Things get planted here about a month before anywhere else. Anyway that's the earlies taken care of, the maincrop you can see on the right of the photo should be ready for earthing up sometime next week. More then......

Blue skies and apple blossoms.

I find it difficult to walk past this tree every day without pausing to appreciate it's true beauty and indeed the wonderment of mother nature herself. Every time the wife looks out the kitchen window I seem to be in the same spot, staring upwards with a look on my face reminiscent of a guy who has just seen his first pair of boobs ! It's no wonder I get so little done around the place.



For those interested the tree is called " John Downie " It's a flowering crab. And for the record the fruits are not too bad to taste, I must experiment with making some crab apple jam ..... sometime in the next few decades. I had found a use for the fruit which I thought was pure genius .... playing fetch with my trusty German Shepherd. However it all came to a messy end when the dog developed quite the affinity for these little apples and his binges would end in a lengthy dose of the scutters !! The shovel was always handed to me. I wasn't quite sure was it to clean up the pooh or bury the damn dog ! Anyway, long story short he still lives and so does the tree but just you wait until September .......