GBBD - June

Ah yes it's that time again when Carol over at May Dreams Gardens host this lovely event called Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.  A day where we all post about what is blooming in our gardens.  A day we get to see what is blooming in other gardens all around the world at all times of the year.  I would like to take you on a blooming tour of Irish Gardens now.....see what we have blooming today:

 The lilies have started to make their beauty and presence known in the front yard.  Pretty in pint these guys are big and bold.

 In the butterfly garden the first of 8 different Butterfly Bushes has begun to bloom as well.

 More lilies showing off.

 And add to that the day lilies have begun to open up.

 Still in the front yard but in the Rose garden we find but of course the Roses.

The morning sun shining on a newly opened rose makes for a lovely start to the day

 Right next to the Rose bush the 4 O'Clocks are still doing their blooming thing and showing off their yellow flowers.

On to the side of the house or also known as the driveway garden the Hosta's have decided to come out and play the blooming game too.

 A few mixed zinnia that still need to be planted have decided that even though they are becoming root bound and are craving some water they will bloom for me too.

 And into the heart of Irish Gardens we go.  Starting in this years bean and pea garden.

This Marigold decided to grow from a seed that some how was missed in the fall clean up....so the seed lasted the winter outside.....weird.

 Continuing our tour we head into the Greenhouse and see whats going on.
Anyone want to take a guess as to what this flower is of?  Many don't see it....it's lettuce.  Yup in case you didn't know if you leave the tops of lettuce alone long enough they will flower and produce seeds....

 Behind the lettuce is Echinacea showing off their pretty flowers now too.

 Here is another one that not many folks know about.. Marshmallow.  Pretty delicate flowers with purple pollen.

Leave the onions in the ground too long and this is what you get....I am wondering what happens now.

And finally we stay in the greenhouse for our last flower for bloom day....Dill


Hope you enjoyed the tour and come back again.  Leave a comment....let me know how many of my flowers you knew what they were before reading.  Be sure to stop by May Dreams Gardens and see what others have blooming this fine bloom day.

Gardening Class #1

All about starting a garden...mainly a vegetable garden.  Today was the first class that I held here at Irish Gardens.  I wanted to share the knowledge that I have gained and my love for planting with others so I decided to have a class.  It was open to all ages.  I only had one person show up but thats ok.  We still had fun and I think she learned something.

One of the things I wanted to do especially if kids showed up was give them a chance to plant some veggies here in a special garden and come back at least once a month to check on them.  All the veggies produced from their plantings would be theirs to keep. 

Here is what we did and what we learned.

 The new garden area.  It seems every year I add a new garden.  Hubby's ok with that as it makes it less grass for him to mow.9

 My student - A (no names really needed) planted and learned.  First when building a new bed lay some newspaper down first...then the soil.  This acts as a weed blocker with out the price of the fabric.  Deeper is not always better is something else she learned.  Some plants do just fine in a little amount of dirt.  Then it was on to planting.  We discussed the use of square foot gardening and how much you can really get into this one garden...quite a lot.  To the right here she planted beans and carrots.

 Then after that we talked about some companion planting.  How planting marigolds with tomato's is smart for many reasons.  We talked about other companion plants as well but didn't plant those.  Maybe next time.  After the marigolds and tomato's the left were planted it was time to water.

 Lastly or maybe we talked about it first was onions.  And their crazyness in my gardens, but it gave A a chance to see what they look like from small seed bulb to harvest.  Granted these are far from the size you would find in the stores but the smell is dead on and sometimes you don't need all that onion...just a little bit.

A successful class if you ask me.  I had fun and I think she did too and thats all that matters right?

The end has come..........

.........for this years outdoor gardening season.  Last night it snowed a little....not enough to stick.  But the current temp outside is 29.  Coooolllllddddd.  Ok so it does get colder than that at times. Anyways I may  not like the cold a lot but I do love the pictures that it produces.

 Just look at my poor parsley.  It looks so sad when it is heavy with frost....but the outlining of the leaves looks pretty neat.

 An oldie but a goody is the water in a bucket that has frozen over.  I just love how cool it looks.

 Of all the different things I looked at today this has to be my favorite.  This is chocolate mint next to my strawberries.  Although the strawberry leaves are also outlined I just love the way the mint looks.  Almost fake it's so perfectly outlined.

 The Greenhouse has a new shade today....frost.  This is taken from inside the greenhouse but the frost is on the outside.  I thought it looked cool.

 Because it's the simple things in life that are important here is a simple picture that many would not have taken or even realized.  Grass.  Yup plain old grass frozen and looking much more like a spider plant than green grass with all the frost.

 Because I love taking frost pictures (can you tell) a Rose of Sharon seed pod covered in frost.

My poor silly marigolds that are still trying their best to grow may have finally met their end.  But what a picture they are.  The leaves look so incredibly delicate covered or outlined in frost.

What do you enjoy most about a winter garden?

GBBD - October 2011

 Welcome one and all to another month where here at Irish Gardens there is still blooms.  I can't believe it.  I thought for sure that I wouldn't have any.

But alas I do.  So joining Carol over at May Dreams Gardens for another exciting Garden Bloggers Bloom Day post my first bloom is one of my Hydrangea bushes.

 And of course the Marigolds are still in bloom.  I chose this picture because I loved the contrast.  First of the Marigold's them self with the red, yellow, and green but also because of how much they stand out against the signs of fall.

 A few Roses are still trying to make known that it isn't yet winter

 A pretty sight this morning was that my Basil is flowering.  I usually never get to see this as I harvest the basil often and it never gets to this stage.  But with all the rain lately it has been hard to get out to the garden to harvest.

 Another herb that is showing of some color is this Pineapple Sage.  Can't wait till it opens up.

And this stunning beauty is all alone on the fence.  A deer problem this year as well as wacky weather has kept my Morning Glory blooms at bay.  With barely any leaves left this guy stands out like a beacon.

So what do you have blooming this windy fall day?  Head over to Carol's and see what others around the world are blogging about.

Deer a pest at the worst time

I love deer don't get me wrong.  I love watching them run through fields so graceful.  But right now.....

Well they are just driving me batty.  See my Morning Glory vines and Rose of Sharon bushes are ripening their seed pods right now and the lovely deer are eating them.

this Hibiscus bush only had one seed pod on it and thankfully I was able to save it before the munching started.  See in the picture the pot in the upper right hand corner?  Yea that was full of beautiful impatients but now look at it...a bunch of stubs.

Marigolds are doing just fine.  Deer in fact don't like them which is why I surounded my gardens this year....apparently when they are hungery they will still enter the garden anyways...they just won't eat the marigolds.

Blooming Friday - 9/9/11

Back again is Blooming Friday - Hosted over at Roses and stuff.  So for my entries today we have......

 Marigolds.  Mini bushes of them.  They are trying to take over my walkway.

 A delicate rose showing off her pinks

 A Rose of Sharon blooming away this cloudy morning

 Another Rose of Sharon showing off it's beauty next to the others.

 A delicate Morning Glory showing off light blue stripes.

 Another Morning Glory striking out with it's bold color next to it's variegated leaves.

Dianthus showing off it's beauty of color.

And finally another rose on my purple bush is beginning to bloom.  So what is blooming around your garden this Blooming Friday?

Want to see what others are showing off in their gardens?  Head over to Catherine's blog Roses and Stuff and take a look at what others have blooming.

Time to get dirty

The hubby took the kids to the park for a couple hours this afternoon.  Me time! Well me time turned into garden time.  See when kids are around some of the garden work just has to wait.  At least for me it has to wait.

So what could I have gotten done in 2 short hours?  Well I

Dug up some of the marigolds growing in the greenhouse (this is just one plant and it's root ball) and transplanted them outside.

Then I

Inspected the tomato plants and found all the open flowers.

After which I

Pulled the little sneaky weeds trying to grow in the tomato beds and found this pretty flower finally blooming.  The Convolvulus 'Blue Enchantment'.  Then it was on to the other gardens to do some weed control.

May not sound like much but it had to be done.  Oh and after the last 2 days of down pours I had to empty out the potted plants poor things were drowning.

So if you had an hour or two of kids free time what would you do in your garden?