News - Page 8
Antrim Castle Gardens are bursting with colour next week as the Allianz Garden Show Ireland opens its doors for another packed weekend of gardens, good grub and green-fingered fun.
Antrim Castle Gardens
There’s more of a focus on gardens than ever this year, with a stunning large feature garden by Belfast-based designer James Purdy. He’s taken his inspiration from the mountains of Mourne for his ‘Heritage of Place’ garden, wi...
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There are few better months to be in the garden than May, when blossoms are bursting, bees are buzzing and it’s good to be alive. Here are a few of the jobs to get on with this month:
General tasks:
Mow the lawn regularly removing clippings and adding them to the compost bin. In dry weather let short clippings stay on the lawn to reduce drought damage.
Install water butts to make the most of...
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Create a plant ‘theatre’ to show off your collections of choice seasonal treasures at their best.
Plant pelargoniums in your plant theatre
Plant theatres became popular in Victorian times, often to show off the spectacular markings of dainty auricula primulas, but you can create a plant theatre out of any special plant from alpine bulbs and herbs to pelargoniums, violas and bonsai trees.
Raise your plant collection on shel...
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Fill grow bags with salads right now for a steady supply of delicious leaves throughout the summer. It’s easy to grow the freshest salad leaves yourself even if all you have is a patio: all you need is a grow bag or two from the garden centre here in Youghal plus a selection of your favourite salad seeds. Ideal crops for growing bags include lettuce, rocket and radishes but also more unusual salad ingredients like beetroot, chard, coriander and re...
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Now is the perfect time to sow French, climbing and runner beans into pots under cover. It’s a great year to do it, as 2017 has been declared Year of the Bean, so there are loads of new varieties to try plus old heritage favourites returning to our shelves too!
Sow runner beans
Most climbing beans are frost tender, so it’s worth waiting till late spring to sow as the risk of late frost is much lower. Sow about 5cm deep in small p...
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Create a bed of hardy annuals for a splash of colour that costs pennies. It’s a great way to fill a patch of spare ground quickly and cheaply, as annuals grow quickly from seed, flower enthusiastically all summer then die out – leaving the space free for a redesign next year.
Hardy annuals
The bed can be any shape or size, but find a sunny spot to maximise flower power. Weed thoroughly, then fork over the soil and rake to create...
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Award winning garden designer Diarmuid Gavin is leading a push to get Ireland growing, highlighting the health benefits of getting outside in the garden as well as giving clear and useful advice on how to best grow plants, herbs, flowers, fruits and vegetables.
GroMor 2017
GroMor 2017 is an initiative by Retail Excellence Garden Centres and growers across Ireland in partnership with Bord Bia, sponsored by Bord Na Mona and Westland Ho...
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Buddleja, pulmonaria and heather are among the top plants for wildlife according to a new survey carried out by the Wildlife Gardening Forum.
Top plants for wildlife
The group asked volunteers around the country to score a wide range of garden plants. They found that butterflies were drawn to buddleja before anything else, justifying its common name of ‘butterfly bush’. Second-best for butterflies was tall, airy Verbena bonariensis. Bumb...
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