The Irish Oriental Garden

The Rising Sea

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 15:18:00 +0000

I headed out to do a little shopping today, but was amazed to see that the sea was spilling onto the roads, covering harbours and eroding the beach parks.

The shopping was cancelled and I just decided to take photos, please discuss.

Massive Mushrooms

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:04:00 +0000

It's actually getting warmer and the temperature has risen to 9 degrees Celsius, however with the dark days looming, I still like to spend more time indoors.

On several past occasions, I have tried to grow mushrooms but finally gave up as I can buy them much cheaper than I can grow them.

I particularly like the flavour of the brown mushrooms and on occasions you get a box that still has some manure on the base of the mushroom and people don't like to buy it.

However I do. I find it keeps the fungus fresher and they continue to grow a little too. Hence after a few days, these have become weird looking monsters.

Tonight I had just two mushrooms with some tuna, fried up with some eggs and cracked pepper. Yummy.

To be more Social

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:40:00 +0000

Social networking has become a major part of our online lives, and an important form of interaction and notification.

To allow you keep up-to-date with this site and comments by contributors, I have setup a few more social notification and interaction pages that you may wish to subscribe to that are already used by over 1000 users.

Networks include:

MySpace
Facebook and Facebook User Group
The RSS Feeds
StumbleUpon
Twitter
Plurk
MyBlogLog
blogcatalog

More will follow, and will be accessable from each page. Also, if you have any social networks you may want added sooner, please let me know.

The current full list of tools and networks, can be found here.

Thank you.

Barry

Mealybug Infestations

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:36:00 +0000

Well the frost has arrived from the Arctic and last night everything turned white with a fine layer of ice and the temperature dropped to about -4 Celsius (about 24F).

So apart from a quick run around during the short light hours, I have been sweeping up and making lots of piles of leaves. It's raining now and the rain is like ice so I retreated indoors, and have taken no pictures.

------

During the Summer I noticed a white fungus like problem on one of the Orchids.

Thinking nothing of this, I sprayed it with fungicide and left it to it's own devices. Big mistake.

The fungus spread to other orchids and I noticed a mite like creature on the backs of the leaves and inside the flower heads. This was a very hard creature to identify as at that time I did not realise it had a wax coating.

Pseudococcidae is the bug. I have discovered it likes rotting vegetation and as I had missed cleaning up some dead material and added fresh materials, the bugs had got into the house and liked the environment. It also spread the fungus intentionally and seemed immune to household insecticides.

The solution was to isolate the plant, remove all soil, wash the roots and remove most of the foliage. Then I submerged the entire plant into a solution of imidacloprid (Provado, a Bayer product) for 30 minutes to ensure all parts of the plant were treated.

The plant was replanted into Perlag to help with the drying process and left in isolation for 5 weeks.

It did go a bit yellow for the first few weeks, but has now recovered and is doing well with new leaves sprouting and no more signs of infection.

After the Storm

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:16:00 +0000

After the unusual storms of early november, the gardens were a mess with almost every tree stripped of leaves (excluding the conifers) and some damaged.

The main garden is not hit too bad as it's sheltered on all four sides by hedges, trees, walls and the house to here it's just in need of a good make-over to remove the debris that has gathered over the previous few days.

In the south garden, here you can see the extent of the leaf stripping, where only the Japanese Maple has retained it's foliage and since the storm has turned an amazing fire yellow occar.

This is also the case for it's older brother in the for it's older brother that was planted in the front garden some two or three years earlier.

Actually the front of the house seems to have taken the worst of the storm and I suspect it's going to take me a while to gather up all the debris.

Although I really think the colour of the Acer in the front is more vibrant and really does remind me of my trip top Japan last December. I guess Japan could look beautiful right now, but I'm not going to be there again until January so perhaps I'll get the Winter views.

One good thing about the approach of December is the Oranges in the south garden have begun to change colour and there is a definite shade of yellow forming on the sun bathed top.

I remembered discussing with some readers some time ago about the survival of the Orange planted outside in all our extreme climate conditions. However the temperature has already dropped as low as zero Celsius (48F) and the tree shows no sign of weathering.

Finally for today, the little pine tree I saved from a terrible death has developed well and I intend to make it this years Christmas Tree ^^

Thanksgiving Appetizers

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:00:00 +0000

Shopping in a local food store in the non-food department I came across the bargain of the year.

Hidden amongst many items on clearance was a Pear Tree, that still had a few green leaves on display, the price, almost free, this offer was too good to miss.

After a short drive home the tree was planted facing the living room window in the south garden.

I know the Pear experts out there will say, you need a selection of Pear Trees for successful germination, however most of the neighbouring gardens also have various varieties of Pears too.

Ok it will not be ready for this year, but this time next year, apples and pears, yummy.

I don't think the leaves will last long however, Autumn is now in full force and almost all of the trees have lost their leaves in the strong winds that are beginning to blow across Ireland.

Hedge Trimming

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0000

As Autumn moves forward towards Winter I took the opportunity of a few dry days to cut back the hedges surrounding the gardens.

After cutting the trees down to a controllable height to allow more light into the end of the house, leaves had now grown back on the top 'bald spot' to improve the visual ascetics.

I have to admit, this is one of the best haircuts my front hedge has ever had. Due to the awkwardness of access, layout and thickness (4m, 12ft) of the hedge, it usually end up rather wavy on top, but this time, perfection.

The fence that separates the front and back garden is covered in Honeysuckle that has now lost all leaves and I took the opportunity to trim this back too. This will help it with more growth in the next year.

Back in the rockery in the north garden, the Californian wildflowers have successfully germinated and produced many hundreds of tine seed pods, each containing one single seed, ready for dispersal, I don't know when.

The Big Storm

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:07:00 +0000

Traditionally I would be bringing you a story of the gardens or plants but on occasions Google goes mad and today the picture upload service has decided not to operate correctly.

I guess traditional is an acceptable word in the life of this blog however tonight, as it is dark for me I will tell you a little about what is going on in my part of this little blue planet.

Over the past few days the Atlantic coast of western Europe, namely Ireland and the United Kingdom have been battered but storms the like of which I have not seen in twenty years.

It all began with a weather forecast saying we might get 130Km/h (80mp/h) winds across the country, as usual the forecast is only a suggestion of possibilities within guestimates.

What actually arrived was winds in excess of 160Km/h (100mp/h) along with lightening, tornado's and a storm surge that raised the level of the ocean, allowing the ocean to rise above and bypass the sea defences in many locations, this was not helped with the massive waves the winds generated. Not to mention the volume of rain and the floods.

Many people had to be rescued, property and possessions damaged and emergency services have been stretched to cope with the demand of the public.

As for me, I have spent the best part of the last two days hiding in the house, listening to the winds and rain bashing the windows and roof of the house. At least the temperature has gone up a bit, we now have a wonderful eight degrees Celsius (so cold).

Sadly the gardens have not done to well with this, the ground is waterlogged and the drains are in full flow coping with the water. The trees have been mostly stripped of all leaves and everything is a mess.

Normally I would not consider cleaning the garden to March next year but with these amounts of problems I guess I will have to clean up as best possible before the freeze arrives.

After spending the past five weeks inside the house, decorating, I foresee more decorating to come but hope to finish in the next two weeks.

Finally, I have only two articles to go until the blog is completely up-to-date and I'll be posting live as events occur. We just have to wait for Google to pull things together and fix their issues.

The Day of the Orchids

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:50:00 +0000

About two times a year the orchids decide to flower, usually all around the same time.

However in October, something amazing happens. Every indoor orchid and some of the outdoor orchids all decide to flower at the same time bringing so much colour and for a few, some beautiful smells to the house and garden.

I'm sure some of you will know the types of orchid, but I'm not an expert and will not embarrass myself by trying to label them all.

Enjoy the pictures everyone, and I hope to be back to my normal publishing soon.

Barry

Autumn Bonsai

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:30:00 +0000

In September the trees around he gardens have began to change to their Autumn colours.

My Maple Acer always goes through the stages from green to yellow, then orange to red, finally brown, then it casts the leaves to the ground.

My favourite is the yellow/red in the sunlight, it looks like fire and gives a warm feeling to the ever colder days as Winter approaches.

The First Olives

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:40:00 +0000

By October 2009, the olive tree has produced it's first harvest of olives.

Sadly they only grey to around 1cm in length but I'm hopping next year would see an increase in the size of the olives and perhaps the first harvest.

The last of the blueberries had to be consumed and the oranges were surviving the cold wet weather.

Recycling Bins

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:00:00 +0000

By September the sun was still shining and the Blackberries were swelling in the long days.

After collecting a shopping bag full of the berries I made Jam as mentioned in a previous article.

But moving on from that topic, other fruit were ripening, the greenhouse was producing everlasting crops of Spring Onion (yellow tub) and Garlic (green and blue tubs).

The final picture was just an example of the recycling we have to do these days, I possess a total of eight bins and all components are broke down into the relevant parts for recycling. This excludes compostable materials that I recycle myself.

Enjoy the photos :D

Carrickfergus Castle

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:00:00 +0000

Still out on the road, I travelled towards the town of Carrickfergus that surrounds a Normal Castle built in the year 1177.

This castle once kept watch over Belfast Lough from invading forces by sea or land.

The Castle was built by John de Courcy and used as his headquarters, after he conquered eastern Ulster in 1177 and ruled as a King until 1204.

It's location on the rocks was originally almost surrounded by sea, the castle commanded Belfast Lough, and the land that approached the walled town. Some of these walls still exist and some parts have been integrated into local housing and a shopping centre.

The topic will return to the gardens in the next article :D

Strangford Lough

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:00:00 +0000

After the disastrous events with the car on the trip around Strangford, an attempt was taken to complete the journey.

The first stop was a little village called Killyleagh on the west shores of Strangford Lough (in Ireland and Scotland we have no lakes, instead we have loughs).

I'm amazed I've never visited this village as it really beautiful and not busy. For any tourists wanting a relaxing day in Old Ireland, I recommend this location.

Killyleagh Castle, in the first picture is a private residence and common people are not permitted beyond the gates. How some people live eh?

After a short break in the village we headed to Downpatrick to the south.

This, like Killyleagh is an ancient town and the resting place of Saint Patrick, just to the left side of the Cathedral in this picture, Downpatrick Cathedral.

This building seems was built on the site of a much older building and has been restored many time through the millennia.

After a few more visits to many of the castles that surround this area, we moved on to Strangford Town, to the east of Downpatrick and boarded the ferry that crosses the straights to Portaferry.

This is another of many beautiful towns in this part of Ireland and during certain seasons, you can watch the seals on a small island just off the harbour, basking in the sun.

This picture was taken from the ferry deck as the remainder of cars and tourists boarded the boat.

There are town ferries in service, and are normally working in tandem, back and forth across the straights between the two towns. However on this day only one seemed in service and that allowed for a good photo opportunity.

they are quite fast to accelerate and cross the water in around five or less minutes.

One thing I wanted to see was the new hydro-electric underwater windmill.

Due to the size of this Lough and the flat surface, each day a monstrous volume of water moves in and out to the Irish Sea, creating one of the fastest moving volumes of water on the planet. for this reason, the developers of this prototype decided on Strangford as the test site.

It is controlled by remote control and produces enough electricity for both towns on each side of the Lough, and there are plant to increase the amount of generaters.

What you can't see below the water is horizontal wings, each side housing a giant propeller that turns with the tide.

After reaching Portaferry, we headed north to Greyabbey, another ancient monastic site and the location of the former Grey Abbey.

This site, now in ruins was another of the great monasteries that are to be found in this part of Ireland and again date back to the days of Saint Patrick himself.

After this town, it was time to head home.

For those who wish to travel in Ireland, one key thing to remember, almost everything you can go to, modern or ancient, almost all of these sites, are free (the ferry was £5/€5/$8 for a car and two people).

Restored Sundial

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:02:00 +0000

Due to popular demand, here is a better picture of the sundial from the monastic site in Strangford.

Sorry, I did not have any other photos as the oil was leaking too fast from the car, but I did make a second attempt to the trip and these photos will be posted shortly.

Saint Patrick

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:40:00 +0000

After the fall of the Roman Empire, Ireland that had never been colonised became quite important in the survival of the Christian religion.

On a small island in Strangford Lough sits a 1500 year old monastic site that once housed St. Patrick.

This site became one of the most important settlements in Europe in it's time and after Europe began to settle down, from this site, the religion spread out across Europe once again.

The second picture is of a restored sun dial that shows the time, in the background you can see the base of an old round tower that would have been used to lookout for invading forces.

All around the Lough are various settlements of Christianity and to the south is the town Downpatrick, with St. Patricks cathedral and just outside the cathedral lies a giant stone with the word Patrick carved onto the surface. Legend says it's the resting place if St. Patrick himself.

Across from the site, a line with two gaps can be seen in the Lough, this was the worlds first hydro powered mill, dating to a time around the foundation of the monastery on the hill.

Defending the entrance to the island is an old fort, that has long since been abandoned, however still looks impressive guarding the old bridge to the island.

You have to cross several islands and bridges to get to this location through many small winding roads. Followed by a guy driving a Mercedes into my car and damaging it. I also got a bad oil leak and had to go home :(

Autumn Leaves

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Walking out into the garden one sunny August morning I was surprised and saddened to see the first sign that Autumn was on it's way.

This single part of a Horse Chestnut Tree was lying on the (mossy) grass just outside the kitchen back door, and the moment I saw it I knew the colder Arctic winds would arrive soon along with the Geese flying by in the sky.

Surrounding the compost area, part of the hedge also showed a sign of Autumn and had started to get patchy with crisp yellow and rust coloured leaves.

Soon I would have to get the rake out and begin the clean-up as one leaf is always lonely and many thousands of it's friends would follow soon.

However to brighten up the blog for Winter ahead, I made a new banner for the site from pictures posted this year onto the site, hope you like it :D

For people on RSS/Email feeds, CLICK HERE to check out the new banner and slightly improved site layout.

Barry xD

Eating my Oranges

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Having planted the Lemon and Orange Trees in the south garden, I had noticed some bits of the leaves disappearing.

It was totally amazing to find out that the culprit was the common Wasps that inhabit every location of the country and annoy us so much.

It's more natural to see the Wasps on dead wood, chewing the lose material to gather material for nest building.

Not far from the Orange Tree, the Clematis and Passion Fruit climbers have started to bloom in the higher branches of the Willow Tree.

These would continue to bloom until October when everything begins to die back for the Winter months.

Other Pictures today; the Common Orchids have finished flowering and the seed pods are forming; the Blueberries are starting to ripen, the Peaches too; and the herbs on the back step are growing great.

.

Natural Harvest

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:07:00 +0000

The end of July was the time to begin the harvesting of fruit from around the garden.

First on the list was the succulent Raspberries that had spread by root and were invading the garden behind my house.

The canes of the Raspberry grow in fruit in the first year, these canes can be retained into the second year for faster and larger amounts of fruit but they will die at the end of the second year.

In a bit of wast ground behind the oil tank, the Lovage has grown to around 2m (6.5ft) in height and has produced many thousands of small flowers that attract so many wasps from around the gardens.

One of the Celery family, but with an amazing smell and flavour, the Lovage is good for any meal, but I love it best in soup.

this photo is taken from above when I was standing on a wall, looking down to give a blurred look to the ground.

In the greenhouse, the Chinese Lettuce is now developing fast and will be ready to eat shortly, also the Japanese Orchids have blossomed better than ever.

Spiders and Bugs

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

Having a little it of fun with the macro lens I decided to take some close-up of flowers and bugs around the garden.

The spider in picture one's legs are too big for the flower; enjoy the photos :D

Growing Lavender

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:31:00 +0000

When clearing out around the garden I made a discover hidden below the wild roses.

A few year earlier I had moved an old and badly infected Lavender shrub to this location think it was on it's way to the next life.

Little did I know that this shelter with time and plenty of rainwater had not only restored the plant to it former glory, but more so. It had got huge and was working it's way through into so many other pots.

Removing it from the roses it required only a little maintenance to remove some old dry lower heads from previous years and below you can see the shrub in it's full glory, in it's new position at the front of the house.

Perhaps the best way to grow Lavender is time and patience.

Red Lily Beetle

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

This July saw a new creature in the gardens, the Red Lily Beetle (Lilioceris lilii), this is the first time I have seen these in my life.

Many UK bodies have been tracking the spread of this beetle from the South East/London area and slowly spreading north and westward.

Now crossing the Irish Sea, they have established themselves all along the east coast of Ireland and are munching away at our Lily's.

Within a few days of these pictures, many areas of the lily's leaves and flower heads were missing as the bug moved around and chewed on this feast of vegetation.

Many gardeners consider them a pest and spend a lot of money trying to get rid of them, but I'm a bit of a realist and had I removed it, another would arrive to claim the territory.

In an unused and forgotten part of the garden between the north garden and the north front garden, lies a Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) that was saved from the clear out of the north front garden some years before and has now become the dominant plant in this area.

The flowers are a mixture of lilacs through to pinks and the plant now produces around twenty good sized flower clumps; I suspect with the current rate of growth, his could increase by around 20% each year.

It really grows well in this mostly dark part of the garden, however with the reduction in the height of the boundary hedge, more sunlight can reach this part of the garden in the morning, hence these bright photos.

The plant requires a bit of maintenance in the Autumn when the flowers die but do not drop off.

The Hydrangea originates from East Asia, from Korea to Indonesia.

A Bug's View

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

Today we are heading down onto the round to get a bugs eye view of the gardens.

In the first picture is a fairly new arrival in the garden; a miniaturised variety of the common Forget-me-not (Boraginaceae). The large object to the left side is my fingernail to give a size comparison.

Zooming out a bit in picture two, you can see the size against the gravel with an average pebble size of around 5mm (1/4 inch).

There are many of these wild flowers, some are smaller but I could not focus on them with the camera, I'm not too good with the new macro lens.

In the lawn the Cover (Trifolium) has spread quite fast and both white and purple varieties are growing well.

Chinese Kale

noreply@blogger.com (Barry) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I was a bit late in sowing the Lettuce seeds this year and July had arrived.

Fortunately growing in the greenhouse allowed for these lapses of memory caused by finishing my Masters Degree at University.

These three troughs contain a type of Chinese Lettuce or Kale that can be used to make a wonderful soup. The flowers of the plant are yellow an also taste good and make a more decorative plate for consuming.

Another three troughs would be planted shortly after this so that not too many would be ready at the same time.

Directly below the Lettuce is a bank of sub-tropical Asian Orchids of the Cymbidium family that have survived in this position since the installation of the greenhouse several years earlier.

Indeed they seem to relish in the cold and produce many flower shoots that are removed and placed in the house or given as gifts. Once cut, the flowers can last over one month before they begin to deteriorate.

There also seems to be a Yucca lurking at the back.