Dare you pull up a dandelion and would you buy nettles?

 A dandelion growing in asphalt

Would you pay €10 for three small nettle plants?  Some people will apparently.  

Advertised on E-Bay, I actually thought they were joking but no, there they are, small rooted offsets being marketed as “Organic” and “All health giving”.  

True, nettles are pretty good for making tea, soup, fibre and balms but I’m sure of you poked your head out of the door you will see a clump somewhere within throwing distance.  Well apart from the 17 people who have bought the item, they couldn’t find any obviously.

You can get 1000 seeds for €3 too if three small clumps aren’t enough.  To find the offer on E-Bay just look above the advert for Roundup packets to “Eradicate Nettles”  

Dandelions

Then there are dandelions. You can get 3000 seeds for just €5 but to be fair they can be used as food for tortoises.  

Here’s a question – Dandelions, are they weeds, medicinal plants, play things for young children, food for bees and of course food to the aforementioned tortoise?  The answer to all is Yes, that’s what dandelions are.   It won’t be long before there’s a national dandelion day.  

There are loads of posts popping up on social media about how great the flowers are for the bees as they come out early. It’s got to the stage where the very mention of daring to pull up a dandelion plant from the pathway is met with a barrage of negative comments about how the bees will starve if we dig up some plants, even the ones growing in cracks on the drive way.

For the very attentive among us you could be brave and wait until the flower turns into a seed head and then dispose of that before they set in more cracks on the driveway ( or save the seeds up in a jiffy bag and sell them on e-Bay)  

Honeybee conservationist Michiel Verspuij from Boomtree Bees in Buncrana agrees that dandelions are a valuable source for bees.  But also understands that the more diverse flora the better it is for bees. “This time of year there isn’t a great selection of flowers for them to forage on. So from my perspective, if they can be left, the better it is for the bees. Also what harm is there if there are a few dandelions growing in a garden?”  and Michiel knows, he has three bee colonies move into his garden this year.

Michiel also feels that it’s a slippery slope getting rid of all the dandelions from the garden and wonders where it’d stop once you started “Unwanted plants” He has a good point.

To save the garden becoming too sterile and lacking in biodiversity he suggests leaving a few borders natural then annually mulch with leaves in autumn to keep weeds at bay.

“Bumblebees like untidy gardens” Michiel says, so mine is a pretty good hang out. He also suggests we allocate a little area in the garden for wildlife; it doesn’t have to be much.  This could be a great way of not feeling guilty or apologetic about the ‘neglected corner’ of the garden that you always think you need to tidy up. It’s now miraculously turned into a ‘Bee Feeding Station’

Any landscaping work Michiel does is focused in bee friendly gardening and he will always try to incorporate plants for bees and early on in the season we have the bumblebees out.

Bumble bees, out first visitors

Bumblebees are able to fly in cool temperatures earlier in the year because they are able fly chemically without needing heat. This allows them to fly in cool weather, unlike the honey bee. In fact, five species of bumblebee actually thrive within the Arctic Circle.

Why are bumble bees so important?

Bumble bees pollinate the earliest crops and these include currants, broad beans, gooseberries and early fruit trees. The bumble bee has the ability to vibrate pollinate flowers. It shakes the stubborn pollen down by buzzing enthusiastically inside the flower. Some plants (like tomatoes and other members of the solanum family) can only be pollinated in this way.

Bumblebees are much more likely to browse from one flower to another, whereas honey bees go back and forth to the same plant systematically. This ability to browse makes bumble bees excellent garden pollinators.

Early plants for bumblebees

• Large petals -  mallows, hollyhocks and most hardy geraniums
• Borage family - pulmonarias, comfreys and echiums
• Pincushions - scabious, knautias and cephalarias
• Thistles - cardoons and globe artichokes,
• Tubular bells - penstemons, foxglove, catmints, Hellebore
• Herbs - lavenders, sages, origanums and thymes
• Annuals - blue cornflower Daisies - echinaceas, anthemis and asters
• Climbers - Lonicera x purpusii
• Bulbs – Muscari, crocus,
• Then don’t forget the willow catkins, ribes and winter flowering heathers.
• Did I mention dandelions?  You can decide yourself if you want to keep them in the garden.

Garden Furniture

 Locally made garden benches

Sitting in the garden as the sun is shining is one of life’s great pleasures.  

Finding somewhere comfortable to rest and take in the rays is an important part of the relaxation process and although I’ll be happy sitting on an old rotting log and watching the woodlice, I have other visitors to consider.  

I’ve been looking at the huge range of garden seating this week and the choice is pretty daunting. It is like furnishing a room – only outdoors after all so style and functionality are all important for comfort, and contrast to the design of the garden. 

I have had to narrow down the search to suit my needs and budget.  I don’t really need a parasol in the equation as they tend to blow away taking the table with them and I’m not really that sociable so I should only need about 4 chairs or seating areas, more than four people and I tend to hide in the polytunnel. The idea of a gazebo, pergola or arbour sounds fun but I don’t really think they would fit in with the style of our seating area which is the foundation of an old 1930’s greenhouse, which is the closest thing we have to a patio.

Choosing the Seating

Choosing the chair and table materials to narrow down the choice helps reduce the confusion too. I have a couple of old chairs that stay outside in all weathers and even after five years they are holding up well. They are the woven plastic type of seating with powder coated steel legs so the only issue is you get rusty water dripping on your feet if you try to move them as the tubes do tend to store rainwater. They are recliners too so not much good around a table. 

I’ve found the most popular types of furniture are broken down into four types. 

Wood, of various thickness quality and type ranging from old pallets to mahogany and cedar. 

Steel which is usually powder coated, stainless steel, aluminium or cast iron which can be really elaborate designs in the casting process. Although top of my list for aesthetics, the reason for not considering the cast iron is that is needs annual maintenance of paint or they become unusable and you’ll need to sit on a cushion as they can be pretty uncomfortable after long periods of lolling around drinking Pims.  A good sturdy Victorian bench seat made from ornate cast iron could cost you as much as €800-€1200 too. 

Then there’s Bamboo, which has its own charm but a bit too bobbly for me.

The plastic woven or ‘rattan’ type of furniture is extremely popular and some of the designs totally cover the frames making the whole seating quite soft. These are better for big clean patios and without dogs like mine that really enjoying chewing the edges on that type of outdoor furniture. One of my dogs actually climbs the garage shelving looking for old yogurt and plant pots to chew on. I only know this because she leaves tell-tale paw prints in the dust. This type of chair generally doesn’t fold up and store in the shed in winter either.

It’s worth considering getting chairs and tables that fold away as they can be kept in the dry over winter.  With my track record I probably wouldn’t do that so my choice this year is pressure treated wood. At least with wood I can chop up and burn the seating after a few years to keep warm instead of having to take the rusty metal and ripped plastic to the recycling centre.

My Decision

After deliberating for a long time about the style I think my seating of choice will be a wooden picnic type table and benches hopefully made locally. There are a lot of really wobbly flatpack ones on the market with really thin wood which wouldn’t withstand a lot of weight.  I think if you can’t dance on a table then it’s not sturdy enough.  So I am on the hunt for something similar to the benches on the shorefront in Buncrana. Maybe I shouldn’t say that as if one goes missing, I’ll be the prime suspect.

The First Cut

 Improvising with broken tools

The lawn has had its first cut..Yay!  

It was a dry and sunny morning so I had no excuse but to get the mower out of storage and blow the dust off it. The small electric mower had been slid under a table in the garage at the end of last summer to hibernate and there it has sat until now.  

With a bit of light oil lubrication on the steel blades and 240 volts plugging into the mains, it fired up straight away without hesitation. Its times such as this I’m pleased I don’t have a petrol powered mower as it would probably be needing a major service before I could use it.  

The First Cut

It’s amazing just how much difference the first grass cut can make to the look of a garden.

Grass doesn’t really stop growing in the winter; it just slows down like most of us gardeners. So by the time the weather allows us on the wetter parts of the garden, there are long patches and tufts all over the place breaking up the uniformity of the lawn. The dogs’ doing their business doesn’t help either. The first cut flattens everything into a uniform sward.

In just a short space of time I had this feeling of achievement as I stood back to admire my work. It’ll probably be a weekly thing now until the end of summer and I’m sure the novelty will soon wear off, but for now it’s a joy to do.

Trim the Edges

The edges of the lawn needed a trim too and I find the stimmer is a bit messy so opted for the long shafted hand shears, at least I can cut the grass with these and not have to scramble about on my hands and knees. These clippers, like the mower were unceremoniously thrown into a corner last year, probably without oiling them first as they had developed quite a lot of rust. A light scratch with some sandpaper, a rub with the sharpening stone and a drop of oil and they too were ready to go. 

I have a lot more tools to re-commission although I did invest in a new sweeping brush as the old handle had rotted away beyond repair.  For a while I improvised using the old sweeping brush head cable tied to the end of a steel rake.  It looked a bit odd but did the trick although the steel spikes did drag across the concrete a little too often.  

Water Butt

I set up the bird feeders near the shed and the only place to put them safely away from cats was at the end of the drainpipes, just above the water butts. This has turned out to be the wrong decision as the old seeds and shells as well as deposits from fat balls and no doubt the birds themselves have been dropping into the two butts and settling on the bottom. I didn’t really pay much attention to this until I walked past them and smelt what can only be described as old blocked drains mixed with rotting meat.  The water had gone really cloudy too and I think the appearance of the warmer sunny weather activated the rotting process. 

 I have drained the water to about 6” from the bottom of the butts and then tipped them upside down.  The smell was horrendous as slime slopped out onto the path I found it a bit yukky but the dogs did find it interesting.  

After a good hose and brush down of both the bins and the path everything is clean and ready to go, a few rainy days will soon see the butts full of clean water. 

I’ll be feeding the birds less and less now too so hopefully the situation won’t arise again for a while.

I’ve been using the water in the tunnel for the last few weeks but as the weather warms, the humidity might cause things to get a bit too smelly. To think I’ve been watering my seedlings with the water from those butts for the last few weeks. Maybe they enjoyed the added “fortification” but as very few seedlings are emerging, I think not.

Perennials in the Garden

A bumper selection of perennial plugs

If you read this column regularly you will have noticed that I’m not really one for filling the beds and borders with flowering perennials. Until now.  

Last week I was checking my phone notices and someone mentioned a special offer from a supplier of 72 perennial plant plugs in a tray for under €2 reduced from €72. As the message came through at four in the morning I was half asleep and just ordered it through Paypal and thought no more about it as I drifted back to sleep.

In the cold light of day it dawned on me what I had done. It’s one thing buying 72 baby perennials, but they will need growing on, replanting, finding somewhere to put the plants in between my vegetables and rusty incinerator bins and rusty car parts – and then there’s protecting the plants from slugs and snails. I do have a bed that is totally over run by perennial geraniums which I could dig up to make some room… more work!

I have made a lot of work for myself and have resorted to turning my phone off at night in case any more offers come through that I can’t resist when half asleep.

Looking on the positive side, the plants will give some much needed colour to my mainly green garden interspersed with some annual colour.  My seed order came this week and I have sown the petunias, pansies and lobelia so this year should be a riot of colour. I wonder if I can eat any of the perennials?

Bumper Collection

The Thompson and Morgan bumper collection I bought has plants that are ideal for patio, cottage gardens, wildlife gardens, and cut flower gardens according to the blurb. They also offer a broad range of colours, heights, textures and scents to delight my senses. 

Here are the varieties being delivered. I will confess that I have had to use Google images for some of these because I have never heard of them before.

The collection includes:

Aquilegia 'Mrs Scott Elliot' - The striking flowers come in a range of pretty colours and are perfect suited to cottage gardens borders and woodland planting schemes.

Verbascum 'Southern Charm' - Gorgeous pastel shades. Long spikes bear 1in flowers in apricot, dusky pink, cream and lavender-pink over a long period.

Lavender 'Hidcote' - With its compact habit and dark purple flower spikes, this must be one of the most widely popular  lavender.

Gaura 'Sparkle White' - Graceful, slender stems are topped with a flurry of dazzling white, starry blooms that still look fresh and airy at the end of summer.

Verbena 'Buenos Aires' - The long lasting blooms of the stunning variety great for attracting bees.

Doronicum 'Little Leo' - Heart shaped foliage makes an attractive backdrop to the abundant golden-yellow flowers of this hardy perennial daisy.

Delphinium 'Magic Fountains Mixed' - Spires of white, lilac and blue delphinium flowers in a blend of no less than seven shades. This compact dwarf variety doesn’t need for staking which pleases me.

Eryngium 'Blue Hobbit' - Eryngium are handy little plants for the border, as they'll grow in many different types of soil.

Foxglove 'Sugar Plum' - A reworking of a cottage garden classic. Foxglove 'Sugar Plum' is an improved form of old-time favourite 'Pam's Choice'. Apparently these are really poisonous so I won’t be trying to eat them.

Achillea 'Cassis' - Broad plates of tiny cherry red blooms are held on tall wavering stems.

Dianthus 'Arctic Fire' - Long lasting, white jagged-edged petals with a fiery red eye smother this dwarf hardy perennial throughout summer.

Echinacea 'Primadonna Mixed' - Echinacea blooms are ideal for cutting and adding to floral displays in the home. They are used in herbal medicine too.

They all promise to be easy to look after and only need a bit of annual upkeep. I’ll be getting six of each variety as well so I can play around with their seating areas in the garden and at least one of each will find their perfect spot.

I’m actually enjoying reading about the plants I ordered and must confess to being just a little bit excited about receiving them through the post. They are promised to arrive at the end of the month so I have a week or two to create places for them to go and make them feel welcome. I’m a perennial convert