Bloggers' Blooms

The garden is a bit sparse of colour this month compared to last year this time. However, there are stills bits and pieces in flower, mainly poached egg plant, aquilegia and a few others.

Last year by mid June the lupin and foxglove were already well into flower (and I had courgette flowers as well). This year many plants are late. To see my 2012 blooms click here.

Left: Oriental Poppy.

Above: Poached Egg Plant / Limnanthes Douglasii, (Hardy Annual) self seed freely and are welcome blooms this time of year. 

Acquilegia - a plant I never remember how to spell its name (and always have to look it up).

I believe this plant is called Saxifraga Urbium, mixed in with some purple bugle and carex grass.

Centaurea are lovely vintage type plants.

I'm thinking this is a type of sedum, however, I'm not sure - anyone any ideas?

To view fantastic blooms from gardens around the world, check out:

 May Dreams Gardens Blogger's Bloom Day.

Happy Bloom Day!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Veg Update (celery, radish, onion, etc)

Celery, Plant Hart's Seeds, Sown April 2012; over wintered.

June brought some great weather and we had over a week without rain (yeah) and temperatures in the 20sC / 70sF.  However, this meant I had to water plants and seedlings, and I lost a few trays of seedling to the scorching sun - never water tender little seedlings when the sun is beating down as it just fries them. Here's what has been happening in the veg garden in early June...

Left: The celery is growing as cut and come again. It looks as if I'll soon have some stalks to use.

I harvested my first hand full of radishes 'Scarlett Globe' and have more to use this week. I'll be glad of the space to plant some other seeds. I'll plant more radish in between other plants.

The onion in the veg box seem happy. 

Courgette planted out last week. I was at an allotment and the grower put a plastic pot (with the bottom cut out) around his courgettes. I think he said it kept them from rotting so I'm trying it... not really sure about the benefits of this?

With the sunny weather the seeds germinated and are growing well; I've been thinning already but have more to do. Carrots, calendula, 3 types of radish, turnip, lettuces, nasturtium and bean are all within this bed (square foot gardening idea).

I purchased two new types of radish to try - Radish Red Meat and Radish Hilds Blauer Herbst. They're growing well as per the photo below. They take longer to grow than most radish and the pack suggests lifting them in November. It will be interesting to see how they do and if they are worth taking up space for so long. Anyone else grow these before? It would be good to know what you thought.

I've more seeds to sow and more ground to maintain - so I'm off to the garden!

For more information on the seeds I've sown click here.

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Early June in the Garden

June has brought some really nice weather with days reaching over 20C / 70F which is really warm for Northern Ireland. This means we haven't had much rain and the plants are getting quite thirsty now.

Here's a little peak at June in the garden...

Left: The aquilegia / columbine are flowering and looking fab.

Lots of of growth including the pink thrift / armeria. I always forget the name of the plant with the white flowers but they self seed around the garden and are a lovely plant.

Above: A glimpse of a little pond made from sinking a plastic container down into the ground, made by my nephew last summer. Plants like poached egg plant and geranium have grown around it. No frogs spotted yet this year.

Above and below: The Forest Flame /Pieris has gone from red to leaves looking rather peachy. Perennials are coming up including phlox, lupin, geranium, sedum and columbine.

The hosta is looking happy; the slugs and snails often snack on it at night but haven't nibbled to much - yet.

These super-duper, large flower stalks are over 6 feet tall - I saw them at Belfast Botanic Garden and thought they were wonderful. Not sure what they are. Anyone have any idea?

Happy June in the Garden!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.