This is the journal of my endeavours to grow a range of fruit, veg and flowers from seed, grow organically, and my attempts to create a personal paradise with 1/2 acre of maintained gardens and 1/2 acre wild meadows. Northern Ireland's average daily high temperatures are 18 °C (64 °F) in July and 6 °C (43 °F) in January. Soil type: Clay

Saturday 5 March 2011

A Walk in the Park (New Garden Channel)

Frost greeted me most mornings this week. On the plus side, the days were dry and sunny so I took advantage: a few walks in the park. Here's what caught my eye at Belfast Botanic Gardens...

Some beautiful woodland areas planted with crocus and other bulbs.
I never get tired of looking at crocus.

I was surprised to see the first grass cut this week. The smell was fantastic (nothing beats fresh grass). The gardeners have been working very hard on the rose beds for months clearing weeds and moss.
Isn't this a camellia? Lovely pink flowers...
Unfortunately one of their plants was covered with black... sooty mold?
Above: I'd never seen this plant before, but think it's winter Aconite.
The hellebores are beautiful but droop their heads awkwardly; it was tough getting a picture of the actual flower (down on my hands & knees).
Good News for UK/Ireland - A new Gardening Channel! The Horticultural Channel is being launched and broadcast on Sky Channel 166, or 402 on Freesat, from 6th March 2011. Gardening programmes will be shown from 9am on Sunday mornings (not sure if it's only Sundays?). Apparently the programmes will focus on allotment gardening and people growing their own food. Can't wait to see what they offer!

12 comments:

  1. The colours of the flowers are so beautiful, it is a pleasure to be outside and have a walk.
    In our village you can see the people are going outside to enjoy the lovely wetter.

    Greetings, Eefie

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  2. What a great selection of blooms for this time of year. The plant which you marked as a Camellia looks like a Rhododendron to me. I have spent lots of time crawling around on the ground to get photos of the hellebore. Hopefully no one was watching!

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  3. Drove past Hyde Park in a London taxi this morning - it looked lovely, full of crocuses, daffodils and flowering cherry trees, and they have a mass of "weeping willow" trees that were a mass of red and yellow buds. Probably nothing edible though... :(

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  4. It's nice to be able to get out in the better weather, unfortunately it's raining again here today. Thanks for the heads up about the gardening channel, I shall look out for that.

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  5. I suppose we really don't give our town councils etc much praise for anything but every Spring I do!The roundabouts,roadway banks etc are festooned with daffodills & crocus.
    great to have a gardening channel at last I missed the previous channel which reran all sorts of gardening related programmes.
    I hope it is not going to be just Sundays?!It is the one day we can all get outside depending on the weather.

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  6. Kelli, that pink bush is indeed a Rhododendron and in Kentucky, we called them "Mountain Rhododendron" because the mountains were full of them in Spring along with wild Azaleas and Redbud trees and then Dogwood. Your grandmother was very fond of Rhododendron!Nice blog--love all the colors of Spring!

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  7. Beautful spring colours! Makes me sad to think we're now heading into winter...! :) That flower is a rhododenron.

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  8. Hi Kelli,
    Thanks for the nice walk in the park in Belfast. You have set the crocus beautiful on your photos. With us it is still too cold and the crocuses are not ready yet.
    I was now a little bit in Belfast,hi,hi,hi,!!!!
    Kind regards, Elly

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  9. Thanks everyone for the correction; not a camellia but a rhododenron. I have so much to learn!

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  10. The crocus are beautiful! And I am so excited for you to have a new gardening channel! We have a channel here that is supposed to be part gardening, but they have taken out all the garden programming. :( We have complained, but our voices must not be numerous enough. I hope you enjoy it.

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  11. How refreshing to see some colour in the gardens, at last. I'll have to see if the new gardening channel is on you tube I hope it is.You just can't have too many gardening programmes.The rhodies out there already? Mine are only a dream as yet.

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  12. Your spring is much more advanced than ours. We don't even have crocus blooming yet, but it won't be long. I just found violas blooming though, but the next day, snow! Boo hoo

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