Spring has sprung with snow

A cold start to March; and a cold start to Spring. 

Spring started on 1st March, based on the meteorological calendar. The seasons are defined as Spring (March, April, May), Summer (June, July, August), Autumn (September, October, November) and Winter (December, January, February).

It's feeling way too cold to be Spring, with snow falling this morning. 

Above: crocus covered in a dusting of fresh snow. 

Above: Dogwood/cornus looks really vibrant with a snowy backdrop! A great Winter shrub-framework with brightly coloured stems.

Above: Carex grass, I think this one is called 'frosted curls'.

Above: Carex buchananii bronze coloured grass.

I think I prefer the 20th March for the official beginning of Spring (astronomical calendar)!

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

Autumn Weekend Jobs

I've been making a list of things I need to do in the garden... the list gets longer and longer by the week. I'd love to put the garden to rest for Winter and not venture out until.... either a nice Autumn day or early Spring (March), however, there's still much to do.

So here's part of my 'to do' list and what I hope to get done over the weekend (weather permitting).

1. Rake and bag leaves. (Check leaves I bagged last year to see if broken down).

2. Harvest kale. (Harvest carrots too.)

3. Leave plants to self seed - like these Honesty.

4. Trim or tidy up shrubs. Cut down the old cordyline palm tree trunks (in the distance) - this has been on my list about a year now!

5. Make new plants out of grasses that have self seeded - see the baby bronze grasses at the far right of photo above?

Above and Below: I've already been digging up plants that have self seeded and potting them up for friends. I could probably supply a nursery!

Have a great weekend!

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

Ornamental Grasses - love'em or hate'em

Carex Bronze Buchananii, Black Mondo, Sea Thrift.

Who likes ornamental grasses? I'm not too sure about them. They became popular a number of years ago and I assume they still are fairly popular going from the displays in garden centres. I've ended up with ornamental grasses in two ways:

1. random purchases
2. plant divisions from others

I'm guilty of planting grasses quite randomly, and they happen to love a dry area in the garden and they're multiplying like crazy (as you will see in the photo comparison below).

Above: Photo taken 18 months ago (after my cordyline palm had died).
Below: photo of the same area, taken this month.
The photos aren't taken from the exact angle but you can see how the grasses and other plants have spread across the area. The crocosmia (orange flowers) looks quite grass-like too. The ferns have appeared on their own; they enjoy the damp edges of this area.

Apparently evergreen grasses need 'combed' with your fingers (like the one pictured above) so the old grass blades come out and the plant looks pretty again (like its gone to the hairdressers).
Below: a plant with old blades removed.

Above: Black mondo (Ophiopogon planiscapus Nigrascens) is evergreen and multiplies like crazy in a dry area of the garden. Mixed with a variegated annual grass (name unknown) which also multiplies like crazy and is on my black list to only grow in pots in future. Both of these grasses are trouble in terms of stopping them!

Above: A non-grass plant, however, Kaffir Lily looks very grassy. Its an Autumn flowering perennial bulb.

More grasses. The gold grass dotted around is Carex Buchananii - it makes about 30 baby plants each year. The dogwood with the red leaves looks good this time of year. This was a piece I pulled away from the main dogwood shrub and stuck in the ground last year and it has rooted well.

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