Rainy day project for the garden

The weather hasn't been great for gardening...

St Patrick's was cold (so no potatoes were put in).
Easter was cold and wet so not much done outside.
This weekend was rainy (and cold), so again no seeds sown.

I feel a bit behind schedule but I have the rest of the month to sow seeds!   So this weekend, I decided to work on mosaic butterflies for the garden. I took a night class last year and I had started various mosaic projects - one of which was four butterflies cut out of copper. I finished three of them in class and had one more to do - today's project!

A copper piece completely covered with mosaic tiles and grouted. Of course, once the grout dries it has to be cleaned up!

On the left, a finished piece. On the right the copper shape. I like both pieces and think the copper is nice on its own. However, I can't wait to hang the bright, mosaic tile butterfly pieces in the garden over the coming months.

An enjoyable rainy day project!

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

Tools of the Trade

Above: My garden needs quite a bit of trimming over the months 

(photo taken Aug 2012).

Have you ever been asked what your favourite garden tool is? I do love my garden tools. I’m not sure about a favourite, but I have tools that I use regularly and couldn’t do without, such as:

- Hand fork for weeding;

- Digging fork;

- Spade / shovel;

- Secateurs;

- Hand sheers;

- Bucket; scissors; wheelbarrow; twine; sticks/ poles.

With roughly an acre of a garden, which includes lots of hedge, shrubs, trees, perennials and other plants I’ve gone through quite a few garden tools over the years, and broken several digging forks and numerous secateurs. This year I’m trying a new brand (new to me) – Spear and Jackson as I’ve read good things about them. I’ve gone for value for money, and since I needed several tools, I saw that Argos had a three piece set (secateurs, hand shears, and loppers, plus a free blade sharpener) for £34.99 (now reduced to £29.99). I’m also trying out their digging fork too – a necessity in Northern Ireland’s clay soil! I’m hoping to have these tools for a lifetime. They seem quite sturdy.

Left: My new tools – I almost don’t want to use them – but I must!

Below: One of my first tasks was digging over an area to make a new planting bed. This may sound easy but with compacted clay soil it’s a tough job. Two or three days later I have the soil dug over (I find the fork more useful than a spake for this), and plants planted. I love those purple Heuchera! And I love that hostas are so easy to divide in early Spring to make lots of new plants.

I‘ve found the Spear and Jackson digging fork, hand shears and loppers to be quite heavy, however, if they last a long time then I don’t mind if they’re a little heavy (as long as they don’t break!). So far so good; and they do seem sturdy and well built.

New hand shears christened by trimming an over growing clematis.

All work and no play... not exactly. I’m not one for garden gnomes and such but I do like the look of this polyresin heron as it reminds me of Florida and sunny weather. And wouldn’t you know it, once I placed it in the garden we had ten days of good weather (probably a coincidence).

Argos also sell Spear and Jackson so if you want to have a look – click here

Do you have a favourite garden tool? 

Or a favourite garden figurine (gnomes and such)? Do tell!

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

Digging Dilemna

I had a bit of an accident with my digging fork. Unfortunately in a moment of desperation I put my body weight on it and it snapped. I know better but it just happened. So my fork of about 10 years has been retired (until the day I find someone who fixes them).

Pictured with Mondo Black Grass.

So off I went to buy a replacement. Decided to give the business to a garden center and surprisingly they only had two forks to choose from. So I went for one that described itself as "high quality carbon steel" with a "ten year guarantee" and comfort grip. Happy with my purchase I went straight home to use it. Here's the result I got the first day using it...

It's maybe hard to see in this photo, but can you see the second prong has bent. The 'high quality carbon steel' bent from a rock it hit. I was quite surprised it bent so easily. So I'm wondering, is this just my hard luck or should it have bent so easily? The packaging doesn't say exactly what the 10 year guarantee is in relation to.

You can see in the photo above my ten year (broke) fork has straight prongs after 10 years' use. It's kind of embarrassing to think about returning a digging fork to the garden centre. Should I write it off as bad luck and use it anyway? Buy a new one? Ask for my money back?

Bargain Gardener

A few little bargains this week...

Every gardener does needs a good pair of gloves! I couldn't resist purchasing some marked down. The brown are full leather and the blue/white are part leather. Both will come in handy when I tackle the bramble and hedges. One does need a bit of glove choice for the multitude of garden jobs.

Above: £3.50 (5.60 USD) for a pruning saw - too good to pass up. I snapped mine in half last year so hope I'm luckier with this one.

99p (1.50 USD) for three Echinacea plants - a bargain. At the bottom left of the picture, some of the root and growth from one of the plants is showing. Hope this summer they look as good as the picture.

I've always wanted Red Hot Poker in the garden. When I saw a pack of three for 99p I couldn't pass it by.

I've got to stay away from the shops!

But then again, my digging fork cracked in half this week.