Garden Outing - Mount Stewart

This is not my garden! I wish I had a lovely garden with a Spanish and Italian area, a lake and a woodland walk! This is my annual trip to one of the National Trust Properties - Mount Stewart. 

It was a rather dull day with some rain so the photos don't do it justice but it's a lovely garden to visit. The Trust is investing £6million in the restoration of house and gardens. The house tour and the garden tour are great!

The statues around the garden never appealed to me much in years past but this year I did the garden tour which explained that Lady Edith, who designed the garden back in the 1920's, used to have gatherings (parties) with  high profile guests, many being politicians. The guests had to select an animal to represent themselves. Lady Edith designed a section of the garden with animals to represent this fun side. Apparently Winston Chruchill used to attend her parties, however, not sure if he had an animal that represented him.

Above and below: areas of the garden. I like they way she combined structure but also kept some loser areas around the garden. My ideal garden combines formal and structure with cottage style - not an easy combination!

Above and below: other statues around the garden.
Below: Lady Edith liked to mix Greek/mythical ideas with a bit of humour. 

Above: The garden has amazing topiary. This is a boat with Lady Edith and her daughters.
Below: The Spanish style garden.

My favourite statue in the garden - an alligator (or crocodile) near a water feature. Reminds me of Florida!

Happy Mother's Day in the USA! 

My mom's blog - http://egrettawells.blogspot.co.uk/ 

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

Around the Garden

Can't believe its early May! The weather has been a roller coaster ride the past few weeks. On May Day, 7th May, it was reported that some areas of the UK/Ireland were colder than Christmas day! Burr!

Around the garden...

Potatoes are growing rightly in bags. This year I've planted up several bags and also have two varieties in the ground -  Maris Peer and Pentland Javelin.

Most seeds were sown in April this year. Kale and calendula seem to be better on than many others. Many seed haven't germinated (yet) and many seedling are so tiny I can't imagine planting them out in early June. 

Above: Soloman's Seal - an old cottage garden style plant often seen in Northern Ireland gardens.
Below: variegated hostas are coming up.

The pot grow, self fertilising apple tree is starting to bloom. I'm still finding some worms.  I've been researching on the internet but can't quite find any leads on the black worms (pictured below).

Above: Poppies will soon be in flower and if deadheaded will flower all summer. I really enjoy poppies in the garden. I think this one is a California poppy that has self seeded.

Above and below: Aquilegia / Columbine - the foliage on the purple one doesn't look very healthy. After I took the photo I noticed a large family of green fly (far right below).

One of my favourite flowering plants - Armeria maritime / sea thrift with some black mondo grass starting to invade it!

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

Apple Tree Inspection

I noticed buds coming on my pot grown self fertilising apple tree. As I was studying it I noticed some Spring visitors (uninvited guests). If you don't like creepy crawlies maybe don't scroll down.

The first year I noticed worms eating on the tree, I thought, well nature will look after itself, and I got about 3 apples off the tree.

The second year I noticed the worms, I picked them off and I got about 14 apples.

This year I've a watchful eye and hoping for a bumper crop of apples!

The tree looked good, until I saw some holes in leaves  (pictured below). A sure sign!

Upon closer inspection, I saw a few little green worms that are already eating on my plant! So I set about looking thoroughly all over. Even the ladder came out so I could inspect up high!

Above: what seems to be happening, many of the edges of young leaves on the tree are folded and stuck together with a web/cocoon. I found mostly green worms but also a few black ones like the one above. I thought the black ones are just younger green ones?  They munch on the leaves and buds of the tree.
I grow apples organically so the option I took was hand removal. A lovely job (I try not to think about it). I'll have to check it regularly as whatever they are affect the number of apples I get.