birch

The birch, which were planted in late August 2012, have grown massively in the last 12 months. They have stretched from about 3' to over 7' tall. The ground where they are growing had been enriched with mushroom compost and it really shows. It's mighty to get some serious growth in the garden and I have a lot of plating lined up for the autumn & winter which I hope will do as well.

August 2013

August 2012

Bonsai Club

On last Friday evening, was the first meeting of a new Bonsai club, based in Cork. Although a long spin down, it was well worth it to participate in the formation of a club with a hopefully long future. Meetings are to be held on the third Friday of each month. So roll on October 18th.

Munster Bonsai Club

pine bonsai

As best I can remember this is a Pinus uncinata that's hanging around about 4 or 5 years. At various stages I did some gentle butchering. I decided to bite the bullet and try to style it up as best I can and see what happens. It's got a great thick trunk (as far as my trees go anyway) and I  reduced the height, made some jin and even carved a bit. 

hawthorn and pine bonsai

I went through these trees on Sunday, removed some wire and added some more. I cleared the weeds a bit and gave them a bit of chicken manure. The whitethorns have been a bit disappointing this year; they haven't grown much. It was such a dry year that I was playing catch-up on the watering a lot and didn't really liquid feed them very well. I'm struggling to see clearly where they are going shapewise. The second below I would like to be a windswept shape, the third a 'fairybush' shape and the first I'm very unsure. Maybe a more concentrated effort next year will help, I think I'll have to improve my irrigation regime...

I'm more pleased with the pines. I think I might be stumbling in the right direction regarding needle growth and bud development etc, thanks to some Ryan Neil youtube videos courtesy of Bonsai Eejit & Co. I have about 6 or 7 other pines waiting in the wings that could make nice trees if I knew what I was doing.

lawn sown at last

The job I had pencilled in for the summer holidays was the making of the lawn. It had been roughly graded last year, sprayed off in spring and then left until July when it was sprayed again. I was fortunate to have some dry days in mid August when the major levelling was undertaken by the whole family and it left me just a days work last week to do the fine raking and sow the grass seed. It was so dry on the days immediately following the sowing of the seed that I set up a sprinkler to keep it watered. After three days the sprinkler was redundant, but it did it's job and this week past little green shoots have sprouted. With any luck the lawn will just about get established before growth disappears in November. 

changing the position of a hawthorn bonsai to improve the viewing position by tony tickle

I came across this while browsing Hawthorn Bonsai on youtube looking for inspiration. This is by Tony Tickle and his blog looks like it would be worth following...

late summer insects

The warm summer has meant an abundance of insects in the garden including these colourful ones;

Ruddy Darter ? Sympetrum sanguineum

Peacock Butterfly, Inchis io

Large arder Bumblebee Bombus muscurum

thanks to this website for help identifying them http://www.museum.ie/en/collection/irish-insects.aspx

grandfather clock

My father-in-law recently completed this grandfather clock. He has a lifetime of skill and experience working with wood, which shows in the results. With patience fine things are created.

a grandfather's grandfather clock