Willow

The willow whips planted in March 2013 now have so much that they have their own canopy blocking out the light. I would estimate some are 20' tall with stems up to 3" in diameter. Salix smithiana has certainly done best in the very wet location they have been planted. I might consider coppicing them back completely in late winter, but will certainly take some hardwood cuttings and push them straight into the ground in another part of the garden.

bud garden centre

This sunday last we opened our new Garden Centre in Bunratty, County Clare. We are myself and my old friend Andrew. We studied Horticulture together many years ago and followed different career paths until we came upon the idea of setting up a Garden Centre together last summer. 

Several months of hard work followed and Bud Garden Centre was born last sunday. We have a strong location right beside the popular Bunratty Castle. We plan to focus strongly on plants and gardening. 

We also hope to have a modest bonsai offering and maybe some demos and workshops. 

It will be a busy season, and hopefully a rewarding one.

phoenix, arizona

During my recent visit to the US, I attended my brother's wedding in Phoenix, Arizona. Our hotel was in Tempe, a university district and while the weather was quite hot, almost 30C, the early mornings were more comfortable for exploratory strolls round the area.

desert plants

shade sails over the vegetable beds

municipal offices of tempe, arizona

xeriscaping

wild west cactus, actually saguaro or Carnegiea gigantea

no boggy ground or bull rushes here...

three blacktail jackrabbit sculpture in tempe, the grass is rake but the water is real

tempe is a fairly pedestrian friendly area

at first i thought this was a modern sculpture, but its some sort of water pipe system

shade sails are everywhere in the phoenix area

stone cobbles in gabions used nicely to divide public / private space

major construction in tempe

notice all the solar panels on the roofs, there to power air-conditioning

arizona wildcats football stadium and car park, more solar panels

a beautiful mosque in tempe, looks like a scene from the middle east..

nice simple water fountain in a shady place

part of the shady garden 'under' the municipal buildings in tempe

more shade sails, i was studying these closely as i have to build something similar soon..

monster truck!

a rare thing in the US, public transport...

the oldest building in tempe, monti's restaurant, built in 1871

these trees were planted everywhere but i didn't find out what they were...

another public space with an emphasis on creating shade

saving turf

2014 was an excellent year for cutting and saving turf (peat harvesting for fuel). This was the first year in a long time that I was involved in cutting turf and it couldn't have gone better. It's now safely stacked in my father's shed ready to be bagged and brought to my own house for the cold winter that lies ahead...

about two weeks after cutting by the hopper machine

after turning, drying well

rowed by my cousin, almost ready to bring home

safely into the trailer and almost out of the bog

urban garden art in limerick

I stumbled across this garden in Limerick last weekend. I couldn't find out anything about it yet. Kind interesting.

recent garden

I completed this garden over the last few weeks. It was a fairly steeply slope lawn overhung by some very mature Leylandii trees in a neighbouring garden, and very, very wet. The budget was tight and weather conditions far from ideal, but we got there in the end with a practical, useable little garden.