lough boora parklands

Lough Boora Parklands is situated in County Offaly.

It is a large area of cut-away bog (ie peatland which has most of it's
commercial peat harvested and already used to generate electricity)

It is vast, flat and open to sun, wind and rain.

A section has been developed as an outdoor sculpture park.

Various artists have created outdoor works utilizing old industrial materials
from the industrial harvesting of peat over a fifty year period

Indigenous materials such as bog oak have also been used

for more; http://www.loughbooraparklands.com/

flowers

Despite having little or no planting done, there are some flowers in the garden now.

Phacelia Green Manure

Some Green Manure Mustard gone to flower.

mother pheasant

A mother pheasant and some chicks wandered into the garden last evening. I grabbed my camera and tried to sneak towards them to get some snaps. As I approached, the chicks disappeared, but the mother stayed to protect her young..

She wouldn't run away and showed no fear.

Some squawking and hissing followed, and some flapping of wings
as she ran towards and away from me.

Barely visible are the chicks.

As I went away she kept a watchful eye on me.

dwarf pines

I acquired two more pines for the garden; a Japanese white pine called Negishi and a mountain pine called Benjamin. Both are dwarves.

Pinus parviflora Negishi

Pinus mugo Benjamin

swallows

A pair of swallows nested in the water pump shed in April, and successfully reared some young.

Family of Swallows.

Also I found this interesting story about swallows; http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2315290

perennials in bloom

Here'e a few perennials I like from the glasshouse that might find their way into the garden at some stage....

Echinacea Pow Wow Wild Berry

Erigeron Sea Breeze

Osteospernum Tresco Purple

Leucanthemum 

bumblebees

Working in the glasshouse I was in the company several industrious bumblebees busy doing what they do best...

feeding on some flowering thyme

on a dahlia

approaching a lupin

young trees

I have brought home some more plants, including some Birch taken from my father's driveway as weeds, potted on to 9cm pots for a season and then potted, three to a pot and pinched out, in April. I hope these will make bushy multi-stems

I also have some Hazel which were nuts taken from some bushes, which in turn were grown from nuts themselves several years back. 

A few Castenea sown from Christmas chestnuts last January grew well although the exact variety is unknown to me as they were labelled 'Produced in China'. I'm sceptical as to whether they will thrive with me, but time will tell...
I also have a few basic Japanese Maple varieties.

some new plants including birch and maple

hazel, birch and sweetchestnut

some work done

At last I had a chance to give a couple of days to the garden. My main aim was to install some land drainage pipes and to develop some paths. A 3 ton mini-digger was employed to do the donkey work. After a good days work on Monday, it promptly lost a track on Tuesday at 10am, to be replaced eventaully at 4pm later in the day. Very frustrating to lose such a chunk of time... Anyway, made the best of it and it was good to finally start to define some shapes in the garden. And I began to connect the water feature to the garden and I have a clearer image of how the next phase will look like.

20 tons of 2" crushed stone

I'm using 3" land drainage pipe in 2-3" coarse crushed stone

machines are great when they work

looking across what will be a lawn

interesting trees

All located in east Galway. Some useful inspirations for bonsai.

assembling bonsai material

I had a chance to rescue some plants which have been earmarked as possible bonsai over the past few years. Various leftovers and damaged plants, with and without some primitive styling. Some have been butchered, some strangled, some almost murdered and some neglected. My aim will be to clean them, feed them and try to make them healthy plants for next spring. Maybe they will forgive my sins against them, but at least they might teach me.

season moving on

The season is moving on quickly, without much more work being done. Even so, things are looking good, and I'm seeing different aspects of the site as the year goes on.

still spreading compost

Slowly spreading more compost, but busy growing plants for others during day...

Starting to assemble some plants...

Pinus strobus 'Minima'

Pinus strobus 'Sea Urchin', Pinus sylestris 'Westonbirt'