SATURDAY 31 AUGUST AND SUNDAY 1 SEPTEMBER More than Thirty Events For Seasoned Experts, Late Bloomers, Families and Foodies East Cork will be a bloom as the first-ever Ballymaloe Garden Festival unfurls on Saturday 31 August and Sunday 1 September. A packed programme of workshops, talks and garden walks is planned with most events taking …
As it has been ‘Painting all week’ this weeks ‘Plant of the Week’ post is going to be much shorter. This week is all about lilies from species to tree to fragrant. My absolute favorite cut flower that is hard to resist with their fragrance and beauty. This is just a taster of some of …
When we put up the shop, the range of colours for varnishing in the recommended product (Sikkens) were somewhat limited (Pine, Light Oak, Dark Oak, Mahogany, Walnut, Ebony, Teak) We selected Pine and after nine and a half years of topping it up, the pine is now much more like a brassy orange tan. So …
Just back from driving and I was feeling peckish….for a moment I nearly succumbed to eating the dreaded chocolate biscuit. However as the veg patch needed watering, I found my own healthy treats in the garden. And even better they contain no nasty chemicals. Coming soon pudding. In the meantime try Greenside Up’s Strawberry Smoothie …
With this unusual balmy summer weather we are experiencing, this weeks ‘Plant of the Week’ is well suited to drought conditions. The architectural Agapanthus (African Blue lily) is a clump forming perennial with its strap shaped leaves and stout stems bearing blue and more rarely white trumpet shaped flowers. We currently have two gorgeous varieties …
A funky song title from the 80’s as well as a great summary for the heat wave that us currently hitting Ireland. So just how hot is it? Well apparently this hot and beyond from the various in car thermometer images doing the rounds on twitter and Facebook. Well it’s not only gardeners who are …
Sarah’s plant of the week has elegant flowers from now through to the first frost, with their rich diversity of lovely hanging lanternlike flowers from pure white to deepest purple. May I introduce the fabulous Fuschia. The fuschia for me creates evocative memories of coastal drives in Cork and Kerry during summer. And is a …
Last year there was a shout for volunteers to judge the Blog Awards of Ireland so I thought what the heck why not. So I requested to judge the Best Humour Blog (I do like wit and sattire) and Best Photography Blog (thought there was bound to be some gorgeous flower images) One blog that …
I had previously done a post praising the delights of Doneraile Park. I haven’t had the chance to visit since, until last week when I was working in the area and decided to have lunch in the newly opened and refurbished Doneraile Court Tea Rooms as seen below. But it is not the delightful Tea …
As of last week we started our plant of the week display in the garden centre. This is a plant that Sarah will be choosing with a brief summary of each plants fine attributes. So for each week, I shall also be adding a small blog piece. Well as the title says this weeks choice …
Plant of the Week : Dicentra spectabilis (Bleeding Heart) Read More »
Well hanging basket appears to have finally arrived and one of the questions we are regularly asked is ‘What should we put in our baskets?’ The million dollar question that depends on so many factors : location, colour scheme, personal likes/dislikes etc. The usual suspects of Surfinias, Bacopa, Verbena, Fuschia and Lobelia are often suggested …
Oca (Oxalis tuberosa) is a South American tuber that is now beginning to show up in markets as an alternative to the potato as it is blight resistant and has good disease and pest resistance. Oca (also spelled ocha) is a productive perennial plant with waxy, brightly colored tubers that are best harvested from the …
Unless of course you are one of these guys. Sun has finally arrived on Ireland’s shores, people are smiling, plants look well and the desire to garden has started.Especially with this collection of blue coloured plants all in flower today. Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’ a useful evergreen plant which works well in shady areas with its …
You can’t be blue on a sunny day like today!!!!! Read More »
We recently had a customer telling us it is great to find a garden centre that (a) stocks peat free compost (b) understands why people choose peat free and don’t question their decision to buy it!!! For The Secret Garden this seems a no brainer as we have been supplying peat free, peat reduced and …
Sometimes you get an offer which just cant be refused and even more so when the timing is just right. After our super long winter we had been evaluating the display tables made of recycled packaging crates, working out which had seen their final days and those that could be given some tender loving paint. …
The weather may say winter, but this weekend Easter is upon us! The weather is causing some delay in the garden – protect young plants and if you have any evergreens in containers watch out for drying out as the roots freeze. If you do have frozen evergreens, give the foliage a light watering to …
All you need is love, or more precisely all you need is Valentines Day to remove the writers block I have had since the new year. Now here at The Secret Garden we believe romance should be for everyday of the year, not just Valentines and we definitely don’t believe in increased prices or selling …
So 2012 is coming to an end and rather than use many words to describe the year I decided to use a number of images. Many of them speak for themselves whereas others are a snapshot of the features of this year. So from snowdrops which mean the garden is returning to life, rare summers …
2012: Wet, wedding flowers, winners and weedless. Read More »
Well on the same evening as my Lime Canvas news I came home from a hard weeks work. The latter part of the week is my social work time so I always like to catch up on the garden centre news. A letter was awaiting for me and I expected it to be full of …
Well 2012 has certainly seen The Secret Garden have our fair share of good luck or alternatively repayment for a decade of hard work (I much prefer the latter). Well on Friday evening looking in the inbox was a newsletter from Lime Canvas Web Design & Marketing. I had entered their competition to win €10,000 …
At present this is the only image I have to show for our surprise win of ‘The Greenest Garden Centre’ at the Garden Retail Awards 2012 which took place on Wednesday night at London’s Grosvenor House in Park Lane. We were unable to attend and look what happens when you don’t attend, you go and …
Garden Retail Awards 2012 – The Greenest Garden Centre Read More »
The T Room is now three years old and what still amazes me, is that we still have customers who haven’t discovered the delights that lie within. We amended our roadsign recently and have signposts directing you up to the building yet some people don’t make it inside to this treasure trove. From the exterior …
Given that autumn is one of my favourite seasons in the garden as the autumnal tones of russet, purple, reds and oranges make their dramatic arrival I decided to take some images of spectacular examples within the garden centre. For some reason I was drawn to the fiery reds as you can see. Liquidamber. styraciflua …
As the garden changes mood with tones of russet, purple and gold, it does mean that leaves will shortly fall and adorn the ground. As much as I love autumn leaves I am not a fan of picking them up. However doing so then means I can make FREE soil conditioner by making leaf mold. …
Saturday night delight!!!!! Firstly and obviously due to the large image to the left, we have made it as finalists in the SME category of the Blog Awards. Not bad going since there was over 60 blogs nominated in this category and as my previous post stated I did not expect to make the shortlist. …
September has seen us nominated in the Web Awards 2012 in the Most Beautiful Website in Ireland category. We were also nominated in this category in 2011 but we did not make it as shortlisted finalists, maybe this year. We do have a rather lovely website if I say so myself courtesy of Charlotte of …
With the harvest of your vegetable crops well under way, there will start to be spaces appearing in the vegetable patch. There are several options to how you manage your beds over the winter, including the covering of them with mulches after digging in organic matter to replenish your soils nutrient. This includes organic mulches …
Yes water butt or butts was what I was actually referring to, not my derrier of course. Our delayed summer of hot sunny days has meant that the plants are quickly drying out this week and as the butts have constantly been topped up this summer with the record rainfall levels it still shows that …
Well here we are at the end of August and I want you to think beyond Christmas. A scary thought but with our spring flowering bulbs arriving shortly it is time to be planning, choosing and planting Crocus, Daffodils, Tulips, prepared Hyacinths as well as other lesser known bulbs Sarah as ever has selected a …
