Your gardening photos

sdp

Thank you, no matter what I put on mine, its the same.

Red Hare

Dennis the Dragonfly, enjoying his lunch on Gladioli growing infront of the gas meter to my home in Dublin 7.

https://imgur.com/a/L1qtDCE

looksee

Well spotted! Great photo.

sdp

Before the rain today,

Cody montana

what grew.

Mr.Wemmick

Finally, a second flush on the shrub roses. The weather’s been so awful and challenging, I thought I wouldn’t see another rose until next Summer.

NIMAN

Not strictly related to gardening, but wondering if anyone can shed any light on a question I have.

Last summer, I seen hundreds of bees(?) Around a certain bush at side of my house. I had assumed it was a nearby nest and just told kids to stay clear.

Today I heard the familiar sound of them again, and again they are all around the same bushes. These bushes are quite expansive so there is A LOT of them about it, so I'm guessing it's not a nest at all, but just somewhere they are getting some late summer food??

I tried to take a photo, perhaps not the clearest, but can anyone confirm if they are bees? And harmless enough?

macraignil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121092277#Comment_121092277

Looks to me to be a bee and a hover fly which both have little interest in causing any harm and are a good sign of a healthy ecosystem in the garden. Looks like the pictures are of Ivy flowers which are a good source of late season pollinator food.

Happy gardening!

NIMAN

That's great to hear, thanks for that. It certainly is a very busy location in the garden right now, but not earlier in the season.

macraignil

Took this photo of the garden here earlier in the week.

Happy gardening!

looksee

Hover fly was my first thought, they are easiest to identify when they are flying, they really do hover in one spot.

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121092341#Comment_121092341

Thanks, I have just googled them, and see why I mistook them for bees, as their colouring is similar.

NIMAN

Had a closer look there, don't see anything hovering at all, just plenty of movement throughout the bushes.

Some closer shots

looksee

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eristalis_tenax

It does appear to be a type of hover fly, but apparently there are lots of really quite similar insects that are very partial to Ivy flowers, including one called an Ivy Bee.

NIMAN

Well, as long as they are all enjoying it, that's the important thing!

bored_newbie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121092339#Comment_121092339

Looks really nice. Do you not find those grass clippings on the edge of the border just turn into one big nettle patch over time? That's been my experience at least.

macraignil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121099926#Comment_121099926

I don't really find the grass clippings turn into nettle patches. If I see nettles in the garden I usually try to pull them out when they are small as digging them out when they are bigger is more work. I do have some nettles at the edges of the garden that I just chop down occasionally but not really had them associated with my little compost piles that I use to get rid of some of the lawn grass and prepare an area for planting with something more interesting than lawn when the grass under the compost has been killed off. If the pile of grass clippings is not working to kill off what is under it I have access to lots of used horse bedding/manure that I can pile up on the area to make sure it is ready for planting something else a few months later and places where I want to be even more sure of the progress of the no dig grow area development I put some cardboard under the compost or manure to make sure there is nothing surviving beneath to grow into my new growing area.

Happy gardening!

looksee

I agree with macraignil about grass clippings and nettles. Nettles are rampant in parts of my garden but anywhere where there has been grass clippings does not tend to grow nettles, its a good way of producing a very dead area, for a season anyway!

bored_newbie

Interesting to hear other people’s experience. I have one high pile of grass clippings I’ve been using this year and it doesn’t have nettles at the moment but the areas where I dumped them previously in a more horizontal pile is just overrun with nettles now.

looksee

Nettles will grow where there is really good soil. Putting grass clippings onto soil will initially suffocate anything there. Eventually though the grass becomes compost, the worms mix it up and you have soil, at which point the nettles will grow enthusiastically, but that will take up to a couple of years. The only way to deal with nettles is to pull up the roots, which is usually easy and quite satisfying to do as it comes up in bright yellow strings like spaghetti, but still in a garden nothing is permanent and you will have to keep after them.

D-Lo Brown

Nettles do really well in high nitrogen environments. I have a big patch at the back of my garden which is out of view. I read last year that a certain type of caterpillar lays its eggs on the underside of nettles so I left them be and this year there are butterflies everywhere! So no harm to leave a few =)

Gloomtastic!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121120881#Comment_121120881

Same dilemma with ragworth here in Dublin. The stunning Cinnebar Moth caterpillars eat ragworth.

mojesius

Hi folks. Posting some photos of a boundary with two gaps that I need to fill and would appreciate any advice/opinions.

First gap is about 2ft x 3ft and second gap is about 12ft x 3ft. Our plan is eventually to take the fence down once we have gaps filled in and plants are a decent size for privacy and security. Areas are north west facing and quite shaded due to fence and trees /plants adjacent. Looking for something with decent coverage all year round that won't grow too high (6 - 8 ft max).

What would you plant here? I was thinking maybe st John's wort in smaller area but not sure if it will grow well in shaded area. For larger area, I have no idea so any recommendations appreciated 👍 (there are a couple of small plants in that larger but they haven't grown in two years and I'm not sure what they are, garden fella planted them when we got him to do some work, so thinking of digging them out for something more suited to the shady conditions)

Mr.Wemmick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121202749#Comment_121202749

Love that wall. Smoked Bush - Cotinus would be a good one. Spring & Autumn interest and grows very well, but then not good cover in winter. Evergreen ones I can think that would be good are Spotted Laurel or a Camellia.

mojesius

@Mr.Wemmick thanks for the suggestions, just planted a couple of camellias and some red robins , looking forward to watching them grow.

Gloomtastic!

Another of my succulents that was abandoned in an unheated conservatory for a couple of years. Those white marks are what’s left of some fake fur they use to sell them. Why not leave them natural

It’s just had a baby. 😋

looksee

Snowdrops grown from a gift of a clump during covid. Each of the little clumps is from a single bulb a couple of years ago! Also a considerable amount of creeping buttercup which I am waging war on, its a wild area but a little variety in the weeds would be nice. The pink in the foreground is a pink willow planted two seasons ago.

miamee

I'm not a gardener at all but planted some tulip bulbs I was given in a pot at the front door and the excitement of them peeping up! Every day I am checking them to see how they have grown, they grew a lot over the weekend as we had some sunny, mild weather on Sunday particularly. I keep turning the pot so the smallest ones are getting most sun. I'm sure they are not that exciting to the rest of you 😅

Sunday

Today, Thursday

New Home

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121802280#Comment_121802280

You'd be wrong. I'm thrilled to see plants sprouting up! 😊

looksee

The year has just turned enough that when my daughter gets in from work there is still light, so she hauls me off up the garden and we ooh and ahh at new bulbs sprouting, buds turning into flowers, searching for things we are waiting to see emerge. Its one of the many joys of gardening!