Once again retreating inside the house from the wet and cold gardens I though I would show a member of the salvaged plant club.

Well winter has almost arrived and many peoples thoughts turn towards the poor birds that still have not died out after millions of years of people feeding them with expensive bird foods.

I headed out to do a little shopping today, but was amazed to see that the sea was spilling onto the roads, covering harbours and eroding the beach parks.

On several past occasions, I have tried to grow mushrooms but finally gave up as I can buy them much cheaper than I can grow them.

Pseudococcidae is the bug. I have discovered it likes rotting vegetation and as I had missed cleaning up some dead material and added fresh materials.

After the unusual storms of early november, the gardens were a mess with almost every tree stripped of leaves (excluding the conifers) and some damaged.

Hidden amongst many items on clearance was a Pear Tree, that still had a few green leaves on display, the price, almost free, this offer was too good to miss.

As Autumn moves forward towards Winter I took the opportunity of a few dry days to cut back the hedges surrounding the gardens.

Over the past few days the Atlantic coast of western Europe, namely Ireland and the United Kingdom have been battered but storms the like of which I have not seen in twenty years.

As Autumn moves forward towards Winter I took the opportunity of a few dry days to cut back the hedges surrounding the gardens.

I mentioned that the Bodhi Tree and Banyan Tree spent the winter in the greenhouse and they had badly suffered.

I was driving towards Belfast in the north of the island and I saw what looked like a V shaped cloud, as I got closer I realised it was turning in circles.

this is can be a very wet, cold and windy location as its between the northern channel and the atlantic ocean but occasionally.....

the problem is the vine is getting too thick and the flowers are highly susceptible to fungus in the greenhouse. the suspended wire across the top of the greenhouse worked well though.

in the previous years april article i showed you the bluebells and mentioned there were also white and pink varieties growing in the garden.

well before we get into 2007, i thought i would let you look back at a couple of pictures from 2004 and 2006.

i like this orchid on the window sill as it has an amazing radiance when the light shines through the petals. this picture really does not pay justice to the beauty of this arboreal plant.

the plant had also proved its ability to survive the freezing winters, totally exposed to the elements and offers a all year round green foliage.

by september it changes to an amazing red colour on the exposed areas of the house, oh yea, for the readers in the states, happy 4th of july.

inside the greenhouse, my first attempt at going peppers is going good, but i find they are far too vulnerable to fungus and do need a lot more attention than most of the plants.

this has been a really hard part of the garden to 'hide'. you think when people build an outbuilding in their property, they would think of the entire project rather than just what they can see.

the shelves in the greenhouse have been built, the vegetable seeds sown and everything is growing.

pictured here in a hanging basket is tidy-tips (layia platyglossa), a sort of reverse daisy with yellow on the inside and white on the outside.

called baby blue-eyes (nemophila menziesii var. menziesii) it returns every year but seems to do the best in one particular hanging basket i never take care off.