Search Results for 'Anne'

I always wish at this time of year that I grew more dahlias. Older gardens have the most glorious clumps of them, often supported by canes and string, and in such large groups that you can tell they’ve been growing happily there for decades. They just don’t behave so well for me – my soil’s very lean and the slugs are voracious – so unless I buy new each season or grow them from tubers, I have to admire them from afar.

Music for Galway, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this autumn, begins its new season with a gala concert next Thursday September 30th, 8pm, at the Town Hall, Galway.

It’s the time of year when summer pots and containers can start to look straggly and it can be tempting to think that their season is over and leave them to their own devices. With a little effort and TLC though, you can keep them flowering and looking good for weeks yet, until it’s time to pull them out and replace them with the more sedate winter container plants.

If there is one thing I would love gardeners to consider more often, it’s the need to be generous with your borders.

They must be one of the most impressive climbing plants, with glorious blooms in a beautiful range of shades, but there’s no denying clematis can be tricky. Winter and spring types can mostly take care of themselves, but summer flowering clematis fall into several different categories, all needing pruning, and if you prune at the wrong time of year, you could lose a year’s flowers. It’s this kind of calendar-watching that puts lots of people off gardening, so my rule of thumb is always to keep it simple and choose things that don’t need to be mollycoddled.

The medieval town of Athlone has taken Heritage Week to its heart this year with an engaging series of events to take place at Athlone Castle from Saturday, August 14 to Sunday, August 22.

For many of us, the garden is the first thing we see when we open the door in the morning, or return to our homes after a day’s work. Increasingly, however, I find I’m called on to produce garden plans for second homes, for lots of reasons. The second property might be a holiday let, or a much- needed weekend refuge for city dwellers. It’s often the ‘home house’, originally belonging to parents and now being restored for the next generation to spend vacation time in with their families, keeping them linked to their roots. Sometimes, the plan is to move there altogether during the retirement years, so starting the garden now and allowing it to grow and mature in the meantime makes sense

A garden by the sea can be magical. Or windswept, bare and failing to realise its potential. Personally, I’d go for the former if I had one – and lots of people do – we seem to be drawn to towards the coast like a magnet, to live, to holiday, or just to spend a day near the water.

Hello to all the Advertiser readers.

I’m often asked about scented plants. They can pack a powerful emotional punch, reminding you of your mother’s favourite flowers or the blooms from your granny’s garden, so it’s not surprising they’re high on the wish list of lots of my clients.