This gardening lark aint easy...

I feel like the garden has given up on me, what was once (a few weeks ago) full of hope and empty raised beds waiting to be filled is now full of gloom, heavy wet soil and still empty looking.

What is left of the Parsnip seedlings I planted havent grown, the rest are slowly feeding the hoards of slugs that visit the raised beds at dusk.

The Beetroot seedlings are doing a bit better, not growing but mustnt be as nice to eat for the slugs.

I have a continuing battle picking the blighters off the Onions every evening but I seem to be keeping atop of that problem (they dont like the Garlic as much it seems).

The 'greens' are ok thanks to plastic bottles covering them and I have invested in some copper foil to go around their bed. The slugs dont seem to cross it (so far).

I managed to mow the grass around the beds yesterday (in between showers) so they dont have as much hiding places today. If it wasnt for the resident frogs I shudder to think of the infestation of slimey pests we would have.

Outside may be sad this week but inside the polytunnel we are getting a loads of  Strawberries every day.

But turns out we are not the only ones 'enjoying' them, found a 'stash' of them in a corner of the tunnel.....

I am hoping its only mice........

Lough Derg shore mini-break

It seems like a lifetime ago but a couple of weeks back we were basking in temperatures of up on 28 degrees in some parts of our beautiful isle.

Hopefully we will feel those temps again soon; maybe in time for when the kids get their summer break from school in 2 weeks time.

We were lucky enough to have booked a self-catering cottage that gorgeous May weekend for a small family break.

On the shores of Lough Derg, Terryglass, Co. Tipperary.

Terryglass, for those who have never been, is a lovely wee village. It has 2 pubs and one shop, all beside each other and within a few mins walking distance from the pier and the self-catering cottages. The perfect spot to relax and unwind.
Both pubs (The Derg Inn and Paddys Bar) do food and have picnic benches outside, perfect for lunch/dinner on a sunny day (we ate 'out' every evening, whats seldom is wonderful!).

Down at the pier there are plenty of facilities ie public toilets, showers, playground and picnic benches for those staying in the marina or interested in watersports.

We toured for the few days we were staying there, keeping as close to the waters edge as possible. First port of call was 15 mins up the road; the town of Portumna, Co. Galway. Home to Portumna Demesne, Forest Park and Portumna Castle (some of it open to the public while still under restoration) and gardens, on the shores of Lough Derg (we didnt do much walking as we had my partners elderly mother with us).

Next day we traveled southwards, along the 'Derg Way', and found a lovely wee spot to pull in and park.

Of course my eldest spotted this boats Irish name before us adults! (please look it up if you dont know what it means hehe)

We drove down through Killaloe (lovely town too) to a village called O'Briensbridge and across the Shannon on this bridge is Montpelier, Co Limerick.

On the way back to our rented cottage we dropped into the village of Dromineer for an ice-cream.

 And were lucky enough to see this wee family enjoying the good weather.

After a lovely few days it was time to say goodbye to Terryglass and a lovely weekend.

Enough with the rain already!

I love the rain, in moderation of course.

I love to see everything go extra green after a shower, and the droplets of water drickle off blooms; as I run for my camera to try and capture some images....Thats on a good day though.

After a few hours it gets a bit boring, then after a few days it gets downright annoying!

I hit off out in the last hour to take a few pictures of our gardens 'wet bits' in the hope of finding something positive after the torrential downpours. So on with my wellies, I knew I'd need them today.

We had so much rain yesterday that last night I had to go out digging a bit of a drain to try and clear away some of the excess water that was holding up behind our new extension....thankfully alot of it had cleared away by this morning (really need to get the footpath/drainage in).

Know how these guys feel..................

Theres a bit of sand in this barrow but the rain has filled it the past few days..

Think these wee Sycamore seedlings are watered enough, time to take them out of their 'bath'....

Even the poor Rhubarb are flooded, but I cant remove them from their watery home...

We really need to put some drainage into our garden, all of the lawns have surface water.
Everywhere I walk there is this..

My photographic walk-about had to end abrubtly, not by the driving rain (wasnt heavy while I was out) but because our farmer neighbour had arrived at his farm next door and if he took a glance over the ditch and saw me out taking pictures in the rain he might think me a tad mad.
So I tucked my camera away for a brighter day (hopefully).

Catch up in the polytunnel

Well hello again blog!
Its been a while blog, have you missed me?

I had great plans (& pictures) to blog about some Tomato plants, weeks ago,which failed to come to fruition.....until now.

Once upon a time I had a space in the polytunnel and some growbags.........

And outside our back door I had some of these(Gardeners Delight), which had been 'hardening off' the previous week or so in a small plastic greenhouse.....

So with a coupla Bamboo sticks, some twine and a scissors we have these.....

I really dislike throwing away living plants so I potted up the 4 spares; hence the pots in the middle of the bags. This year I put 2 plants per bag rather than 3 like I did last year (only 2 out of the 3 bore fruit).

On the other side of the polytunnel we decided to grow our Strawberry plants this year. This is half of them...

Plenty of flowers (& future Strawberries).....

And while watering the tunnel our resident slug eater peeped out for a shower..

Wish he had a few more friends though because we could do with alot less slugs in our garden, with all this wet weather they are breeding like rabbits!
And speaking of rabbits we spotted 2 during the week in our garden browsing over newly planted seedlings....... its never ending with this gardening lark.