Gardens and gardening 2025

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Hi everyone, I used to post a lot in a previous Gardens etc until my wife was also diagnosed with cancer just over 2 years ago and she went through such a hard time so my time was taken up with not just Mrs Tvman but I was not good because of the rise and fall of red cells, white cells, neutrophils and platelets. 

The good news is that I have a little bit more free time to garden. I never stopped because it's in my DNA to get working in the garden. I'm also a wheelchair user because of a serious back condition called spinal stenosis and the pain is so great that I'm only able to work in short bursts.

So let's see photos of your gardens or allotments, whether they be large or small or maybe you only have room for pots and troughs in a balcony or back yard. 

My speciality for the last 40 years is vegetables and I have won hundreds of prizes over the last 20 years or so. I have had vegetables in show that have made me Northern Ireland champion for my sins. Unfortunately, since covid some shows have ceased therefore I haven't entered any for a few years. 

I've a few photos below, that's if I can remember how to insert them! It's been a while.

Below is a photo of the contents of my greenhouse, there are tomato plants left and right of the pathway. Also just past the tomatoes are cucumber plants against that have frames for them to climb up. The cucumber variety is Mini Munch, they're a small variety that are sufficient for a few salads 

The plants in the large pots below are aubergines, variety Black Beauty and inbetween the pots is a seed tray in which spring onion seeds have been sown which of course haven't germinated yet. Over here in Northern Ireland we call spring onions "scallions" and apart from in salads we have them with butter in mashed potatoes and that dish is called "champ". Believe it or not that was served as a stand alone dish that we had when I was small, some 60 years ago. Just mashed potatoes with small pieces of cut up scallions, cooked slowly in real butter then a dinner plate was loaded up with champ, a hole made in the top and filled with more butter then everything was mixed together and eaten. Along with an Ulster Fry in the morning, no wonder we had the highest rate of heart disease in Europe! 

Last photo below for this post is a bed of garlic (on the left), shallots in the foreground and at the far end for those of you eagle-eyed is a few red and white onions that are just 2 or 3 inches high. They are grown from onion sets that are small immature onions and usually come in a net bag weighing 250g and there are about 70 in total.

You'll notice that I have wire netting around the beds, that's because 3 years ago I had a rabbit problem. 35 years without them, 1½ years of rabbits and none since! The wire netting is staying for a while yet!

What about some photos from anyone else?

Tvman 

  • Hi Eddie, I ALWAYS use cut up milk containers for labels unless someone buys me some wooden labels or suchlike as a gift. 

    I also use labels from the previous year because I lift them at harvest time. I need to rub out the old sowing date every year and write the new one in its place. To save the writing fading through extended sunlight I put the side that has the writing,  on the side that doesn't face the sun. Am I a little freaky lol? Or just an eco warrior lol.

    Tvman 

    Love life and family.
  • Good advice Eddie Thumbsup

    Tvman 

    Love life and family.
  • One of my favourite trees in my side/back garden. It's 45 years old, bought to Mrs Tvman and me for our first wedding anniversary.

    My favourite tree in my garden, it's a chusan palm and about 30 years old. 

    One of my shrubberies 

    Love life and family.
  • Wow, that's a pink tree, amazing, though I'm not sure what it is, but it's the palm for me too, sadly in 2010, we had a cold snap for over 3 weeks, temperatures stuck between -5° and -18°, and everyone lost their Chusan's, good choice with the compost, Clover is my favourite, but I'm surprised you need a hosepipe in Ulster.

    Eddie

  • Hi TVman, No I never imagined I’d still be here. Also the bird you made me for putting the nuts in for the birds is still on one of my bushes, although, like me, a little worse for ware!!

    Is the pink tree a Blossom? It’s lovely!

    Love Annette x

    Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, Today is a Gift!!!
  • Hi Annette and Eddie, the pink blossomed tree is a Japanese Cherry tree, now you're both saying "Of course it is!"

    There's a garden centre about a 15 minute drive from me and I can buy 2x100ltr bales of Clover compost for £15 and the price hasn't risen for about 4 years. Cheapest price I know of. 

    The hose is there because this year I ripped out a flowering Escallonia hedge that never really recovered from that cold snap in 2010. I have replaced it with a good old native green beech hedge and I need to keep it watered whilst it's settling in. I'd love to have bought copper beech hedging but that's 3½ times the price! 

    A little anecdote now. Escallonia hedging was discovered in South America and brought to Europe by a certain Señor Escallón centuries ago and that's why it took such a hammering in 2010. It's not a native hedge so it couldn't cope with such cold for so long. It was quite common in Northern Ireland but now not so much. 

    Lastly Eddie and Annette. I can see your reasoning about no need for a hose in Ulster. I'm in the east of County Down and most westerly weather depressions come in from the west and deposit most of their rain in the Lakelands of Fermanagh. We can see the Mourne mountains to the west from our house so any rain that makes it this far gets mostly deposited on the westward side of the Mournes. As we are situated on the leeward side of them, we don't get as much rain. I definitely wouldn't say we don't get much rain because we do! We're quite close to Strangford Lough, just about a mile and a half away. 

    Sorry for such a long post folks.

    Tvman 

    Love life and family.
  • Wow what a beautiful garden.  Our garden is tiny and with four dogs the grass has brown patches.  Any tips or ideas?

    Lee 2 x

  • PS Don't say get rid of the dogs Joy

  • Beautiful garden and cherry blossoms. 

    I really like visiting other people’s gardens. 
    yesterday I have  visited a private garden near me but is now open 3 days a week. 
    I was very fortunate as their white cherry tree has just blossomed and it only lasts 4 days. They also have beautiful koi fish. See photo below. 


  • Hi Leelaloo, thanks for the compliment x It takes a lot of work to keep it nice but I'm disabled and everything takes longer to do as well as frequent rests to let my back recover. I love to spend time in the garden.

    About the dogs and brown patches. I have only 1 dog and my enclosed back garden has brown patches too. After the winter, the grass starts to recover to a certain extent. You can buy grass seed that is supposedly tough ie it can withstand a lot of foot and paw traffic. If you go down that road then you would need to fence off the newly seeded area for a while until the seed has germinated. I was told once by a girl in a garden shop (too small to be classed as a garden centre) to  put a squirt of tomato ketchup in the dogs' feed. I never tried it though. 

    It's possible that if you throw a bucket of water, (or some water) on the spots where the dogs have peed then that would dilute the urine and won't be as much of a problem. 

    I would never suggest to get rid of the dogs because I know how much love they give and how much they benefit the soul. 

    Ever thought of moving where you'd have a larger garden lol

    Tvman x

    Love life and family.