This is the journal of my endeavours to grow a range of fruit, veg and flowers from seed, grow organically, and my attempts to create a personal paradise with 1/2 acre of maintained gardens and 1/2 acre wild meadows. Northern Ireland's average daily high temperatures are 18 °C (64 °F) in July and 6 °C (43 °F) in January. Soil type: Clay

Monday 27 October 2014

Community Gardening Update

Just a few late summer photos of the flower beds and vegetable/ herb beds at Antrim Castle Gardens where we have a group of approx 20 volunteers who give time regularly to maintain areas of the grounds.

As you can see, the blooms are still going strong. We've had a good year and are hoping to secure a polytunnel in the Spring, to help us develop further and grow more plants from seed.
Above: Our flower beds contain a mix of perennials, grasses and annuals. (We don't maintain the shrubs/tress in the photo.) Popular plants with visitors to the gardens include Salvia Purple Majesty, Verbena and annuals such as begonia. 
Above: The heritage kitchen garden, in its first year, contains several different beds, one for brassicas, another for salads, and another for medicinal herbs. We added box hedging and used some marigold  borders to create edging. Unfortunately some of the box seems to have box blight and marigolds are now coming out for Winter.
Above: We've grown lots of veg throughout the Summer and have shared our crops with visitors to the garden (most give a donation). Popular items inlcude potatoes, swede, beetroot, lettuces and parsley.
It's a lovely environment to volunteer!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

4 comments:

  1. It's looking fabulous. A polytunnel will be a great addition enabling you to grow more variety.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You and your group have created a beautiful garden. It photographs so well. It must be very satisfying to see it doing so well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You must congratulate yourselves on producing a fine garden - it is looking lovely and productive too. A polytunnel will also give you a longer growing year.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's lovely and the autumn leaves add to the effect.

    ReplyDelete