Finishing a stone edge and whats growing in the cottage garden in March

Welcome back to this Sunday's garden video and I thought I would start the video a little bit different. I was having a potter around the garden with my camera and I wanted to just get some shots of some of the spring bulbs to have start to open. There is lots of new growth coming up from the soil and it just makes me so giddy to see it all. I was just out taking lovely, I'm not documenting the garden because it's nice to look back on and a couple of you guys had said the same in the comments. I think it was in January I did like a little walk around the garden and you guys were saying you were going to do the same as well. Just because it's nice to look back and see your own progress because every garden is different, even the ones on the same road. Hang on, my shopping is on the table and I don't want you to see me, me toiletries. So this morning I was up early, went to the M50 garden centre because I have the tiniest bit of mulch left for the side border and I wanted to get, remember I was saying I needed to finish off an edge because I didn't get enough rocks. So I've got some, they let me buy loose rocks so I was worried that I couldn't buy them loose and I'd end up having to buy loads of rocks and I wouldn't need them for anything. So they let me buy, Andre shout out to Andre, let me buy loose rocks, you can buy them loose as well and I'm going to mix and match that edge just to finish it off with the rocks. I picked ones of different tones and colours to blend them in with the ones that, remember phone box man, if you follow the phone box man on Instagram, he gave me some because he moved house and he moved garden and, well obviously he moved garden, he moved house and he's actually doing up a new garden now. Not sure if he's sharing it on Instagram, I'll find out. So I'm going to finish that edge and mulch it, mulch it. There's a cold spell and I laugh when I say this because, again from chatting to people in the comments section, you guys are getting hockeyed out a bit with snow. You're either getting weather that is flooding or too hot, headed the Australia direction and then headed the America direction, you're either getting walloped out a bit with snow. Ireland just has a lovely little, we're in Ireland, with some nice mild weather but it is going to get cold this week. I will give you a seedling update. I was going to put them in the greenhouse but this week, for the next couple of days, it's like 6 degrees now, a bit chilly but when you're walking you don't feel it. But the next 3 days I think it's like minus 2, minus 3 at night time and during the day it's like 3, 4 degrees. But then at the end of the week it's mild again, it's back to like 10 degrees. So yeah, there is a little bit of a chilly spell coming for the next couple of days so all I'm going to do is some mulching. I did buy some more seeds during the week. Oh, I want to plant this today. I have a white, I think these are called bleeding hearts, Dicentra, Dicentra spectabilis, spectabilis? I don't know but as you can see this is already starting to grow out of the packet. I was in town during the week and me and Karen went into Mr Middleton. He's on, is it Mary Street or just off Mary Street? I went in to get more sweet pea seeds because I'm going to sow some more. I'll explain why when we're chatting about seeds. So I got some sweet pea seeds and I also got some zinnias. I did these last year. Zinnias are an amazing cut flower and they flowered. I only had like a couple of pockets of them, I should have done more. My plan is with all of the annuals, so with the cosmos and the zinnias, to just fill any gaps in the perennials, in the borders with cosmos and zinnias to just get them, like add them colour. These gave me colour all year round last year. Just dead headed them. I did leave them go to seed so maybe their seeds have spread and I may have some extra ones. I don't know. Bought them too during the week and I bought one of these. I have one, I have a version of this that's starting to come up. It's a white bleeding heart. So I picked this one up and I remember seeing one of these. I was in New York. Oh god, I'll have to look back on a vlog but maybe 2017, 2018. I remember walking from, I love to tell a story don't I? Anyway, I remember walking the Brooklyn Bridge and from the Brooklyn side, I got the, not the train, what do you call it? Not the tube, that's London. What do yous call it in New York? Anyway, I got the train to Dumbo down under the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan, down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass. Is that what Dumbo stands for? Anyway, I got the train to there and I walked back into Manhattan. Anyway, I walked over the bridge and it was such a lovely walk. It took me like four hours to get all the way back up and I remember stopping. I don't know the building but there was loads of these and I just loved them because they were like little love hearts and I remember I took a picture of them. So when I seen this I was like, oh I want one of them for my garden. I think they like shade, don't quote me, but I'm going to put it in a semi-shade spot with the other one because it seems to like it there. But I'm definitely going to plant it now because as you can see, it's grown out of the bag. Now let's get the wheelbarrow, let's get my rocks and let's start on this side. Last year when I popped out to the M50 Garden Centre, I think it's called Beach Vista Garden Centre, but it's just off the M50 at the Singlist exit, but I remembered seeing that they had lots of paving and loose paving outside. So I headed there to see if I could get my hands on a few bits to finish off the edge, but I also had a little look around. This is where I got my large terracotta pot last year that I have my olive tree in. So if you're looking for some terracotta pots, these guys seem to have them the cheapest. Okay, so these are the random rocks I got. I was delighted with myself. So some of them are like this lighter colour and then some of them kind of have that darker shade to them. And then I got these long ones as well. I was delighted with myself. So over here, so all of these are the ones I got from Paul, aka Foam Box Man, and they go around the edge there. So I was just left with this piece. So I'm going to use these, but I'm going to mix, sorry, camera focus, I'm going to mix some of these in with them to blend it. Please ignore the absolute state of my desk, tut tut, but I have an epic seedling update. So some of the sweet peas now have sticks in them. I was actually going to pop these outside, but like I said earlier, there is a cold snap coming for a couple of days this week. So I said I'll leave them a little bit longer and then I'm just going to pop them into the greenhouse and then I'll get better supports for them. These poor chaps is the variety, oh cherub bouquet, isn't it? I had said it in the previous garden video that they are much slower to grow, slow growers, but there is a bit more growth on them. And I think these ones might be ready for the tops to be pinched out, but I'm just waiting for them to kind of get established on one of the sticks. And I'm really excited because the cosmos that I sowed in, I think two videos ago with my have almost all germinated. I had to give them a little bit of water. That one actually, hang on, that one there needs a little drink. So I've just been misting them and topping them up with water. And again, I was going to pop these into the greenhouse, but I think I'm just going to wait a little bit longer. Wait for it. Something I'm very excited about. I've gotten some germination on. Hang on. So remember the teasel? That's, oh I've got one. This is so exciting. Remember the teasel said on the packet that they had a one month, one to three month germination period. Well, I've got some germination. Let me zoom in. Hello seedling. I get way too excited for this. I have some seedlings and I've just had a little propagator lid that I had on the cosmos on it, and I've managed to get some germination. So I think these are going to be slow growers as well, but these are going to be fingers crossed. So nice dotted around the border. I want it to look like a bit wildy, but my main reason for growing these is anytime I see them in the wild garden up in the Phoenix Park, they're always humming with bees. And then when you let them go to seed, the birds absolutely love them. So while they're pretty, I do have methods to my madness. I want to attract the bees. And then I want to attract the birds because if you have loads, actually something I've noticed is the more birds I have in the garden, the less pests I have. Pests. Everything has a place in nature. But I find the more birds I have, the more they'll eat the little, like I do catch the little, are they blue tits? And the little finchy ones eating the black things. What are they called? I had loads of them on dahlias last year. Aphids? Aphids. And I've caught them eating the green fly off the roses as well. So I'm trying to attract the birds, attract the wildlife so that they'll just balance each other out. And like, I'm not, I didn't use any, um, sorry, that's a bit wet. I didn't use much or any pesticides last year. Like I just left the bugs. Like I did have lots of aphids on the dahlias, but I just left it. And then I noticed that I had ladybugs. And I also, I do have bats. I don't know where they're nesting. Cause there is a large park actually, not far from my house. Um, so there is like a bit of wildlife there, but I do notice in summer at dusk, there just be bats that fly around and they're good at eating bugs and slugs and stuff. And obviously the hedgehog, no sightings of the hedgehog yet. My neighbor was watching. I left food out a couple of weeks ago. I noticed, I think it was the hedgehog who ate it because he throw, he like flitters the grass and there was grass sitting on top of it. It's like anytime the hedgehog eats the bowl of food, he tries to hide it. And I noticed it and I was like, Oh, that's, that's the hedgehog. Cause if it's a cat, they just eat it and go. I need to set up some wildlife camera. That's what I need to do. Also apologies, the lighting is very dark. So the goal is move the seedlings into the greenhouse, but I have to wait for it to get a little bit warmer. So yeah, I was chatting to Karen about this, the windowsill situation this time of year does be quite, you know, and also, like I said, I think two videos ago, you still have loads of time to start seeds. And I'm just kind of ahead of myself on it, bearing in mind that I do have the greenhouse that I can move them to and harden them up. Um, like you can totally start doing your annuals like April time. Um, you know, if you're short on space, you know, join me at the kitchen windowsill. I have been saving up my loo rolls. It's really good to grow sweet peas in loo rolls because apparently they need a longer like rooting system or root run. And the great thing about these is you can just dig the hole, plop them in and this will just biodegrade. Is that the word? Degrade into the soil. And you can just plop them in and there you go. So the packet of sweet peas that I bought during the weekend, Mr. Middleton, I'm going to sow them. But I think I'll wait because my windowsill is probably going to be a bit cold the next few days. I think I'll wait until the end of the week, maybe in the next video to sow them because it'll be a bit warmer on the windowsill. Also, I have been putting my tools away. However, remember I said like hold me accountable if I haven't been putting my tools away. I left this outside just sitting on the chair and I was washing my hands. Like I love just washing my hands and staring out the window because there'd just be a lot happening in the garden. And I just copped that I left this out. I think it was only out for like two days. And I was like, oh, I better run out and get that. So that's why my snips is on the windowsill because I had to rescue it. So that's what I got up to in the garden this week. And something that I loved was if you saw like my past, if you saw my previous Thursday videos, you'll know that I was working on my niece's bedroom makeover. So I haven't been home and I have, well I've been home, but I haven't been in the garden. And something that's very, the word humbling I'm looking for is the garden just looks after itself. I know you have to dip in and do a little bit of maintenance and plant and finish things. But I was like, oh God, I haven't been in the garden in like a week. Things will probably be whatever, but actually magic happens. And it's almost kind of nice because you get to come back and like, I know you look out the window at the garden and like you see things, but actually when you go out and walk around and you see what's growing and all the little things, and it's like nature will look after itself if we just kind of leave it to it. So I'm trying to be, what's the word, not a gate keeper, a groundskeeper. Basically just interfering when I need to, but let nature do its thing. Plant and go, give them a mulch, do a bit of weeding. So there we go. I hope that makes sense and it's not too waffly. Okay. That's me for this week. Let me know what you were up to in the garden. Apologies if you are still 10 foot in snow. Some people have been saying that it's nice to see people gardening so they appreciate being able to watch me in the garden and other people are a bit envious, but your time will come. Every garden has, every flower has its season and every garden has its season. So hopefully in another month's time, you'll be in the garden and you'll be seeing your bulbs too. I'll pop a link to the Cottage Garden playlist. If it's your first time here, check it out. If you like what you see, hit the subscribe button, cheeky thumbs up from my OGs and I'll see you in the next one.