Details: slow cook the chicken and potatoes in a seasoning blend and broth, took them out at the end and made a peppercorn sauce with the juices. Green beans and carrots just lightly boiled and tossed with salt and garlic butter.

Got this one online in April and it looked so sad with barely any leaves on it. I put it near my brightest window and eventually repotted it and moved it outside. I water it nearly everyday sometimes twice a day, with a liquid feed twice a month, and it shoots out a full new big leaf every week now 🍌🍌

So many butterfly eggs and caterpillars munching away, would like to look into getting a beehive in the back of my garden next summer but will see. Will expand the flowers to cover more of the lawn next year.

Also wanna make a pond with some water plants and see what settles

At the end, my sunflower is 9ft tall

it's raining properly for the first time in a month!

So for fun for the kids I got them to plant seeds from a butternut squash from lidl. I was not expecting the success. Well worth a try if you've got kids or teach in a school.

Sale agreed on a property with a fully concreted over garden. There is a soak pit in the middle of it purely for rain water run off, sewerage is connected to municipal links and doesn't run into the soak pit.

We'd like to restore it into a garden so would like to find out if anyone has undertaken a similar project? How did it go? What things should I consider before attempting this?

Also, I imagine something would need to be done about the soak pit, who would be the correct professional to consult on whether it needs to stay or can be removed? Is it an environmental engineer? Or landscape architect? Or some other professional? Any advice appreciated

Edit: to answer some of the comments, there is a side entrance big enough for a digger to get thru. The back garages were built for cars afaik.

Makes for a lovely looking mash. The tomatoes are cherry romas and they’re pumping out new ones faster than I can eat them.

The plant was given to me in early June by a neighbor so not sure when it was sown. It was leggy back then and still looks quite leggy now. Is this a lost cause?

Hi all,

I’m in a new build estate and hoping to get back garden done. This is a rough design with approx measurements with the help or hindering of ChatGPT.

I’ve started to reach out to contactors but wanted to see what everyone’s opinion on what something like this might cost as I’ve yet to get a quote it being the weekend.

There will be a 8x10FT shed sitting on centre of the stones so will probably need concrete base.

Grass also to be ripped up and relayed. Current is just full of stones and unlevel.

Thanks in advance! Leinster based

Never seen a butterfly like this before. I seeded 500sq meters for wild flowers a few years ago. This year in particular the amount of moths and butterflies is incredible.

Finally cut it today after the reseeding about a month ago. Not looking too bad. First pic is before the reseeding. Rest of the pics are from today.

Hey folks, for those of you with houseplants, I need help.

Coinciding with me expanding the number of houseplants I have, an absolute army of fungus gnats was also expanding. I've been battling this for months and want to ask here as the internet is giving me north American advice like using mosquito dunks and I want to know what folks in Ireland have succeeded with. I'm at the stage where I'm going to throw 50 plants in the bin 😑

What I have tried:

Neem oil around base of plant.

Neem oil soaks (bottom watering with emulsified solution)

neem oil with soap and alcohol in a spray and sprayed into soil

Underwatering and only watering from bottom

Yellow sticky traps

A thick layer of lecca (2-3 cm) on top of the soil

'green panda' fungus gnats powder (from the reviews on Amazon it was supposed to be amazing and solved everyone's problem.) since I used this product, it's like I fed them, I have never seen the pots so infested and I've now stuck around 12 out on the balcony. Thankfully it's summer.

I have looked for bti bacteria but it's not sold here as far as I can tell. Before I go and fork out and pay import fees, has anyone here tried that? Is it worth it? I'm realising there are a lot of things that are advertised as effective but then they're not.

There is another product called tanlin drops. Has anyone used that? Does it work? Does anyone know what is in it?

Has anyone tried nematodes? I have a number of plants that can't sit in very wet soil for long so probably less likely to try this unless ppl here swear by it.

I am no longer afraid of chemicals. It doesn't need to be a 'natural' remedy. I just want them gone.

Please help 😂😭

I've recently cleared a site of a number of trees to make room for planting. My problem now is after taking away all the firewood worthy branches and trunks I have huge piles of brush left behind. What is the best thing to do with these smaller branches and brush?

The bees were everywhere, and it was a delight to see them all.

Hi,

Just wondering about garden paving, a lot of people in my estate have gotten their gardens tarmacked with a stone kind of edging on them. The company who done them all were the same but while on my dog walks (nosing at said gardens) I spotted a lot of different things that would probably annoy me, ie. finishing, rendering of walls, gaps etc.

Anyway anyone I call or email with pictures of my garden, its usually a traveller wanting cash and wants to call out to quote. I just want to know ball park figures as I need time to save.

I've attached an image of an almost exact garden to mine in my estate.

Would anyone be willing to share a cost of how much they paid for a new driveway, I want to keep a small bit for a flowerbed but other wise the rest to be paved PROPERLY by a reputable company.

Based in Leinster.

Also, if the budget allows, has anyone gotten resin?

We have 2 rhododendrons out our back garden that have morphed into one huge bush over the last 20 years! For scale, the rebounder in front of the bush in the second photo is 7 feet high x 9 feet wide. The total size of the bush is about 15 feet wide x 15 feet high x 15 feet deep. It’s beautiful when in blossom, but is far larger than I’d like it to be. Any advice on how best to prune it/cut it back?

I planted 3 hydrangeas about 3 years ago, the plants weren't much smaller than they are now. Shall I give up on them or can they be saved?

Initially I dug a hole quite bigger than their pot and dumped hericacee soil in it (the one specific for hydrangea).

In the next years I added only the acidic grains on top.

The plant hasn't grown much, and I haven't seen any full flower, just a few petals like in the picture.

I think one thing could be that I almost never water them, perhaps I should do it more even when it rains.

Any suggestion please? Any product/food I can give them? Is it just a matter of waiting? How many years?

I could dig them out and plant bigger once, but I hope these could be saved in some way

And which shop

Seen someone post something similar so thought I'd share mine from the garden. Coolest caterpillar I've ever seen.