The sky is grey and stepping up onto the patio, the water lilies haven’t opened yet.

Then, moving to the left, one sees the succulent section ensconced under the pergola.

A tiny banana plant planted in May is starting to shoot for the sky.

Further along, this Alstromeria is going great guns in its pot beside the pond.

A view of the floating pagoda (which hasn’t sunk yet! )

Detail of the floating pagoda, which was painted Cream & Black.

Coming down the main drive, this one of the Alpine troughs utilizing Killaloe Slate slag.

Agapanthus “Jacaranda” showing up against Phyllostachys vivax aureocaulis.

Into the West Garden, Hoheria sexstylosa “Stardust” behind another Phyllostachys.

Massed Hebes in front of the Thyme raised outcrop.

We fancied another pagoda in the garden but had no room to place one. Then we hit on the zany idea of having one floating on the garden pond. Never heard of a pagoda, that floated before but that’s not to mean to say it can’t be done.

Here’s the base going in with twenty four 25 litre drums nestled underneath.

Here is a pic, the next day, of the pagoda under construction on the base. Difficult to work at as it kept bobbing about all the time.

Following day, two pics of the pagoda almost finished. Anchors and chains still to be done and some more woodwork to be added but mainly there.

View from our kitchen window.

Well, May must have been the driest May on record in Coolwater. The soil in the alpine troughs had turned to a powdery dust but rain, like the cavalry, came at the end of the month just in the nick of time. Rock Roses around the garden (a few pictured above) are having the most floriferous display this year.

Above, Saxifraga canis dalmatica and below, a Globularia in the alpine troughs.

• Generally use very free draining soil so, in Coolwater, I mix in a very, very high percentage of either limestone or granite grit with garden soil, together with a tiny  amount of volcanic dust, sand, multi-purpose compost & Biochar.

• Set your pieces of stone much higher than you think you need, as your plants will try and overcome them and you will lose the landscape     effect that you intended.

• Take into account each plant’s desire in their native habitat for either shade or sun and position your trough accordingly.

• Note each plant’s  soil ph requirement and accommodate that. e.g. Gaultheria slinks to nothing if it encounters lime.

• Put a dressing on top, of say 4mm grit, either limestone, pink granite or sandstone, to conserve moisture but also to stop the necks of plants getting rot.

Well, that saying and the reverse of it in relation to March weather always seems to hold true and this year was no exception. As I write this, the weather is benign in the garden; a lot different to the start of the month. The cover picture is of Scilla siberica, in among Namurian rock.

The two pictures above show Berberis darwinii and Drimys winterii, both putting on a show for the whole month.

And then, these two pictures show Sebaea thomasii “Bychan” and Pieris “Forest Flame” with Chionodoxa “Glory of the Snow”.

A Draba growing outside in a trough.

This part of the pond had been invaded by Horsetail last summer so a digger was brought in to remove the pondside soil with unfortunately all its riparian plants. Hopefully the remains of some of the plants will surface about the water this summer. Below is one of them, Butterbur in a plastic tray. The flowers always arrive before the leaves.

Phyllostachys aureosulcata aureocaulis provides a lovely wind break and protects a Fatsia japonica behind it.

Writing this on the 21st,  the two-faced, Roman god of January has treated us well in the garden so far, it having been unusually mild, with precipitation at only 20% of average, although sunshine has also been low, averaging at 30% of normal. A colder end to the month will even things out a little.

The cover picture is of an antique terracotta urn I picked up in the North last week and is now ensconced in a bamboo grove out of the wind. I really love the detailing on it.

Below are pictured two plants bringing colour to the West Garden. A Leucothoe walteri “Zeblid” and a Photinia “Pink Curry”.

Around the riparian sculpture has been planted Black Mondo grass and winter flowering Heathers. This time of the year, it certainly brightens up the waterside, when reeds and bulrushes are dull with brown.

Over in the Xeric bed, there has been humongous growth with the agaves. This Agave americana variegata has certainly put on quite a spurt recently. Alongside it, but out of picture, is a Yucca linearis, really thriving as well.

Here’s hoping February will treat us well also, although, I don’t think there’s any Roman god of February to cajole. 🙁

With sound of rain on the patio windows akin to someone dashing sand at high speed against the glass and looking outside to see swirls of wind whirling the stands of bamboo this way and that, I thought it a good time to sit down and write a little bit about the different types of rocks in all the troughs. These rocks were mainly stolen, (sorry, given), 🙂 from various friends and local quarries.

The featured photo is of  the slag rock from the Killaloe slate mines. These pieces wouldn’t split right for the slate makers and were discarded in massive piles. Below, is a piece of Devonian Red Sandstone from the Ballyhouras, which complements the greenery of the ferns. The wall behind is made of Namurian Shale from Castleisland, which I didn’t steal but bought from a farmer in Kerry.

This, below, is Carnoniferous Limestone from bedrock broken out, when foundations for a new house were being put in in Corofin, Co. Clare. This rock is the basic building block of the Burren.

I’ve no idea what this red rock is. It looks like it’s igneous: it came out of an aquarium. I’ll source rock from anywhere! 🙂

This rock, below, is the one that everyone inquires about. It’s obviously a Pyroclastic rock from a volcano somewhere or other. I actually bought this rock (I didn’t steal it) from a garden supplier who was closing down. The price I paid for a one ton builders’ bag of it was a steal, though. €50.

This below is Decaying Brown Shale from the Ballyhoura Mountains. It’s slowly succumbing to frost and probably won’t have a long life now that it’s exposed to the elements. A lovely metamorphic rock.

This is Slate from a slate mine up in the Tipperary hills. The mine is now full of water and scuba divers haven’t been able to reach the bottom of it, it’s so deep. It has been coloured with iron-rich water flowing through the slag heaps.

From Woodcock Hill in Co. Clare comes this Yellow Sandstone, which, in some cases,when exposed to air, bleaches to a pasty white.

Namurian Shale from Castleisland. It’s actually blue but water from the bog over eons have stained it an ochre colour.

More Pyroclastic rock, probably a type of Scoria, with Lewisias inserted into the holes.

Getting hold of this rock, Tufa, is like looking for hens’ teeth. Impossible to get here and I was very, very lucky when I found a few pieces. This very soft rock is formed when limey water flows over a bog or seeps out from acidic bedrock. Carbon dioxide evaporates from the water and calcium carbonate is left covering the vegetation. You’ll invariably find spagnum moss and similar inside the encrustation. The amazing thing is that you can plant ericaceous plants in calcareous tufa and they do well!

More decaying brown Shale from the Ballyhoura Mountains.

Weathered Carboniferous Limestone from a farm approximately 3 miles away as the crow flies. When I get to the farm, I have to trot in about a mile across the fields to find the stone, which is randomly strewn around.

Slate from the Graves of the Leinstermen, up on top of the mountain behind Ballina.

A large piece of Carboniferous Limestone. You can see the grykes in it, which I’ve planted plants into.

The rain has stopped now so I must leave you and rock on out into the garden. 🙂

Plans are afoot to build viewing platforms in the sky. Well, not quite up in the sky but you know what I mean.

I haven’t a square inch of spare space in the garden to build two daises on the ground to view Rockstown Castle and Skule Hill, so they’ll have to be elevated to first floor level; one over a garage and the other on top of a wall.  A corollary to this was that I was offered a greenhouse for free this week but had no room to put it anywhere. 

The picture above is an initial idea for the one over the garage but that design could well change before it’s actually built. I also have six Victorian cast irons columns, which I picked up recently, and they may well be incorporated into both platforms yet.

These are only musings because it’s all down to costs permitting of course. Too expensive and the ideas go down the Suwannee River. But, watch this space. 🙂