Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk with Aviva Insurance.
We are going to talk about herbaceous plants and other matters gardening related with Mairi Staunton, who's here. Hello. Hello. How are you? I'm good. How are your bulbs? I'm good. They're fine. They're starting to grow. I was out looking at them this morning at about quarter to six and I had a peek at them and there is some life there. Summer. flowering bulbs. It's going well.
I will keep you informed. I know I was late to the party, but I think it's going to work. So herbaceous plants, why should we have them?
OK, so they are the mainstay of big summer borders. And the problem sometimes is you might have a huge border, but it's in the shade. So what do you put in it in terms of herbaceous? And there's so many gorgeous things. One, if you want a bit of height, is called Solomon's Seal. So they're like They're like rods and then they kind of arch over and have beautiful little white flowers on them.
So they're for kind of shade. Hostas for shade. There's one called Brunnera macrophylla. It's kind of Jack Frost. It's got tiny little blue flowers on it. Really beautiful and beautiful silver and green heart shaped leaves. Gorgeous. And then you have, I suppose the common name is blue eyed Mary, which is really nice. And it has very vibrant blue flowers on it and dark green leaves.
So they're all for shade, cyclamen and all that sort of thing.
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Chapter 2: What are herbaceous plants and why should we include them in our gardens?
Really gorgeous. And you can have lots of little different kind of color combinations underneath, kind of even if there's a bit of shade from trees. So they're your kind of shady ones. And then on the other side, say you have a sunny border. And you want to pack it with peony roses, with phlox, with penstemon, all sorts of wonderfully kind of vibrant colours, cannas, lilies, gladioli.
Maybe some of your bubs were gladioli, actually. No, we don't know. It's a mystery. I don't know, it's a surprise.
I'll have to take pictures of them and bring them in. I forget half-price stuff.
Yeah.
bargain basement I was in the garden centre at the weekend like it's typical we're all like me it was absolutely mobbed jammed mobbed but actually we should be in the garden centre at a different time of year shouldn't we prepping yeah you see they're waiting for you to come in so they have all the stuff ready kind of weeks before you went in there the other day and they're waiting for you to get so people we eat with our eyes as well you're looking at colour and they have it all colour blocked when you go in so you can't avoid looking at it
But the prep, you're buying them at their most expensive, the plants.
The plants now.
Yeah, because they would have had them in smaller pots, like I said, kind of a few weeks ago. They would have had them in smaller little pots, maybe six, seven weeks ago. And they are the herbaceous plants that are now being sold for, you know, a lot more.
But they look so beautiful. They do, because you're going in, you're going, ooh, that's going to look gorgeous in my garden. I'm going to get four, you know. Yeah, exactly.
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Chapter 3: Which herbaceous plants thrive in shady areas?
Dogs love it because, you know, the way dogs like to eat a bit of grass.
Yes, they do.
But if you pull it, it breaks and it leaves a tiny bit of the root and it ends up...
Chapter 4: What vibrant herbaceous plants are suitable for sunny borders?
you know, growing again from that tiny bit of root. So you have to dig it all out. They have white kind of roots. And if you go through, I mean, it's horrendous to try and get it out. But there's nothing you can do.
Do you bother or do you just leave it?
Well, at the moment, I just pull it because I'm not putting chemical on it. So just pull it. And, you know, if you're out there kind of hoeing and doing stuff, you know, you eventually weaken it enough to get it out. The other thing you can put is...
it has to photosynthesize to keep going so it has to be get as much sunshine as it can so block the light yeah so block the light if you want to put cardboard over it and that sort of thing and then mulch the bed after that at least you're kind of you're weakening it I'd say a listener says don't plant hostas hostas hostas yeah why not don't
But snails and slugs devour them as they poke above the ground and they're decimated in weeks.
They do, yeah. Well, if you've no trees in the garden and no birdies to take the snails, because at the moment I can hear all the birds knocking the shells off the snails. And it's a delight to me, actually, to hear that. Tap, tap, tap. And then, you know, they've got another snail. So if you have no trees that birds can hide in or hedgerows or native trees, yes, your hostas will be decimated.
That's for sure. You need some birds. You need birdies. You know, you need there has to be a whole kind of ecosystem in the garden in order for things to thrive. And you're feeding the birds as well.
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Chapter 5: What common mistakes do people make with herbaceous planting?
So there's a whole kind of thing going on.
Get some birds in there. Get some birdies. And plant your hostas. Yeah. How do you get rid of the yellow patches in your lawn that keep popping up? Is it just about watering it properly?
It can be down to daddy longlegs larvae that are eating the roots of the grass. Really? I know, yeah, shocking, isn't it? So they can eat the roots of the grass and it turns yellow in patches here and there. If you have a dog, same sort of problem. But this is, yeah, daddy longlegs lay their little eggs and they burrow down, they eat the roots.
So, you know, most people are at the moment are putting on a feed on the lawn. And the problem with putting a feed or anything like that, a weed and feed on the lawn at the moment is if it doesn't rain, it burns the grass really badly. So you have to make sure that you're watching the weather forecast.
You can put it on and then watch the weather forecast to make sure that it rains within a couple of days and it soaks it in. So if there's yellow patches, it is to do with that, the daddy long legs or animals, basically. Or as low in nitrogen, you know, so something as simple as that. Something as simple as that.
I think I've overwatered... I planted some seeds when I was doing the bulbs, right? I think I've overwatered them. Well, my husband says that I did. Can I rescue the situation?
See, sometimes when you flood them and you overwater them, they just get really straggly or they go flat. You know, they kind of, they go flat to the mat on the little... Just...
ease off you know if you if you feel the compost and it's kind of just moist that's perfect it doesn't need to be swimming in water because you're yeah only tiny little I don't know what I don't know we see I've got little shoots coming up everywhere yeah that I've planted apart from in this this thing that I've done so I might have to write it off yeah yeah so start again just get another packet of seeds it's
Seeds are so cheap. It's great. You can, you know, start them again. Yeah.
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