It once used to be that the phrase “all talk, no action” was a class of insult. But not today. There’s little action can be taken in level-five lockdown, and we’ve become a world of talkers. Elbows on the table, phone on speaker.
One person I phone a bit is a woman called Norrie Lalor. We usually talk about gardens, but over recent weeks that talk has grown sort of pointedly aimed at spring. The best season.
“I’m 90 now, and this will be the second spring I’ve missed. You’re young,” she tells me (though I’m not), “but I don’t know how many springs I have left.”
First pangs of growth in our gardens
There are lots of small jobs to be done to put things to bed for the winter, and with spring around the corner the time is short for getting them done, says garden expert Olive Ryan
ABOVE: Snowdrops making an appearance along the lime avenue at Blarney Castle Gardens last week
Olive Ryan
SPRING is starting to make an appearance in the garden, as snowdrops brave the winter sunshine, winter aconites abound, the nodding heads of the flowers of helleborus appear emerging from the old foliage if it has not been removed, and even a few early daffodil varieties provide splashes of yellow in January.
Great gifts for the gardener in your life
In her weekly gardening column Olive Ryan shares some ideas on what to buy people who love to garden, for Christmas.
Rhododendron ‘Christmas Cheer’ is aptly named and would make a great gift.
Olive Ryan
AS shops reopened last week and Christmas preparations began in earnest, thoughts of what to get the gardener in your life may have arose. There are so many different items to choose from!
Books are always a great option at this time of the year, when there is lots of gardening done from the armchair.
Jane Powers’ book An Irish Nature Year (inset below) documents a year observing nature with an entry for each day, giving an account of what might be encountered in the realms of birds, insects, animal and plant life.