Greetings to Friends and Family!
Our travels to Ireland were wonderful! We met so many nice people and had such a great time. Aside from all our adventures we took in the Powerscourt House and Gardens located in Enniskerry, County Wicklow. It is lovely beyond words and here are a couple highlights of our visit.
inside the walled garden
view atop the Italianate terraces
Our Ireland trip was everything I’d hoped and more!
Once we returned to Finland, summer had finally showed up with plentiful sunshine and warm temperatures. Yeah!!
Here’s a look at Vanha Talo Suomi today:
great place to take in the view – our sun porch terrace!
sStill a million and one things to do inside. Luckily, the outside is coming along! I’d like to tweak things a bit here and there. A few items have recently been moved from one garden bed to another but I think it’s going to work out really well as they become more established. I’ve concentrated all the peonies for instance in one area and have separate beds for perennial wildflowers and another for other types of perennial plant types. Believe it or not, I’m not done buying bulbs from Poland! 🙂
Hope your garden or building project is rewarding you with satisfaction. I’m happy for the Irish adventure and for the warm summer weather! 🙂
Possibly next time there will be some indoor progress to write about. Until then…
❤ Vanha Talo Suomi
Vanha Talo Suomi 
Beautiful pics! Glad you had a lovely holiday! Cheers, Ben
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Thank you!
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Well, your handwork outside certainly shows because all the garden areas and the grass are lush and beautiful. And, you squeezed in a trip to Ireland which is at the top of my current travel bucket list. I’ve been busy moving plants around trying to make more of a statement myself. Happy August to you and yours. 🙂
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Ireland is packed with wonderful scenery, you can have a great trip without even trying! Seeing centuries-old gardens and old castles is really breath-taking, even more so when you learn about the families who once lived there.
We did a lot of hiking in Glendalough National Park and spent many days in County Wicklow. There are many lovely sites regardless of which direction you decide to travel. Cliffs of Moher on the Atlantic west coast requires a car or a chartered bus through a touring outfit. Cost was something like 25 euro RT. A car offers you the chance to stop anywhere and spend more time. We should have rented a car for part of our trip, but otherwise trains and local transport where ideal.
As for my own garden exploits 🙂 I still had a few plants tucked in willy-nilly in the safe zones the excavator wouldn’t destroy. It’s taken me a little whilte to get caught up enough to finally be able to re-seat them in better places. I have a woodland garden that is still a bit over filled and I need to free some hostas and thin out some wild roses, called Juhanusruusu (http://www.viikkosavo.fi/web/pdf/2012_19/11VISA1217P0.pdf) they are a midsummer blooming rose that didn’t bloom at all this year 😦
Anyway, lots to do and of course the wish-list for adding new stuff never ends. 🙂
Happy August to you as well!
PS thanks for posting the info about MG programs. I never knew!
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Great link. I had to admit several years back that the only rose I can keep successfully is a Knockout that doesn’t require me to do anything but admire its small blooms. 🙂
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Glad you had a lovely holiday – the garden and house are looking so beautiful. Your hard work has really start to pay dividends!
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Thanks Matt! I cut the grass the day before we left, knowing in 2 weeks time the new growth would be tough to tackle. And it was!! Had to cut it twice in the span of 4 days. Rains all summer were one thing, but when the heat finally arrived the grass took off!
I have learned a few things this year from reading garden blogs and seeing formal gardens – such as; the early spring framework (willow branch bracing or even sticks and string) you place in the garden bed is very effective in stabilizing tall plants and keeping them upright instead of the drooping, falling over tendency of lanky top-heavy stems. I have some of these but next year I will start using a frame.:) (Nymans Gardens http://www.gardenvisit.com/garden/nymans_garden shows this technique and I saw it again at Powerscourt.
Hope your spring is bringing you some garden joy. Our summers are so short here it hardly seems fair.
I’m sure your garden is going to really impress this year – can’t wait to see!!
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It’s amazing how quick the grass grows in summer…just a never ending job! Spring is getting ever closer here, although we had another snowfall yesterday. Garden visit is a great resource for so much!
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Very beautiful! 🙂 I have a blog by Blogger/Blogspot, and I welcome visitors and comments from any blog, Blogspot or not. Thank you so much for sharing, and warm greetings from Montreal, Canada. 🙂
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Thank you for your visit Linda and the kind words 🙂 Our remodeling project has been underway for a year now, and finally getting to the garden areas was a real test in patience for me. I’m from Michigan originally and discovered some of the plants here are quite similar to those I remember. Does anything look familial to items grown in Montreal?
Best wishes on the continued success of your blog! Very nice. 🙂
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And I’m glad you posted. 🙂 🍸
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