A SHORT VISIT TO lIER IN BELGIUM

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Some weeks ago now I had the opportunity to visit my native country again for a short time. So it was with delight that I departed from Dublin airport to arrive to the welcome of my dear sister Josephine in Brussel. It had been many years, since before covid, that I had been back. Her son-in-law Emile drove us home to Lier which is where my sister lives. This medieval town has special significance for our family as some of our ancestors used to walk its cobblestoned streets. It is no wonder then that when walking in Lier I get a strong feeling of its history, I love it. Our great grandfather was a cattle merchant there, I can see him doing deals with other folk, inspecting, selling and buying cattle. I looked for the Veemarkt, the historical cattle market area of the town, and found it, but that is for further explorations.

I would like to say a little about the townhall with its belfry. During the 14th century Lier had a thriving textile industry and in 1367 a Cloth Hall was built. This stood at the site of the present town hall. The beautiful belfry adjacent to the hall was built earlier, a bell in the tower was used to warn the town’s people of any danger, but also it contained the charters. It housed, and still does, a carillon with 23 bells which ring out regularly over the town square. In 1418 the function of the cloth hall was moved to the nearby guild hall of the butchers, the cloth hall became the present town hall, its extensive restoration was completed in the 18th century. A beautiful oak stairway, incredible ceiling paintings, and beautiful interior was designed and can be admired today. The present building is finished in Brabantic rococo style.

This is a story, according to folklore, about saint Gommarus, the patron saint of Lier.  In the 8th century this big landowner and son of a lord became a hermit after he had served some time in the military. The town of Lier is said to have grown up around his hermitage. Gommarus is said to have saved a tree from death by tying his belt around it after it had been chopped.  The tree lived.  Subsequently miracles happened and saint Gommarus is since said to be protecting folks from fractures.  The interesting Romanesque St.Pieter’s chapel (see photos below), built ca.1225, stands on the site of a wooden prayer room where saint Gommarus used to pray.  The present chapel has undergone extensive restorations.  It is situated in a very old part of the town.  

Lace in Lier is not bobbin lace, it was and is still made using a small crochet needle making chain stitches in various thicknesses of cotton that are embroidered on tule, which is stretched onto an embroidery frame. I found these pieces in one of the museums, I thought it to be beautiful work.

Some more beautiful facades of the town square and on the far left is what was the guild hall of the butchers (vleeshuis).

In 1383 a start was made with putting down cobblestones on the huge market place, these are called ‘kinderkopjes’ in Lier, meaning little heads of children! On the right is a photo of the St.Jacob’s chapel which was extensively damaged during WI but rebuilt.

Below some photos of the beguinage, which at the moment is being restored in several places. It is a place which is so peaceful and has beautiful corners. It’s great to read up on the history of it.

The river Nete flows through Lier, and Lier has some wonderful greenery circling the town, this is the area of the Vests, where the original town walls were, they have been made into lovely walks. We saw a red squirel there!

Left is one of the remaining historical gates of the town which gave entry to the area lying within the town walls. This one is called the gevangenispoort, meaning the jail gate, this because at some time in the past it was used as a jail. Right is the famous Zimmer toren which is such a wonder in itself.

We had such a nice time, reminiscing and looking up history and taking photos, and of course all this while have plenty of stops for coffee and confectionery!

Here is a paling schuit, a type of fishing boat which was used to fish for eels.

And here is a photo of our great grandfather, a Lierenaar. And my sister Josephine who is wearing her sensible shoes in order to have an easy journey over the cobblestones! We only had rain on the first day. It was a short visit but it was brilliant! And I have a lot more to say about Lier. The day that I had to travel again came too soon!

a BEAUTIFUL GARDEN INFLUENCED BY CHRISTOPHER LLOYD OF GREAT DIXTER

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One of the most fine and inspiring gardens on the West Cork Garden Trail is situated near Dunmanway. It is the Aultaghreagh Cottage Garden which is beautifully created by Christine and Leslie Wilson who were in turn inspired by plantsman Christopher Lloyd of Dixter in East Sussex.  As part of our children’s summer holiday activities my daughter and I decided that we would visit this garden and make a nice day out of it.  We were not to be disappointed, and even the weather was with us, we enjoyed beautiful sunshine! And we were greatly inspired by our garden visit.

In his day Christopher Lloyd liked colour contrasts, he liked blocks of colour intermixed with foliage, and I saw this reflected in Christina and Leslie’s planting, their perennial borders were colourful and vibrant.  Coincidently this very year I myself was looking for ideas to improve our borders and I was sure to find that here.

As we walked past rhododendrons, azalea’s and other acid loving shrubs we came to a secluded area surrounded with lush trees and we found a pond there where gold fish were swimming and water lilies abounded as well as other water loving plants.

Beautiful flowers were visited by so many butterflies and other pollinators, a sight to behold. One of my granddaughters was able to capture a bumblebee.

To grow plants for all year round interest takes good planning and is so worth it.

After walking around the gardens with Christine and Leslie as our guides, we sat and had tea and cake, we heard the story of how they created the gardens from a bleak wide open field, they planted a lot of trees to start off with and added features bit by bit, it must have been hard work and the result is really very interesting. From the magical walled garden to the pond area, the many different sections each gave us another special feel of being close to nature. I loved seeing all the pots with day-lilies, now finished flowering and waiting to be brought into the tunnel for the winter season. We were given many tips and got answers to our many questions. We saw how much vegetables, berries and other fruit were grown, this too was inspiring.

One of Christopher Lloyd’s philosophical sayings was ‘My mother and I like plants to look like they are enjoying themselves’ and I think that’s got to be the thing that makes a garden sing! And this garden was singing all the way! We went away having enjoyed a lovely and inspiring afternoon.

A SUB-TROPICAL WILDERNESS

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This is what I choose to call our garden at this moment, a sub-tropical wilderness. It all happened in a week or so of soft rain during the beginning of July, come to think of it there was an awful lot of rain, both soft and heavy! There were some warm days and some less warm but overall the climate was conducive to rapid growth resulting in our present wilderness. It did not help that I tripped and fell and was out of action for over a week.

All the same there are lovely surprises to be discovered among all this wild growth. The most beautifully coloured hydrangeas have not been affected by the wet weather, whereas the lavender this summer disappeared rather too fast, they got destroyed. The shasta daisies held out beautifully despite all the wind, I did tie them to bamboo sticks though.

The lush growth is itself really lovely to experience and I’ve learnt to embrace it and not worry about the neatness that most of us expect in our gardens. I’ve learnt that such wilderness is very beneficial for our pollinators which at present is so important, I’m happy to say that our garden was absolutely brimming with all sorts of insects and butterflies during the past summery days.

Of all the flowers that I sowed the lobelias did best of all and are still in full bloom. Some of the self seeding flowers like the marigolds also did well. And I’ve got rudbeckias coming on. First year using a small greenhouse and I have found it very beneficial for all sorts of plants and seedlings. The tomato plants did not do well despite looking up information and trying to follow it, they became affected with some sort of fungus and I have no harvest. The potatoes on the other hand did fantastically well, we are still eating them.

First time growing gladioli, I find them such majestic flowers, and the colours are wonderful! Seeing that it’s becoming late summer, I’ve been drying several different herbs and saving lots of seeds.

I took a soil sample and tested for pH, I’m pleased that it is 7.0 to 7.5 which is ideal for growing vegetables and flowers alike. Though I did nothing to the soil around our hydrangeas the colours are changing, more purple and deep red which I love. I’ve also looked up our regional growing zone and see that it is 9a, it is always good to know what zone one is in, especially when planning new purchases.

Somewhere in the dark back of this last photo is our back gate… it’s not surprising then that my most urgent job tomorrow will be to cut down some of this elderberry tree at the very back of the garden, we cannot get to the gate anymore because of growth! I was hoping to save some of the berries but will have to cut some down before they are ripe. That area is also full of montbretias which of course are very good at self propagation. I love to see these grow for their bright orange colour and fresh green leaves, and they are so easy and hardy, totally taking care of themselves. For the next week or so I’ll also be planting out some leeks, kale, kohl rabi, and celery, but first I’ll have to make space for them.

Here in West Cork it is 16 degrees Celsius at present, and raining, no sun. I hope that wherever you are the weather is bearable and good for your gardens and your health.

THOUGHTS OF SUMMER 2023

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This summer is moving along nicely, after a rather cold spring with lots of icy eastern winds.  Today I’m sitting under our hawthorn tree thinking of writing another blog post which I feel is long overdue.  I want to write about where I am at this moment, what is inspiring me and how I’m filling my days.

Right at the beginning of spring I felt the desire to work with a greenhouse in order to grow more and better plants in this unpredictable climate, and soon after longing for it I started looking at different designs, and ordered our present tunnel, Ian treated me to it.  It is a small tunnel but then we have a small garden.  I’ve never looked back.

I’m growing more vegetables this year, I’m not leaving things up to my intuition like I usually do or did, this year I’m actually reading up in gardening books and on the web what are the best ways to grow certain crops, and most important, how can I improve my soil, or at least help it to keep fertile.  Up to now I’ve always collected my garden waste and thrown it into a corner at the end of the garden, but not anymore.  I realise that I need to put nutrients back into the soil.  Ok if there are some wild plants among them that I don’t want to regrow necessarily, if they are in seed, then they go into the compost barrel, but all other green waste stays on the soil where it grew, it’s a good mulch and it kept the soil moist during the driest weeks earlier in the summer.  I’m also keeping a good garden journal this year, noting everything I sow and grow and how it is doing and other notes on how I can improve their growth in future years.  It’s useful! 

My interest in gardening lies not alone in beautifying my surroundings, or in growing vegetables, I also like to experiment, not only with growth but also with the soil, with the sort of pollinators that are visiting, and with the changes to our trees and other long standing growth, such as what type of wild plants keep germinating and growing to maturity, as that changes over time.  For a few years I had Evening Primrose and Mullein growing and self-seeding, now they are gone.  But the pale Hedge Woundwort has been a loyal wild flower all over the garden for decades, as has the Herb Robin.  I practise polyculture.

Now and then I take test of the soil to see if there is anything lacking and usually there is.  I have tried to rectify this over the years with seaweed fertilizer.  I garden totally organic!  I find this testing immensely interesting and am learning more every day. Listening to podcasts or webinars that discuss the important of soil building and organic growing and so on keeps me fired up.

At this time there is also the produce collecting, the use or storing of same.  Delicious dishes are being produced in my kitchen, I enjoy all the cooking of the fresh produce.  There is the herb collecting and drying, I grow a huge collection of different herbs, many of which I dry for winter use.  Teas also, like Hawthorn, Lemon Balm and Lemon Vervain, Mint etc…  Collecting seeds for future use or for swapping and sharing will be the next step as the summer moves along.

The big experiment this season is growing my own potatoes.  Early in the year I bought Mirabella seed potato in one of our local garden centres.  These seeds are blight resistant and organic.  So I dug up all the grasses from a patch at the back of the garden and after chitting the seed potatoes, planted them out.  They grew fantastically well.  I had 22 plants!  Only to discover that they were early potatoes that do not store well, my idea was to have potatoes over the winter as we are not big potato eaters.  I’ve dug up some to date and they are nice, but they will probably be gone by the winter time.  Note so self:  Next year… check that out better.  To lift up a crop of potatoes from the soil is like witnessing a miracle over and over again, I find it both fascinating and exciting and I love it.

I’m aware of the decline in biodiversity and as much as possible I attend and take part in local groups that are concerned about this and try to enlighten the public about all the various aspects of avoiding and helping to minimize this current worldwide problem.  The environment and biodiversity is high priority on my agenda, and while I can only attend a certain amount of activity or meetings, I like to give priority to this important current problem.  I take photos of pollinators and share them, we need them more than we know.  Knowing which plants attract pollinators and cultivating those also is of importance. 

All in all nature in general, in all its beauty and interest is enhancing and making my life fascinating.  Every day I learn and discover more, it lights up my days and keeps my brain sharp with doing more and more research.  What a blessing.  There is today a huge amount of information online and in up to date books both about the beauty, the interest, and the problems currently present in the environment, with biodiversity, with the ecology, in farming practises, and in nature connectedness.   It is a never ending nature study! 

Fortunately many people are very well aware of all this and much is being done, but much more needs doing worldwide.

PEACEFUL SUNDAY MORNING

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Nature is at its very best right now. The month of May is usually the most beautiful in Ireland I think. Insects abound, flowers are lush and beautiful and still so full of energy, deep colour and vibrancy. And the trees are mighty in their greenery, strong and filling up with juice taken from infrequent spring showers. I feel it, their strenght, when I sit on the bench under our enormous hawthorn tree. I take time there, every single day. It’s one of the best restoring pills nature has to offer.

Peaceful moments.

LICHENS i FOUND GROWING IN WEST CORK

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This Sunday afternoon I had a look through my recent photos of some of the lichens that I find growing in the area here, some of them in our own garden, others are found in the local forests of West Cork, growing on trees but also on rocks, on stone buildings, on roofs. Our own roof has some orange lichen (I read that this is a sign that we live in a clean environment… no pollution). I love lichen and find them fascinating but so far I have not had much luck with identifying them, for proper identification you need more than the naked eye, a microscope or at least a hand lens. So I’m not going to attempt to put identification with my photos as yet. Lichens are a combination of a fungus and one or more algae in a mutually symbiotic relationship. I read that the algae do the photosynthesis, providing the fungi with energy for reproduction, the fungi in turn provide structural form and protect the lichen from bright light . I find lichen beautiful and in fact would love a workshop on their identification, it would be very interesting especially as there are so many types of them growing here.

On the prompt of my brother-in-law I looked up this wonderful educational website: of the British Lichen Society ~ https://britishlichensociety.org.uk/learning/about-lichens: I’m sure it will be very useful for yours truly and for anyone else interested in lichen. Thanks Colin!

This lichen is growing on our chestnut tree

Lichens are found on so many trees.

Such an intricate pattern.

MYROSS WOOD ON A MISTY DAY IN APRIL

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This misty Sunday afternoon was a good time for a walk in Myross wood. I’d been to the plant sale there and after picking some new plants for the garden, and a cup of tea that is just what I did. The birds were singing and there was a wealth of new life, flowers and plants, young leaves on the trees as well. I found plenty of beautiful mosses and lichens, also some fungi. As it has been rather wet the last week the woods were full of moisture and many of the plants had rain or mist drops dripping off them. An ideal way to see the forest, beautiful and calm, no wind. There were few other walkers. I could hear the brook from afar adding to an overall feel of dampness which in fact did not disturb me, rather it gave me a refreshing feeling. April in West Cork can be a nice month, still chilly at times but when the sun comes through it gives all of its warmth at once, a very nice feeling that is. Often the month of May is already our summer with temperature going over 20degrees Celsius. But seeing that it is still April the days can be unpredictable, today was misty and windstill, very quiet. The detail that is to be found on the forest floor among some of last autumn’s leaves is amazing, all the new life, so fresh and delicate, beautiful and interesting too. I found plenty of that today. The many photos that I took of the lichen I’ll be showing in another blog post, I simply love lichen and mosses too. Meanwhile enjoy what follows today and thank you for visiting.

ENTHUSIASTIC PLANS FOR OUR GARDEN

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It is nearing the end of March and though the weather is still quite wet, it is time to put some of the plans that I have made for the garden into action. The frost is gone and the temperature is now around 18 degrees. The soil temperature was 11 degrees Celsius today. However, the soil is still very wet. I’ve been working at the back of the garden taking roots out of the soil, roots from ivy, black currant, and nettles from a patch where I want to grow our potatoes this season. It’s hard but rewarding work and I just love working with the soil, feeling it and finding little creatures in it, even the colours of different soil is interesting. The plot that I’m currently working in has always been used to dispose of organic matter, and it has benefited this soil very much, its colour is more brown than the surrounding black. Originally our soil was mostly clay but over the years I’ve been changing it to loam by using lots of composted garden and kitchen refuse. So anyway, my plans for this year include introducing some of my favourite perennials and annuals, some of these I will be sowing and some I am buying. We do have two excellent garden centres here in the town, I can get anything I want. Talking about anything I want… one of my dearest wishes for many years is to get a small green house, think of what I could grow off season…

This is only the start of getting the plot ready, lots more work to be done.

During the winter I covered the patch that I planned to use for the potatoes with canvas, it did make a difference when I uncovered it yesterday, a lot of the grass had wilted. Two robins where looking for grubs in the newly disturbed soil, they are so lovely and not a bit afraid of us humans.

Some of the vegetables that are currently growing still and ready for eating.

And some of the flowers that are heralding spring, they seem to brave the wind and rain so easily!

Feverfew
Dandelion
Nettle and Cleavers
Wild violets and ramsone
Borage

And these above are some of my more wild plants which I treasure too, some for cooking, and some for the enjoyment of the flowers when they show later in the summer. They all grow so easy and start to grow very early in the year, such a joy, so green and healthy looking. In fact most of these plants overwinter here as the climate is mild, we did get some frost, even a little snow, but mostly temperatures are a few degrees above zero during the night and in the day they vary between 8 and 10 Celcius.

During the past three years I’ve added several shrubs to my collection, and this year I’m thinking of buying a Mahony shrub, I see them growing in tubs around the town and love them. Their honey scented yellow flowers are beautiful and also flowering early in the year. The leaves turn a lovely colour in autumn. Inside I’m starting a Ribes plant from a cutting, and I’ve got a Skimmia sapling still sitting on the kitchen window-sill ready to plant out soon, it is a male plant so I will be looking for a female to join it, it is the female plant that develops the deep red berries. I have sweet pea seedlings on my bedroom window-sill, a bit too soon those plant out. It’s time to sow a selection of summer flowering annuals inside, but the marigolds I’ll be sowing outside during the next week, they thrive very well in our garden. I’m also setting a myriad of gladiola bulbs.

Rose grow real well here
Hydrangea ready for the season
Tiny solitary bee
My plan for 2023
While digging I disturbed this centipede
Years ago I planted this Forsythia so that we would have some colour early in spring, this year is the first time that it blooms so lovely!

I am not your regular gardener, though I love the physical work that gardening involves, mostly I like to experiment and I like to see what comes growing into my garden without me planting it, I like the element of surprise and discovery. I like taking note of what my soil needs and so testing the soil, taking its temperature, making note of how much light a certain plot receives, how acid the soil is, and much more. I also like to propagate plants, grow from cuttings etc… It’s something I’ve done all my life. And I like to provide fresh vegetables for my family… well, my husband and myself that is, I love cooking with fresh produce that I’ve just plucked from the garden whether it’s wild or cultivated, a combination is great. Right now the wild plants that are plentiful are three cornered leeks, succulent tops of cleavers, young dandelion leaves and tender nettle leaves. The earth gives abundantly!

Gardening can be such a pleasure.