Deer Path Gardens

08/26/2026

Dolly… 🍃🌸🍃

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08/21/2026

The most famous Bible verse about a cheerful heart is Proverbs 17:22, which says: "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."

08/19/2026

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08/14/2026

Saw lots of these fungus in the garden this morning and it’s the Monotropa uniflora, the ghost plant, also known as Indian Pipe. Also saw this growing Puff Ball growing in a shaded wild garden. They tell me they are delicious but I’ll take their word for it!

08/05/2026

This is a beautiful way to help our planet, support the birds & bees and the flowers make the journey more beautiful.

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Ireland’s most beautiful roadside gardens are often created by doing less, not planting more.

Along selected road verges, councils have reduced mowing during spring and summer, allowing wildflowers already present in the soil to bloom and set seed. Clover, buttercups, daisies, self-heal and bird’s-foot trefoil can then form long ribbons of pollen and nectar for bees, butterflies and hoverflies. The verges are usually cut after flowering, with the clippings removed so the soil gradually becomes better suited to native flowers.

Wexford’s “Life Lives on the Edge” project applied this approach at pilot stretches beside national roads, treating verges and hedgerows as connected habitats. Other councils, guided by the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan, have adopted similar seasonal mowing. South Dublin now manages around 210 hectares of meadows across parks, open spaces and road verges using ecological cutting schedules.

So the idea is genuine, but these corridors are not always newly planted strips, nor do they cover every rural road. Much of the colour is nature returning when frequent cutting pauses.

It is a wonderfully simple shift: the roadside stays managed for visibility, yet the quieter edges become a travelling buffet linking scattered habitats for some of Ireland’s smallest commuters.

07/31/2026

I love the peaceful summer mornings on the front porch with Barney… listening to the sweet little birds singing sweetly.

07/26/2026

Always enjoy walking on the mowed paths through the wildflower meadow, Barney enjoys it too. I’m collecting the yellow, purple and white flowers, drying or pressing them for guests to toss over the bride & groom at my step granddaughter’s wedding in September. Also, a photo of a few Lavender wands that smell so sweet.

07/21/2026

Today was a beautiful day to work in the garden. Warm, mid 70s and enough breeze to blow the biting bugs away. I knew time was running out to gather new wood clippings from some of our ornamental trees so I took the first step propagating Viburnum, Cherokee and Kousa Dogwood. I’ll keep them in shade with consistent daily watering, then in 8 week I’ll check to see how the roots are developing. If they look strong, I will transplant them into single pots and they will be ready to plant into the ground in about 3 years. They don’t look like much now, but in about 6 years they will be beautiful small flowering trees around the edges of our lawn and wildflower meadow. It’s called enjoying delayed gratification and planning a beautiful world for those who follow. Tomorrow I will begin with the hydrangeas.