2025/27 - Heatwave! Yet again.

 When I was young, long, long ago, we occasionally had a heatwave. Not yearly, there used to be quite a few years in between. It was spoken of with awe, "do you remember, in 1976...". By now we shrug when the weather woman says the word. Yeah, right, another one, well, let's stock up on icecubes.

'Frog' and 'boiling water' spring to mind. Children of today think nothing of it that Brielle is as hot as the Spanish costa used to be thirty years ago. But I remember! Our summers were cool, and you were lucky if you were not washed out of your tent in August. My birthday is in August, and more often than not we had to sit indoors because it rained! Those rare dry sunny days were celebrated. When I huffed and puffed up a hill on my bicycle near Malmedy in 1976, I could not foresee that those temperatures would become our new normal in 2025.

Right. Back to Hunky Dory. I watered my Hydrangeas early this morning, because I know from experience they will suffer today. And just when they are so utterly gorgeous.

Look at that! They are so pretty when they are half in bloom.

My neighbour arrived after an hour, to water his veg. He is into veg. I am envious of his veg. My broad beans are a disappointment...the pods look great, but the beans are flawed.

So I console myself with my flowers. At least they compare well to his.

What's left of my Gaura is doing her best to defend her space against the monster Fennel.

The Hollyhock is towering over that Fennel though, it is huge. Just about as high as the apple tree behind it.

I think it is so pretty. Hollyhocks never grew for me in my previous garden, well, no worries here. They happily wonder through the garden, next to (and on) the paths.

Wherever possible I leave them be. You can see from the spilled pollen that they are constantly visited by the bumblebees and miner bees.

I cut back the mangled fronds of the Artichokes, as my neighbour had to do a sort of jungle wade through to reach his potatoes. They tower over the Lathyrus Latifolius. Which, I am very happy to say, is starting to flower. Yay! Result! Mind you, I watered it religiously, otherwise I would have lost it.

It will be blush pink. It is a perennial.

The Crocosmia underneath is also looking good.

There is something wrong with all my Buddleia though!! Every March I cut them back hard, and they are in full flower by June. This year all have stunted growth and are frankly looking terrible.

The Clivia is flowering in the hot border. Mind you, her leaves suffer from the sun, I should find her a better (shadier) spot.

My English Lavender is doing well though. This does not mind that heat one bit.

The Trachelospermum is in flower as well. It grows up a wild plum, which is not happy with the fact I topped it. But that plum is in the wrong place and I don't have the strength to dig it out! Where is Lee Burkhill when I need him, eh?

Ah... Yes. Eventhough I try to keep water in the frog pond, is is like carrying water to the sea. Topping it up is impossible, my waterbutt is empty. And I need the other butts to keep my plants alive. So, after long unhappy thinking I have decided to fill it in with soil. I'll leave a depression, so hopefully I can keep bogplants alive. I have a Stipia that does not like my balcony planter. The Waterlily I will take home, and try to keep it alive in my pond there.

Some you win, some you lose...

It it disappointing though, I so enjoyed my old (large) pond, with goldfish and dragonflies and many frogs.

It just would not happen in this garden.

So. Go with the flow, Renée!

I will leave you with some photos of my balcony garden, which is doing very well.

Have a good weekend, wherever you are!

Renée Grashoff 

2025/26 - Extremes all over the place

 After a week of rain and low temperatures, Wednesday was an in-between day. It started rainy, chilly and extremely windy, and ended sunny, and then suddenly a massive rainshower and sunny again. Our weather is all over the place...Because today, Friday, it was 20°C at 05.33 (I know, 'cause Puck told me she needed walkies NOW), and it is expected to reach 32° by the afternoon. Followed by a massive thunderstorm, so I need to get my planters down from the railings of the balcony.

My neighbour took precautions and cut off all his Peonies, but had overlooked this one. It was hiding itself on my side of the plot.

Meanwhile that wind was strafing my plants. Okay, everything is now green instead of parched, but wind dries out plants too, so I still have to water the pots! I took Puck, never a good idea, she is not a natural gardener.

The dominant colour is green at the moment, as most plants are not at the flowering stage, and the spring blooms have finished. But my fern has survived, which is great.

The Cosmea is growing, almost hiding the Geranium from sight.

This Lily is still going strong.

And so is Schneewitchen. The other three roses have finished, but I know they will get a second blooming.

And suddenly the perennial Lathyrus has taken off. It is Lathyrus Latifolius 'Pink Pearl', and did nothing since I planted it two months ago. But now it is growing, yay! It has competition from the grape next to it. Not ideal, but I thought that grape had vanished.

 I think this photo illustrates the prairy feeling of the back of my garden, next to the compost heaps. There Salvias and Phlomis compete with tall grasses that have blown in from the verge on the other side of the ditch. I see the majority of insects in this part of the garden, so I leave the grasses and only weed if absolutely necessary.

Another plant I thought had perished: my yellow Digitalis grandiflora. It is there, hurray!

It is hard to believe that Pinus on the left was only 15cm high 4 years ago. It is taller than me now, more than 1.70cm. In a year or so it will have outgrown the Artichokes. They took a real battering this week, lots of their fronds have wind damage. 

Talking about that...half of my apples have blown down.

One of the many Ladybirds on the Artichokes. This is an exotic, and not many of our native ones are around I'm sad to say.

This morning I felt a burning pain in the cuticle of my ringfinger, so I thought 'thorn?'. But it turned out to be a Ladybird larvae. Man, they have jaws! It hung from my cuticle so I had to pull it off, and then the cuticle stung and bled as if a beastie much larger had bit me!

This is it. The Fourteen-spot Ladybird. In future I'll look differently on my Artichoke guests, I can tell you!

A sweet little Campanula.

Since not only thunder but also hail is predicted for tonight, I took a photo of my balcony garden for you, before it will be ruined.

Puck is pretending she hasn't spotted the three ripe Strawberries, but as soon as my back is turned, she will steal them.

Have a good weekend wherever you are!

Renée Grashoff 

2025/25 - You should be careful what you wish for...

 I have uploaded a new blog to my website: Renée Grashoff Schrijft is the link.

Yesterday it rained so hard that Puck ran to the nearest patch of grass on the corner, did her wee, and ran straight back home.  Yep. The rain we have longed for for months has arrived, and stayed.

Mind you, there are brief periods of respite, due to the very heavy wind that is also staying. Welcome to the Dutch Delta!

The photo above is from my excursion to the next island over, Goeree-Overflakkee, to take a walk. In the sand dunes next to Ouddorp beach I came across this field. The rain does have its benefits!

Say goodbye to the last of my Iris. They are finished, and have done wonderfully. 

The spring flowers are done with their display and the summer flowers are slowly taking over.

Every year it is a surprise where these cheerful chamomile-like flowers will shoot up. They are doing a tour, having started in the orchard, and have now arrived next to the path. They are called Tanacetum parthenium, are perennial, (Moederkruid) and are used as a herbal remedy against migraines. Apparently you can eat the green leaves in your salad, but I haven't tried, as the strong scent puts me off eating it. 

Talking about the orchard, the Teasels are shooting up again.

The apples are looking lovely at this stage, but they do so every year, and then by the time I should be able to eat them, they have turned rather disappointing. But I enjoy looking at them, and the blackbirds are very happy to eat them.

I picked the first of my broad beans... before the snails got to them.

Say hello to my little nemesis... She has come out of hiding from the drought and has brought all her friends. Unfortunately they have invited all the slugs as well. Many of my leafy plants are rapidly turning into something resembling Swiss cheese.

From a distance the Artichokes look fine, but close up they are holey and the tops are covered in blackfly. But: there are whole herds of Ladybirds having parties, so it is okay I suppose.

A pristine wet leaf.

I was worried about my red Elderflower, it looked so sad, but now that it has had a week of rainshowers it has perked up.

This year there are not so many flowers in the Phlomis russeliana, but the plant looks healthy enough. Slugs and snails stay away from her!

And the Salvia is going strong - this is such a dependable plant!

The Prunella vulgaris (Brunel) is spreading underneath the Salvia. Such a sweet little flower, and bees adore it.

Right! I spie, I spie with my little eye, something beginning with...?

I will not blame you if at first glance you think this is a giant spider. It is actually a Calendula, isn't it gorgeous? All the others in that bed are the normal ones (well, to me they are) but this one plant has these long, long petals. I'll make certain to collect the seeds!

And that's it from me this week folks. Have a lovely weekend wherever you are, but especially you lovely people in Singapore and Mexico.

Renée Grashoff