2026/33 - Heatstress ? Absolutely! Me too...

 In a normal year, I would notice my balcony plants getting a bit tired of it all by the end of September. The same goes for Hunky Dory, a gentle decline, a winding down towards full-blown autumn.

 This year however, both have plants already simply giving up!

That grass is brown (although the roots should be alive...I hope!), the flowers are all spent, the ornamental grasses are yellow. The plants in the shade of the Pinus are barely hanging on.

The only plant still going strong in this part of my garden is the Wild Carrot. It must be because I give it peptalks. Even the 'weed' Aegopodium podagraria is looking distinctly unhappy.

The only part of the garden that seems to be hanging on, sort of, is the pink bed.

This Chinese Lantern should be blooming in mid-September at the earliest. Oh well, no use keeping on about it, 2026 has been the hottest, most frustrating gardening year of my life.

My balcony roses are doing okay, as they get mollycoddled by me, I should admit. Daily watering, daily deadheading, daily talking to's.

The Erigeron likes it dry, so that is doing fine, as is the English grass. But that  Physocarpus opul. Diablo at the right, is struggling! We've had a terrible mistral-like wind for days (hot, force 5) which has dried it out despite my watering, and it has lost half of its leaves.

That Streptocarpus has tripled in size, but has almost stopped flowering. I have to bring it indoors in October for the winter, it is a houseplant really, but where on earth will I put it? It is huge. That is the thing with putting houseplants outside for a summer holiday...they like it so much that they grow like mad.

The Last Cucumber. They have all been fat and short. But thankfully they taste okay, unlike the Tomatoes - I have plenty of them, but they are only suitable for sauce, and then need loads of herbs to give them some taste.

Actually, this grass along the lake bank does not look so bad! Not lush, but not the brown stuff where I necessarily have my Puck do a quick wee either. We just got in from such a wee, 35°C would you believe, and my poor old dog was suffering. But she is used to go around 14.00, so go she must! I take her in the shade of the Summer Oaks around the corner, but so do all the other dog walkers, so it has turned into Poo Avenue.

She would feel better if she swam to cool off, but she is not a swimmer. Actually, there is blue-green algae in the lake, and people and dogs are warned not to swim in it, as the algae not only turn you green and make you smell like a three days dead fish, but they can actually make you very ill.

So she suffers in silence, and I give her the occasional ice cube, and turn the fan on for her.

Right. From a sweltering Dutch Delta I'll say bye bye. Hopefully the rain that they keep promising us, but so far never arrived, will come this weekend. Wish us luck?

Have a good week, wherever you are.

Renée Grashoff 

2026/32 - August already...time flies.

 My allotment garden, suffering from the 4th heatwave of this year and the subsequent lack of water, is giving off autumn vibes already... My allotment neighbour's plums are suffering from mildew and are rotting on the trees, such a shame. But the other neighbour's figs are doing great!

Mind you, the birds think so too! Who would have thought that it would ever be possible to grow edible figs in our climate? I used to rave over them when visiting Greece, once upon a time. And now they are growing in the Dutch Delta.

My quietly suffering Hydrangeas. They can live out their life there, but I will certainly not buy new ones. Much more sensible to get plants which are suited to drought.

I took a turn around the allotments, and saw the same thing everywhere: dried out soil and struggling crops. The only plants which are holding on are the Mediterranean ones, like these sunflowers.

These Nasturtiums are looking perky, but I suspect they are being watered.

When I got to Hunky Dory at 07.00 a.m., I noticed this Bumble Bee still asleep in one of the last Lathyrus flowers. But I can see new shoots coming up, so...

Both my other neighbour (my plot is surrounded, I have 4) Hans and me plant flowers especially for the insects, and this year he has lovely Cosmea.

You cannot see where his flowers stop, and mine begin, which is just the way I like it.

This type of Hydrangea I like much better than the mopheads, and they are more interesting for the bees as well. At least with these there's pollen for them to collect.

I cut off all the tops of my tomatoes; they will produce tomatoes still, but these will take too much energy from the many others already there, and besides will never ripen themselves.

Obviously this was taken on my balcony. The Canna is enjoying the hot, dry weather. But I water her daily, otherwise she would not look so happy.

Right. I'll leave you with another happy photo, this time of my friend Li Ping and myself enjoying a lovely Japanese meal in the Markthal in Rotterdam yesterday. Trust us to choose the hottest day of the month (so far...) to visit Fenix and then walk... My body is still in shock today, what did you do?!

If you find yourself in Rotterdam, do visit Fenix, won't you? It's a museum telling the tale of migration, both to and from Rotterdam. It is WONDERFUL! Fenix Museum

Li Ping originates from Malaysia, so she knows about leaving your country to live on the other side of the world, and tends to drag me to Asian restaurants (which I don't mind at all, as I really like the Asian quisine).

Do visit my author website at Renée Grashoff Schrijft and have a great week, wherever you are.

Renée Grashoff 

2026/31 - July is a strange month

 On the one hand my town is bursting to the seams with tourists, on the other most people I know have left for other places. It makes for a strange couple of weeks. Still, visiting my garden is a recurring routine, (aren't they all 😂) and thankfully I still have water to give to my veg, despite the weeks without rain.

I've used my garden as an inspiration for my latest painting, for the upcoming exhibition in September. I wish I could say this cockerel is mine, but alas. I'd love to get me some chickens, but I will be sensible and will not. The responsibility for my senior dog is quite enough for now.

Yesterday she saw the resident beaver again, and this time realised it is quite a large animal. Eventhough the beaver immediately fled into the water of the sloot, Puck thought it very scary. All the way home she kept looking over her shoulder to make sure it didn't follow her home!

My wildflower meadow underneath the apple trees is attracting the insects, such as they are. The overcast skies of this last week has meant that I hardly see any. 

But the apples, plums and figs around my garden are doing well. It is always a race who will get the ripe figs, the birds or me. The birds always win...Unfortunately they just take one beak full and leave the rest...The plums are rock hard still.

But my friend has a plum tree which has a massive crop this year, and they are ripe, so she brought me a couple of kilos. I washed and pitted them, and then froze them.

But I had my own harvest...massive cucumbers, and the first three bland tomatoes.

I cannot eat that much cucumber, so I preserve the leftover in apple vinegar. It keeps for months.

Random pic: yesterday I had lunch on one of Rotterdam's roofs: Ted's, it is called. If ever you find yourself in the town of my birth, do search this out! It is an allotment on a roof, with a restaurant, very cool!

Okay, I'll leave you with some photos I took very early this morning, along the Brielse Maas.

Do visit my website at Renée Grashoff Schrijft , translator button provided, and have a lovely week, wherever you are.

Renée Grashoff 

2026/30 - A Drop in Temperature...hurray!

 After two weeks solid of over 30°C heat, the temperature has dropped more than 10 degrees overnight. It is a shock to the system, but my old system is geared for 21° in July, not 35°! In the South of my country, it reached 42° and especially the old folk suffered, and mortality rates were up by hundreds. If you are still denying climate change as a non-existent crisis, you have mud in your eye!

I had to water my garden daily, which is something I am not used to. Mind you, I only watered the veg and the Hydrangeas. The rest of Hunky Dory has to get its water from the water table...which has dropped worryingly low. In fact, we now have an official Water Shortage Crisis on our hands. Government is urging us not to water gardens, take showers of under 5 minutes and be extremely careful with open fire, unless we go the same route as Fontainebleau, France.

Having said this, I must say I am really pleased with how my frog pond is holding up. Despite the heat, I have not had to refill! Hurray!

But, as I said, I have watered my Hydrangeas. And even so, they greeted me with bedraggled heads every morning... The Solidago however, seem to love that heat, and thrive.

My Tomatoes and Cucumbers have overcome their slow start, and especially the Tomatoes are loaded with fruit. Unfortunately, their taste is a bit bland...I bought bio ones, nameless, and am disappointed. They taste no better than the supermarket ones, and I guess I am spoiled.

Loads of insects on the Fennel, great!

And the Bumble Bee Hotel is open for business!

Those Cardoons are humungeous! I sometimes hear passing cyclists commenting on them.

The Wild Carrot, which I hope will spread through that pink bed... My allotment neighbour Hans (88) has lots of spontaneous ones, I swear they are the ones I have sown!

These are his beans. He is very good with veg.

The Teasels in my garden (I let them do their thing) are getting ready to receive the bees.

This year I can greet my very first grapes. We'll see what colour they are, a complete surprise.

As are these Strawberries! Rather late in the season, but I don't mind 😀

Okay, this is it for this week. Enjoy your weekend, wherever you are, and do pass on my blog address if you've liked my posts.

Renée Grashoff