2026/42 - Slow Living (and Gardening!)

 When you watch a lot of gardening programmes, and I do, it might occur to you there are roughly three kinds: the quick-fix 'rip it all out and put a load of decking/pebbles/posts with a few plants in', the 'taking-it-very-seriously organic veg growing', and the 'take your time, for crying out loud, plants need time to grow' variety.

After the gale

Needless to say I am of the third variety. First of all, I think wooden decking is very overrated, and furthermore I am utterly convinced that we all need to slow down. A lot!

Slow living

When I took on my allotment just after Covid, I started gardening with the long view in mind. Lack of funds, lack of time, a very high-maintenance, reactive, traumatised rescued dog, they combined to make me realise I would not be able to create the garden I was dreaming of in a hurry. Was that a problem? Absolutely not!

Right from the start I knew it would take years. And that was the whole point, as it were. This garden was supposed to remind me of the importance of keeping going in my older years. There is no rush, the seasons will change whether I have painted that sorry excuse for a shed (nope) or not. Every winter I make a plan, but if I cannot do it all, because I break my arm, or because my pond springs a leak, or simply because my old car needs new brakes (gulp!), then that is fine. I will simply do it the year after.

Sometimes it is frustrating, that pond was an eyesore, but mostly I can live with it. And the thing that always lifts my heart and keeps me going, are those plants, that slowly change according to season and their age. To me, those 10 Heleniums I have in bloom right now, after planting just one 4 years ago, are worth more than 40 of them if I had planted them in bulk. 

The same goes for my Roses. I buy them in the Sale, I give them my love, I watch them grow, and add slowly to my collection. A Rose a year.

My Schneewitchen has had a gale blowing across the balcony from left to right this week, and just look at her! Heroic!

So, no quick-fixes for me, thanks. "You are simply getting old!", said someone to me. True, I am. But it goes deeper than that, much deeper. An example: when I see the youths in my town whizzing past on their fat bikes, with their eyes fixated on their mobile phones, I remember the time when youths communicated with their mouths. I see people walking their dogs, with their eyes stuck to their phones. And I worry about their sanity, honestly, I do. Those poor dogs...

Slow gardening

Research shows that plants, especially the less regimentally planted ones, help lessen people's stress levels. It shows that children, as soon as they are shown that strawberries grow on plants and not come covered in plastic from a factory, are fascinated, and want to try to grow them. It shows that people from all backgrounds and ages, working an allotment together, suddenly find a common ground to talk about, when in the street they would probably not engage.

Yes, my hair is blue due to a band gig.

Gardening is good for your health!

This morning I drove my railing planters to Hunky Dory. Since I decided I would change my balcony garden to a (hopefully more practical and less water consuming) Mediterranean garden, it needed some heavy lifting and a lot of digging. Those planters simply needed watering twice a day...too much, too wasteful.

But, as happens regularly, my knee gave out yet again, so I had to stop halfway through the planting.

Still, I got the Ponytail Grasses and Verbena Bonariensis into the ground.

One of the ten. Isn't it lovely?

It was a gorgeous morning, sunny, not a cloud to be seen, so the insects were out in force. And that smell! Almost nothing beats the smell of a dewy Autumn morning. The birds enjoyed it too, they sang their little hearts out, in between eating the last ripe Figs. Well, I say eating, but I should say pecking into a fig thrice and then leaving it...

At mornings like today those Pampas Grasses really shine.

Okay, this is it for this week. Visit my website at Renée Grashoff Schrijft when you want the latest news about my publications (translation button provided) and do take care, won't you?

Oh, Puck says 'hi'. Well, she would, if she was not snoring the house down. She lets it be known she's very happy she gets walked with full attention of me, and that we have great interaction. Me: "Look, Puck, that beaver has been here last night, there is a freshly gnawed tree!" Puck: "Yeah, whatever, gosh, this bush smells interesting!"

Renée Grashoff 

2026/41 - And Garden Life Goes On...with Hornets

 When I was dividing some plants, an ambulance drove up and stopped behind my car. Someone on the allotments had had a...mishap? I hope it wasn't more serious than that! But as I watched him being wheeled to the ambulance (I am next to the road), it occurred to me* that life is precious, and that it gets to be more of a lottery the older you get.

Desdemona

* now don't think I am a moron, I have know life is precious from when I was 16 and my beloved Gran died, and it suddenly hit me on that day that life is not perpetual. Just so you know.

See this Hedera? It is a bee magnet, that is why I planted it (okay, and to mask the ugly waterbutt behind it). But now it is also a hornet magnet...

There were at least 10 Asian hornets on there. Shock, horror!

Wasps, okay, I can deal with wasps. But hornets frighten me! Obviously I did not manage to get one properly on camera. Top left, that orangy thing, that's one. As soon as I tried to get a better photo, they scedadled. Which is sort of good to know. But still...

My comfy chair is right next to that Hedera. Damn.

My insect guide doesn't even mention the Asian hornet, only the European one (bottom left), as it did not occur in the Netherlands until this freaky hot  year. Well: the Asian is larger than it appears in this pic and has the orange back of that wasp top right. It can grow to 2,5 cm and the queens are 3 to 3,5 cm.

They fly to forage up to 500 - 800m from their nest. Fingers crossed the ones in my plot flew their maximum lenght! Said amongst eachother "hey, dudes, let's see how far we can get from the nest".

French Hornet Kamikaze

The reason hornets frighten me, stems from a holiday 36 years ago. My then husband and me cycled, with our large Drentsche Patrijs dog in a dog carrier, down a hill in Dordogne. Great fun, until my ex gave an almighty shout, and fell off his bike. Luckily he landed in the grassy verge, but when I got to him, he was as white as a sheet, sweaty, and on the verge of passing out. He mumbled something that sounded like "wasp!".

Sure enough there was a stunned European hornet next to him, the speed of the collision had been huge. In a reflex I stamped on it, and only later realised it was a hornet, not a wasp. It had stung him on his bare upper arm, which immediately swol up. He was in great pain. I tried to suck out the poison (should you do that with hornets? I still don't know, but I thought better to try than not to try) and then washed his arm with water, and bathed his neck, and did everything I could think of to help him.

Fortunately he recovered after a bit, much helped by our dog Freya who washed his face thoroughly. She was a very motherly dog. His bike was okay too, so we were able to cycle on to the nearest village, where the arm was looked to by the pharmacist. Hubby got a tube of cream, felt very sorry for himself for the rest of the day, but that was the end of that adventure.

Mind you, it left me with a mix of respect of and utter fear for hornets!

And now they have arrived on our allotments!

It occurred to me that perhaps that poor man being stretchered off our allotments had been stung, and had an allergic reaction. But that is the way my mind works.

Okay, please visit my website Renée Grashoff Schrijft for more stories and the latest news about my books. And do spread the word about them on Goodreads, BookTok or whatever platform you use, please, if you enjoy my writing. I need funds to publish book number 3 of the trilogy. Thanks! 😘

Renée Grashoff 

2026/40 - Winding Down towards Winter

Puck and I walk in the dark...every morning, every night. It is just in the afternoon that we can admire the turning leaves and many different toadstools and fungi. And in the garden almost everything is turning in for Winter as well.

My neighbour gifted me some of his Italian tomatoes. I chopped them up for salsa. With the prices in the shops being what they are (ridiculously high), I do not turn up my nose at some free sauce!

Whilst he was picking his last tomatoes and beans, I did my last mow...or did I? The grass is making up for those months it did not grow at all!

I mowed my path last week, and mowed it again this week.

And the council mowers were out in force as well. What always amazes me, is that they can mow on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday those toadstools are back! Oh...in case you are wondering...Puck is watching them drilling for yet more cables. Our entire town is resting on cables.

The Plane tree on the ravelin is not turning...yet.

 

I had planned to cloud-prune my Elaeagnus, but did not, as it is filled with flowers and smells divine! I am sure the last bees are grateful.

Making heatwave related changes

 So I took some bedding plants from the balcony to the garden instead. I have decided to go with the flow, you see, and that means downsizing on planters and choosing more heat resistant plants for the balcony. This summer was not only hard on Puck and me, but also terribly hard on my balcony plants. Even daily watering was not enough for a lot of them! I am on the 3rd floor, in full sun all day, so temperatures on the concrete of the balcony were up to 45 degrees C. 

That means taking out the plants that sort of survived, and putting them in full soil, hoping that they'll use the coming months to establish in the garden. And it also means I will switch to Mediterranean plants for 2027.

This Gaura is fine! It has passed the heatwave test with flying colours.

My beloved roses, both on the balcony and in the allotment garden, are fine too. They can stay!

But the wild flowers I have sown in the tin planter were a total disaster!  The only plants that survived were the white Aster, just about to flower, and the Rudbeckia in front.

The Caryopteris that is playing peek-a-boo from beneath the Lathyrus is fine too. But I suspect only because it was in shade from the Lathyrus all Summer.

Just to remind you what that planter looked like initially...all gone now! Not one of those plants survived the last three scorching summers.

And yet again it is 27°C ! Absolutely ridiculous! Mind you, the early mornings and evenings are fabulous. I took Puck to her favourite spot by the Maas last night, and the full moon was gorgeous. She enjoyed, I think...

My old doggie is walking very slowly...with very frequent stops to recover her strength. I bought her a dog cart years ago, but the silly old girl refuses to sit in it. Utter panic! Despite her stamina she is very stubborn! Right now (7 a.m.) she is still asleep, where normally she was raring to go at 6. Yesterday I had to wake her up at 8.30.

So... It is not just my garden that is winding down, I fear. Old dogs...You get a pup (or in my case a 'whatever age in between 2 and 4'), you love it for years and you know you'll have to say goodbye to it eventually. But it is very hard when you both actually get to that stage.

Right. Have a good week, wherever you are!

Renée Grashoff