2026/23a - Extra photos last week of May '26.

 All photos are taken by myself and are my creative property.

We start in Hunky Dory:

Communal butterfly garden, Brielle

My balcony garden

To the right (black pot) my poor frozen Cycas, which I had almost given up...But! It is alive! And producing new fronds, six of them, and I am almost delirious with happiness about that. I love that plant, it has been my faithful companion for 8 years, until it simply got too large to be able to keep indoors. So I put it outside...my English go-to garden programme Gardeners World said I could. And it promptly froze in February. So next winter, it is going to live indoors again!!!

Right. I hope you've enjoyed this post. Follow this link Renée Grashoff Schrijft to my website when you'd like to read more about my books and me.

2026/23 - Japanese Garden in Stellendam and Hunky Dory

I'll end this post with a story about a Beaver we met, but first I'll tell you about a garden I visited.

We have a garden lover's society in my country, which organises open garden days in both Spring and Autumn. Last September I visited the Japanese garden in Stellendam, and this year I decided to see what it looks like in Spring.

The gardener is an enthousiast, but no professional. Still, the garden is lovely and approaches the Japanese vibe in a pleasing way.

Being no professional myself, I understand what he is trying to do. And mostly it works!

His three ponds in particular got me very enthousiastic. I love a good pond! He's put in a huge effort to create three levels, and although the water flows from one to the other, they all have their own atmosphere. The one above is the middle one, and is home to a mass of fish. No Koi, but (to me) the equally lovely Golden Orfe. We call them Goudwinde, and I used to keep them in my own pond years ago. Like Koi they become quite tame, and recognise the person that feeds them.

The same pond, but from the top. The lower one is situated behind that Yew ball and the upper is behind me. Both are much smaller than the middle pond, which is probably the reason they are choked by vegetation.

The Japanese are masters at the concept of 'Ma', meaning the negative space between two objects, which they think is just as important. This garden is rather crowded, so the 'Ma', to me, is rather 'mwah'. 

But, again, it is a very pleasing garden. We are Dutchies, after all.

This Bulgarian Allium was showing off next to the path.

The overview from the terrace. Well worth a visit.

On the subject of Japanese-like trees, we have our own type of Acer in the delta. The leaves are not as pretty, but the way of the tree to propagate itself is the same. It is an Acer campestre, or Spaanse Aak, and the wind blows in thousands of those pretty helicopters to my Hunky Dory. I spend a lot of my time pulling the saplings out of my beds, and if I overlook one, it has grown into a sturdy sapling of 60 cm high within one year.

Another plant which obviously has the capacity to explode into growth is this Hedera hibernica. I could not believe my eyes this week! It has tripled its size within those two weeks of constant rain we've had, I am not fibbing! It is very welcome to do so, as I planted it especially to eventually hide that ugly water butt, but mostly to provide a nesting spot for the Blackbird, or any other bird that likes to take up residence.

Okay, I'll finish with our adventure of this week. The weather had turned from too cold and very wet to heatwave overnight, (and back again to very muggy and wet) so we walk even earlier in the mornings as usual. This is Puck on our way to the meadows next to the river at 5.30 a.m. She's on high alert, because we sometimes meet the Roe buck here. Puck still dreams of catching it (she is always on leash though, I take no chances).

But: guess who we met instead?

The Beaver!!!

Not the greatest photo ever, sorry. It was munching on a nice branch, and refused to turn around for the shot. What amazed me, was that both animals totally ignored eachother. Puck just stood and stared, and Mr or Mrs Beaver simply munched on, eventhough there was only a metre between us. It made my day!

Look me up on Renée Grashoff Schrijft to keep up to date with my books. I'll again post some extra photos in post 23a. Have a lovely week, wherever you are.

Renée Grashoff 

2026/22 - Celebrating my end of May Garden

 Doesn't time just fly by? Here we are, rapidly approaching June already... Hunky Dory and my balcony garden are glowing with flowers.

This Wallflower, name unknown as it was a gift from a friend's garden, is almost at the end of her flowering season, but she looks great. The yellow ones on my balcony are past it though, and as they have been in their planter for three years, and have turned very woody, I will take them out, thanking them for their efforts.

The Camassia leichtlinii is valiantly trying to ignore the lack of rain...she likes her soil to be a lot more moist than I can offer her. She is an experiment: will Camassia survive my heavy, dry clay? She does, so next Autumn I will plant some more. We have finally got us some rain, although most of it passes by my delta and falls on the East of the country.

Now here is a puzzle for you: when I planted Hunky Dory I planted a Papaver Orientale in the hot bed. It grew and bloomed that first year, then vanished. But! It has emerged at the entrance to my greenhouse, four plants no less, and they are doing great. How??? It is a mystery to me.

One of my favourites for my garden: the Geranium macrorrhizum. It likes its corner near the hole which used to be my frog pond, next to the woodpile.

Said hole...also a very sad hole. Not enough rain, so no water left whatsoever! I will see what survives in there now. On the right the Erigeron is still doing its thing, and some of the aquatic plants are hanging on so far. But the grasses, always opportunistic thugs, are rapidly colonizing the hole.

Talking about colonizing: to my great joy I have many Digitalis this year, who have spread themselves around the garden. Like the giant Poppy they have planted themselves around the entrance to the greenhouse, but they are in all the beds as well. They are so majestic, and tough as old boots. So I tell them "go forth and multiply!" Lucky for me, they are very obedient.

One of my neighbours still never visits his plot...and this is one of the wild plants that have settled there. Very pretty, some type of Clover. I shamelessly pick it for my flower arrangements at home (he never ever weeds, so...).

The greenhouse

My 'lettuce in the old rain gutter' experiment works! I am chuffed. At first they were struggling because of the sun (no chalk on the roof panels), so I rigged a sunscreen for that part of the greenhouse. And it works a treat! 

The Rettich in the black pot should almost be edible by now, so I'll dig one up very carefully soon, to see how far along it is. And the Paksoi in the raised bed is ready to be eaten. In fact, they are all ready...that's the drawback of using plugs...all is ready at the same time. I will have to be clever with them...

The Cucumbers and Tomatoes are doing fine as well. I have planted my Calendula seedlings in front (the photo does not show them).

After my greenhouse being a total disaster resembling a weedy patch of wasteland (because of this pesky plant!) for two years because of this inerasable weed that came up a.s.a. I had removed it, I am very glad I decided to use the French bark on top of weed depressant cloth  and built me some raised beds. I'll build some more now that I see it works.

The Helleborus enjoying the rain.

I'll leave you with a few photos of my neighbourhood. This is along our daily walk.

Puck likes to sniff out the blue heron that sits here often to fish.

Another part of our daily walk. The grasses come up to my hips right now. This morning we met a hare, a green woodpecker, a gaggle of Canadian geese, a bored black cat, a roe buck, and saw evidence of the beavers that live here as well. Not bad, eh? For a built up industrial area just below the smoke of Rotterdam.

See those clouds? More rain to arrive. I love it when the Hawthorns bloom. We have quite a few along the ramparts and ravelins. The mill is a wooden standard corn mill, still in use.

Right. I hope you've enjoyed this week's blog. I will include an extra one of extra photography, just for fun. Pass on the word if you did. And if you would like to read more, follow the link to my website at Renée Grashoff Schrijft

Have a good week, wherever you are!

Renée Grashoff 

2026/22a - Extra May Photos

 Here are the extra photographs of my gardens that I promised you. I take all my photos myself, and they are my creative property. I hope you enjoy them.

Keep an eye out for my next blog, as it will be about a visit to the Japanese garden in the Groei & Bloei Open Garden Scheme. 

In the orchard.

The Desdemona Rose.

At the front of the garden.

My Paksoi harvest.

 In the greenhouse.

In front of the greenhouse.

The front of the garden, near the compost heaps.

 On the balcony.

The greenhouse door in the rain.

The entrance to Hunky Dory. Pluto was rescued from a neighbourhood 

skip by my dog and myself, and is supposed to guard my plot. But he's a big softie.

Have a good weekend, wherever you are!

Renée Grashoff