2025/40 - Ups and downs of Hunky Dory

 We had another freaky hot day yesterday, 27°C☆. So this morning I rushed to Hunky Dory to see if my potplants had survived, and to water them. ☆ By now you will have sussed out I write my blog a week before publishing, right? So don't feel cheated: "what? That hot? It was not hot at all yesterday", that kind of thing, hahahaha.

I was there at 8 a.m., and the sky was cloudy, which gave an unearthly light to my Pampus grasses.

No filters used!

I love to be in the garden in the early morning. Just me and the birds.

So. What was my gardening week like? Well, a mix of 'yay' and 'damn it!'

Let's get the last one out of the way. For the last 3 years I have done my utmost to get climbers climbing the nook where my chair lives. There is no shade in my garden, so I try to create it by using climbers. And yet again the climbers (Lonicera this time round) have not survived the summer - 4th batch. So frustrating!!!

My friend, who lives behind this door in Brielle vesting, has a shady city garden, very green. She has exactly one patch of sunlight (which sits two chairs) during the day. Would you believe I sometimes envy her?

Still, she cannot grow Echinaecea, and I can. So I should not grumble. It has been a very good summer for Echinaecea. This falls into the 'yay' category.

And so do the three Gaura I have. They have been very pleasant. This white Gaura Butterfly had a slow start, but it caught up.

Another 'yay' for the roses this summer. They were in their element and have a bloomed three times already. Adore them!

This Dahlia is my neighbour's, but I enjoy it as it's very near to the border between our gardens. He has left the tubers in the soil last winter, and it doesn't matter by the looks of it.

Buddha has surfaced...all summer long it was practically hidden. I found the head beside the garbage container, and it now lives very serenely amongst the Carex in the hot border (which has stopped being hot by now, I still have not managed to get the balance right).

It always amazes me what people throw out. I keep hoping for a totem pole. Seriously!

Walking around taking photos this morning, I made a mental list of all the things I need to tackle in the coming months. Lots.

The major thing will be completing the greenhouse.

I emptied it last autumn, put down anti-root cloth with French bark on top and then left it,  to save up for the next stage.

That next stage will be constructing  at least two raised beds out of scaffolding boards. My knee artrosis doesn't allow me to sit on my knees any longer, as I was accustomed to. I also want to paint the windows with chalk paint, because all my tender seedlings scorched to death this year. Definitely a 'damn it!' occasion.

One of the 'issues' of my gardening is that I cannot throw a pot of money at it, as some people can. I have to save up, and control the budget very carefully. Not an issue at all, really, it only takes a little more time to do things. 

My one and only cucumber from the balcony this summer. ONE. I mean...watered and sang to. Rotten luck.

The grass is still in a very sorry state. The rain keeps missing our area. But this is the delta, so I'm confident we'll get some water soon. And then it will probably rain for months on end...

Okay. I'll leave you with a panorama of the Rotterdam skyline. Took it because of that sky, a very Dutch sky!

Have a good weekend, and keep an eye out for the 3rd Open Garden Scheme blog, which will be coming up soon, and for my Special about Rotterdam Veerhaven.

Website Renée Grashoff Schrijft 

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Renée Grashoff