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 

2025/24 - May flowers, what's not to love?

 Website: Renée Grashoff Schrijft for the latest blog about my novel.

Three days of rain (and one storm unfortunately) and my parched desert garden has rediscovered her oomph!

Even the frog pond has filled again, rescuing my beloved Waterlily from a nasty thirsty death. 

This is the view from the other side. All those aquatic plants you see were wilting in the drying up slush.

My Iris are happy as well, eventhough they were alright with the lack of rain. This is called 'Sultry Mood.

The Bearded Lily was the first to bloom, and is still going strong. I hope the three new ones, babies really, I planted in the border next to my greenhouse in October will be as lovely as this one. Their colour will be a surprise, they didn't come with a label.

This is that border (to the left; to the right is the plot of my neighbour who lets it go to ruin). In spring my border is gorgeous, filled with spring bulbs, but then there is a huge gap until the Hydrangeas start to flower. So I thought to fill the gap(s, literally) with Hemerocallis and Bearded Lily. Smart, eh?

Look who greeted me on that path. There were two, but the other one didn't want to pose. In Dutch this butterfly is called a Kleine Vos (little fox), Aglais urticae. They lay their eggs on nettles, so I make sure I leave them a patch near the rhubarb. They are one of the most common butterflies in my garden, but I am always chuffed to see them.

Sorry, my camera could not deal very well with the glowing white of Schneewitchen... But I wanted to show you anyway. It makes a lovely combination with the Valerian and Nigella, don't you think?

The giant Fennel has self-seeded on both sides of the planter, but I'll leave it. I love the scent, and I save the seeds for cooking, so three are better than one. All plants on this patch are self-seeders, and I let them do their thing.

This Sisyrinchium striatum (Bieslelie in Dutch) or Carex flava, is looking better than ever. Two years ago it struggled to establish, but look at it now, eh?

The Valerian has made itself at home all over the garden, both in red and white.

It tolerated the lack of water. The Aliums did not...they have failed to show themselves, there are only three left. But the spiked leaves of the Crocosmia are promising.

The Heuchera, looking brittle and sad, have rallied. Such a lovely colour, this 'Palace Purple'. I am on the fence about that latest colour to come from the nurseries though, too unnatural.

Here you are, one of the three Aliums in amongst the Sweet William.

And thus ended my gardening, as the next shower blew in very fast on that SW wind...

Have a great weekend, won't you? And check out my website when you have a moment.

Renée Grashoff