147 - Winter is only the anticipation of Spring

 De enige manier om januari en februari door te komen, is de belofte van maart.

Hagel (18/1/24)

  Zon en winterse buien wisselen elkaar af hier, na windstille nachten met matige vorst. Dat laatste weet ik omdat Puck en ik gisterochtend al om 05.30 buiten liepen; ze had op de late avond heel veel gedronken en tja, when you gotta go, you gotta go. Ze was helemaal happy, want er lag een dun laagje maagdelijke sneeuw, helemaal voor ons alleen. Ja, ja, ik weet dat de Belgen onder jullie nu door jullie plaatselijke sneeuw rollen van de lach, want in het zuiden hebben ze pas ècht sneeuw. Hier geen sleeënde ukkies en langlaufende volwassenen, maar het was wel beeldschoon vanochtend vroeg.

  Zoals je op de foto links ziet, hangen de bloembakken nog niet aan de railing, want er wordt weer windkracht 6 voorspeld. Ik ben het bakken erop, eraf, erop, eraf zat. Bovendien wil ik straks in maart/april de inhoud vervangen. Mijn eenjarigen zijn moe. Of gewoon heel erg dood. Daar kan ik me nú al op verheugen, op die nieuwe planten, ookal weet ik dat ik nog minstens drie máánden geduld moet oefenen. Het ligt uiteraard heel erg aan het weer wanneer ik ga planten; lente 2023 was waardeloos nat en koud en toen heb ik gewacht tot eind

april. 

Vlak voor de hagel losbarstte

Maar vergis je niet, wanneer in de namiddag de zon mijn balkon bereikt heeft, is het al 22° binnen en kost het geen moeite me te realiseren dat het rustig 38° kan worden in mijn flatje.

Gisteren was ik even bij mijn favoriete tuincentrum aan de Heindijk Info@tuincentrumvoorne.nl  om een mooie skimmia voor iemand te kopen en heb ik voor de lol even door het raam van hun achterste kas staan gluren. Daarin staan namelijk de vorstgevoelige planten te wachten totdat ze weer naar buiten kunnen. Ik weet hoe ze zich voelen.

Anyway, ik dwaal weer af. Mijn balkonbakken krijgen een nieuwe look: de vaste planten in de grote rolbakken krijgen een functie elders (nl in Hunky Dory) want in de rolbakken ga ik dit jaar weer de tomaten en komkommers zetten die het daarin afgelopen zomer zo ontzettend goed hebben gedaan en in de railingbakken komen de vrolijke eenjarigen die me door de zomervakantie op eigen balkon heen slepen.

Dat wordt weer zakken moestuingrond naar de 3e etage sleuren (en na afloop de hallen en lift schoonmaken) , maar dat heb ik er voor over. Ik denk weleens dat het moment waarop ik er geen zin meer in heb om mijn balkon vol planten te zetten, het moment is waarop ik beter alsnog kan emigreren naar the Outer Hebrides (weinig planten daar), om er mijn laatste dagen met local whisky te slijten in de plaatselijke pub met live muziek.

Ik wens je een fijn weekend!

64 - Balcony Tales

 With all the tales about my struggling allotmentgarden, you could  almost, but not quite, forget that I started out with a balconygarden, which is going strong despite the weirdly dry spring weather.

Obviously the magic word is watering. I do water my planters, otherwise those plants I cherish would be dead within a week, with my always blowing wind. And to be fair I have learned through trial and many errors which plants like to live 16 metres above ground, with a prevailing SW wind and lashed by regular gales with shattering rain.

That first summer (moved in in June, together with a guinea pig and masses of plants)I had my beloved cottage plants - lobelia, sweet peas, roses, lilies, honeysuckle, lavatera, fuchsias, busy lizzies and then some. And they all took a second look at the balcony and said no, thanks, we are not happy here! 

It took an episode of Gardener's World (it was James Wong, I remember) to open my eyes. Crickey, I had moved those plants from a sheltered back garden to a cliff top! No wonder they did not feel at home.

The second summer I bought cliff top plants. Grasses (carex and festuca), scabiosa, daisies, campanula. Together with the lobelia which proved tough enough, they did well, but it felt ... sparse. I like my garden to be lush. So I moved in hostas (no slugs on the 3rd floor, I thought, and boy was I proved wrong), who did fine, and then I went wild and grew courgettes. Big mistake, they took up so much room I could hardly sit outside to enjoy their massive leaves, and new stray dog Puck kept trying to sqeeze in as well. And I fell in love with two roses, so they competed for space-with-thorns-on.

The third summer I broke my arm and had to rely on help, so kept it simple. Still, it looked good with heather, lavender and the herbs, nasturtium and calendula which were already there before The Launch. (Puck launched me when she tried to chase a cat. I realised how strong she actually is during my maiden flight, Puck felt very guilty afterwards and the black cat just about sang nana-na-naaaaa-na).

This is the fourth summer. Because of the cost of my allotmentgarden I have only bought 3 geraniums, 2 begonias, 1 scabiosa, 1 wallflower, 1 clematis, 5  lobelia and 2 verbena. (Ha!) The discovery of this year is the heucheras I had put in in Autumn to replace the lavender (not happy). The heucheras actually like my conditions, and I really really like them back. It is a gorgeous plant, with its dark brown-red undersides, especially when the sun shines through.

Foolhardy (yes, know thyself) as I am, I could not resist to put some self-sown digitalis and verbena bonariensis in my planters, just to see if they would survive bolstered up by the sage and rosemary. We shall see. You can be certain I will take photos when they do.

You can read and see more about my gardens on Instagram@songsmith2962  and Pixelfed@DutchDeltaWoman  . Enjoy your Sunday.

19 - Tegen de muren op! / Stir-crazy!

 Gedwongen stilzitten is dus duidelijk niet mijn ding.

Nu het grote vallen 12 dagen geleden is, en de pijn vervelend maar dragelijk is, leer ik mezelf weer een stukje beter kennen. Ik ben er niet voor gemaakt om niets te doen. Dat ik dat pas op mijn bijna 63e ontdek, komt vast doordat ik altijd te actief ben om mezelf tijd te gunnen daarover na te denken.

Mijn balkontuin schreeuwt om aandacht en ik zit erbij en kijk ernaar, vreselijk! Gelukkig heeft een vriendin de hostas en goudsbloemen onder handen genomen, want de uitgebloeide bloemen stonden in de bakken als doodgravers op een dance party.

Maar ook de minirozen zijn dood, verschrompeld door die storm van verleden week, en die zielige bruine massa doet pijn aan mijn ogen. Misschien dat ik morgen energie kan vinden ze één voor één af te knippen.

Vanochtend heb ik moeizaam lopend de hele boel water gegeven. Gieter onder de kraan, vol laten lopen, voorzichtig over de drempel, met links gieten, en herhaal. Wat me normaliter 15 minuten kost, duurde nu drie kwartier. 

Maar: de begonias stralen, de verbena heeft een massa bloemen en de onlangs gekortwiekte salvia bloeit alweer volop. De oost-indische kers in de railingbak is al zaaddozen aan het maken. Eigenlijk moet die eruit en iets nieuws er in, maar dat gaat uiteraard niet lukken. Ik ga er wel met mijn rug naar toe zitten!

PS mijn achterbuurman op de tuin heeft kippen. Dit zijn de mijne, chickens on the wall. Instagram @songsmith2962 en @grashoffr Sorry voor de slechte foto, ik krijg hem niet meer verwijderd, zucht.

English

This forced sitting on my butt is not for me.

Now the great fall was 12 days ago, and the pain is a drag but bearable, I get to know myself a bit better. I am not suited to doing nothing. Why this only occurs to me when almost 63, must be because I was always too active to think about it.

My balcony garden is screaming for attention and I just sit there, awful!

Thankfully a friend dead-headed the hostas and marigolds, because those spent blooms stood in their planters like mourners at a dance party.

But my mini roses are dead, shriveled by last week's storm, and that sad brown mass hurts my eyes. Perhaps I can find the energy tomorrow to cut them back, one by one.

This morning I watered the plants, tottering. Watering can under the tap, wait, carry it across the threshold carefully, water with my left hand, and repeat. What normally takes 15 minutes now takes three quarters of an hour.

But: the begonias shine, the verbena is gorgeous, and the cut back salvia is blooming again. The Nasturtiums in the railingplanter are a mass of seedheads though. It should be replaced, but obviously that is impossible. I'll turn my back to it.

PS my neighbour at the allotment keeps chickens. Mine are on my wall. Sorry for the bad photo, it doesn't want to be deleted, sigh.

Instagram @songsmith2962  and @grashoffr 

12 - Dutch or English? Both, why not! Gardening is universal.

This blog started out in English, to correspond with my Instagram account where I have mostly international contacts. But to my amazement I have more countrymen reading it so far. And they told me they sometimes struggle with the English. So, easy quick solution: I'll use both languages.

And I have such good news! This morning I finally received an email that my long wait is over. There is an allotment waiting for me. At last! And just in time for my summer holidays, so that's super.

Now, things are not finalised, I still have to have The Talk with the board, but I am a die-hard optimist so it will all work out, I'm sure.

New garden coming up!

So not only will I keep you up to date with my balcony gardening, but you can follow the ups and downs of my allotment garden as well. Such fun!

 Omdat ik te horen kreeg dat mijn Nederlandse lezers soms wat moeite hebben met het Engels, lever ik gewoon een vertaling. Geen probleem!

En ik heb zulk goed nieuws! Vanochtend ontving ik een email dat het lange wachten voorbij is. Er is een volkstuin voor me beschikbaar. Eindelijk! En precies op tijd om mijn zomervakantie te vullen, dus dat is super.

Het is allemaal nog niet in kannen en kruiken, ik moet nog een 'intake' met de voorzitter van de toelatingscommissie (in goed Nederlands, hahaha), maar onverbeterbare optimist die ik ben weet ik zéker dat het goed komt.

Een nieuwe tuin komt er aan!

Dus ik blijf jullie niet alleen op de hoogte houden van mijn balkontuin, maar nu ook van alles rondom mijn nieuwe echte tuin. Dat wordt leuk!

Je kunt via Instagram nog veel meer lezen/you can read more about my garden @songsmith2962 

8 - Growing veggies on a clifftop

 Grow your vegetables!

We are urged to eat less meat and sugar, and more veggies.

The shadiest corner at 21:30

As a gardener, obviously I couldn't agree more. Growing plants is fun, and growing something delicious to eat is double fun. The delight you feel when a seedling shows itself, and then watching that tiny thing grow until you can harvest it...it appeals to the deepest instinct of survival. And then when you compare the taste of your wonky home-grown cucumber to that watery straight as a ruler supermarket one...need I say more?

  Clifftop conditions

Now, I've told you my balcony garden has issues. It is SW facing, and almost always extremely windy. When the sun shines, it scorches from 11 a.m. until sundown. A slug colony lives underneath the decking and comes up to have raves at night. Everything needs to be grown in pots. And the pollinators have to be lured in.

My first efforts at growing veg were mostly disastrous. The runner beans made lovely runners, cute orange flowers and produced exactly 1 beautiful bean, due to non-pollination. The sweet potato looked gorgeous, it has such pretty coloured leaves don't you agree? But when I dug up the tubers they were mushy and spongey. The ginger shriveled up. The 2 courgette plants produced huge leaves, looked terrific, but I got only 4 courgettes.

 Parsley, aniseed and raddish  

  Mind you, there have been successes as well, thank Frith,       otherwise I would have lost heart.

 So far I have grown great tomatoes, chilis, strawberries, herbs, and the nasturtiums which I use in salads do very well indeed.   Salad greens do alright, as long as I protect them from the slugs.

  The strawberries need protection as well, from slugs sure, but even more from Puck, who loves them. She has turned biting them delicately off the stem into an art form.

 Plastic containers work best, as that sun dries out the much nicer terracotta ones much too fast. Plastic is against my green principles, but needs must. And I only get the ones made from recycled plastic, promise! I fill them with multi-purpose peatfree organic soil (with free slug embryos, grumble grumble grumble).

 Making plans

Because I am trying to grow lathyrus via a miniature teepee onto my bubble chair, I got to thinking about rigging a line between 2 large teepees, and having another go at beans. Now that I know there aren't enough visiting pollinators, I could try to have a go at pollinating the plants myself. That would be a first. Will keep you informed about it. Oh, when I finally get my allotment I will go wild...with my eyes closed I can see it already...

You can read more about my balcony garden on Instagram @songsmith2962 and my original art is @grashoffr .

Have a lovely day in your garden!

6 - Happy Hostas

 Some years ago now, I gave up on hostas. But life changes, in this case for the best.

My happy hosta

Hostas project that lush jungle like vibe that I love. Having grown up in a rural area, surrounded by apple orchards, wheat, sugarbeets and lots of grassland dotted with Friesians (how typically Dutch would you like?), my world was flat, green, and small-leaved. My Mum took me to a hortus botanicus when I was 8, and I fell in love with tropical plants on the spot. Jungle Book became my favourite film, and I dreamed of living in a jungle. Mind you, visiting Aruba when I was 11 quickly made me realise: tropical plants, great, all those venomous insects that thrive there, and snakes, erm...not my thing. "Oh, don't you worry, they won't hurt you if you leave them alone", I was told. Yeah, right. After a very up close and personal encounter with a small scorpion that stung me on the stomach when it had hidden itself in my t-shirt for a nice snooze ("aren't you lucky it was a small one"), I decided jungle life was not for me!

Slugs! Loathe them! 

But the love for large green leaves remained. I wanted a gunnera, was told I was barmy, as it would dominate the entire garden. So planted a pergola kiwi instead. Very lush, very green, and it grew huge. And hostas, must have hostas, as they come as close to a 'tropical vibe' as you can get in this climate. But the many slugs and snails in my old garden came to dinner daily, and nothing worked. I tried coffee grains, sharp sand, sharp grit, beer traps, picking them off twice a day, and was still left with just the veins. 

Balcony garden  

On my balcony though, the picking off method works, hurray! As long as I do it daily. So here I have had two gorgeous hostas for 4 years. They take centre stage, and are admired by everyone that visits. They are blooming at the moment, a month later than usual due to the extremely cold April and May this year. And believe me they are pampered.