2025/15 Driest Spring in history

 One year ago I was complaining about the incessant rain we were having, months on end. Flooded streets, and my poor flooded flowerbeds. This year we are experiencing the driest Spring since weather recorded history. 

Hello, my little friend!

   My garden soil is parched. My water butt is almost empty (luckily I have 3 more). And, grumble grumble, it is hard to get a spade into to the ground already. That should not be happening before June!

   How I am going to get my seedlings into the ground, I don't know. For the time being they are still in the greenhouse, as we have frosts in the night. But they were struggling, because it already gets so hot in there! So yesterday afternoon I hung up a shade for them, I hope it is enough to keep them alive.

The first Tulips are showing colour, always a nice moment. I have various kinds, but they are mostly the shorter botanical ones. That wind that whips through my garden on most days has taught me a lesson in the first year I was gardening here.

Sorry about the sunglasses, but I need them

And the other bulbs are showing signs of life as well. My Alliums are up, only the green stems so far. The Grape Hyacinths are looking chirpy next to the frog pond.

I planted Camassia as well, they are above ground. I have high hope for them.

My pruning is almost done. Just one more bed to go, as well as the Teasels in the apple orchard. They can go now, there are plenty of other hiding places for the insects by now. I have three compost heaps, but two are already full to capacity. 

There is a bud! But you can see how dry that soil is, can't you?

Another thing I did was paint the two obelisks; I chose black, as the colour of the flowers that will (hopefully!) scramble up them will pop against the black. As I had some leftover paint, I also painted the top of my rickety wooden fence. I am already looking forward to the dark yellow of the Tansy against that black.

The previous colour (grey) disappeared next to the Artichokes, this is much better.

Oh, I have two flowers in my struggling Viburnum, two! As it seemed doomed last year, this is a happy event!

Right. I'll be leaving you with a photo of last summer, just to give you an idea what Hunky Dory can also look like.😎

We'll have to practise patience...

Have a lovely weekend!

Renée Grashoff 
 

195 - Out with the old, in with the new! 2024-2025

 Well, it depends on where you are, obviously, whether you are reading this in 2024 or 2025. I suspect most of you will be reading it in 2025, so a very happy, prosperous and especially peaceful new year to you!

With my friend

   Whilst the fireworks bombs (it is only 6 pm!) are going off all around my flat, and my poor dog is shivering in her basket, I wonder if you have a load of new year's resolutions. Do you actually stick to them? I can proudly/smugly (take your pick)tell you I tend to do so. But then I am a pragmatist and aren't as stupid as I used to be in my youth, so I only make realistic ones.

   Here goes:

   1. Keep on keeping on not drinking alcohol. 

   I quit in May 2023 and it suits me very well. Mind you, my tolerance for soaks has evaporated along the way, along with my patience.

2. Keep on keeping on with shedding those kilos. Twelve down, three more to go. And Frith are those last three hard!

3. Work hard at making my allotment garden the most insect/ bird/ hedgehog friendly one I possibly can. Since 2024 was an extremely wet year, I hope my bulbs will be okay, and that some of my shrubs will recover from having their feet wet for months on end. Still, I have great plans again, which I will make you a part of as the months progress. So looking forward to that! Which logically brings me to:

4. I'll continue blogging about my garden(s). From time to time I get cold feet, and think who on earth is interested in my boring garden stories, but then I look at where my musings are being read, and I am amazed. Singapore, Hong Kong, Mexico, the USA, the UK, Ireland, and last but not least Belgium.

That pleases me no end. I am happy that you seem to like my garden, tiny as it is, in my damp, windy, wetlands.

Have a wonderful 2025, won't you?!

I'll be seeing you!

Renée 

185 - EXTRA PHOTOS last week of September 2024

 After a slump, my garden is filled with flowers again, helped by the warm days and cooler nights. So I took some extra photos for you. Enjoy!

Have a lovely weekend!

Renée 

182 - EXTRA PHOTOS

 September! Many plants are winding down, but some are now ready to shine.

How verdant do you want it? The colour in the frog pond part of the garden  mostly shows in spring, but I quite like the green as well, it is very restful.

Have a great weekend.

Renée 

179 - Extra Photos

 Colour: the best way to convince you is to show you.

These are dried balcony flowers in a glass frame I made this week.

Phlox and Echinacea in the garden adjacent to mine.

Bolted salad greens. I think they are gorgeous. 

How yellow do you want it? A melon flower from my neighbour's patch.

And here is the melon, size basketball already

As blue as it gets!

Have a lovely weekend, won't you? Renée  

179E - Colour: nature is the best designer!

 When I used a paintbrush last week, first time in yonks, I let myself be inspired by the colours of the tree spinach in my balcony garden.

Wonderful colours 

   You must admit, aren't those colours amazing?

   I am influenced by colour very much. You could state that the emotion directive part of my brain has been equipped with an extra neuronreceptor for colours. Thanks, Mum.

   That trend of a couple of years ago, of everything slick black, grey and white, especially in bathrooms and kitchens, it gives me the shivers. Showering, okay, I do that with my eyes closed, but cooking in a black kitchen? Not my idea of a cheerful pastime. It's because I think black and grey non-colours, they do not occur in the plantworld (basalt, granite, slate, marble - all 'rocks'). And 'thus' they are boring, and most of all depressing, to me.

Cheery, inspiring, vibrant

Ooooookay, now that I probably have offended more than half of you, sorry about that, I do not mean to.

My own kitchen (unfortunately) is broken white with a fake black marble worktop (nasty shiver down my back). I had no say in that and no funds to replace it. But, to counter it, I painted my cabinet Caribbean green with pink roses.

To counter the often depressing grey skies of our delta, I use as much colour in my gardens as possible. Hunky Dory has a pink/purple/blue/white bed, a crazy colours bed (where all visiting self-seeders can grow, whatever colour they are) and a red/orange/yellow/silver bed.

Echinacea and Japanese Anemones 

   If plants with gold leaves existed, they would go in there too!

   But, as I was grumbling about last week, that last mentioned South-American colours bed will not grow for me, so far. Especially the red leaved shrubs disappoint, when I had planted them for structure. Fail!

   Red sambucus, well  here in the delta it grows like a weed. Except in my garden. My two pinus though, meant to be a silver-green balance against all that (non-growing) red, are shooting up from my clay as if they want to reach at least 10m before 2030. Still, I give them a compliment every week, because when you are a moisture- loving forest floor plant and you take on my concrete clay and spit in its face, then you are a superhero, obviously.

This one has no troubles, lol!

Anyway. My mate Monique and I wanted to visit Seven Hills Nursery in Westvoorne to get some plants for her garden, so then I got some new red Heuchera 'palace purple' and the festive Crocosmia 'Emily McKenzie' (see photo top right) - duh. Attempt number umpteen to find plants that will survive the soil in my 'hot' bed.

To be fair, they have it rough, because I do not buy expensive mulch, I do not buy expensive fertiliser and I do not water the beds, only the planters. What I do do, is sing to them. Who else can say that, right?

My home-grown Pelargonium

   We have been enjoying tropical temperatures last week!

   Puck and I are loving the early mornings, when it is still cool and quiet. We share our 6 a.m. morning walkies with birds, cats, hares and waterfowl. This morning got me all excited, because I thought I spotted a large predator on a traffic sign at the Langesingel. I thought it was an owl or a buzzerd, but when we got close enough to really see, it turned out to be a blue heron. And they are common as muck around here. Oh well.

Okay, enjoy your weekend!

Renée 

177 - EXTRA PHOTOS

 Both my gardens are LUSH. Here are the extra photos I promised you in blogpost 177/177E.

As you can see, Hunky Dory is still predominantly pink and purple. Some white, some yellow, a very little orange/red. I tasted the first fig 😕 unripe so not a good taste, but there are many more to come.

Bye bye, take care!

Renée