2025 /48 - My gardens are winding down... but birds visit!

 Whilst I am writing this, I am looking with half an eye at the Blue Tits that are investigating the bird peanut butter that I have put out for them. They have returned from their Summer residences, wherever they may be, to browse for insects amongst my balcony plants.

They will spend the winter in the bushes at the end of my street, but will come to visit my balconygarden. Then in April/ May they build a nest on my flat roof, raise their babies, come to visit the garden as soon as their offspring can fly, and then disappear until November.

I do my best to protect their food against the Jackdaws and Magpies, that also like that food, and fly up in very noisy, feisty pairs to investigate. Not that I begrudge them the food, but they are capable of gobbling up in 30 minutes all that the Tits take days to eat.

The large birds do very well around here anyway, as they are not above turning out the garbage cans along the footpaths, and I see them take snacks from the cat food bowls left out as well. As well as making the most of dog turds (ieuww!) and leftover fast food. Puck gets very upset when she sees them eating from the bowls by the way, as she is not allowed to. She thinks this very unfair.

This photo was before the latest storm, they have almost dropped all leaves by now. It always makes me a bit melancholy, that dropping of the leaves. It is beautifully sad, for it means we are in for months of grey skies and dripping tree branches. And working in the garden is a chilly, wet affair.

My neighbour's plot is looking ordered and well, as always.

Mine...hahahahaha. Oh well, I do my best!

Mind you, I managed to plant some self-seeded perennials, finally! It had been February I was able last to get a spade into to my soil! My Senecio Silvergleam had made dozens of babies in the neighbouring plot next door, which has been left a wasteland for the last year. So I dug up the largest ones and planted them along that drainpipe leading to my struggling leaky frog pond. That pipe is ugly as sin, so the Senecio will hopefully camouflage it a bit. The second benefit is that the bees love the yellow flowers. And the third pro is that I really like silvergrey foliage.

The Eucalyptus on that wreath is a good example. It lights up even the gloomiest day!

That photo is one of a series I am slowly accumulating, of doorways brightened up by plants. This one is in my hometown, where lots of people fortunately share my love of greenery. One day I'll be able to do an entire blog about those doorways.

Puck is a very reluctant model. It's hard to tell she was actually enjoying her walkies very much! 

Okay, time to call it a day. Do visit me at my website Renée Grashoff Schrijft

Have a good week, wherever you are!

Renée Grashoff 

2025/47 - Hello November, how are you?

 Well and truly into the misty, grey, damp season we are now... I have put the huge towel into the hall again, for drying off Puck after walkies. She adores her spa moments. I don't mind rain or mist, but I'm not so fond of the combination of rain and wind! They, and my glasses, make for a situation where I cycle through town like a blind bat most of the time.

But rain makes the last of my flowers shimmer and shine.

The wet has made my garden perk up, in fact there are more flowers now, than last August. It helps that the nights are still relatively mild, around 12°C.

As soon as we start having night frost, quite a few of them will give up and wither.

The Ixia doesn't mind at all that it is wet. I was worried that the bulbs had died during the drought we've been having, but they simply delayed showing themselves. Phew, what a relief!

They are in amongst the Crocosmia, Rosemary, Aquilegia and the Carex which has spread itself all around this bed.

The same applies to my Cosmos. It is finally showing flowers, well, lovely, better late than never.

Prettily pink! 

The Malus is looking great as well. I planted this for my pleasure, but also for the birds, as I read somewhere that they enjoy the fruit. But so far they have never touched it.

Tiny flowers, but they have a gorgeous scent I can smell from metres away! And so can the bees. Even in the rain some of them were buzzing away. I hope the lot of them will manage to find a place to sleep over winter amongst my bee hotels or under the wood pile. I even have bees staying on my balcony. I know, because of the neatly cut away pieces of leaves in my planter, which they use to close their burrows.

The trees around Brielle are in full Autumn regalia.

I always have mixed feelings about November. On the one hand I am dreading the winter months (grey!!), on the other I quite enjoy the scent of the fallen leaves and all my plants going dormant. And I can actually get a spade in the ground to plant or reposition plants, there is that too.

Look!

Finally been able to move my Kiwi from the pot into full soil. Hopefully it will like its new position, and grow me a nice screen.

And the same applies to my three roses. Into the ground! That Sage on the right is doing great again, the rain has benefited it, and the two heavy storms we've had last week ( wind speeds up to 130 km/h !) have not done any damage to Hunky Dory.

I'll leave you with a photo of Puck enjoying herself licking the raindrops of the Pelargoniums on the balcony. She is a senior now, walkies sometimes are a very slow affair. Sniffing everything takes forever, and sometimes she seems to forget where she is and why we are where we are.

I then need to remind her. She tends to stare at familiar objects with a puzzled face; what IS that thing? It being the tree we pass at least twice a day, for example. But she still perks up when she spots a cat. Cats need to be reminded that Puck is Queen. All the cats of my neighbourhood know her, and most of them don't take a blind bit of notice of her. Oh yeah, that's that silly dog that jumps up and down, duh!

Still. I suspect that my doggie is in the first stages of dog dementia.

Look me up on my website at Renée Grashoff Schrijft

Have a good weekend wherever you are!

Renée Grashoff 

2025/35 - Oh boy, despite the rain it is still like Timbuktu...

 We have had a week of lower temperatures, a wagonload of wind and some rain. But Hunky Dory is still as dry as a desert. It is a bit disheartening, I must admit.

It made for gorgeous cloudy skies; this is Brielse Meer at sunrise last week. But that rain mostly fell in the North and East of my country and bypassed us. I can't get a spade in my concrete soil. My plants (the Kiwi!) are frazzled. Some have died. My grass has turned to dust.

Mind you, this is the natural state of my drumstick Aliums. I like them even when dried out, very architectural.

But look at this corner...The colour says it all, doesn't it? Parched!

Even the Tansy, which is tough as old boots, is so dry...

So is it all Doom 'n Gloom? Of course not! My darling Desdemona is looking gorgeous next to the Gaura. I deadhead religiously.

And the Zinias are happy behind the Sedum, which is on the cusp of turning rose pink.

The pink bed is doing its best to stay pink, despite being very thirsty. But look at my grass...It is a good thing that I know it will perk up as soon as it has had a lot of water!

The border next to the greenhouse does get watered regularly; it is the only way I can keep my Hydrangeas alive. It is next to the massive Fig Jungle of my never present neighbour,  so when I tend to it, I am in the middle of a cloud of fig perfume. Oh, how I wish I could bottle that scent! So lovely! Mind you, the wasps think so too... So I am careful not to piss them off.

At home, in the balcony garden, I need to keep watering daily, otherwise it is over and done with. The many Pelargonium are fine, but all the more dainty flowering plants are gasping. The Cucumber has not produced a single cucumber! But: not all is lost there either. The Tomatoes are doing reasonably well. The cherry one has kept me in extremely tiny fruit, my Strawberries were larger! But the yellow Zebra one has done very well! The fruit tastes lemony, very fresh. Utterly unsuitable for cooking though, you need to eat them raw.

Aren't they lovely?! 

This is the star of the show at the moment: the Portulaca. I will try to keep it for next year by taking it indoors as soon as the nights turn cold again. Last year I forgot, and it turned to mush at the first frost, silly me.

Okay, time to walk Puck. My rescued doggie is getting old! She has good days and not so good days, and despite being a Curaçao dog, she suffers from the heat. I'll see what day she is having today. This morning was fine, she wanted to chase the street cat (not allowed) and a Blue Heron (not allowed either) and then sulked a bit until it was breakfast time.

Sulking face!

Have a good weekend, wherever you are.

Renée Grashoff 

2025/34 - The Dog Days of 2025

 This part of Dutch Delta Summer is supposed to be the hottest of the season. Typically, we are having a slump in the Summer weather...It is mostly dry over here (not so much in the Eastern part of the Netherlands), but cool and windy.

Keeping myself amused

   I always plan some non-gardening projects for the Summer holidays, as most people I hang out with go on holiday and I am left to my own devices.

   But being a floweraholic, I couldn't help myself! The Nasturtiums in Hunky Dory have shrivelled up during those super hot weeks, but I noticed they are reviving now, the ones in the shade of bushes that is. I decided to paint them on a stool, as a sort of magic spell to help them grow on.

  

  Meanwhile I mowed my grass pathways yesterday. I say grass, but dust is more accurate. The soil is bone dry.

Still, I have confidence that grass will revive. I ended up with dried bits of plant everywhere, at home I even found them in my underclothes.

Wasps

I suspect there is a wasp nest near my plot, as my Fennel was buzzing with wasps. To be honest I am wary of them, but these were so busy feeding they did not take a blind bit of notice of me. There is supposed to be an invasion of Asian 'hoornaars' (hornets) in my country, but as far as I could tell there were none on my Fennel. They are exotics and not welcome. But how can you stop a flying insect from crossing borders?

The bumble bees kept their distance from the wasps and concentrated on the Echinaecea, Scabiosa and Artichokes.

I know they use the Artichoke flowers as hammocks in the night, clever things.

When I had finished mowing, I sat in my chair for a while, just looking at the plants and clouds sailing by. How you can live your entire life without being interested in plant life is beyond me. However stressed I am, the moment I enter the allotments I feel the anxiety levels drop. And by the time I go home, I am completely calm. Sweaty and dirty, but calm.

My chair is hidden behind the Hedera, Solidago and water butt. I can pretend I am in my private jungle there.

To my right is my pitiful frog pond. It resembles more of a meadow at the moment, there is even a wild Carrot growing in the middle. Mind you, I did meet a tiny frog whilst mowing, so perhaps there are frogs in there after all. And the Papyrus seems happy enough.

The yellow Crocosmia is swamped by the Bergamot. It is later than the red Crocosmia, who are spent by now.

The Zinias are doing their best. These ones (in partial shade) look a lot better than the ones in full sun, who are not even in bloom yet.

Sooooo happy with my perennial Lathyrus. After a slow start it is now really climbing up that obelisk, and has almost reached the top.

The other one, white with a pink blush, is out competed by the grapevine. And being in the shade of the Artichokes does not help either. But I'll leave it there, perhaps it will do better next year.

My pink bed looking pink. See that 'grass'? Golly!

How something so tiny can smell so sweet! The Elaeagnus Ebbingei is in bloom, and I swear it is like being in the perfume department of a store. I have said it before, if you are looking for an easy going shrub, pick this one! It even thrives in my conditions.

The bottle is prevention against me poking my eye out.

My Puck is getting old. She has not been able to jump on the bed (90cm high) since last summer. Can you imagine my surprise when she jumped up yesterday? She lay there for hours enjoying herself, and then couldn't get down... I had to lift all 27 kilos of her, and I received her ESP message loud and clear: "for fuck's sake don't drop me!"

I did not.

Okay, this is it for this week. Do follow this blog if you like it, and you can always look me up on my website Renée Grashoff Schrijft

Renée Grashoff 

2025/33 - A Ban on Barren Balconies!

 I live in an apartment, on the top (3rd) floor, with a view that is marred by another (1 floor higher) apartment. For a person that craves greenery, and felt like a fish living in a fish bowl when I first moved here, putting up a green plant barrier was my first priority!

My  South facing balcony was furnished sooner than my living room, I swear.

There was a lot of trial and error involved in the first few years, I can tell you. For example the wind...This being the Dutch Delta, we have a LOT of it, and it only seems to become heavier.

Mistake nr.1: most cottage plants (which I adore and are my go-to plants) do not like the combination of the scorching sun and that heavy wind. They struggled. Sometimes died.

Mistake nr.2: shade loving plants don't either.

Mistake nr.3: my effort to cover the two side walls with climbers. The wind tore them down.

BUT! Many Mediterranean plants are very happy on my balcony. They just need some TLC during the long wet winters we have over here. 

My neighbours witnessed my efforts and wisely shook their heads. No use putting plants up there, it won't work, they said. Please make sure those planters will not go flying and land on our cars, they moaned (to be fair, in one storm one plant did take a nose dive, but luckily it landed in the middle of the street). Don't you get tired of dragging all that soil up there, they asked.

Me being a stubborn sort, I kept doggedly explaining it could be done, it was only a case of using the correct plants. And yes, I would be mindful of their cars. And besides, in my opinion, having a balcony devoid of plants is bad, but putting plastic ones on (in vogue when I arrived in 2018) is sacrilege. That was usually the point when they raised their eyebrows and left me to it.

Trial and error

Through trial (lots of it) and error (sigh), I slowly learned which plants survive my balcony conditions and which plants even thrive on them. Like Pelargoniums. Not quite my favourite plants, but hey, beggars etcetera. And they have grown on me, I must admit. 

I built a trellis planter and after a hesitant start my Clematis now covers it and is up to the top of it (2m). Last year I chanced a Pandorea, and not only did it survive the winter, but this year it has joined the Clematis at the top.

Slowly, it took years, but surely, more and more balconies in my block turned green! I am so very happy with that!! I call it the zwaan-kleef-aan method (a Dutch expression about swans that makes no sense whatsoever, but means that if one sheep has crossed the bridge, the others will follow).

Most neighbours have gone trendy, putting expensive Olive trees and Trachycarpus on, and I am still the only one with railing planters, but still! It is a victory over barren desert concrete balconies!

Yay!!

And I grow tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, lettuce, strawberries, and spinach on the balcony as well. Amongst the herbs and flowers. Last year I grew potatoes. Why not?

There is a tiny pond for the birds to drink out of (don't tell Puck, she thinks it is her private drinking bowl), with flowering plants in it that thrive. I get visited by many birds, and one of the Jackdaws left me a pretty green pebble, smack in the middle, in front of my door. You can see it next to the jolly tortoise above.

Absolutely, dragging up all those bags of soil is a slog. And dragging down the bags of spent flowers and soil is as well. But the men opposite me (expats, that block is full of expats working in the industry) cannot ogle me any longer, instead they see a lovely balcony garden. Puck can enjoy herself stealing strawberries and barking at the dogs and cats passing below on the street. (She's not allowed to bark too long, and she solves this problem by coming indoors to bark, all the while looking at me for approval)

So. Do you have a balcony? Make it green! You will do the neighbourhood and yourself a favour.

By the way, I will paint that concrete soon. Just building up the courage...all those plants will have to be moved indoors. Oh dear.

Have a great week, wherever you are.

Renée Grashoff