2025/11 - Getting ready for Spring

 All of a sudden our weather changed from the usual dank, grey, dreary stuff to lovely sunshine during the day and frosty nights with a gorgeous waxing moon and 7 planets in a row.

My mini greenhouse

   Obviously a sudden and immediate urge to start gardening came over me, but...those frosty nights! So I compromised and sowed some Cosmos seeds in my mini greenhouse at home. The seedlings are shooting out of the ground!

   This morning at 06.10 we spotted a field owl flying from the cover of the trees along the old football grounds towards the ramparts. It always gladdens my heart to see or hear an owl. I grew up with a family of screetch owls in the hollow willow tree next to my bedroom, so I have a fondness for owls, any owls. They nestled there for years.

I tidied up a part of Hunky Dory already. My Hydrangeas got a trim, I weeded the border along the greenhouse and took stock of how my many bulbs there are doing. I fear the tulips I planted there a year ago will not be as numerous as in 2024. But the 4 different kinds of narcisi are looking good, and the flag iris and day-lilies have survived.

I then decided to clean out the leaves and snot from the pond, and what did I drag up out of the depth? A salamander! I saw its spotted yellow/orangey belly in between the leaves I had left on the bank (I always do for a day, so the beetles etc can crawl back into the pond) and felt so guilty for disturbing it, that I quickly put it back into the water. Silly me! I should have taken a photo! But its cold, wet body gave me a shock, so it was back in the pond in a second. Anyway, I am very happy that it is living there!

It isn't much to look at, and I have a problem with that pesky grass that is trying to choke it, but still, I enjoy that frogless frog pond and gladly top it up every week. 

So: plans for the coming days is to start clearing the rest of the garden.

I hope the mice will leave my seeds alone this year!

I sowed cosmos, nasturtiums and calendula in plugs. But have kept back half of the seeds, just in case!

I will sow my salad greens tomorrow.

These were some of my tulips last spring. They were 'fresh' then. I left them in the ground...so I wonder what will come up.

This bumblebee flew from the lovely sunshine into the shade and was cold immediately. It did not stop long there, but flew back to the hellebore in the sun. I can relate. In the sunshine it is lovely, but in the shade you still need a coat.

One of the women I help with their Dutch told me she was amazed when she saw us Dutch throw off our wintergear at the sight of the first ray of sun, flock to the terraces and behave as if it is mid July. Hahahaha, yep. That's us. We usually are so tired of greyness and rain, that we celebrate every minute of sunshine we get. To illustrate, I'll finish with a sunny pic.

My day-lilies. I planted six more last autumn, so here's to them!

Have a lovely weekend, I hope you will get some sun too!

Renée Grashoff 

2025/10 - Raisin' the Canopy

 It would make a good song title! Especially when sang with an American twang.

The before photo.

Yes folks, there was sunshine! But at home, on the balcony, it was 5°C, so I had my winter coat and hat on...Boy, was that a mistake, I was sweltering within 5 minutes!

But I battled on valiantly, quite in tune with that twang. "I'm gonna raise that canopy and have myself a glass of Tangeray before I throw an elk on the barbecue" sort a thang.

I swear all rabbits that heard me did a runner, just in case.

And after.

Hm. Not quite the romantic picture I had pictured, but never mind. Those branches will thicken out over time. And at least I can now take that path again without my head getting tangled up in that shrub, and mow that grass.

Apart from my olijfwilg, I tidied up the border next to the greenhouse, where the tulips, narcissi, lilies and primulas are showing themselves. In summer there are masses of gladioli (in a hideous mauve colour) of my predecessor there, which produce masses of leaves which then die back like straw. I pulled them out, but left the bulbs. Somehow I cannot bring myself to dig them up, they try their best to grow and can't help that someone thought that colour would be fun. I compromise by cutting off the flower stems and putting the flowers in a vase.

Yes, yes, definitely further along than a week ago!

And so are these, aren't they sweet?

I hesitated about cutting down the spent stems of the artichokes, but decided to leave them for a bit. There might be insects overwintering.

Tadaaa! One of my favourite plants in spring. It brightens up the entire corner next to the frog pond, love it.

Good times ahead!

Apart from that, I could not do much else. I was the only one there, the soil is far too cold still.

Book news

There will be a 'meet-and-greet' in my local bookshop Hoofdstuk Een by the end of March. I don't know the exact date (yet).

But I am extremely chuffed and pleased to be able to report that the people that have read it so far and made the effort to tell me, really enjoyed 'Boerenwormkruid'. Hurray!

So if you are curious, follow this link to Trichis webshop or contact me at dutchdeltagardener@gmail.com 

Have a lovely weekend!

Renée 

2025/9 - Oh, thank All the Gods that the sun is out!

 Any God can apply for the job, by the way, I'm not picky!

After too many, too long days of greyness, wetness and chilly gloom, today the sun is out! Sooooooo lovely!

I cycled to Hunky Dory to let some water out of my waterbutts, as there will be frost in the night, and I don't want them to burst. I was the only one there, so it was just me, the worms popping up out of the ground (their homes were flooded by me, sorry, sorry) and the narcisii showing colour.

Every spring it is a happy event for me to pick the first bunch to take home.

That ditch wall is the first soil to warm up, so these bulbs flower first. I took a quick look at my other bulbs, and they are coming along nicely as well. The newly planted Camassias are 10cm above ground.

After a struggling first few years, my Viburnum tinus is finally looking as if she has decided to put down roots. Good, she's very welcome to stay.

Can you spot the Camassia? Bright green, on the left. Monty Don says it is 'a bit of a thug', but I have plenty of those in my garden, so I dare it to challenge the others.

Slowly, slowly, the Hellebore opens up. I wait with great anticipation for the first bumblebees to wake up. I suspect some of them live very near that Hellebore. But this week it is far too cold for them still.

The majority of my plants and shrubs are still straw coloured. It makes the sheds and glasshouses stand out, as well as those waterbutts. Not very pretty...But oh well, it is an allotment after all. And just you wait for my roses.

Oh, will you look at that sky?! But I prefer that to the solid grey one we see so very often over here.

Puck and I braved two snow showers already, which turned her into the puppy that she has not been for 9 years. But the snow has melted away as soon as it fell, the frost is only in the night. 

Anyway, that sun lifts everyone's spirits, you can tell. May it stay with us for a while! Have a lovely weekend!

Renée Grashoff is the author of 'Boerenwormkruid'

ISBN 9789492881939

NUR 342

Trichisboeken.nl