2026/18 - Naturalistic gardening

After 4 years of blogging about the same two gardens, there is a tendency to repeat myself. The foundation of the gardens stays the same, obviously, as in both I cannot change it. A balcony stays a balcony, and on an allotment you are bound to rules.

 But still, I do try to renew and rewild.

On the balcony, I have changed around the climbers in two of the planters, from cucumbers and tomatoes to roses and Achillea. I have decided to keep the veg to the allotment.

I've told you the frog pond is a failed project, right? So I have given up refilling it weekly, and now let it get naturally soggy by occasional rainshowers. It means the plants in there will change as well...I will miss my Waterlily, but I hope the Papyrus will stay. I have removed the two gutters I used to direct the waterflow from my water butt to the pond. At least I will not stumble across them anymore... always a good idea not to break my neck.

This is no more...

I'll see how it evolves now, and wish my salamander good luck!

 I promised you a better photo of the orange Broom, and here it is. A lovely colour, I think!

Its white sister has grown into quite a large bush.

One of the strong, healthy plants that provide colour alongside the Broom and Tulips, is the Centaurea. I started with just a single plant, and by now it has spread all through the garden. Bumblebees love it, and so do I. 

Another 'spreader' is the Euphorbia. Again, it started with just one plant, and by now it is slowly marching away from the Artichoke patch (and who can blame it?) towards the dead hedge. My Rosemary is in flower, but my neighbour has a Rosemary bush that makes my pretty one look like a dwarf!

How about this one then! The photo does not do it justice, it is as large as a Toyota Aygo.

The last of my Narcissi to offset the new Tulips I planted in November. The yellow flowers are two cabbages I left in that border last Autumn, to give some nectar to the bees this Spring. There is a mass of Aquilegia in this border as well, that's new too, originating from the plants near the greenhouse door.

Some more Tulips, Apeldoorns Elite.

The Bergenia is doing its best to stick its head above the grass that is trying to take over this border.

This Tulip is called Miranda.

And this one should be Apeldoorns Elite, but frankly I think they put the wrong bulb in the sack, as A&E is orange with yellow edges...

Now, off-topic, look what Puck and I walked into...The entire harbour was filled with these small fish, approx 3" long, and leisurely swimming around in circles. I was amazed. So many fish, it must have been thousands! My fish knowledge does not reach far enough to be able to tell you the name, sorry.

You'd think the seagulls that are always hanging around the harbour would have a party, a rave, but funnily enough there was not a gull in sight.

I'll leave you with a photo of Brielse Meer, just before sunrise. We stumbled across four hares who were chasing eachother, and who were so into eachother that they only spotted Puck right at the last minute. They raced off, but one got so confused it ran in the wrong direction and crashed into Puck. My dog (always on leash because of the nesting waterfowl and the beavers) was so flabbergasted she just stood and stared. Well, she'll have something to dream about today!

Puck and I wish you a good week, wherever you are!

Renée Grashoff 

2026/17 - Blooming balcony garden

 After some chilly weeks, the weather turned mild, so I could cheer up my balcony garden with some less hardy annuals.

Every year there simply has to be Lobelia, as I love both the colour blue and the shape of the flowers, Lamiaceae. But I also got some Petunia and some yellow ....Hm, I will have to look up its name. There was no label. They look like yellow Daisies. Anyway, I buy them in a small plug and they grow into a satisfying pot-full within weeks, flowering their little hearts out until late October. As long as you water them, that is. They are thirsty plants.

There they are, in the large planter, in front of the Schneewitchen Rose that is getting its leaves, and together with the Lobelia in the hanging basket.

The other two (reddish) plants in the left planter are Gaura, another favourite of mine.

My Puck is always happy when the weather turns mild enough for the sliding doors to be open all day. She wanders in and out, slobbering water from the tiny pond, and keeping an eye out for other dogs and cats to bark at. She loves a good bark, but she never barks when indoors, which is a thing to be very thankful for. It makes me laugh, for I can see the dogs three floors down in the street look around them bewildered...where is that bark coming from?

The yellow upright plant on the bench is a Daphne, covered in sweet smelling flowers and very attractive to the early bumblebees. We have had three heavy storms lately, and I got up twice in the middle of the night to make certain it would not be blown to smithereens.

Meanwhile in Hunky Dory the first Calendula are enjoying the sun, when it is out. I have sown a new batch, as last years got all eaten by my mouse. These ones next to my mound have sown themselves out from last Summer's.

I told you I had planted quite a lot of various Tulips, right? These ones I have not had before, their stems are quite short, and the flowers very spikey. Hm. I like the colour, but am not sure if I really like that shape. Their name is Tulipa 'Dolls Minuet'. 

The frog pond to the left is unrecognizable by now, almost completely swamped by vegetation. It has a leak, and basically I have given up. Even the torrential rain we've had has not managed to fill it up, it is like carrying water to the sea! So I will leave it to do what it wants to do naturally. The frogs I hoped for have never come, and the salamander that does live there will hopefully migrate to the ditch. Obviously there is a hollow there, so moisture loving plants will like the occasional wet feet. Sometimes you will have to simply give over to nature.

I'll leave you with a view of the town's ramparts near my house. Old Brielle fortress is surrounded by ramparts in a star shape, this is part of the star's leg. It is a lovely place to take a walk, especially now with the yellow Rapeseed. The waterways are the domain of feisty moorhens, blasé blue herons and huge carp, and are covered with large patches of Waterlilies in summer.

Do take a look at my monthly blog about Brielle at Renée Grashoff Schrijft and have a lovely weekend, wherever you are!

Renée Grashoff 

2025/49 - Have you planted your Tulips yet?

 Being Dutch and disliking Tulips is a contradiction in terms. Or almost a sin. Take your pick!

Still, when I was young, I thought them stiff plants, boring. That was long before I started gardening myself. And also before I started getting the winter blues with the climbing of my years. Now, I use planting Tulips in November as a reminder that 'things' will get better again, that the grey winter sky will become blue again. 

So ever since Hunky Dory has become 'mine', I have made it a ritual to plant some new Tulips in November. This time I have gone for red ones: Tulipa Pallada, Tulipa Miranda, Tulipa Doll's Minuet, and Tulipa Pieter de Leur.  Hopefully they will do better than my pitiful summer bulbs! When I was planting them, the largest earthworm I have seen so far, wriggled up from the soil so fast that I nearly jumped. Hurray! As thick as my finger and 10 cm long! My hard work at improving my soil is paying off! Happy, happy😃

Besides that, I have only done some tidying this afternoon. I had planned to dig up the Solidago which has spread into the grass path, but when I was actually there I lacked the energy. I did thin out the planter in the greenhouse though, taking the excess endive/chicori/romain/chicory* to eat as a salad. We call it andijvie, and I love it both raw as well as cooked.

* English translations of this plant name vary wherever you live. Andijvie is translated by endive, but what is called endive, we Dutch call witlof! So: the official Latin name is Chichorium endivia var. latifolium. What's in a name, eh?

Outside there were some surprises for me, the weather being weird as ****

This Helleborus niger Mont Blanc is supposed to flower in March. But here it is.

The Rosa Masquerade I moved into the soil from its pot a few weeks ago, is so happy there that it produced one flower for me. Its flowers are no larger than a 2p piece, but it was covered in them in summer. I bought it in the sale, and truthfully its flowers look totally different from the ones on the label! Not quite as elegant, nor as large...A case of the wrong label, or simple fraud? Never mind, a rose is a rose is a rose, right?

The Pyracantha Teton is covered in berries this year. The Papyrus next to it keeps looking interesting, even when gone brown.

This grass is gorgeous! I like grasses anyway, and that is a good thing too, as my garden is swamped by the wild varieties*. This one I bought though, it is Carex Testacea Prairie Fire. It comes into its own now that the surrounding summer perennials have died down.

* some of those are really nice too. But most are just thugs that I have to pull out. The seed flies in on the wind from the fields next to the allotments, me being on the edge.

These Phlomis russeliana seed heads are much too lovely to cut off, don't you think? I planted it especially for the butterflies, but made the mistake of putting it too close to the Artichokes, so it gets a bit bullied. But looking at those Artichokes today, made me realise that they seem to have moved themselves a bit to the left for next year. Come to think of it, everything is a bit too close to the Artichokes...or they are simply getting too big each year. Still, the bumblebees and ladybirds adore them, so they can stay.

Another plant that refuses to go dormant is the Scabiosa. It has had a difficult time this summer because of the drought, and is now making the most of the rain we've had lately.

I have deadheaded religiously, which helps. Still, I should plant some fresh ones next Spring, as the clumps do dwindle after four years.

The entire garden is covered in young Nasturtiums...obviously they are much too late in the season , but some are flowering. So far no night frosts are predicted (weird in itself, in this part of the delta we should be having night frost from late October onwards), so they will live on until then. And then turn to snot.

The Artichoke which I cut down to the soil, as a storm had blown it completely flat to the ground, has grown up to hip-height already. The other two are still tiny, so this one must be on a rich water veign. 

Now that the trees in my neighbourhood have dropped most of their leaves, the little birds are moving into the gardens. So this afternoon I drove to my favourite nursery and bought a simple birdfeeder. I hung it on the balcony, in sight from my easy chair. The Jackdaws are already checking it out from the flat roof opposite, but they have nowhere to land, it is for the small birds only. I get visited by Blue Tits and Coal Tits during the winter months. I keep hoping for a Robin, but they think my 3rd floor balcony much too high. And I wink at the group of 15 Banded Parakeets that screech at me when they do their fly-by to swoop on the birdfood in a house perpendicular on my block of flats.

Okay, this is it; have a good weekend wherever* you are. (* I noticed some new readers in the USA and Sweden, welcome!) I'll leave you with a photo of my 'kerstcactus', Schlumberger, which refuses to wait for Christmas every year, and stubbornly flowers in November instead. I have repotted it 4 times to bigger pots in the 7 years since I was given it as a baby, and it has given me numerous new babies.

Do look me up on my website: Renée Grashoff Schrijft

Bye bye,

Renée Grashoff 

 

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 

161 - Blue skies! And Rainstorms, duh!

 Zondagmiddag, in Ouddorp, struikelde ik bijna over de honderden vuurwantsen die onder een Loniceraheg een rave hielden. Of misschien kan ik beter orgie zeggen, want er werd heel wat afgepaard.

Pyrrhocoridae

Die plantenetende wantsen heb ik zelf ook, in mijn tuin, en dan ben ik opgetogen wanneer ik er twee zie. Dus dit was even een reality check! Ik moet er toch niet aan denken dat ze hun orgies van Goeree naar Hunky Dory verplaatsen. Zó leuk vind ik ze dan toch ook weer niet!

Tegelijkertijd was ik zo blij dat alles weer bijkomt van die eindeloze regen, inclusief mezelf. De bloembollenvelden op Goeree lagen er prachtig bij, de molen De Hoop draaide, de Vlaamse motorclub had hun motoren weer uit de mottenballen gehaald, kortom: doeoeoeiiiii, winter!

Alweer bijna de laatste.

En oh, oh, oh, wat valt het dan weer tegen als het net op de middag die ik voor gras maaien heb gereserveerd keihard begint te regenen bij de ook al loeiharde wind die er de hele dag al stond...

Maar goed, gemaaid heb ik, dat getuigen mijn trillende armspieren ook. Die trimmer is een uitkomst, maar best zwaar. Het knapt wel lekker op altijd. Niet gemillimeterd keurig recht, maar gewoon 5 cm hoog schots en scheef kort, het moet wel bij me blijven passen natuurlijk.

De Brem's gouden week

   Mijn Brem stond te stralen, maar geen hommel te zien helaas, die kunnen niet tegen die wind op.

   En de appelbomen staan in de bloei, óók de gekortwiekte, dus ik ben benieuwd of ik tòch appels kan verwachten.

  Ik heb ook een begin gemaakt met het  opnieuw met de hand wieden van de kas. Mijn geschoffel heeft tot mijn frustratie tot alleen maar meer onkruid geleid, gek word ik ervan. Ik ruk er nu zoveel mogelijk van die troep uit en ben dan van plan er worteldoek op te leggen, in de hoop dat die onkruidwortels dan echt doodgaan. En dan timmer ik verhoogde bakken bovenop het worteldoek, want ik ben het zát.

Bergenia en Tulpen

Tja, principieel weigeren onkruidverdelger te gebruiken, heeft zo zijn keerzijde.

Er zijn ook wat succesjes te vermelden hoor. De bollen, waarvan ik bang was dat ze door al dat vocht weggerot zouden zijn, staan door de hele tuin te stralen. Soms in onbedoeld spetterende kleurcombinaties zoals op de foto rechts (ik had daar toch witte tulpen gepoot? Blijkbaar niet), maar meestal heel erg mooi.

Tulpen en Vingerhoedskruid

   

Thuis, op het balkon, komen voorzichtig ook weer meer planten op.

Vooral de Spirea ziet er veelbelovend uit met veel uitlopers, maar vanuit mijn luie stoel zie ik bijvoorbeeld ook dat de iele paarse Clematis zich al 2 m hoog door de trellis heeft geslingerd. Tot nu toe heb ik niet veel geluk met mijn Clematissen in de tuin, dus deze koester ik, ookal gaf ze verleden zomer maar 5 bloemen. En...al mijn goede voornemens ten spijt heb ik op de Lidl plantjesmarkt een tray gemixte tomaten aangeschaft die nu al op het balkon staan. Vóór 15 mei...ik lijk wel gek. Volgende week krijgen we sneeuw, toch? Dan haal ik ze wel naar binnen. Maar ja: krijg mij maar eens langs een plantenmarkt zonder dat ik wat koop...dan moet je me toch echt blinddoeken en knevelen.

Ik wens je een fijn groen weekend.